Jostens Pullout Idea Poster • February • 2011 ideas

Each month, new ideas that will make your yearbook life better. Please post this where everyone can see it.

Ideas Graphics Understanding Design Layout Formation Brainstorm Concept Impression Interpretation Flash Feeling Solution Purpose Scheme Arrangement Doodle Construction Viewpoint Suggestion Plan Clue Guess Hint Inkling Object Theory

New ideas for your…DesignersIndex Design TimeIt’s February, and that means that most of you who are doing great yearbooks are about to turn your thoughts to how you will design your index. All we ask is that you give the index its due. That you take as much time to design it as you have taken on the rest of your pages. And to help you do just that, here are some great index examples from 2010 yearbooks.

Maple G

rove Sr. High School from M

aple Grove, M

N, does an outstanding job of getting people in their

index in a most graphical w

ay—w

ith cutouts that lean, sit or stand next to their large initial letters. The letters w

ork because they are semi-transparent, allow

ing them to be used under indexed nam

es.

You probably can’t pull this design off at this late a date, but file it away for your 2012 book.

Barstow High School, (Barstow, CA) decided to combine their underclass mug shots and their index as well as some additional candid shots throughout.

If you look closely, you will also note that they put all senior names in bold. Nice touch!

Looking for a great way to cover local current events at the last minute? How about right next to your index initial letters? That’s what Orchard Lake Middle School in West Bloomfield, MI, did in 2010. They also ran a great side-bar on this page, honoring retiring teachers with first-and last-year teaching pics.

If you haven’t printed your club photos

yet, why not save space in the club section for action pics and add the group shots to the index as Lawton Chiles MS in Oviedo, FL, did in 2010.

Great features, fun initial letters (but the type was too tiny to read without a magni-fying glass) and a superb look to their index listing (dotted tabs make finding numbers easier) make for an outstanding index from the 2010 Rocklin High School (Rocklin, CA) yearbook.

If you do a Spring delivery yearbook, then you are in the final stages of yearbook production. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest sections you still have to create and design is your index. We want to help: First with some specific instruction to make it easier for you to create it and then with some tips on designing it. And, finally, when you turn the page, you will find our annual sampling of outstanding indexes from books around the country.

Let’s get started on what we hope will be your…

Greatest Index EverQuestion one about indexes always is… “Do we really need an index?” My answer is almost always a re-sounding YES! Here’s why:

WHERE AM I?Did you know that this is the number one question asked by your students when they first get their hands on their yearbooks? Think about it. Isn’t that what you want to know as soon as you get your hands on your yearbook? Where is my picture?

That’s why you need an index in your yearbook. An index is a readers’ aid. It helps them find themselves, their friends, the activities they took part in and everything and anything else that interests them. And an index lets them find these things quickly and without having to browse through every page.

A good yearbook indexes a person’s name every time he or she appears in a photo. Obviously, that includes his or her mug shot, any group photos he or she is in as well as any candid pictures. A good rule of thumb is that if a name appears in the caption, the name should be indexed.

If you use YTO to create your year-book, your index gets created automatically as long as you have your staff take the time to enter names in the Image Library. If you don’t, you won’t have an index or a coverage report so make sure this gets done.

Do you use YearTech Online to create your yearbook? Turn to page 6 for directions on designing your index pages.

Making it look good…in InDesign.Doing a great-looking index is really a matter of just two parts: the initial letters and the index listings themselves. Let’s look at the index listing here, and then you can go to the centerfold poster to get ideas for initial letters.

Index listings that look good and professional are really just a matter of using tabs and the correct alignment of the text. Once you know the best way to set up your text, the rest of the index is a breeze. Here’s how to set the index up in four easy steps if you use InDesign.

1. Type a sample line of text, exactly as you want it to look in your index. Picking the right typeface is a must. We recom-mend a sans serif font, condensed if possible. Try a simple Myriad Pro Condensed like we have used in our sample.

2. Keep the type small—8 point should work fine. Larger schools may need to go to 7 point or even 6 point. Never go smaller than 6 point; it is too hard to read for many eyes. Especially older eyes, and your student body may not be old now—but they will be at their 50th reunion. Smaller schools with room might want to make their text as big as 10 point, but we don’t recommend it. Eight point is the perfect size. (Our sample features the first line in 9 pt, the next two in 8 pt, then the next two in 7 pt and the last two in 6 pt.)

3. Choose Align Text>Right. This will make the line stay all the way to the right-hand side of the column. Of course, it will seem strange when you type it because the type will come from the right side to the left as you type, but don’t worry, this will work. In most cases, your index will already be typed anyway. You will just be formatting the text.

4. Last, set your tabs. Select the text, choose Tabs from the Type menu, and when the tab bar appears, click the arrow that aligns to the left, and then set your tab by clicking in the ruler. Then type a period in the Leader box in InDesign. Once you have done all that, tell it OK, and there you have it. Your index should look like our sample index.

5. Create a style. As soon as you type in another text block, the formatting will disappear. You need to make this line of type a Style. To do this, open the Style palette, click an insertion point in your line of type and then, holding down the Command/Con-trol and the Option/Alt key at the same time, click the [Basic Paragraph] line at the top of the Style palette. This will bring up a dialog box. Type in the name of the Style (call it Index), make sure that the “Based on” and “Next style” buttons are set to No style and Same style, and you will be all set.

Benes, Elaine ����������������������������������������������������������� 22, 86, 97Costanza, Estelle ����������������������������������������������������������������� 21, 56, 89Costanza, Frank ����������������������������������������������������23, 39, 56, 128, 219Costanza, George ���������������������������������������������������������������� 32, 54, 89, 122, 234Kramer, Cosmo ���������������������������������������������������������� 22, 98, 122, 231, 236, 248Newman, Hello ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 24, 36, 84, 97, 124, 175Seinfeld, Jerry ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21, 45, 54, 112, 119, 212

Sample index created in InDesign

Making it look good…in YearTech Online.Creating your actual index pages in YTO is a little different. Here are the steps to creating and finalizing your index in YTO.

1. Before you start, make sure that your staff has identified everyone in the Image Library. That means that if you see a

photo that has a red exclamation point (been used on a page) but does not have a green check mark (names have been tagged to that photo), none of the people in that photo will be indexed. Make sure and take a quick look through your Image Library for those kind of pics before you start designing.

2. Make sure that the pages you want to place the index on are blank at this point. You can add more to them later, but they need to be blank to start.

3. On the Create menu, choose Index Flow. You will see a screen that looks like this:

4. Fill in the blanks on the right and type in the pages you

want the index to appear on. As far as the size of the index text, the same rules apply to you as to schools using InDesign. See item 2 on page 3 for some notes on type size that apply here, too.

5. Choose a divider font for your initial letters (Divider font). All of this can be changed later on the page, so if you plan on adding a photo or other initial feature, don’t worry about it now.

6. Click Save and then Flow It, and your index will flow on the pages you chose. Your index should look like the example at right.

7. Go to those pages and format the text the way you want it to look. One thing to note: you cannot format the text using tabs as you can in InDesign as tabs do not work in YTO. If you want a series of periods as a leader, you will

need to put those in by hand or set your index in InDesign (if you have a copy of InDesign), and move it to YTO as a JPEG.

8. To make changes on the index page, just treat it like any other page. YTO sets each letter group in a single text box, so all the A names are in one, the B names in another, etc. That way, you can move them around any way you want them, including adding pho-

tos, quotes, QuickReads or just about anything else you would like to add.

9. A quick word of warning! Don’t leave creating your index until the day of your final deadline. Many schools do this and wind up with generic-looking in-dexes that they aren’t happy with later on. Plan ahead. Once you have flowed your index, don’t forget to add any names of people in pictures that you place on the index pages.

Looking for more ideas? Here are two other things to consider when creating your index.1. Try indexing activities and groups as well. Readers love being able to go into the index and find their clubs, sports and other groups. 2. One school on our centerfold spread had a great idea. They honored their seniors by putting just their names and indexed pages in bold. Sure, it was a little extra work but what a great way for the seniors to stand out.

Sample index created in YearTech Online.

Formatted simply by YTO.

On the previous pages (our centerfold poster), we showed you a whole bunch of great index design ideas. Maybe you didn’t bother to look at them because you don’t have an index in your yearbook. And you don’t think you need one, but the truth is…

Good yearbooks have an index. I just went through about 30 great yearbooks in my office looking for some ideas for this article and for the centerfold. Only about seven had outstanding graph-ics, but all of these books had an index. Yours should, too! Your readers deserve it as it is a tremendous aid to them in finding themselves and their friends. And make sure to index topics as well to make it easy to find their club or sport. Plus, it won’t take long to put it together, especially if you are using YearTech Online (YTO).

For YTO indexesIf you are using YTO, an index is a piece of cake. Just set aside pages for the index in your ladder, make sure that all photos that appear in the yearbook have names in place in the Image Library and the “index this photo” box is checked for that picture.

We could give you the entire set of directions

here to design that index, but it’s already written out for you in your YearTech Online Manual. If you can’t find your manual, you can download a PDF copy from Yearbook Avenue. Just go to HELP>Yearbook Avenue and click the link for YearTech

Online 2008 User’s Guide. You will find the directions on page 16 of the Creating Your Yearbook section. They are very easy to follow. And that’s all there is to it.

Using InDesignIf you put your yearbook together using InDesign, compiling the index is a little bit more complicated, but it is still not a huge chore, and there is still plenty of time to do it. We have known schools that compiled their entire index from start to finish in less than a week.

Again, we could give you the entire set of instruc-tions here, but it is easier to show you where they are. Get out your 2008 YearTech Guide Book and turn to page 53. There, you will find com-plete and very easy-to-follow instructions for compiling your index, including how to put together the index file. Make absolutely sure to read the Indexing Tips at the bot-tom of page 53.

Then design itOnce you have all those names and numbers, it’s time to design the pages them-selves. To do that, we have made it really easy for you. After you have indexed your final page, just click the box in the indexing dialog box that says, “Create Index.”

You will then be pre-sented with a list of choices, starting with how many columns you want your index to have. A good rule of thumb is three or four, unless you already have a plan of how to lay the entire index out. If you choose two, your columns are going to be ultra wide, and you’ll have a lot of white space within them. If you go for more than four, you will have a lot of wrapped text with numbers on more than one line. My favorite is four.

You will then be asked what page the index will start on; once you do, the Indexer will create the index. Not only will it lay all the text into the columns for you, but it will give you some very cool paragraph styles you can use to make it look really good. When you first see the index, it will look like this—

not the most attractive typo-graphically. But never fear, this is where the paragraph styles come into play.

To use them, open the Paragraph Styles palette. Click into the index text

and choose Edit>Select All. Then click on the paragraph styles starting with Hanging Indents. Then try the Justify no dots and Justify with dots and finish up by try-ing Ragged right. I am sure that one of these will work for you.

Once you have de-cided which one of the styles you like, you may want to change the size or the font of the index. For instance, Jus-tify with dots is in Helvetica Medium at 10 pt. Depend-ing on how much space you have for your index and what type you are using in the rest of your yearbook, you may want to change that. I would recommend a simple, sans serif font (like Helvetica) and

nothing smaller than 7 point type. If you really need room try a condensed typeface. We used Helvetica Condensed at 7 pt for the example above.

Then you can add your initial letter by going between each letter group, adding the letter and clicking Alpha Divider-30pt in the Paragraph Styles box. That would be the simplest way, but we hope you will turn back to the centerfold poster and get some great ideas for index content and have a great time designing yours.

Yes, you need an

And here’s how to create it!

Johnson, Beth 44, 61, 128, 264Joy, Chris 47, 48, 128, 227Kerdus, Bob 24, 72, 135, 247Kim, Carrie 36, 48, 147, 227Kimble, Benjamin 47, 82, 128, 129

Johnson, Beth ......................44, 61, 128, 264Joy, Chris .............................47, 48, 128, 227Kerdus, Bob .........................24, 72, 135, 247Kim, Carrie ...........................36, 48, 147, 227Kimble, Benjamin .................47, 82, 128, 129

Ah, the index. For many yearbooks, the index is just an afterthought. Something you put in your book because you’re supposed to. And with the Jostens indexing tools in either YearTech Online or YearTech for InDesign, there is no reason not to do one. But don’t make it “just an index.” Make it a well-designed part of your yearbook. To give you some ideas on doing just that, here are indexes we liked from four 2008 yearbooks. May they serve to inspire you to do a superb job with yours like these schools did with theirs.

Index Design 101

Three things to note about the index above: It has an excellent mini-feature about a student 1.

who may not have appeared in the yearbook before. His face and some facts about him have

been made a part of the initial letter.The entire index is well designed, from the way 2.

the photo and info are handled to the subtle background and the clean, easy-to-read type.

The first index entry on the page is an advertis-3. er. This school took the time to index everything

in the book, not just people.

Combining group shots with the index has become very popular over the last few years. Of the books I looked at to write this article, more than half did it. This book did the best job because of the photo treatment and large, easily readable initial letters.

What we love about this index is the

way it sticks to the yearbook’s theme,

which was “The Way I See It.” The graphic at the bottom of the page tells the reader what “it” is. In this

case, the graphic de-fines the index. And each initial letter is defined by a carica-ture of a student (we might have preferred a photo) with a one-word description of

that person. For instance, the

Rs start with Rabid, a definition of the

word and a bolding of the name of the

person who is being profiled.

This is another great index design that followed through with the theme of the yearbook, “Every 1 Counts.” Throughout certain sections of the book (including this index), a staff ran the series of shots promoting that people were “1” of many people who had something in common. On this double-page spread, it was the last

name Johnson. I also love the initial letters, which are script, in a bright color, but connect directly with the names the letters lead into.

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Graphically SpeakinG

Great Design vs Good DesignA poster for Designers

October 2008

Before we start on designing your indexMake absolutely sure that the most important thing about an index has been completed—that all the names have been checked for spelling errors.

There is nothing worse than having students look ing through the index to your book for a particular name and not being able to fi nd it because the staff spelled it wrong. So be fore you take a look at the great index sections on the centerfold poster and start designing yours, check the spell ing one more time.

A hot idea for fall delivery yearbooksFor schools who are still a few months away from their fi nal deadlines, consider mixing the ad ver tise ments in with your index. Work your ad ver tise ments into the index sec tion but make sure the ads are interest-ing and well- il lus trat ed. Advertisers love the added ex po sure that they get when stu dents are looking for their names or friends’ names in the index. If you still have time to do this, why not try it?

How about a last-minute fund-raiser?If you still have few days until your fi nal dead line and could use a few extra dol-lars, con sid er selling some student or parent advertise-ments to place into your index.

As you will see on the cen-terfold poster, personal ad-vertising can be a great way to make your index interest-ing and a money maker for you as it was for one of the schools pictured.

Student or parent ads can be sold quickly and pic-tures and messages can be obtained from par ents. Then all you do is de sign a unique and in ter est ing border for these per son al ad ver tise ments, place your index around them and you are set.

Why just names and num-bers? Indexes are mostly just names and page numbers. Fairly bor ing stuff. Why not add some faces, too?

Running group photos of ath let ic teams throughout the index ac com plish es two tasks at the same time. First, it re moves the group picture from the ac tu al sports page it self, leaving room for more ac tion shots, and second, it brings some added interest to the in dex.

A great place for a little outside coverage If you are not putting World Beat™ in your book, the index can be a great place to cover current events that happened in 2003-2004.

But remember that if you do cover current events to make sure to cover them (no matter where in the book you put them) from your students’ point of view. It is less important to cover how the presidential prima-ries are going than to cover how your student body feels about who is running for president. Or instead of listing the highest grossing fi lms of the year or the Os-car winners, fi nd out what movies your students liked the best. Make it a student-oriented section. ❑

Your yearbook book is al-most fi nishedYou have only one more sec tion to complete—the index. Your staff has com-piled the entire list of students in your book, they are typed into the computer and all you need to do is put them in columns and send them in. Right?

We hope not. If you are doing a really great book, you have probably planned a su per index. But if you for-got to set up just how that index was go ing to look, stop right now and turn to the centerfold poster of this newsletter to see fi ve well- designed indexes.

Once you have looked at theirs, try improving on their design. Your fi rst goal in adding to the index is to make it readable. Make the page worth turning to. And that should give you a chance to add more photos of students. And adding more photos is what year-booking is all about.

Keep in mind that when you add photos, they should be captioned. Even in the index. Remember that ten years from now, memories will have faded and you just will not recognize those people the way you do today. So make sure that every picture has a caption.

Already fi nished with your index? Don’t worry, fi le this away in your folder marked “Ideas for the 2005 Year book.” You don’t have a folder like that? Well, this is the time to start one.

An should be more than a list of namesAn should be more than a list of names