Treering Blog

This is the final installment in a four-part series on creating a yearbook in 60 days. By now, portraits and spreads are in the book, and it is time to polish both. Day 46-60 tasks center around communication to parents and the print process. 

Yearbook (yes, it is a verb) along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

1. Custom Page Reminders

Marketing Rule of Seven aside, parents are busy. Teachers are solving the world’s problems. We need reminders (not the “loving” ones that are really sassy in disguise). Remember the parent purchase date you set during days 1-15? This is the date by which parents should customize and purchase their yearbooks. 

While parents do not have to fill their free, two custom pages with memories, a little education goes a long way. Here are a few ideas for reminders:

• Include a flyer in the monthly newsletter
• Share a video tutorial on your parent group’s social media page
• Create a virtual parent event aligned with one of Treering’s parent webinars to “attend” together
• Host a custom pages night and walk parents through the process

Custom Page Resources

Remember, you must use the login button to access the editor articles.

• Editor Video: Reviewing All Students' Custom Pages 
• Parent Video: Creating Custom Pages with Page Builder 
• Parent Video: Creating Custom Pages from Scratch with Page Editor 
• Spring Parent Webinars: Yearbook Club

2. Make Corrections

Continue using those PDF proofs and the page warning tray to manage duplicate images, low-resolution images, margin warnings, and spelling errors. 

Page Warning Tray Resource

• Editor video: Page Warnings 

3. Print Ready Process

You tell Treering when to begin the printing process. When your Finish Editing Yearbook Deadline arrives, your yearbook does not automatically head to the printers. Remember, your three-week turnaround begins from the date you send the book to print.

It will take 15-20 minutes for you to complete the pre-print process below.

After you complete the checklist and select the dancing “Print my Yearbook” button (cue the confetti), you will receive an email with your final-final PDF proof and instructions if you find a grievous error and need to stop the printing process. There is an extremely short, blink-and-it's-over window to do this; it may cause production delays.

Sending Your Yearbook to Print Resource

• Video: Setting the Yearbook to Print Ready

4. Never Say, “No.”

You will never have to turn away a student at a Treering school who wants a yearbook after the print deadline. With Treering, you can even order and personalize past years’ books. 

Additionally, with the fundraiser and book donation options, you can ensure students in need have books as well.

Post-Print Ready Resources

• Parent Video: Buying a Yearbook for a Previous School Year 
• Article: After Deadline Orders 
• Video: Fundraiser Disbursement Options When Setting Your Yearbook to Print Ready 
• Case Study: Yearbook Hero Janet Yieh Gives Away Yearbooks 

Feeling Adventurous? Plan a party!

Yearbook signing parties need not be extravagant: tables, pens, tunes. 

Yearbook Signing Party Resources

• Blog: 10 People To Thank
• Blog: The Best Yearbook Distribution Ideas

You did it! How will you celebrate building a yearbook in 60 days? Be sure to tag @treering on Facebook and @treeringcorp on TikTok and Instagram to show us. Happy yearbooking!

Two blogs ago, we began our journey to start and finish a yearbook in 60 days. From establishing a ladder and crowdsourcing structure to flowing portraits and adding in fall events, the first month yielded a near-complete yearbook. These next fifteen days of our adventure include proofing, promoting, and packing in spring events. All the resources you need are linked below (for help center articles, you will need to log in to the editor help center).

Yearbook (yes, it is a verb) along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

1. PDF Proofing

Just because we are speeding through the yearbook creation process doesn’t mean we will be careless. Proofing tools such as downloadable PDFs and a free, physical cover-to-cover proof of your yearbook are free through Treering.

Let’s start with PDFs. English teachers everywhere will tell you errors that are missed on the screen often pop on paper. Read any copy (stories and captions) aloud to assess for tone and errors that digital proofing tools missed. These are low-resolution (the actual print file size might crash your computer), so you can download them quickly.

Use your PDF proofs to also

• Triple-check your portrait pages: correct spelling of names, the accurate placement of students and teachers in classes or grades
• Ensure faces aren’t lost on the edges (margins) or in the middle (gutter) of your spread
• Students are visible in the photos: sometimes, a photo box is the wrong size, and the faces are either huge or unrecognizably small. When possible, try to make all faces on a collage spread the same size.
• Show sneak peeks to your buyers - when parents see their child is in the book, they will buy the book!

Pro tip: use as many of your 99 PDF proofs as possible! 

Yearbook Editing Resources

• Video: Ordering PDF and Printed Proofs 
• Blog: Free Yearbook Proofing Tools 

2. Design Pages (Spring/Second Semester Events)

Last time, you learned two ways to design. Because the second semester is unfolding as you build your yearbook, it may be easier to collect photos. This is the time to evaluate those first semester spreads: if they are not full by now, combine events and re-allocate space.

Coverage Resources

• Blog: Six Ideas to Fill Pages in Your Yearbook
• Article: Adding Pre-Designed Pages (You must login to the editor Help Center to view)

3. Purchase Reminders

In these remaining 30 days, up your promotion game by doing at least one thing a week to share about the yearbook:

• Reach out after each school event with the appropriate photo share link and email
• Call or email parents of students who are in the book three times and have not purchased 
• Have a contest: the grade or homeroom with the largest percentage of purchases earns extended recess
• Remind purchasers to customize their yearbooks (more on this next time)
• Ask campus influencers (ASB, PTA/PTO accounts, athletics) to hype the yearbook
• Have flyers at a school-wide event, such as the band showcase

Yearbook Sales Resources

• Google Slides: Customizable Flyers 
• Article: Tools for Promoting Your Yearbook
• Blog: 5 Social Media Posts to Sell Yearbooks

4. Printed Proof

Treering’s Marketing Manager Megan P. likes to say, “Works in progress welcome!” Because you need your printed proof in hand before your final deadline, order it now. It can take up to 18 business days for this yearbook freebie to arrive.

With portraits and fall events in the book, there is plenty to evaluate. Use your remaining PDFs for copy and photo edits.

Pro tip: When my printed proof arrives, I take a Sharpie and mark it up. Then, I use it as a tool to clean up each spread one by one.

Proofing Resources

• Video: Ordering PDF and Printed Proofs 
• Blog: Free Yearbook Proofing Tools 

Yearbook with a Friend

Involve a second or third set of eyes during the proofing process. Potential yearbook proofing heroes include:

• Front office staff (they know all the things)
• Student TAs 
• The secretary of the parent group
• Coaches and club leaders
• A friend who owes you a solid

Next time, we’ll send the yearbook to print and prepare for distribution.

This blog is part two of a four-part series on creating a yearbook in 60 days. Each part contains two weeks' worth of tasks and inspiration, and this time, it’s all about promoting and designing the yearbook.

There are links to articles, videos, and additional blogs throughout. Treering editors, you'll need to log in to your dedicated help center to view some.

Yearbook (yes, it is a verb) along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

1. Share the Good News

You’re building a yearbook, which is a mic-drop task in itself. People need to know how awesome you are the yearbook will be. Treering created flyers, QR codes, and personalized links for you to quickly share.

Yearbook Marketing 101

“Buy your yearbook” is not your only message. 

Yes, you are selling the yearbook. You are also rallying stakeholders (administrators, teachers, plus students and their families) to support the yearbook project by purchasing, sharing photos, donating books, and joining the yearbook staff next year. So, go get them!

Identify the best to reach each stakeholder where they live. In other words, go to them. Utilize all the communication channels available to you and evaluate which ones work best for each group. 

Possible channels include:

• Email
• Staff newsletters
• Morning announcements
• All-call services
• Parent organization website
• In-school bulletin boards
• All-school events
• School meetings
• School sports games
• School arts events
• Social media

Yearbook Marketing Resources

• Article: Tools for Promoting Your Yearbook
• Blog: 5 Social Media Posts to Sell Yearbooks

2. Autoflow Portraits

Ready to level up your yearbook achievement? Portraits comprise 40-60% of a yearbook. Between the choice of a Heritage Cover and building portrait pages, you’ll be halfway finished. Take a minute to let that soak in.

If a professional photographer took your school photos, chances are you have a PSPA (Professional School Photographers' Association) file. This is industry standard. With it, you'll be able to go to the portrait tab and follow the prompts. (If you don’t have a PSPA file, you can still use autoflow. See the resource section below for instructions.)

Portrait Resources

• Video: Importing Portraits with Portrait Auto Flow
• Article: Uploading Portraits Without a PSPA File

3. Fill Your Photo Folders

Remember when we set up the photo folders, and some were green? That means only the editorial team (you!) can see them and their contents. The yellow public folders are marked public, and your school community can share photos by

• Emailing to the folder
• Using a link to access the folder
• Signing in and accessing the public folders
• Using the Treering app to upload

Treering’s privacy measures prevent just anyone from uploading to your shared folders. Only your invited school community members with activated yearbook accounts can see and share. 

Parents and editors can add photos from their computer or mobile device as well as third-party connections to your personal Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Google Photos, and Google Drive. 

5 Ideas to Source Yearbook Photos

If you build it, will they come? 

1. Send each teacher a link to their class folder; ask them to share it with their room parents
2. Share event-specific (hello, last Friday’s zoo trip) asks via social media
3. Show coaches and club leaders how to add photos via their phones
4. Connect with event organizers so they know you have dedicated space and you need pics
5. Comment, “Will you share this for the yearbook [email/link]?” on Facebook photos you want to include

Crowdsourcing Resources

• Article: Email Photos Directly Into A Photo Folder
• Article: Sharing Photo Folders with the School Community

4. Build Your Spreads (First Semester Events)

As your photos fill your folders, drag them onto your spreads. There are two ways to quickly complete pages using Treering’s built-in tools: auto page layout and templates. 

Everything is fully editable, so if you need to add or remove a photo, text box, or piece of theme art, permit yourself to do it!

Yearbook Design Resources

• Article: Changing the Background on a Page (remember to login to view)
• Article: Page Editing Options - Graphics
• Article: Page Editing Options - Layout and Design 

Feeling Adventurous?

Create your own layouts using Treering’s drag-and-drop design tools. 

Intermediate and Advanced Design Resources

• Examples: Winners of the 2024 Design Contest 
• Blog: What is Modular Yearbook Design? 
• Article: Setting Default Text Styles 
• Article: Setting Default Photo Styles 
• Article: Alignment Tool - Customizable Guideline Grid 
• Templates: InDesign

Halfway through building a yearbook in 60 days, you should split tasks between gathering photos and adding them to the book. The cover is finished. Portraits are flowed. First semester events are filling in. Congrats!

Two types of people start a yearbook towards the end of the school year: those handed the crown minutes ago, and those with hundreds of other tasks for the school and now have “free” time to begin one more. Creating a yearbook in 60 days is doable. Promise. We’re breaking it down for you in four parts, each with two weeks' worth of tasks and inspiration. Consider this your yearbook easy button.

Throughout the series, there will be resources for inspiration and help. Watch this quick video to see

• How to log into the Ediotr Help Center for exclusive step-by-step articles
• Where to find resources to share with parents
• Where to get design inspiration, lesson plans, and more

Yearbook (yes, it is a verb) along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. 

1. Confirm Your Book Details

It’s tempting to jump into the glamorous yearbook tasks such as theme and design. There’s a little back-end work you need to do first for two reasons:

1. Your dates will direct your workflow
2. Your yearbook details determine the price of your yearbook

Dates

With Treering, you can change your dates at any time. Remember, your three-week turnaround begins once you hit Print Ready, and send your book to the printers.

For Parents: Custom Pages Deadline

Parents will see this date on their account, indicating when they should purchase the book or complete any customized pages. It doesn't impact the printing schedule. 

Some parents {raises hand} need a little extra time and reminders to complete theirs. Treering recommends a cushion of about two weeks.

For Editors: Finish Editing Yearbook Deadline and Estimated Delivery Date

This is your one and only deadline for editing the book—and you set it! Select a date three weeks from when you want to distribute it. 

You won’t be able to edit the delivery date directly. Treering automatically populates it by the date you choose for your deadline. If you need additional time to capture year-end events, no problem. Your three-week turnaround will align with your new deadline.

In part four, you’ll learn how to send your yearbook to print. 

Pricing

The yearbook price will change in real time when you adjust the page count and cover finish. The best way to firm up your page count is to create a ladder (more on this below). 

Shipping and Index

Bulk shipping to the school is free. If you select this option, you choose how to receive your yearbooks:

• Sorted alphabetically
• Sorted by grade and then alphabetically
• Sorted by teacher and then alphabetically

Alternatively, many online or hybrid academies and schools electing to do a fall delivery choose the ship-to-home option. When parents order yearbooks, they also pay a flat rate shipping fee.

Book Details Resources

• Video: Chief Editor Dashboard
• Free Live Webinars: Treering’s Yearbook Club

2. Build a Ladder

A ladder is a chart that represents the pages in a yearbook. It’s the industry-standard tool to help you stay organized. On it, you allocate a topic to each yearbook spread (that’s yearbook-ese for two facing pages). 

Because yearbooks tell the story of the year, there isn’t a codified order to how things go. Typically, they include

• Academics: school distinctives, achievements, and activities
• Events: fundraisers, activities, performances, before- and after-school activities
• Organizations: clubs and teams
• People: student, staff, and faculty portraits
• Thematic content: larger books employ divider pages to separate sections

To build your ladder, look at the last few yearbooks and the latest school calendar.

1. Brainstorm the non-negotiable events, sections (people, arts, sports), and yearbook traditions
2. Brainstorm features, specials, and theme-related content
3. Decide how you will organize the book
4. Allocate spreads

We love doing this digitally because it can be fluid. If your page count is looking overwhelming because of time or budget, combine some topics. Remember to update your page count on your book details so it matches your plan.

Yearbook Ladder Resources

• Google Sheet: Free Yearbook Ladder Template
• Google Sheet: Example Ladders (there’s a separate tab for elementary, middle, K-8, and high school examples)

3. Set Up Photo Folders

The best photo organization tip I can give came from Yearbook Hero Katie Parish. She said to create folders to mirror your ladder. This way, you know you are collecting content for every single spread you planned. And spoiler alert, your design process will look like this.

By investing the time to set up folders this way, you can simplify your workflow. Just open the corresponding folder and click, drag, drop, and done! 

In the video below, you’ll see how to add folders and set up crowdsourcing features. Notice the Art Show folder is Editor Only. This means only you, the editor, can place photos in this folder. After activating their accounts, parents will see the yellow “public” folders and be able to share. At any time, you can make a folder Editor Only and vice versa.

In Part Two, we will give you five strategies to fill those shared folders with content so you can build your pages.

Photo Organization Resources

• Article: Creating Folders and Subfolders (this is one of those Editor-only resources, so you'll need to log in)
• Article: School Photos

4. Choose a Whole-Book Look

The Styles menu is where it’s at: you can create font and photo presets, adjust your margins (#TeamMarginsOff), and select the theme for your yearbook. Because I have 60 days to create a yearbook, I am skipping all the customization options and selecting a pre-designed theme to give my yearbook a unified look.

For a cover-to-cover drag-and-drop experience, the design team recommends the following Treering themes:

Theme Resources

• Google Slides: All Treering’s Yearbook Themes
• Blog Category: Theme Ideas and Inspiration

Remember, get to know your dashboard; it’s the first thing you see each time you log in. Part two of this series will outline the promotion tools built in the yearbook builder and start the design process.

Yearbook with a Friend

You can also recruit team members to help you build and market the yearbook. With Treering, you can set permissions and assign pages to help delegate your workload. Additionally, parents, teachers, and students can help gather content and promote book sales.

Organization Resources for Yearbook Teams

• Article: The Difference Between Chief Editors and Staff Editors 
• Blog: 5 Yearbook Volunteers to Recruit

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.

While at her desk in the library, media specialist Allyson David overheard the yearbook planning among the voluntold team. She asked to help. At the time, excess yearbooks filled a storage room at Lanier School for Inquiry, Investigation, and Innovation, and the school was losing money.

How did you turn things around?

My sister is a high school yearbook adviser, and she told me to look into Treering. After I received my sample, I took all the selling points to my admin. I told him we won't have boxes of leftover books, families can customize a couple of pages in there, and we can even integrate a fundraiser. It was a no-brainer: we went from losing money to making a profit.

You went from being on a yearbook team to managing the project solo. 

As a media specialist, it naturally works; this is what we do. Since we are a Google school, teachers put pictures in a shared folder on Drive, which seamlessly integrates with Treering’s software. We have pictures throughout the year that I pull from to put in the yearbook.

I start designing with our fifth-grade ads. We sell quarter-page recognition ads to parents, grandparents, and extended families. Then I flow the portraits. The remaining pages go to school events. 

Tell me how you come up with your yearbook theme.

The yearbook theme is based on the teacher of the year. This year, it’s cactuses. The teacher of the year this year is a SPED teacher whose classroom is decorated with cactuses. When I asked her why, she said, “Cactuses are resilient, and my kids are resilient. Both have to show up and be determined to thrive.”

I reveal the theme at the beginning of the year and put the cover on all the flyers and promo materials. It helps with sales: after the reveal, I get a surge. Now, we don't reveal anything else that's in it; they'll just see the cover, but they don't see any of the spreads or anything until it comes out.

You love the Treering themes!

My favorite one was when I made “Where the Wildcats Are.” 

When we were using the other company, I would get frustrated every time I opened their design program, and I didn't look forward to working on the yearbook. With Treering, I see a theme I really like, and I envision this spread is going to look this way. It's exciting to go in there and actually see it come together. Treering is so much easier to use to resize pictures and change the shapes of graphics.

Something else I love about Treering is I have until April to get it together. Before, with our other company, I had to finish the yearbook in January. We have a signing day in May after lunch, so I get to hear what the students say about the book. Most of them don’t know I‘m the one who puts it together.

You’re the unsung yearbook hero.

I'm proud of that book; it doesn't bother me that they don't realize that I do it. 

Improving yearbooking skill sets is an ongoing process, and we sometimes forgo instructional time as deadline season creeps in. Using these five mini-yearbook lessons, you'll be able to improve your photography skills with a DSLR, mirrorless, or cell phone camera while still having plenty of time for yearbook production.

https://blog.treering.com/essential-yearbooking-gear-and-equipment

Lesson 1: Rule of Thirds

Imagine your photo divided into a tic-tac-toe grid, with two horizontal and two vertical lines, creating nine parts. Instead of placing your subject dead center, try aligning them along these gridlines. The asymmetry adds interest to your composition.

Action should flow across your photo, not off it. The same goes for eyes: you want your subject looking in.

Try It!

Head out to the school courtyard and practice the rule of thirds with your classmates. Practice taking both vertical (portrait) and horizontal (landscape) portraits, ensuring your subjects are placed along the gridlines for a visually pleasing result.

Lesson 2: Angles in Composition

By experimenting with these angles, photographers convey different emotions, perspectives, and stories in their images.

Practice each of these photo angles during your lessons.

• Eye level: This is most common because the photographer captures subjects at the same height as the camera.
• Worm’s eye view: This varies between dramatic and unflattering, so use with caution. By lowering the camera, the subject appears larger.
• Bird's eye view: A great view to use when students are collaborating on a project, this captures scenes from above.
• Close-up (Macro): Cameras and their phone counterparts usually have a setting to help focus on small details or subjects up close. This is great for art class or some science labs (not dissections) when you need to reveal intricate textures and patterns.
• Wide-angle: Oh, the 0.5 that is trending! A traditional wide-angle shot captures a broader view and exaggerates perspective. 
• Over the shoulder: Sometimes, the story is in the work, not the student. (This also helps with camera-shy students.)
• Overhead angle: For flat lays (e.g., what’s in my backpack modules), shoot downward from an overhead position.

Try It!

Stage a student at work in the classroom. Taking turns, yearbook photographers should circle and move around the subject, snapping photos using the above angles. For more application, one student can “direct” the photoshoot, explaining which angle to practice and how to achieve it.

Lesson 3: Cell Phone Photography

Cell phone cameras make yearbook photography more convenient for students–it’s a familiar and comfortable way to document the day. While DSLR and mirrorless cameras give more control over light, cell phones are lightweight and on your person nearly 24/7.

As with a traditional camera, you want to hold the phone steady with both hands, elbows in. This adds stability and reduces blur, especially in low-light situations. 

Additionally, remember to zoom with your feet. My yearbook adviser gave me this photography lesson back in the 90s, and it still holds. This means photographers move to the subject and avoid a single, stationary vantage point. Ultimately, the composition and photo quality will be better. 

By pinching and zooming, you reduce the pixels in the photo, thus destroying its quality. It’s better to zoom and crop once the photo is on your spread.

Try It!

Turn the grid on your phone cameras (Android, iPhone) and repeat the previous exercises on the rule of thirds and angles. Remember, the principles of photography are universal.

Yearbook PSA

With a camera in most teachers’ and parents’ pockets, you have an additional photography crew on campus. Creating shared photo folders and communicating how to get pics in them allows more stories and POVs to be told.

Lesson 4: Depth of Field (Portrait Mode)

Depth of field is a crucial aspect of photography, influenced by the aperture setting on a camera. The aperture is the physical opening in the lens that controls the amount of light entering the camera. The wider the aperture opens, the more light passes through. 

https://blog.treering.com/aperture-lessons-for-yearbook

Portrait mode on a cell phone mimics depth of field by using depth mapping, selective focus, and, sometimes, multiple lenses to create a shallow depth of field, similar to what is achieved with a wide aperture on a traditional camera. (Click here for the full technical read.)

Try It!

Using both a camera and a cell phone, take headshots of your yearbook staff. Try f/22, f/8, and f/1.4. Repeat, focusing on objects, such as a baseball or pointe shoes, in the hands of a student.

Lesson 5: Assessment

Every unit needs a culminating activity. And since we love gamifying yearbook class, here is a photography Bingo card. You can use this in a few ways:

• Coverall: assign students the card to complete
• Traditional: make it a race to get five in a row
• Collaborative: as a group, work through the card; you may assign teams a row or column
• Minute-to-win-it: Give students a time limit (more than a minute) to achieve as many tasks as possible

What Makes a Great Yearbook Photo?

The short answer: storytelling photos. 

A yearbook narrative of the entire school year. Candid moments, such as in-class discussions, reactions at a game or awards ceremony, or spontaneous interactions between friends, are emotive. While posed pictures have their place–the portrait section is full of them–action shots bring a sense of vitality and excitement to your yearbook.

By applying the composition tips above, your yearbook photography is already diversified. The variety of angles and depth of field alone will increase the visual appeal of each layout.

Taking multiple shots of your subject is a great way to ensure you get the best pose, reaction, and composite. Deleting unwanted images only takes seconds and not getting the most effective image in the first place is a missed opportunity that can’t be duplicated.

Additional photography resources for yearbook classes and clubs:

• Photography Bell Ringers
• Classroom Photo Tips
• Crowdsource Content for a More Equitable Yearbook
• Photography module from Treering’s Free Yearbook Curriculum

Adding an interactive element to your yearbook pages can increase engagement and personalization in a culture measured by double taps and shares. Interactive yearbooks can have modules or spreads where students can record their ideas or engage with content. (And if you know anything about Treering, we’re all about making yearbooks as unique as your students.) Below are four ideas, from drag-and-drop solutions to those requiring a bit more delegation (wink) for your yearbook.

Interactive = Personal

The most hands-off way to help others interact with your yearbook is Treering’s custom pages. These two free pages in every yearbook are prime real estate for artwork, celebrations, firsts (lost tooth, car, homerun, etc.), and what matters most to each family. Knowing they are creating a keepsake, many parents opt to add more pages.

These custom page examples from the Treering team include non-school sports, pets, milestones, and family trips.

All About Me Pre-Designed Pages

While seeing all that our school community achieved in a year gives us the feels, adding opportunities for students to share their take captures a deeper moment in time. It shows students how they contribute to the whole with their unique take on the school year. Adding an All About Future Me component allows students to dream. (Moms, it also gives us something to read aloud at their graduation, “Yes, Erikson, you really did aspire to be an underwater ninja.”)

Pro tip: many Treering themes have these templates ready for you to drag onto a page.

Fill-in-the Blank Stories

Part 80s nostalgia, part English teacher ploy to get us to know our parts of speech, fill-in-the-blank stories can range from nonsensical to [fill in the blank]. 😉

We created one you can copy and paste for your yearbook.

Puzzles

Including puzzles in a yearbook enhances personalization because they can play with words, images, and situations unique to your campus, fostering a sense of ownership. Simultaneously, these activities bring additional engagement into the yearbook, making the publication more dynamic. You can choose to add content with words and pictures.

Word Puzzles

Word searches, crossword puzzles, and the like add an entertaining interactive break from traditional pages. Additionally, for younger students, they can be a means to involve family members who may enjoy solving the puzzles with their child, creating another shared yearbook experience.

Include things in your puzzles such as school subjects and the 

• Mascot
• School address (street and city)
• Special events or all-school activities
• Principal’s last name
• Names of clubs, teams, or electives

An online puzzle maker can help you customize an interactive puzzle.

People Matching

More fun than a history quiz, a yearbook matching module is a way to use your interactive content to increase coverage. Answers can share a page with the colophon.

Match

• Students to cars 
• Baby photo to the students or teacher
• Teachers to their first job
• The cleat to the sport
• The fundraising total to the class

The easiest ask: pets. 

Side note: maybe I should have titled this, “Gamify your yearbook.”

I Spy

There are two takes on this:

1. Search for objects such as eight basketballs, 14 pencils, and five nets. These items already exist within a section or the yearbook as a whole; you're just asking the student body to take a closer look.

2. Find a person. This is the most labor-intensive: hide a COB of your mascot throughout the yearbook. (Yearbook Hero Katie Parish had a great take on this.)

Adding one or all four of these interactive yearbook page ideas gives students a place to reflect, share their “voice,” and foster a sense of community ownership of your collective narrative.

To mark Treering's 15th birthday, we are thrilled to announce a special promotion that offers 15 lucky individuals the chance to win unlimited* custom yearbook pages!

Promotion Period

The promotion will run from January 8-31, 2024. To be eligible, participants must purchase their yearbook before January 31, 2024. Winners will be announced via Instagram by February 7, 2024.

Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter

1. You must be at least 18 and a parent, teacher, or student who has purchased your 2023-2024 Treering school yearbook by January 31, 2024. 
2. To participate, follow @Treeringcorp on Instagram.
3. Comment on our Instagram post with an idea on how you will fill unlimited custom pages in your Treering yearbook. 
4. For a bonus entry: Post a memory on your page with the hashtag #treeringturns15pages. Make sure this post is shared publicly so we can see it.
5. Submissions are due by 8 PM PT on January 31, 2024. 

Fifteen winners will be notified via direct message on Instagram. Custom pages will max out at 150 pages.

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FAQs

Ownership

By tagging #treeringturns15pages, you have verified the approval of others pictured, and you approve Treering to use your name, caption, and school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media. 

Thanks for celebrating with us! If you have any questions, contact us at marketing@treering.com.

Prize Details: Unlimited Custom Pages

Fifteen winners will be randomly selected, each receiving the incredible prize of unlimited custom yearbook pages*. This means they can create a truly unique and personalized yearbook experience for their student.

Please note, not all schools utilize the Treering Custom Page feature. Your school must have Custom Pages enabled to participate.

*Unlimited custom pages caps out at 150.

As we continue to celebrate Treering’s 15th birthday, join the party by following Treering's social channels and subscribing to the blog for more giveaways.

Adding a spot of gold is a growing yearbook trend. And we love it! While gold is a go-to accent for a 50th-anniversary book, use it to capture the spirit of 2024. See how easy it is to build a gold-themed yearbook with these design ideas and headlines.

Free Whole-Book Looks and Yearbook Templates

You don’t have to begin with a blank book. Opting for a theme package is a time-saving alternative if crafting one from scratch seems overwhelming. These four golden packages by Treering Yearbooks below streamline the design process and are fully editable.

Gold Foil Yearbooks

Adding optional gold foil to the cover draws attention to specific elements like the school name or key theme graphics. 

These two resources will help you begin:

1. Adding foil to Treering’s art
2. Adding foil to your original design

Advice as Good as Gold

“A [Treering] theme does a lot of the graphic design work for you: it’s like giving your students fill-in-the-blank notes as opposed to having them copy them by hand,” said Yearbook Hero Lauren Casteen.

She and her team select one or two of Treering’s graphics packages and adapt them to tell the story of the year. They design layouts from scratch using the backgrounds, overlays, and other included visuals to build their style guide. Read more on Casteen’s approach to teaching design alongside using Treering here.

https://blog.treering.com/teaching-graphic-design/

More Than Just a Look

A visual theme becomes stronger when headlines connect content to create a story. Your gilded yearbook theme is more than a color scheme; it’s a clever play on the year (‘24) or a way to highlight a milestone (e.g., 50th anniversary). Here are some headlines to align your verbal and visual theme.

Headline Ideas

A gold yearbook theme needs some golden headlines. We love browsing an idiom dictionary to create a list of headlines and spinoffs. Pro tip: an idiom dictionary is a great place to start with any theme.

• Worth its Weight in Gold
• Gold Mine of Information
• Heart of Gold
• Gold Standard
• Silence is Golden
• Golden Girls
• Gold Star(s)

Punny Gold Headlines

Puns, while a particular favorite of this adviser, are best used when peppered in. Using too many becomes like white noise and runs the risk of being unfunny. (The horror!) Remember, if one person doesn’t get it, chances are, many of your readers won’t–case in point: the Ponyboy Curtis reference above.

• Au-some
• Glitter of Speech
• Gold Feet - soccer or step team
• Golden Age of the [mascot]
• Goal Diggers - volleyball
• If I Gold You That
• Thanks a Bullion

Headlines Using Synonyms

As with puns, too many Gold This and Gold That headlines diminish the luster. Brainstorm a list of synonyms to use, and then search your idiom dictionary for new nuggets.

• All that Glitters
• Rain or Shine
• Rise and Shine
• Sea to Shining Sea
• Shine On
• Shining Example
• Take a Shine to

Writing Your Own Headlines

If a curated list is too much of an easy button, and you want to teach the process, here are five steps to craft a headline.

1. Review the spread and sum up the coverage in a single sentence.
2. List five keywords from the coverage. 
3. Look up idioms and/or puns incorporating those keywords and their synomyns. Compile a list of five to ten before moving on.
4. Evaluate which headline idea achieves the goal of accuracy, clarity, and interest.
5. Revise and rewrite until the answer is “yes” for all three.

https://blog.treering.com/how-to-improve-yearbook-headlines/

To dig more into a goldmine of theme development, check out

• Treering’s Free Curriculum
• 3 (but really 7) Design Elements to up your Yearbook's Visual Appeal
• Creating a Yearbook Style Guide: Advice to Follow

Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season, and we can’t wait to get to work in 2024. Happy holidays!

Some quick 2023 stats:

• School communities donated over 7000 yearbooks
• Through yearbook sales, schools raised over $2 Million
• Families customized nearly 500,000 custom pages

15 Years of Treering: It is our Birthday

Here’s what you can expect in 2024: from January through December, we will celebrate our 15th birthday with goodies for you. You are the reason Treering Yearbooks continues to grow and innovate.

Giveaways Galore in 2024

Since we can't hand out plastic goodie bags with sticky hands and noisemakers to every member of the Treering community, coffee, gift cards, custom pages, and other freebies will have to do.

Spoiler alert: Treering’s annual design contests are not going anywhere.

“Treering in the Wild”

Last year, at the PTO Today conference in Chicago, IL, an editor said she loved seeing “Treering in the wild,” and it stuck with us. In 2024, we’re leaving our home offices and Google Meets for more IRL conversations and celebrations.

New Ways to Capture and Share Memories

Personalized memories are here to stay. How families and yearbook coordinators collect and share them once again will get a shake-up at our hands. 

2024 Growth Opportunities

From new Yearbook Club webinars for yearbook coordinators and advisers to multi-day virtual events and mini-tutorials, we pledge to continue supporting you by answering your questions and simplifying the design-to-print process.

To learn more about how you can be involved in Treering’s 15th birthday celebrations,

• Engage with Treering Yearbooks on Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, and TikTok
• Read the monthly editor newsletter
• Subscribe to the blog

Staff pictured

Top: Sara C. (Sales), Jordan O. (Community Advocate Team), Ali J. (Sales), Gia W. (Sales), Ed G. (Product Evangelist), Liz T. (Customer Success Manager), Dara A. (Sales), Kate H. (Sales)

Bottom: Dustin A. (Community Advocate Team), Katie P. (Customer Success Manager), Shannon H. (Sales/Social), Sandra V. (Engagement and Onboarding), Louise Kate L. (Community Advocate Team), Aisa A. (Community Advocate Team)

We're spreading some coffee cheer with a chance to win one of three "caffeine breaks" from Starbucks on Facebook and Instagram (a total of six). This giveaway is not affiliated with Meta and is limited to US followers.

Official Participation Rules and Steps to Enter

• You must be at least 18 years old to participate.  
• To participate, like the Treering giveaway posts on Facebook and Instagram and comment "coffee" between December 18-22. Incomplete entries will not be accepted.

Winner Selection

Three winners from each platform (Facebook and Instagram) will be chosen randomly from Dec 18-22. No purchase necessary. 

FAQs

Ownership

By entering, you approve Treering to use your name and/or school name for any marketing purposes, including but not limited to showcasing on www.treering.com, sharing on social media, and sharing with media. 

If you have any questions, contact the social team at marketing@treering.com.

As we look forward to Treering’s 15th birthday, join the party and follow Treering's social channels for more giveaways.

Editor requests are at the top of Treering’s to-do list, from introducing a yearbook donation option to click-and-go Heritage Covers. Last year’s Glow Up kicked off this design enhancement. Bottom line: your story evolves, so why shouldn’t your yearbook software?

Two Words: Grouping and Locking

Yearbook editors requested these design tools because they facilitate editing ease, consistency in design, and layer management. 

Grouping Feature

By grouping related elements on your spread, it’s easier to edit or modify them collectively. This helps when working on modules or spreads with numerous design elements or layers. A click simplifies the design process and enhances overall efficiency.

Lock Feature

Locking page elements prevents unnecessary edits, especially when working with layers. This feature locks and unlocks theme art, photographs, and text boxes.

When collaborating with others on yearbook design, these features are valuable because they help maintain consistency while giving you increased control over the editing process.

More Space to Create

The most noticeable change is in the yearbook builder: new menus “provide more horizontal space” (that’s user interface speak for Chromebook-friendly).

This includes:

• Moving the navigation and most common editing tools to the top toolbars
• Using the left panel for less-used design features (think glow and drop-shadows)
• Introducing “fit to screen” as a zoom option
• Placing the page switcher, help buttons, notes, and editors in the bottom toolbar

And unless you change the settings, the page builder automatically adjusts so your canvas is always visible.

“How Do I Get Rid of the Red Lines?”

Use the new page warning tray to manage duplicate images, low-resolution images, margin warnings, and spelling errors. If it's irrelevant ("Why, yes, I do want that bleed"), hit ignore and move on.

Your Account

The dashboard continues to be your control center: edit deadlines, cover finishes, and page count with a click. Two updates give you more power.

Dashboard

Your Editor Checklist is now a Quick Links bar: stay on track and get help ITM by watching videos or using our editor guides. Yearbook pro? Minimize the list and get to work.

Switching Between Roles

The top navigation bar also gives parents who double as editors a centralized access point for all their school associations.

• Profile switcher allows an easy switch between editor and parent account
• School switcher helps editors move between multiple campuses or organizations

New Look, Same Treering

By changing out our green, your book will dominate the look of the new interface. This school-first design reminds us that Treering is in the memory-making business because of you. 

Happy yearbooking!