It’s that time of year…TIME TO SUBMIT YOUR YEARBOOK! (woot, woot!) While this can be such a relief, we know it can also be stressful as you make sure all your hard work is print perfect. So grab yourself an extra-large cup of coffee and we’ll highlight some of the important things you need to check before you submit your yearbook!
Tip #1: Double, Triple, and Quadruple Check the Spellings of Student Names
The last thing that you want in your yearbook is to have a student’s name spelled wrong. We urge you to go over the names multiple times, just to make sure everything is right. Even if you are working from an index that your photographer gave you, photographers make mistakes too!
Tip #2: Spell Check the Rest of your Book
Did you know that Entourage offers a spell check feature? You can find it here:
This makes it super fast and easy to check for misspelled words throughout your whole book. If you want to print out your book and spend a bit more time checking every page, you can generate a PDF that is sent to your email by following these steps:
1. Go to Manage Ladder.
2. Click on Prev
3. Enter the email where you want to receive the PDF and click on the blue “Generate New PDF Preview”.
*Time to refill your coffee cup and grab a snack!*
Tip #3: Understand your Pre-Flight Warnings
Once you start your final approval form, you might notice that we highlight your pages that still have warnings. Here are the most common pre-flight warnings, how to fix them, and when/if you should ignore them:
Text in Overflow: This warning comes up when your text box isn’t big enough to fit the text. If it’s a normal page, it will appear as a yellow triangle with an exclamation point. If it’s a people page, the text box will appear red. We always recommend that you check what text isn’t showing up on the page and fixing the text box by either making the box bigger or the text smaller.
Fit to Frame: This warning means that a photo isn’t taking up all the space in the photo frame. If your frame doesn’t have a border or a drop shadow, then it might be okay to ignore this warning. However, if you do have a border or drop shadow, then there might be some background space showing where there should be the photo. We recommend ensuring that all your photos are appearing how you want them within their photo frame.
Photo Resolution Warning: If you see a yellow triangle with an exclamation point over a photo or background, this is likely a resolution warning. We understand that this is not always avoidable, especially with old pictures, like baby pictures. If you can, we recommend photos with a DPI of at least 120, but 300 is just *chef’s kiss.*
Missing People: ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK IF YOU GET THIS WARNING. This warning means that someone who is in your people data didn’t make it into the book. If you manually added your people, as opposed to flowing them, the system will read the person as missing. Like with the student names, the last thing you want is to have a missing student, so take the time and make sure all your students are included.
Tip #4: Set Up Link Yearbooks
Have you explored Entourage Yearbook’s newest addition, Link Yearbooks (linkyearbooks.com)? This is an awesome site, especially in the era of remote learning. This allows your yearbook to have a digital format, and for your students to interact with the yearbook like a social media site. Students can like, comment, and even digitally autograph each other’s books. You can also sell this e-book version and receive 10% royalties on the sales. This e-book access requires no extra work on your part, and all you have to do is turn it on when you fill out your final approval form!
Tip #5: Resign for Next Year!
When you reach the end of your final approval form, we will ask you if you want to resign. This is non-binding. I repeat–this. is. non. binding. When you resign, you lock in this year’s prices and all your upgrades. By resigning with us you ensure that your prices won’t increase and you renew your contract in one easy step, for either one year or multiple years!
Now, you are all ready to submit your yearbook! Congratulations! You have accomplished something truly fantastic. Grab yourself a congratulatory glass of wine, and take some time to binge that TV show you’ve been dying to see. Your yearbooks are on their way to being printed and sent to you, and we can’t wait for you to see the finished product!