Where did the idea of SlidesYearbook come from?
I work for the Bakersfield City School District, which teaches students from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. In 2014, Mike Frazier, the head of the Duplicating Department, asked our schools create our own yearbooks. His goal was to save families money and make yearbooks affordable.
Softbound yearbooks typically cost more than $25. This price is minimal compared to high school where yearbooks can cost more than $75. The 2016 Compton Jr. High School yearbook with 100 full-color pages cost $8.16 to print. Our 2018 school yearbook had more than 115 pages and cost $10 to print. We sold 235 yearbooks. As we add more content, the student price will rise but will still more reasonable than $25-$75 yearbooks.
Mike Frazier asked us to create yearbooks with our computers and send them to Duplication. He gave us a few resources, but the resources were for a computer with one person and with no option for real-time collaboration. I decided to use Google Apps so that students could collaborate on the same document at the same time.
If we are surrounded by photos, why do we still need yearbooks?
Technology changes. In college, I had a zip disk with all my work. I cannot open it now. My father took pictures every party we had. He gave me copies of the pictures on CD. In the future, I will not be to open them.
The good thing my father wrote an autobiography. We have a hardcover book with all his pictures and stories. I even have his signature with a personal message. Even though my father passed away in May 2017, our family will have his book of memories for generations.
It's same with my mother. I have her yearbook. I have her memories and successes. She was from a farm-worker family and was the first in her family to go to college. It's same with my yearbook and my students’ yearbook. Physical books can be passed down to future generations.
How do we print the yearbook?
My school district has a printing company called Xerox Color 1000 Press. We are a large district with more than 30,000 students. As such, we may have more resources than a small district.
The cover of our yearbook is soft. The product is high quality. We typically receive the yearbooks two weeks after submission. If we need to print additional yearbooks, the turn around time is a day or two depending on the demand. We do not print more than necessary.
This is a list of printing companies in the United States. If you find more companies, please share them with me. If you are from a different country, I would love your help in creating a list of companies from your country.
What Google application do you use?
I use Google Slides. Yes, you can use Google Docs. In fact, we have used Docs the first year. But I do not recommend it. Here is an example of a Google Docs yearbook and compare that page to SlidesYearbook Quintus modified from a SlidesCarnival.com template.
It is true that in a Google Docs yearbook, I can insert images Google Docs. I can adjust the image with the text. I can insert page numbers, and I can change the color of the page. The problem is that a Google Docs yearbook looks boring. As you will learn on this website, Google Slides is a better choice.
Lastly, I use Classroom and Sheets/Docs/Forms combined with Google Drive to organize the yearbook. We hope to use Google Photos again the in future when more security features are added.
Learn about SlidesYearbook by listening to this podcast with Matt Miller of Ditch That Textbook.
Basic Yearbook
Know that you have an overview of the why and how of SlidesYearbook, let's create a basic yearbook page.
Updated: December 30, 2022