Who would have imagined creating a yearbook at home? When physically at school, La Canada High School used Adobe software applications such as InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Bridge on iMac desktops to create their yearbooks. However, yearbook staffers had to switch their designing software from InDesign to Encore. The reason being that although staffers may not be able to have access to Apple computers, they do have access to Chromebooks, which allow them to use Encore, a designing program website. La Canada is not the only school switching software this year. In fact, many other schools doing yearbooks in the United States are switching due to online classes.
As La Canada High School’s editor-in-chief in Yearbook, I can justify that creating a yearbook online is not easy compared to being in person. Every year, there is an almost all new group of staff members, and students learn how to utilize the designing software during the first few months of the school year. However, with Yearbook being online and a completely new set of staff this year, the plan did not go as expected. Students took longer to understand the process of building and creating a yearbook than normal, and the process was challenging.
Covering events in Yearbook has been one of the most different aspects of this year. Instead of staff members physically attending assemblies, they are now taking screenshots of the online events and incorporating them in their spreads. Yearbook is also utilizing social media applications, such as Instagram and Facebook, to reach students and parents in order to inform them about picture submissions and yearbook updates. This is a convenient way, as many people check their social media often.
There are benefits of working on the yearbook at home. Previously, students were unable to finish their spreads unless they were at school, due to the software being stored only on the school’s iMacs. However, with the easily accessible program, students can work on the yearbook any time during the day, including weekends, and be able to finish their spreads at any moment. Even after the quarantine, Yearbook will still use this application until the end of the school year, and students will be able to complete more work when they have the application readily available.
