eLearning opens with tutorials for online, desktop applications

You have told us the eDesign online videos are wonderful. Now imagine a resource center where you could find all the eDesign videos, as well as videos for online applications such as eShare, and desktop products such as the Herff Jones InDesign plug-ins.

Say "hello" to eLearning...the newest Herff Jones support resource. Herff Jones already provides you with the best technical and training support with built-in Help for its electronic products, an outstanding team of Technical Support Advisers, AskMe! live chat, and, of course, you. The eLearning Resource Center provides you with another venue of support.

eLearning is available to customers with a YBAccess username and password at yearbooks.biz > Resources > eLearning. This new resource page is a warehouse of all the existing online videos, as well as seven brand new tutorials:

- eShare: Administrator Instructions

- InDesign: HJ Flip Layout

- InDesign: HJ Image Catalog

- InDesign: HJ Image In: Quick Tour

- InDesign: HJ Image In: Benefits

- InDesign: HJ Image In: Detailed Instructions

- InDesign - HJ Layout Builder

And there are many more videos to come!

World Yearbook Matching InDesign Templates Available Online

InDesign schools that have longed to coordinate the design of their pages with the cover and last page of World Yearbook can now do so. Advisers can find the InDesign templates online at www.yearbooks.biz > Resources > Templates/Palettes (login) > 2010 World Yearbook Templates.

eDesign templates will be available in January.

Become a Fan

On September 2, Herff Jones was the first yearbook company to create a company Facebook Fan page and in one day we had more than 100 fans. Today, we have over 600.

“Friend us on Facebook”
*If you are on Facebook, invite your staff to Become a Fan (click on Suggest to Friends along the left side of the Fan page)
*The URL is easy – www.facebook.com/hjyearbook
*Add a “Become a Fan” line or the facebook URL to your email signature
*Post something to the Herff Jones Fan site – keep it fun and interesting. Do you have a cool ad campaign you are willing to share? Have a YouTube commercial to share? This is great promotion for you and your school!
*Encourage students to participate in the Discussion Boards – there are three started now. More to come…
*Have something that you think should be on Facebook but would rather it be posted in the name of Herff Jones Yearbooks rather than your name? Send it to us.

eShare for Everyone

Beginning immediately, you can enroll in eShare. This is available at no additional cost to all schools, regardless of size or program. Think about how many moms and dads with digital cameras are at school events. If you were a photo-submitting parent, wouldn’t buying the yearbook be a given?

Now all schools can:
*involve every parent on the PTA – parents can upload photos of classroom events the day they happen and the adviser can access them for placement in the yearbook
*create calling cards with the eShare access code on it – you can hand these calling cards to the professional photographer or any parent taking photos on campus
*involve the students by letting them selecting photos and help with writing captions
*advertise uploading photos on the school website using the web banner attached to this email


How to sign up for eShare:
1. If you have not already done so, ask your rep for an adviser account in YBAccess.
2. Email your Customer Service Adviser and let her know that you want to sign up for eShare.
3. Wait for an email.
4. Once the eShare site is activated, you will receive an email notification. You must log on to the Administrative site www.hjeshare.com/eShareAdmin with your YBAccess username and password. You must specify an “Up Date” and a “Down Date” in the Preferences tab to indicate when your school’s eShare site will be active to their school community. At this time, you should note your specific school code.
5. Use the school code to advertise eShare to the community. Use the eShare flier (under the files section of our Google group) or create calling cards using perforated Avery business cards to hand out at PTA meetings or in the front office. Link the web banner (also on the Google site) to the school’s website for easy access to the eShare site and you are ready to go!

TECH – New Fonts in eDesign

We are delighted to announce that all 2010 books now have access to the following font families:
AHJ Calgary
AHJ CartoGothic
AHJ Clearface
AHJ Colonel
AHJ Dingbats
AHJ English Serif
AHJ Ferrara
AHJ Fleurons
AHJ Imperial
AHJ Litho Antique Caps
AHJ News Gothic
AHJ University Oldstyle
AHJ Vendome
AHJ Verona

Including their Bold, Italic and other variations, this represents 90 new fonts, and a total of 378 fonts available in 2010!

Herff Jones eDesign leads the industry in fonts available online!

These fonts can be added to a 2010 book using the same process as the existing fonts: as an Adviser or Editor, click Book Setup > Fonts and select the checkbox next to the font you’d like to use in the book.

JEA/NSPA Conference

The fall JEA/NSPA Conference will be held November 12-15, 2009, at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, DC.

1:00-7:00 PM Exhibit Hall open
This is when most schools and advisers will arrive at the convention and register.

Friday, November 13
8:00 AM-5:00 PM Exhibit Hall open

There are sessions all day for advisers and students as well as write-off competitions later in the day.

Saturday, November 14
Sessions continue from 8:00 AM-3:00 PM with awards in the afternoon

Noon-2:20 PM Adviser Luncheon sponsored by Herff Jones. You may want to purchase a ticket to the luncheon to support your advisers and Herff Jones. You can order luncheon tickets on the JEA website as we get closer to the event.

7:00 PM-10:00 PM Herff Jones Adviser Appreciation Event at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse. Bobby Van's Steakhouse has been named Top Steakhouse in the Washington Magazine and best Porterhouse in DC in the Washingtonian. We will have a private area dedicated to Herff Jones.

For more information about the convention visit the JEA website at http://www.jea.org.

TECH - eDesign Cropping Option Added

While the current cropping behavior in eDesign is designed to reduce accidentally moved frames, some users may still need the ability to alter the frame size after an image has been placed.
Effective today, eDesign will support using the Control/Command key to enable a new cropping mode. Hold the Control/Command key and double-click inside the image frame to enable the ability to move and alter the size of the frame with the photo in place. It is not necessary to hold the key once cropping mode has been entered.
See the video at this link for a quick demonstration: http://files.hjedesign.com/CroppingVideo.swf

TECH - eDesign v2.0 Features Released!

Today, significant new features are available in eDesign for customer use! These features are available in all eDesign orders, even for books that have already been started.

In addition to the features previously released, the following eDesign v2.0 features are released today:

* Single Page Submission: Schools can assign, edit and submit individual pages. Two users can work on different pages of a spread at the same time.

* Lock/Unlock Position: Lock the location of a particular frame on a template from the Control Panel.

* Searchable Help: Search the help by individual words, making it easier to find specific topics.

* New Ladder: Supports single page assignment, deadlines, etc., including:
o Improved “Jump to Page” feature.
o New “Show My Pages” filter function.
o A new “In Preflight” ladder step.
o Markers for overdue pages, and more.

* Page Edit Touchups:
o Image cropping now acts more like a direct select tool by keeping the frame in place while cropping.
o The folio can now be enabled/disabled for individual pages, rather than affecting the whole spread.
o A PDF can be generated for a single page, or a whole spread.
o Items can be rotated and deleted directly from the Library panel.

Herff Jones is honored

Two Indiana Organizations Top CIO 100 List
Inside INdiana Business (press release) - Indianapolis , IN , USA
Indiana University and Herff Jones Inc. have made CIO magazine's top 100 list for ... Herff Jones is honored for an online tool allowing students to build ...

Click this link for full article, then see second article down

Who Needs a Yearbook When There's Facebook?

U.S. News & World Report - Washington , DC , USA
The big issue is how yearbook staffs are grappling with a culture of immediacy and how ... at Herff Jones, one of the country's largest yearbook publishers. ...

Click here for the full article

HJ Special Consultants will be at the CSPA convention

A Note From Ann Akers - Education Specialist, Herff Jones Marketing
704.849.4498 • agakers@herffjones.com

We’re just a couple of weeks away and it’s time to firm up some more New York details. All three Special Consultants will be at the CSPA convention and will do the majority of their sessions on Friday (when there is no booth) so that we can handle more appointments for them. They would be happy to look at proof books, assess design ideas that your school has already started collecting, look at summer/fall books that are still underway or start to talk to next year’s staffers. They can help you set design and coverage goals, talk about how to avoid speedbumps or discuss font choices and strategies.

Appointments are on a first come, first served basis after you let Ann know who is interested/how many will be attending and whether they prefer Wed a.m./Wed. p.m./Thurs. a.m. or Thurs p.m. slots. In addition, we will be meeting with some advisers one afternoon in a focus group and if you have might like to participate, please let us know. We like to have a mix of experienced and relatively new advisers, so if you could provide your name, school name and email address, we will be happy to invite you once we have a concrete time from CSPA.

And, we’ll be hosting a meeting with some students as well. We are looking for current juniors who are VERY INTO YEARBOOK to come chat with us while we’re there as well. We’ll be looking for a mix of guys and girls from a variety of schools nationwide. The times for this event are TBD as well, but we hope to hear about this soon.

TECH – “What’s New” Icon in eDesign Help

Please look for the “What’s New” icon, prominently displayed on the front page of eDesign Help. This is a list of the latest eDesign enhancements, as well as existing features. Be sure to check back regularly, as we are constantly making enhancements.

Other eDesign updates and tips, based on Yearbook Representative and TSA feedback:

* Saving faculty portraits: some schools may not realize that they can save their faculty portraits for next year’s book by using the “Save it Forward” feature. Have them save their faculty spread(s) as a template, and then choose that template to “save it forward” to next year. The layout and images will be in their 2010 book!

* Pop-in boxes: the colored boxes on the GO! Design templates are non-printing elements in eDesign (just like InDesign). This has confused some schools that had placed images within them, and did not see the stroked line on their PDF proof. If the school is determined to print the pop-in boxes, copying and pasting-in-place the box will make it printable for them.

* Spot colors: eDesign does not allow the use of Spot Colors in art or photos. During page design, the user cannot select a spot color for the HJ Art. In the Library, any uploaded files that contain spot colors are automatically converted to CMYK.

For additional eDesign support, please contact your plant CSA.

Student Raises $$$ for Yearbooks for Homeless Students

Rebekah Jenkins, a student at Lee Middle School in Orlando, Fla., has raised $1,500 to buy yearbooks for her homeless classmates. Herff Jones prints the Lee Middle School yearbook and Jean Henry is the school's HJ Yearbook Representative.

For the complete article you may click on this direct link:
http://www.news4jax.com/news/18695443/detail.html

Commemorate

This is the first year many students will remember ever seeing an Olympic Games and experiencing everything that surrounds a National Presidential Election. This year, students are experiencing the impact of the deepest economic crisis the United States has experienced since the Great Depression. This year is a year full of tremendous historical moments.
When your students look back at the school year that was 2008-2009, what will they remember?
Help them remember this momentous year by including HJ'sWorld Yearbook in your 2009 yearbook. This year, more than ever, World Yearbook is worth the investment you are making. Adding this 16-page full-color supplement, the value of a yearbook increases ten-fold because when a student looks at their school yearbook decades from now, they will remember how they fit into this monumental time in history. It will help them to reflect on how this year influenced them helped to shape the person they became.
All of the TeamYBNY members would like to help you include the World Yearbook supplement in your 2009 yearbook. In an effort to help make the supplement more affordable, we are reducing the cost from $3 per copy to $2.90 per copy.

To receive the discounted price, you must order by Friday, Jan. 23.

You can order any quantity; it does not need to equal the number of books you ordered.
The supplements will have a Kleenstick adhesive strip along the back page and will be shipped with your yearbook order. The Kleenstick option allows you to sell the World Yearbook supplement during distribution. It is your choice whether to include the supplement as a value-added item (no charge to the students) or to sell the supplements individually, with or without a price mark up.
Please contact your Yearbook Representative to take advantage of this offer or if you have any questions.

Herff Jones Software Update Available

An update to Adobe InDesign CS3 Plug-ins for both Windows and Mac platforms is now available.
You can download the update directly to your desktop by double-clicking the HJ Software Update icon. Updates are also available for download from yearbooks.biz (log in) > Resources > HJ Software > 2009 HJ Plug-ins Updates – InDesign CS3.
All CS3 users should download and install this important update for HJ Index Builder and HJ Panel Builder.

The following issues have been addressed in this update:
· HJ Index Builder: Corrects a critical problem with merging and unmerging entries.
· HJ Panel Builder: Several items related to drawing panels and applying various settings have been updated.

If you need further assistance contact Herff Jones Technical Support at 1-877-362-7750 or techadviser@herffjones.com.
Thank you for choosing Herff Jones!

Save it Forward

TECH - eDesign “Save it Forward”

The “Save it Forward” function has been enabled in eDesign. This function allows the school to save their custom templates “forward” into next year’s book, making next year easier, and providing a “value-added” reason to renew with Herff Jones.

Save it Forward can be accessed by Advisers in the Template Library, and it also appears when the school has submitted their last page.

As noted in a prior communication, 2010 eDesign books will not be available until Spring. However, Save it Forward is available now to mark templates, and when the 2010 books are available, the marked templates and the corresponding images and art will be preloaded in the Library.

Visit the eDesign HELP page to learn more about the Save it Forward process, and what can be saved. For additional eDesign support, please contact your plant CSA.

For questions or comments about this communication, please contact Jim Gordon, Product Manager, eDesign, at 317-612-3599 or jagordon@herffjones.com

MARKETING – Adobe CS3 Backwards Licensing

Adobe is now able to provide media and installation codes for Backwards Licensing of InDesign CS3.

Backwards licensing allows your school to use InDesign CS3 temporarily, in place of InDesign CS4. Since CS3 is no longer available for purchase. HJ Marketing can provide this option for schools who purchase Adobe InDesign CS4, but want to use InDesign CS3 to take advantage of the currently available HJ plug-ins compatible with CS3.

Contact your rep to place an order for Backwards Licensing.

Tech - eDesign Update

In the most recent eDesign update, we have enabled all users to post messages on the homepage. This will eliminate the occurrence of Staff writing sticky notes in order to communicate via the message center. We expect this will help significantly as schools approach their final deadlines. This change is a result of requests by our customers and representatives.