After the craziness of final deadlines has passed and you’re looking toward 2011, we hope you’ll join us in Las Vegas or Anaheim this spring for Herff Jones’ FREE one-day adviser training sessions on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign and our own award-winning eDesign online page creation software.

Computers are supplied along with lunch and even valet parking at the hotel. Space for these outstanding training events is extremely limited. Contact us for more information and let us know if you’d like to attend an upcoming TechTalk.

Las Vegas, April 29
Photoshop and eDesign

Anaheim, May 4
InDesign and eDesign

It’s Indexing time and if you’re using Adobe InDesign, there’s no better way than with the HJ Index Builder plug-in. (eDesign schools, you have automated index-building tools as well.) Index Builder automatically finds the names on your pages, allows for easy editing and flows your index.

The latest videos posted to the eLearning section (www.yearbooks.biz > Resources) explain how HJ Index Builder works and covers items you should have in mind as you compile and edit your index.

The introductory video gives you background information and editorial considerations. The other HJ Index Builder videos provide step-by-step instructions on how to use the plug-in. If you are a staff member who simply needs to know how to use HJ Index Builder, you may want to skip ahead to the other videos:  HJ Index Builder: Collecting Entries, HJ Index Builder: Editing Entries or HJ Index Builder: Flowing and Formatting.

Change layouts with one click? That’s smart.
No one else offers a tool that fixes or changes layouts with one simple drag-and-drop action. With Smart Template you can adjust eDesign spreads without completely rebuilding them or experiment with different styles from GO! Design to choose your favorite look while all photos remain in place. Plus, you can swap images for highest impact with a click of your mouse. Whether you want to reinforce design rules, save time fixing layouts or just make sure your book looks great, Smart Template is the answer. It IS that easy. Check out the re-designed yearbooks.biz for a quick look and just ask us for a live demo!

I know many of you share my love of anything iPhone and anything typography, so how better could we start the week than with both? Designer Grace Smith has compiled a list of 9 Must Have apps for Type Addicts on her blog. Font games, identifiers, typography manuals and more–happy Monday!

Graphic designer Alexander Nedelev has compiled a list of ten great type blogs that you might not have heard of. Surely the popular ilovetypography.com, typophile.com and typographica.org blogs are already in your bookmarks, but have a look at these lesser-known sites for more type information and inspiration.

HJ’s eShare site already makes it easy to gather photos and information from your students, parents, coaches and community. Now, with the industry’s first iPhone app, it’s even easier! The free eShare iPhone app (ITMS direct link) allows anyone who knows your school’s eShare code to submit photos with the corresponding caption info for your yearbook.

Just like the files submitted through hjeshare.com, the images upload right into your school’s eShare admin site and become available to the staff immediately. eShare is easy and it’s FREE. There’s no better way to include more people or events in the yearbook. Contact us if you need to enroll in eShare today, then download HJ eShare at the iTunes store.

EffectiveUI (the folks who built HJ’s award-winning eDesign online page creation software) have again been profiled by Adobe. This time, it’s for their work on the recently released collection of every issue of National Geographic magazine in electronic format, utilizing Adobe’s AIR technology. Check out the full story here. You can also view a new eDesign demo video here.

You can view the full list here.

Adobe’s Kuler site lets you browse and download other users’ created color palettes or create your own. After logging in with your Adobe ID, you can save any color theme in the Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) format for use in any of the Creative Suite applications for versions CS2-CS4.

That’s right, the Associated Press Stylebook is now available on your iPhone! From the AP Press Release:

“AP Stylebook fans have been asking for a mobile application so they can have style guidance wherever they go,” said Colleen Newvine, who manages the AP Stylebook product group. “Journalists never know when they will need to run out the door to chase a story, so as long as they have an iPhone in their pockets when they go, the Stylebook can go with them.”

The 2009 AP Stylebook app features searchable listings for the main, sports, business and punctuation sections, along with the ability to add custom entries and personalized notes on AP listings. Stylebook app users are able to mark any entry as a favorite for easy access.”

$28.99 in the iTunes App Store (iTunes Store Link)

Happy editing!