Happy Halloween!! Got your Halloween clipart?
Posted by: In: Help and Tips 31 Oct 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

We want to wish all of you a great Halloween, and send a quick reminder to be extra careful when driving tonight!  The kids tonight are going to be focused on candy, and not road safety.  We all know how unpredictable they can become when they have sugar on their minds, so watch out!

Looking to spruce up your yearbook pages with some Halloween clipart?  Yearbooks Desktop allows you to import any clipart you find on the web.  Just download it, import it to your images section, and away you go!   Having trouble finding clipart?  Here are some suggestions:

Openclipart.org has a great selection of clipart.  Here is a sampling of their Halloween clipart selection!

CLKER.com – A clipart repository where all the images have been released by their author into the public domain. Similar to openclipart.org, CLKER offers a few extra choices to round things out. (Halloween clipart on CLKER)

Clipart.com claims to be the largest collection of royalty-free clipart offered by subscription on the Web.  They have a Halloween clipart section as well!

Have you found another great source for Halloween clipart?  We invite you to share it in the comments!

Themed banners are all the rage
Posted by: In: Uncategorized 23 Oct 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Banners are easily becoming the most talked about new feature in Yearbooks Desktop.  If you don’t already know, banners are themed header and footer packages that can be added to your pages.

We offer several sets of banners.  Each set contains standard headers for grades, activities, field trips, autographs, etc, as well as matching footers.  A ‘Blank’ header is also available so you can insert your own page title.

Learn how to add banners using our online help videos!  Banners can be added to one page at a time, or they can be added to multiple pages using the auto flow banners function.

Change your banner theme at any time, and watch as all of your pages are updated with the new theme automatically.

Start with Importing Students
Posted by: In: Help and Tips 09 Oct 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the first steps we face when creating a digital Yearbook is to import the student information into the program.  Once the data is loaded in, creating and organizing your pages is fairly easy, so we’ve posted some tips to assist you with your import.

Usually, photographers will provide you with a PSPA Photo CD, which is a CD that contains all of your student’;s pictures, and an index file that has been set up based on the industry standard.  This is a very common format in the industry, so don’t be afraid to ask your photgrapher for PSPA output.

Once you have your PSPA CD, importing it into Yearbooks Desktop is fairly straight forward, as is outlined in these step by step instructions on our support site.  Once your data has been imported, the program makes it very easy to correct spelling errors, adjust classes, and add or remove individual students.

But what happens if your photographer can not provide you with a PSPA CD?  Don’t worry, Yearbooks Desktop can import non-industry standard CD’s as well.  Just follow this handy guide from our support site, and you’ll have your non-PSPA data loaded in no time.

Remember, our team has been importing data into Yearbooks Desktop for years, so if you run in to a snag anywhere along the way, contact our friendly support team.

October is Fall Harvest Month
Posted by: In: Help and Tips 01 Oct 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Autumn was also known as the harvest season in the earlier days. It is so because this season provides the ideal conditions for harvesting crops, fruits and vegetables. Wheat ripens during this season. In fact in most of North America, the famous harvest celebrations takes place during autumn.  Surprisingly, this overabundance of beauty can lead to unique challenges when it comes to snapping photos.  Here is an article that discusses some of these challenges, and suggests methods to overcome them.  Have a read through, to ensure that your photos look their best.

This has been a successful launch!
Posted by: In: Press Release 28 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , ,

September is coming to and end, and we are reaching the end of our launch.  Yearbooks Desktop is more popular than ever this season, as people are excited about inexpensive alternatives for their yearbook solution.

We’ve been strengthening our support system daily, by adding tutorial videos, and help articles on our support page.  Watch for new content every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!

Are you following us on Twitter yet?  Did you know that you can launch support tickets from there, as well as facebook?  Whichever channel is most convenient for you, we’ll be there!

Do you recognize the header and footer used on this blog?  If not, you should learn about banners!  Learn about them in the help manual, or just try them out in the software!

 

New help articles have been added to our support site!
Posted by: In: Help and Tips 27 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , ,

Instructions on how to move your pages around, as well as tips for working with two page spreads have been added to our support site!  The friendly support team at Northwestern Support Professionals is standing by to assist you with any questionDrag and Drop to move pagess you have about our software, and help you overcome and problems you encounter.  That’s why we invest so much time creating support forums, help documents, and tutorial videos to help you along your way.

Today’s featured articles?

New articles are added every few days!

Help videos posted for Yearbooks Desktop!
Posted by: In: Press Release 26 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , ,

Two new help videos posted for Yearbooks Desktop!  Check them out right here, or head to the video page.

Having trouble registering the software?  Here’s a short walk through of the registration process. You’ll need to get a registration code from your publisher.

Do you need to add, remove, or change the location of your page number? Here’s a quick video that will show you how to do just that!

Keep in mind that some publishers do not allow you to change the position of the page number. You’ll know that is the case if you do not see a ‘Custom Footer’ button on your page ladder.

Do you have suggestions for additional tutorial videos that you’d like to see? Let us know!

New solutions available on our support site!
Posted by: In: Uncategorized 25 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , ,

New candid related help document excerpts have been posted to our online support site.  Interested in learning about the new collage wizard?  Check it out here!  We’ve made huge improvements over last year’s collage wizard!

Candid images are a very important part of any yearbook.  Here’s a tip sheet to help you when creating your candids!

Yearbooks Desktop 2013 has launched!
Posted by: In: Press Release 24 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , ,

As we reach the beginning of 2013 and the long awaited yearbook season begins, we wanted to send you a quick note to bring you up to speed on our software.  We at Northwestern Support Professionals pride ourselves on providing quality software and support, and our experience is truly enriched by having the opportunity to work with like minded professionals.  It has been a pleasure to work with our existing customers, and we look forward to working with you for years to come.

We have been operating under Simon Smith’s ownership for just over one year now, and we hope that you’ll agree that it’s been a positive change.  We are committed to improving the services we offer, and have been working diligently to enhance our software.  This season we have updated our Yearbooks program with a newer more modern look, and have also implemented some new features, including optional inside covers (Front and back), and automatic package submission.

We are approaching the end of our development season, and have begun putting together the generic, and privately branded builds of the software.

To compliment Yearbooks, our flagship publishing solution, we have also updated and re-released a similar program, “Books.”  Books is set up very similar to Yearbooks, but it is designed more for church or corporate style directories.  Books handles horizontal as well as vertical portrait images and includes a roster creation feature to include all members of an organization or church.  As this is our first year with the new version of Books, we would like to offer you unlimited use of the program, free of charge.  For this season, you’ll be able to generate Books registration codes without affecting your credit balance, or incurring any charges!

Contact our team for details!  877-661-9990