Creating a custom yearbook is a fabulous way to commemorate all the special events, friends and memories you've created over the past year - but where do you even start?

Here's how to make a custom yearbook that you'll treasure for decades.

How to Create a Custom Yearbook

Celebrate everything that's made the past year so special with a beautifully designed custom yearbook. You'll need photos and stories spanning the entire period, and you'll have to settle on a design theme to keep your content organized.

Use these steps to create an exceptionally memorable yearbook:

1. Gather as many photos as you can. Ask parents, kids, and colleagues for contributions.

2. Find out who has a knack for captioning photos, turning memorable moments into stories and balancing design.

3. Ask for quotes from faculty and students.

4. Learn the anatomy of a good yearbook page.

Pro tip: Collect all your information digitally and organize it as soon as you receive it. Use folders to separate school pictures from group photos, quotes and stories.

What to Include in Your Yearbook

Every special club, activity, event and team needs its own space in the yearbook. You can group similar things together, such as language clubs, and give major events (like homecoming and prom) their own pages. The key is determining what's most important to the majority of the people who will receive the book.

Use this list of yearbook sections to make sure you've covered all the bases:

• Portraits

• Student life

• Academics

• Athletics

• Clubs

• Awards

• The principal's message

• Year-in-review

• Autograph space

The Anatomy of a Good Yearbook Page

Nearly every yearbook page needs:

• Photos, including portraits, group photos, and candid shots

• Text, including captions for photos, explanations written like news blurbs and letters from staff or students

• Visual markers, which are graphics or design elements that add character to the content

Custom Yearbook Layouts

If you're designing your yearbook from scratch rather than using a template, you'll want these three main page types:

• Collage. You can add as many photos as you'd like to a collage, but don't go overboard. Choose photos with subjects you can easily identify.

• Photos and text. Combine one large photo with a series of smaller photos and create text that explains the whole story.

• Essay. A letter from the principal and other staff members, quotes from students and dedication pages are all essay-type pages. On these pages, photos complement the story - not the other way around.

Pro tip: Use a handful of page templates to create your yearbook - don't build every page from scratch. Swap out the pictures, quotes, and stories to keep your design streamlined.

Collaborate With Others

Share your project with teachers, parents or volunteers to have them add photos or content, including photos of students learning from home . Only one user at a time can be editing a project.

Here’s how:

On the My Projects Page, click the Collaborate link to the right of your project:
Scroll down and to the bottom right under "Invite others to the project," enter the email addresses of those you want to invite. Click "Send Invite"!

*Note: they will need to create a Mixbook account to add to your project.

Creating a custom yearbook is easy when you have dozens of templates to use as a springboard, but you can start with a blank canvas if you're design-minded, too. No matter what you choose, as long as you've covered all the important sections and given readers plenty of ways to reflect on the year, your custom yearbook is going to be a tremendous success.