You'll be fine. Ask around and look at samples others have done (church, other schools, etc.) If you are using a printer, they may have samples only.

Once you decide out exactly what style you want and how you plan to print it, you'll figure out the best way create the document.

Come back and ask us questions if you need help.

Wow thanks i feel a little lost but i think i will get it we ar a small school 1 class of each grade we are K-8 grade . Our largest class has 22 kids in it the smallest has 11 i mean a real small school we have never done a directory before this is the first year !!

Good grief! I've skipped the most basic thing I should tell you.

Microsoft Word has a template/wizard for directories. If you have an older version or don't see it, you should be able to download from their website.

This will require merging, but that's a function that's really not hard and WELL worth learning. You can find all sorts of uses for it. (Forms, nametags).

Also, now that I've rambled on and on, format-wise, you might want to think about grouping the address info in blocks (think return address) rather than lines in a table. Especially if you want to include emails or multiple phone numbers.

You still want to keep your data in Excel or in rows of table in Word. But you'll use merging to format it into blocks.

[ 09-09-2006, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: JHB ]

Our process was like justahelper. Keep everything 8-1/2 x 11 and the printer will reduce it. But you need to physically lay it out to see how it will look as a booklet. For example, if you always want the (section) grade to start on an even page, then depending on whether the previous section ended on odd or even, you need a filler page - which might be ads, childrens art, etc.

It's really not more complicated unless you are trying to do the printing yourself.

Don't feel like you need to end up with a single electronic document. Your pages may be printed from various sources (which also makes it easier for different volunteers to work on). Also, don't worry about using page numbers. That becomes a major hassel.

Ultimately you'll piece it all together by physically laying it out until it's what you want.

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Just in case you aren't familiar with these terms... Portrait (P) is the regular "tall" orientation of a page. Landscape (L) is sidewise/longwise. I'll indicate which was which below. Yours will be what works for you. But the point is, you don't have to go all one way, it can be a mixture.

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Here's what ours looked like:

Cover - colored cardstock with winning art work on front cover, most expensive ad on back cover, 2nd most expensive ads on inside front/back cover. The cover orientation depended on the artwork. It could be either.

Intro page (P) thanking the advertisers and asking parent to support those who helped us by advertising.

Various ad pages interspersed throughout book. some L, some P.

School calendar (P)
List of all schools/addresses/phone (L or P)
Map of school (L - but could be either)
List of faculty/staff (P)
PTO Executive Board (P)

Then each grade section would start.
First page is art from a winner in that grade.
Next page is a list (names) of all students by teacher (so there would be 4-6 columns)

Then the listings would start with all students in that grade listed alphabetically. (L)

We displayed Name, Parent's Name, Adress, City/Zip, Phone. (We chose not to do email.)

If a page wasn't full we used smaller copies of some of the art that hadn't won a cover or section spot.

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There are lots of different ways to do this. What you include as reference pages (like map of school) will be different than us.

Some people put all the teacher lists together then list all the students alphabetically, not grade by grade.

We think having a reference list of all students (name only) by class is key. A lot of times you don't know a kid's last name, but you know what grade/class he's in. So you can find him, then look him up in the address index by last name.

Let me know what other questions you have.

Process-wise, whether you are doing opt in or opt out makes a difference, too.

[ 09-09-2006, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: JHB ]

We use Kinkos to produce our directory and that makes it very simple. I print the pages on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet from Word and give it to them. Their copier machine takes those pages and produces an 8 1/2 x 11 booklet, which has a color page cover (not printed in color but just a red sheet of paper) and it is stapled in the center to form the booklet and folded. It's a turnkey process. For schools, they should give you at least a 25% discount to do this. Depending on how many pages are in your booklet (remember that they are produced front and back by the machine in the booklet), then 500 copies should run as low as $1-2 a booklet. Hopefully that would fit in your budget. Sure makes it a LOT easier on the committee members to produce it!!

JHB- please describe it, at your leisure of course, but I'd like to hear how you did it.

Our Middle School hasn't ever had a student directory but I would think it would be a good thing. I'd like to think about adding that next school year.

[ 09-08-2006, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: Jennia ]