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Walter's Publishing Launches Browser-Based Yearbook Software

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/07/11

Walter's Publishing recently launched Pictavo, a Web-based application that integrates yearbook design functions with collaboration and project management features.

The program, which is free to schools that use the company to print their yearbooks, allows multiple users to work simultaneously and see each other's work in real time. It also includes built-in chat and virtual sticky notes that allow team members to communicate with each other and track requests or changes during the course of work. The application includes a workflow feature that lets users send electronic pages to others via PDF or Web link.

Pictavo includes a library with hundreds of templates, backgrounds, type styles, and art images to use in designing the yearbook. Users can drag and drop art components and flow portrait pages.

A project management function enables advisers to assign specific permissions to individuals and groups. The program includes reporting and a dashboard to keep participants apprised of the project status and to help keep the publishing schedule on track.

"Pictavo allows me to not only track what my students have accomplished, but also communicate with them--even when I am at home via the Internet," said Tabatha McMahon, a yearbook advisor at Columbia High School in Lake City, FL. "It allows me to set specific groups and individual permission--so I don't have pages being handled (or changed) by multiple staff members."

Editor's note: This article has been modified since its original publication to correct a factual error. . Tabatha McMahon is the yearbook advisor at Columbia High School in Lake City, FL--not in Huntsville, AL as previously stated. [Last updated March 11, 2011 at 10:16 a.m.] --David Nagel