In yearbooks and school photography, an ‘index’ (sometimes referred to as a PSPA or a PSPA disc) refers to the list of student names and corresponding photo file names that yearbook softwares use to flow your student portraits together onto your yearbook pages. PSPA stands for Professional School Photographer Association. This index usually comes in the form of an Excel document or spreadsheet packaged together on the CD containing your student photos. Your index will usually be organized by first name, last name, grade and teacher (if applicable). The index is critical to successfully uploading your student photos to the EDOnline People Page designer.

To locate your index, begin by opening the files sent to you by your photographer. As mentioned above, this may be in the form of a CD (hence the name PSPA disc) or perhaps via a link to a downloadable file folder. Your index should be included among the files, and will usually be titled “INDEX”, “MASTER INDEX,” or sometimes just “MASTER.” Usually you will want to use the MASTER if multiple indexes are present, as this includes retakes or edits. Once you have located your index, check the file type to make sure it is compatible with the yearbook software. Your index file type should be either .tsv, .txt, or .csv. If your index is not one of these three file types, contact your photographer and request that they send you an updated index. Once you have confirmed that you have the correct index file in your possession, you can move forward with saving both the index file and the student portraits onto your computer. We suggest saving these items on your desktop to make them easier to find.

When you have saved your index and student portraits onto your computer, you are ready to upload your index. Log onto the yearbook website and open your current yearbook project. Next, click the “Design” tab on the top of the main menu and click “EDOnline – Design People Pages.”

A popup window with three tabs will appear. You should be in the first tab, labeled “1 – Manage.” Once in Step 1, click the “Add Index” button. Click “Choose File” to locate the index on your computer and complete the upload.

Once your index has been uploaded, you will be asked to “Confirm your data headers.” This refers to the different columns of data in your index. As mentioned above, you will likely have columns for First Name, Last Name, Grade, Teacher, as well as possibly things like Student ID Number. Use the drop down arrows at the top of each column to identify the column type. The column with the photo file names should automatically be identified. Click “Confirm” to confirm your column types.

NOTE: If you see that columns for grade or teacher are in your index more than once, only identify them a single time. If you have two columns with the same column type, your People Pages will not upload successfully.

Once you have confirmed your data headers, you can upload your student portrait photos using the “Add Photos” button located next to “Add Index.” If you’ve already uploaded your portraits, you will see that your student photos now have data attached to them. Clicking on a student’s photo will show you the details of that student, including their grade and teacher.

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH INDEX:

1. My students don’t have names under their photos.

This is usually due to your data headers being labeled incorrectly. Try deleting all your People Pages data and re-uploading your index. You can delete your student data by clicking the “Delete All People” button located in 1 – Manage. When you re-upload your index, make sure you fill out your data headers before confirming your index.

 2. I uploaded my index and my student photos, but they are not syncing up.

First, try deleting your student data and re-uploading your index and photos.

If your photos are still not syncing up, it could be because the index was set up incorrectly. Usually that means the photo file name that is listed in the index is not the same as the actual photo file that was uploaded. This usually calls for the photographer to correct the index file, so contact your photography company and ask for an updated index. You can also contact your Account Manager for help with this.

3) I uploaded my index, but not all of the student information is showing up.

This might mean that the index has been set up incorrectly, causing all of the People Pages data to exist in one column. The student first and last names, photo file name, teacher, and grade should exist in five separate columns. This error usually occurs because the photographer has configured the index file to be comma delimited rather than tab delimited. Contact your Account Manager to see if they can help you with this.

4) There are quotation marks in my student names.

Occasionally, indexes are created with quotation marks around the student names and photo file names. This can present you with issues when flowing your People Pages. If you are having issues with uploading your People Pages, check to see if there are quotation marks around the index information. If so, remove them. If you open you index file in Excel, you can Use Find and replace to find all the quotations and replace them with nothing