Suggestions for creating photo directory?

[ultrafiel]

I have a project to create a photo directory of the members in an organization. There are around 200 people that will be on it, and I'm looking for the best way to put it together. I have a digital photo of each current member, but want an easy way to keep things working with additions or changes. All I need is a print-out of the photos with their corresponding names and telephone numbers. It should have around 30 people on a page. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to do this? I was thinking some kind of database, maybe in Filemaker, but was hoping there are some templates for that or another program that I didn't have to set everything up for. Thanks for the help.

[reaper]

Why not just use address book? :D

- reaper

[superfunkomatic]

there is a photo plugin for dreamweaver for creating galleries if you want it online - http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?product=dreamweaver#loc=en_us&view=sn106&viewName=Exchange%20Search%20Details&authorid=60639501&page=0&scrollPos=0&subcatid=0&snid=sn106&itemnumber=10&extid=1009904&catid=0&product=dreamweaver

or photoshop 6.0 and higher has a function for creating an HTML gallery, or contact sheets.

[kgarner]

definetly do a database as it will give the most flexibility down the road. As for templates, unfortunately, I don't know fo any off the top of my head. Perhaps Google could locate some.

[reaper]

Why not just use address book? :D

- reaper

BTW, I was just kidding. I would definitely go with a database approach. Which one all depends on what UI you are most comfortable with.

- reaper

[7on]

Dunno if PC users will have to read the database, but you could always print to PDF.

[wordmunger]

BTW, I was just kidding. I would definitely go with a database approach. Which one all depends on what UI you are most comfortable with.

- reaper

Why *not* just use address book? It will work just fine for printing a basic directory. You wouldn't have more than basic control over output, but it produces a totally serviceable directory. For a few more options, you could consider something like NOW Contact. A database is overkill for this project.

[ultrafiel]

thanks for the advice so far. I need to print hard copies of this, so I'll be making it also available as a pdf. I can't really use address book, because although nice, I need to fit more people on a page. I though of Photoshops contacts sheets, but I don't know if I can add the extra info I need. I think I'll be going to Filemaker still, but if there is anything else you can think of let me know. Thanks.

[wordmunger]

You could also use the "mailing label wizard" feature in MS word. Essentially you'd be doing a mail merge; you could use Excel to store the names/pictures. I haven't checked to make sure the photos would work using this setup, though.

[reaper]

Why *not* just use address book? It will work just fine for printing a basic directory. You wouldn't have more than basic control over output, but it produces a totally serviceable directory. For a few more options, you could consider something like NOW Contact. A database is overkill for this project.

I think the address book would be a great way to do it in an informal setting (which is why I joked about it in the first place), but for a formal, job-related task I think that the address book would be quite limiting in the output and customizability arenas. There are better ways to produce a higher quality product and, if you are using a database for the project, you can tie in all of the information so that you have a complete and seemless information source for all of the personnel needs of the company.

- reaper