Yearbook design with photoshop

Photoshop simply does not have the tools to efficiently manage a book of many pages, while InDesign is commonly used for yearbook design because it does have those tools (such as automatic page numbering).

michael0911  wrote instead of inserting every picture manually i heard there is a way to make photoshop arrange the whole design once you feed it the first layout and the pictures

Here's an article that explains how to do that using InDesign scripts, master pages, data merge, grep styles, and object styles, all of which save a considerable amount of time on a project like this. That page also links to related articles.

Creating a Contact Sheet or Yearbook Page in InDesign - InDesign Secrets

If this were an online yearbook as many are these days, I would build it dynamically with HTML, CSS and PHP code that  pulls image URLs and names from the MySQL database.   In addition to being search-friendly, sever-side code allows for converting the online yearbook to a PDF for printing.  

As others have said,  go for InDesign to build this in.  It is by far, better suited for what you're trying to do and things like Data merge rocks and would help immensely. 

As others have said -- InDesign is the tool for this job. 

Further, InDesign has a Data Merge function that can automate the bulk of the layout.

I agree with the others. This is definitely an InDesign project. Touch up the photos in Photoshop, if needed, but trying to do the layout in Photoshop will lead to no end of frustration.

A printer is not going to accept 300 Photoshop files as a print job. They will want an InDesign, Quark, or pdf for this kind of layout.

Framemaker and LaTEX can also handle this sort of job although they are more commonly used for technical publications.

you really need to make this indesign. Photoshop is not a layout program.

Variables and Data Sets might work for a very small job, but as has been stated, Photoshop is not the best tool for this type of job.

"... i am going to be following a similar layout throughout the pages..."

If, instead of each page being "a similar layout," the following pages were an identical layout, then "Variables" is the logical option.

As always, c.pfaffenbichler​ nailed it.

There is a limitation: each page would become a separate psd file and the file name for each would not be that student's name. Not providing or this is where I believe Adobe dropped the ball. I wish it could reference the data that feeds the layout template.

Photoshop is great for checking and adjusting each photo, but it isn't a tool for quality layout.