How to make a digital slam book for your whole class

Step by step

1. Pick 8 to 12 questions

   Choose short, kind questions: name, nickname, a one-line quote, a favourite memory, one thing you will miss, where you will be in 10 years and a message for the class. Leave out phone numbers, addresses, birthdays and crush questions.

2. Build the Google Form

   Start a blank form, use Short answer and Paragraph questions and make only the name required. Skip file upload and email collection for a school class, and set a close date.

3. Publish and share the link

   Publish to anyone with the link, tick Shorten URL and post it in the class WhatsApp group with a deadline. Pin the message and collect photos in private chats.

4. Handle voice and Hindi answers

   Tell everyone any language is fine. Type up voice notes with Google Docs voice typing, which supports Hindi and several other Indian languages, and check the text with the person.

5. Export the responses

   After the deadline, link the responses to Google Sheets or download them as a CSV file, then sort by time if needed.

6. Make and share the book

   Build one page per classmate from a Google Slides template, review every page, then share the PDF only inside the class group.

What a digital slam book is, and what you need

A slam book used to be a notebook that went round the class. Each person filled a page with their nickname, favourite teacher, best memory and a message, and it came back with a few pages always missing. A digital slam book does the same job with a link. Everyone answers the same questions on their phone, and you turn the answers into a book the whole class can keep.

You need three things: a free Google account for the person running it, a class WhatsApp group, and about two weeks. Give one week for answers, a few days for reminders and a weekend to put the book together.

Decide early who owns it. For a college batch, any classmate can run it. For Class 10 or Class 12, where most people are under 18, it is better if the class teacher or a parent-rep owns the form and the answers, with a student doing the legwork.

Choose questions that work for the whole class

Good slam book questions are easy to answer in one line, fun to read in ten years and kind to everyone. Mix quick ones with two or three that ask for a real memory. This starter set works for most classes:

• Name as it should appear in the book, and your nickname
• Your one-line yearbook quote
• Your favourite memory with this class, in one or two lines
• The canteen order everyone knows you for
• One thing you will miss about this place
• Where will we find you in 10 years?
• A teacher who made a difference to you, and how
• One message for the whole class
• A quick poll: who has the best laugh in class?

Build the form in Google Forms

Go to forms.google.com, start a blank form and give it a clear title, such as 'XII-B Slam Book 2027'. In the description, write one or two lines on what the book is for, who will see it and when it will be shared.

Use Short answer for names and quick questions, and Paragraph for memories and messages. Google Forms also has multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdowns and linear scales ¹, which suit fun polls. Make only the name question required, so nobody gets stuck halfway.

The settings matter more than the design. Here is what to pick for a class slam book.

Share it in the class group and collect photos

Click Publish, choose who can respond, then copy the responder link with Shorten URL ticked ². Post it in the class WhatsApp group with a short note, for example: "Our slam book is open till Friday night. It takes 5 minutes. Answer in any language you like. Send your photos to me, not to the group." Pin the message so it stays at the top.

Ask each person for one clear portrait and two or three candid photos, sent to the organiser in a private chat. Asking for them as documents keeps them sharper for print. Save them in one folder with a sub-folder per person, so matching photos to answers is easy later.

Check the response count every two days. Send one friendly reminder in the group, then message the last few people one to one. Someone like Lalremruati, who joined the class late, may just need a personal nudge to feel the book is hers too.

Handle voice notes and Hindi answers

Some classmates write best in Hindi, Bengali or Tamil, and some would rather talk than type. Say clearly in your message that any language is fine. Most phone keyboards have a mic button, so people can speak their answer straight into the form box.

If someone sends a voice note instead, type it up on a laptop. Open a Google Doc in Chrome, Edge or Safari, go to Tools and then Voice typing, choose the language and click the mic ⁴. Play the voice note near the microphone, or simply repeat it in your own voice. Voice typing supports Hindi, English (India), Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu, among other languages ⁴. Spoken punctuation may not work in every language ⁴, so add commas and full stops by hand.

Show the typed version to the person before it goes in the book. Keep their words, Hinglish included, and fix only obvious slips.

Export the answers and turn them into a book

Once the deadline passes, open the form and go to Responses. Click the Link to Sheets icon to see everything in a spreadsheet, or choose More and then Download responses (.csv) for a file you can keep ³. The CSV is not sorted by time, so sort it in Sheets if order matters ³. Each row is one classmate and each column is one question.

Now make the pages. In Google Slides, design one slide as your template: a photo box, the name and nickname at the top, and the answers below in a readable size. Duplicate it for each classmate and paste in their row. Add a cover, a page for the class teacher, a page of poll winners and a last page of messages to the whole class.

Read every page once before sharing. If anything is unkind or too personal, quietly sort it out with the person. Then download the deck as a PDF and post it in the class group. Avoid public links and social media posts, especially when classmates are under 18.

School-safe privacy settings

India's Digital Personal Data Protection law treats anyone below 18 as a child and requires organisations to get verifiable consent from a parent or guardian before processing a child's personal data ⁵. A class rep is not a company, but it is a sensible standard to borrow for a school slam book.

In practice: a teacher or parent-rep owns the form. The first question asks whether the person is 18 or over, and anyone under 18 confirms that a parent has seen the form and agreed. Collect names, answers and photos only, nothing that shows where someone lives or studies outside the class. Tell everyone who will see the book, let anyone ask for their page to be removed, and do it quickly. When the book is done, delete the photo folder and the response sheet if you no longer need them.

If you would rather skip the layout weekend

Doing it by hand works well, but the layout step takes time and the answers need sorting one by one. Chalk Art is building a digital slam book that collects and lays out the pages for you: one share link with no login, a consent notice for each contributor, parent approval for under-18s, organiser review and a 'remove me' link for anyone who changes their mind.

Planning a full farewell book with a page per student instead? Read how to make a class farewell book. Making one just for your best friend? Try the best friend scrapbook guide.