RE: Indexing: how to test an index

["Skilton Katherine (ism1kns)" <KSkilton -at- ismd -dot- ups -dot- com>]

Melissa - 

I always found it useful to have someone unfamiliar with the product go
through the manual. Give them a highlighter and tell them to highlight the
words/topics they don't know or understand. That's a good quick check. That
will also help if you're doing a glossary. This gets you the basics. Then,
if you have testers, I'd give them the index and have them try to use it. In
theory, they should have test cases or user cases, and have an idea what
should be there.

Kate Skilton
Sr. Methods Analyst
United Parcel Service

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Kucbel-Saumier [mailto:melissaks -at- eicon -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 2:01 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Indexing: how to test an index


Hello,

I was asked to index one of our manuals (the source files are in
FrameMaker) and I find it quite hard to test the result against
the final document. I am used to testing instructions against an
application, but what are the things to look out for when testing
an index built from scratch?

Thank you!
Mélissa Kucbel-Saumier
Technical writer
Eicon Technology Corporation
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
melissaks -at- eicon -dot- com