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Subject:RE: Indexing: how to test an index From:"Rene Stephenson" <RStephenson -at- mwci -dot- mea -dot- com> To:techwr-l Date:Wed, 19 Jan 2000 6:47:0
Melissa,
Sarah's list is a great checklist. Beth and Katherine have good advice,
too. I'd add a couple of things to the checklist, though:
* Make sure that any acronyms in the index refer to the complete term --
i.e., "OLT" should be a see also reference to "Optical Line Terminator
(OLT)" with all the page numbers listed under the latter entry.
* Look for verbed nouns and nouned verbs -- i.e., "decryption" and
"decrypting data" should be reworked as a main entry with subentries
* Make sure that cross-references refer to the same page numbers
* For entries that have subentries, make sure there are no page references
on the main entry
* For entries that have only a singe subentry, move the subentry into the
main entry
Another idea is to sit down with a couple of SMEs and users to brainstorm
for synonyms. "What else do they call this widget in the field?" is the way
I usually approach it.
