TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Better to index in Word or Frame? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:25:16 -0500
John Posada wonders: <<...one of the projects discussed for my next gig is
to redo the indexing of the documentation. I can do this in either Word or
Frame. Assuming the same level of ability of the person, in your opinion,
which is the better tool to create a better index (easier and more
thorough)?>>
Word lacks a dedicated, built-in indexing tool, and is thus a poor choice
for any significant indexing job. For example, you must insert index entries
as fields, and it's difficult to ensure consistency because you can't pick
existing entries and subentries out of a list. That means lots of time spent
manually editing a printout of the index, then manually entering
corrections. Moreover, as of Word 97 (haven't explored later versions yet),
you can't easily specify "index this item as a page range that extends until
the next heading/style change/page/etc." You have to do this manually using
bookmarks, then use the bookmark as the end of the range. Powerful, perhaps,
but tedious.
I haven't used Frame, but most professional indexers seem to love IXGen and
vastly prefer it over Frame's built-in tools. That being the case, Frame
sounds like a clear win, particularly if you can get IXGen to use with it.
--Geoff Hart, ghart -at- [delete]videotron -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my
telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my
telephone."--Bjarne Stroustrup (originator of C++ programming language)
RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or download a trial at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
