Re: Indexing advice

[sanders_j -at- TBOSCH -dot- DNET -dot- GE -dot- COM]

Hi All,

My best advice on building an effective index is: SPLATTER. Throw everything
you can into the index, with as many different references for the same
information as possible. This will allow people to find the information
their looking for under the term that THEY think it should be under, not
just YOUR term for it. There was a discussion about this a while ago, and
if I can find the file, I'll send it along. Someone recommended that the
index should take up about 5-10% of the manual. You should reference all
commands (or keywords, or whatever), not just under the heading "Commands"
(for example), but each command should also be found on its own. That
way people can find it under "Commands" and under *textrun_* (or whatever).

Wow, the splatter effect in prose. Sorry folks.

There are several competent and helpful books out there on the subject,
which I'm sure three or four people will leap to reference properly. I
don't know what they are.

Look at an index. Better yet, look at several. Take a look at a Thesaurus,
too (Roget's!), since they're the largest kind of index. Think about books
that you had trouble finding information in, and books you could pick up
and spend 10 seconds finding anything you wanted. Get them and look hard
at their indexes. Often the good ones have extensive indexes and the bad
ones have a page in the back.

Good luck, and I hope your software does a lot of the grunt work for you.

-John Sanders-