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.
>Do you hire a professional indexer, use indexing programs
>such as in Word 6, or do it yourself.
I have a hard enough time convincing many of my clients that they need
indexes, let alone paying an indexer. I do the best I can on my own, using
the facilities built into Word and Frame.
The biggest thing to remember about those tools is that if you just use them
mindlessly, you'll have junky indexes. You need to do a lot of planning and
thinking. Then use the tools to help.
Tip (thanks to Jann Tolman): build a list of words, keep them in an open
window on your screen, and copy them into index entries. Do NOT simply
highlight pieces of the text of your document and let the program copy the
highlighted material into index entries. Doing so takes less work, but
you're more likely to have flakes in your index. ...RM