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Subject:Re: HELP: Indexing user manuals From:Charles Good <good -at- AUR -dot- ALCATEL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 23 Aug 1995 19:52:06 GMT
I think Betsy Maaks' post noted the basics that many people use.
Besides looking for key topics on a page-by-page method, some companies
limit the size of their table of contents by only listing main headings.
They use the index to capture subheadings, captions and other navigation
elements. In such cases, you simply insert an index token wherever you
have such elements in the document.
Another technique used is to compile a key word list and then use a
find-the-phrase utility to locate (by page number) every occurrence of
each word. This method was used by word processors such as Wordperfect
5.1 (called concordance file indexing). The problem with it is you do
not want to denote every occurrence, just the key sections. Therefore,
you can use this method to help double-check your thoroughness in
finding "all" the pertinent entries.
Of course, all of the above deals with single book/manual indexing.
Master indexing of a set of books is an entirely different matter.
