Re: Never Had to Index

[Jim Grey <jimgrey -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

Nancy Walsh <Nancy_Walsh -at- MSN -dot- COM> wrote:
>We were all set to go to the printers (and yes, I was under a strict
>deadline) when the authors added material to three pages in one section.  Of
>course, this knocked all the page numbers out of whack.  And it totally messed
>up the index.
>Have other technical writers had this type of
>experience, and how have you handled it?

I edited (poorly, I might add) the book _PC SECRETS, 2nd Edition_.  The
project was a nightmare; I developed a nervous tic from it of which I'm
still not quite rid.  The book went to the indexer BEFORE two of the
chapters were complete.  The indexer indexed "version 0.99" of those two
chapters.  When the final author review material was added to make the final
versions of those chapters, of course pages fell out of whack everywhere.
The page layout tech and I managed to add the final material such that page
numbers shifted only within those two chapters.  Still, I had to manually
search the index for entries from those two chapters and adjust the page
numbers as needed.  Did I mention that the project was so far behind that we
had decided beforehand to insert the index after receiving bluelines from
the printer?  I pray I found all the entries.  I didn't have time to check
my work.

I'm SO glad to be a tech writer again.

Peace,
jim
--
jim grey          |"Ain't nothin' better in the world, you know
jimgrey -at- iquest -dot- net|Than lyin' in the sun, listenin' to the radio!"
                  |http://www.iquest.net/~jimgrey/

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