Indexing Question

["Heidt, Kim (AZ15)" <Kim -dot- Heidt -at- IAC -dot- HONEYWELL -dot- COM>]

Hello!  I know from the posts that there is an indexing listserv, but as
there seem to be quite a few indexers on this list and this is the only
indexing project I'll have to do for a while, I thought I would quickly
post my question. Plus there might be other techwr-lers who get stuck
indexing their own books who might be interested.  Those of you who
aren't interested in indexing can exercise your delete key :)

First a bit of background:  I am using Word 97's indexing "feature" to
generate my index.  Being new to indexing (this is my first on such a big
document -- a 300 page software guide), I wasn't quite sure of indexing
syntax or how Word's indexing feature worked.  So I drew up my index in
Excel first, edited it, then made all 1200 entries in Word (I know I
could have used a concordance file, but I wasn't sure exactly of the
wording of all of the indexed phrases).  It came out about 85% finished
on the first pass, and I have edited some of the entries to make the
index more useful and correct some of the problems I induced not
realizing how Word worked (hence the extra 15%).

The question:  One of the problems I encountered was with
cross-references. For example, I decided it be more proper to record the
entry, "PMDP, See Process Module Data Point," than to say "Process Module
Data Point, See PMDP."  My only reasoning for this is that it seems more
formal for the abbreviation to reference the long name. However, when I
selected "Mark All" under the cross-reference for PMDP, the following
entry was generated:  "PMDP, See Process Module Data Point,  See Process
Module Data Point, See Process Module Data Point, [etc.]."  Note:  The
Que reference for Word 97 says that the Mark All option is DISABLED
(wasn't on my machine :)) when using cross-references!  The long name is
only used once in the document, and PMDP is used nearly 50 times (some of
these are gathered under subs).  I had thought Word would concatenate the
PMDP page numbers to the Process Module Data Point page number and
generate a useful cross-reference.  It seems that perhaps the
cross-reference in Word is meant to be an addition to the entry, not a
replacement for the entry.

As I see it, I've got three options to fix this.

1.  Reverse the entries so the long name references the abbreviation
(Process Module Data Point, See PMDP).  Would this go against indexing
syntax?  Is there indexing syntax for abbreviations and their long names?

2.  Regenerate the PMDP entry without the cross-reference, not even
mentioning the long name at all.

3.  Regenerate the PMDP entry by marking only one instance of "PMDP" with
the entry "PMDP, See Process Module Data Point," and generating the
Process Module Data Point entry by selecting a different instance of
"PMDP" and selecting Mark All.

Please let me know the preferred method of handling these
cross-references.  I have several cross-references such as this example
that I have to fix one way or another, and would appreciate anyone's
help.  Please e-mail me directly as I subscribe to the digest.  I'll
summarize the answers if anyone is interested.

Another quick question:  If the abbreviation and the long name appear in
the document only once, and on the same page, is a cross-reference really
needed, or should both entries simply state the page number?


Thanks in advance!

Kimberly K. Heidt
Technical Documentation Specialist
Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control
(602) 313-4260
kim -dot- heidt -at- iac -dot- honeywell -dot- com

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