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Subject:Re: Re. An index in service manuals From:Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 3 Jun 1998 18:44:58 GMT
>There are only two "entrances" to tech docs: TOC & Index. Cutting a user's
>chance to find info by 50% is quite a gamble on product quality--i.e., it's
>insane.
There's always page-flipping. That's why I push for at least chapter
heading on page headers, and hopefully 2nd level heads, too.
One of my clients did a user survey and found that most users
preferred page flipping over every other method. They decided not to
use indexes because of this, and concentrated instead on how to make
page flipping work better.
I don't espouse this theory, BTW; I like to give users as many ways
into a document as possible. Entries include bleed tabs if you can
afford it, 1st and 2nd level heads on all pages, informative section
titles, table of contents, and index.
Regards,
Barb
Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing. caslonsvcs -at- ibm -dot- net
Cleveland, OH
