Re: indexing

[Lydia Wong <lydiaw -at- FPOINT -dot- COM>]

Heather,

I agree with David Hickey and his two-week estimate. If you haven't indexed
before, it will take you some time to get into the swing of it, let alone to
polish your first efforts.

Here are a few hints for you:

- Get a copy of "Read Me First: A Style Guide for the Computer Industry."
Read Chapter 9 carefully. It's a wonderful introduction to the basics of
indexing. (There are other good books out there about indexing, but this is
short and sweet.)

- When you index, close your door and try to limit interruptions. This isn't
rocket science, but it requires a fair amount of concentration to index,
especially to try to maintain consistency.

- If possible, try to get another writer to proof your index. Another pair
of eyes will almost certainly catch things you miss, especially after you've
worked on it for days.

- If your schedule won't allow you what seems to be adequate time to work on
the index for the current release, but there will be future releases,
"triage" what you can do now, assuming you will have time to go back and
work on it later. This isn't to say that you shouldn't alot enought time for
the project now, but we all know that deadlines can interfere with quality
in our work. If that's the case, be sure to index all the major topics and
concepts now, then if you have time, return to your work on your index
later. It helps us get less frustrated to view our indices as works in
progress (because they can always use some improvement!), but we have the
luxury of reprinting books with changes.

HTH a little! Good luck,

Lydia : )
------------------
Lydia Wong
Technical Writer
FarPoint Technologies, Inc.
www.fpoint.com


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=