Re: Acrobat Catalog and Index

["Lane, Debi J" <Debi -dot- Lane -at- UNISYS -dot- COM>]

We use Catalog to create a single full-text search index for literally
hundreds of PDF documents ranging from 100 to 1400 pages each. The documents
are provided as a "library" on a CD-ROM, and the search capability enables
our users to search the entire library -- IF they can figure out how to use
it. Sadly, most of them don't read the documentation that we provide about
how to access our documentation! We also use an in-house application to
generate Acrobat bookmarks and hyperlink our back-of-book indexes and
front-of-book TOCs within each individual PDF document.

IMHO, the Acrobat search inteface needs significant usability improvements.
We've found that many users know how to start a search (i.e., use the small
binoculars button in Acrobat) but they do not know how to navigate the
search results (i.e., use the Next and Previous Highlight buttons and so
on). Other users confuse a simple find operation (large binoculars) that
operates slowly and only in the currently open PDF with the full-text search
and complain that the search is too slow. Ha! It's plenty fast if you click
the correct binoculars button!

Anyhow, we've released special notices about the search feature and even
front-end software that includes detailed hard-copy and online instructions
for conducting a search. In spite of these efforts, many of our users still
don't know how to perform an effective search. Our next step is a
demo/tutorial. I think these measures would be unnecessary if the search
interface was more intuitive....Adobe, ya listening!

Anne--As a side note on your comment about underscores, I've documented the
following in our CD Library User's Guide. Maybe it will help you, as well:

Acrobat treats special characters, such as underscores (_), periods (.), and
angle brackets (<>) as white space. To search for a phrase containing any of
these characters, you can usually type the phrase with its special
characters or substitute spaces for the special characters.

An important exception to this rule occurs when the phrase is part of a
program listing, program code example, or syntax diagram (all of which use a
special font), rather than part of normal discussion text. A phrase in a
program listing or syntax diagram that contains special characters is
treated as a single word. To find it, you must substitute an asterisk (*)
wild-card character for each special character in the phrase.

For example, you can find HELLO_WORLD in normal text by searching for either
HELLO_WORLD or HELLO WORLD. However, to find the phrase in a program
listing, you must search for HELLO*WORLD. Finally, to find all occurrences
of the phrase, whether in normal text or a program listing, you must use the
Boolean OR operator and search for HELLO WORLD OR HELLO*WORLD.

Weiner, Kandis wrote:
>>>
>>> Anybody care to recount their experiences with the Adobe Catalog,
>>> specifically the Index? Any success/failure stories out there? Do users
>>> actually appreciate the index feature? Is it usable/useful? Do users
need
>>> instructions on how to use the search tool in Reader to search Indexed
>>> documents? What about just notifying the user that the Index is
available?

>>Anne Magee replied:

>>I find the index to be very good and easy to use, and I use it myself
>>all the time. It's not perfect. For example, I can never find any
>>information on our environment variables since Catalog doesn't seem to
>>index words with underscores in them. But on the whole, it's faster than
>>locating the file by name, even if I know what file the information is
>>in.

>>I have, however, had a lot of trouble getting users and user support to
>>use it, even though the Customer Services Manager was very enthusiastic
>>and was supposed to add it to the training courses. I added a "Searching
>>the Manuals" section to the Read Me First manual, but I'm still not sure
>>that anyone uses it.

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