I'm finishing the last chapters in my technical book today and need to start on the index. I've never before compiled an index.
<snip>
Anyway, because the indexer didn't think that us clueless sorts would look for a specific operator rather than the class of operators he didn't put any entries in the index.
So, I'm interested in advice, suggestions, guidance and pitfalls to avoid.
G'day Rich,
About a decade ago I indexed the legislation relating to local government in New South Wales (about 1500 pages of legislation in total). My index ran to just on 500 pages. Its size was due to the fact that readers were coming to the index from different angles. To use your illustration as a point:
Mathematical operators
Operators (mathematics)
Multipliers
Exponentiation
Symbols
Conventions (programming).
Since this posting is off the top of my head, some of those examples are not too bright :-) However, the point is that the author _never_ needs an index but his readers _always_ do. So the questions you should be asking yourself are:
How diverse is your readership?
Are they looking for the same things?
Do they know the jargon [Do they have their own jargon]?
How many levels are there in the Index?
Can you sort a dummy file into your index?
As your index grows in size you should think about repeating entries rather than inserting cross reference pointers. There is nothing worse than "Mathematical operators (see Operators - mathematics)" inserted all over the place -- especially when the primary source contains only one or two entries.
With respect to jargon I can illustrate this simply. The NSW local govt legislation contains provisions for the central govt to dismiss individual local councillors or the whole lot; because of bureaucratic euphemisms the words "dismissal" and its variants (which is the terminology universally used in the community) do _not_ appear in the legislation; two pages of my index were devoted to the reference "Dismissal" even though this word does not appear in the main text.
My final thoughts (we can continue off-list, if you like): Before you touch the keyboard plan your index, and do so from your readers' point of view.
HTH, Robert Thorsby
