On Sun, 21 Nov 2004, Robert Thorsby wrote:
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?
Robert,
I've read Nancy Mulvaney's "Indexing Books" so I have a working familiarity with verious styles, alphabetizing schemes, layouts and other aspects of the indexer's craft.
What I was hoping to elicit was experiened-based suggestions how to get out of my own mind-set and anticipate how others might search for entries. My example with the spreadsheet is a perfect example: it never occurred to me (or to the tech support wallah, initially) to look under the class of "operator" to find out the operator for exponentiation.
I assume that the same limitations will show up in my book: I may well miss alternative terms that are the precise ones that occur to you when you turn to the index. Perhaps there is no generic clue stick that can be passed from one to another. But, perhaps there are general ideas from those of you who have gone through this before and who have benefitted from hindsight. :-) Otherwise, I do the best I can and let it go at that.
Thanks,
Rich
-- Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) <http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863
