I find a well-designed index to be very helpful. But the key word is "well-designed". Computer-generated indexes leave a lot to be desired unless they are edited by a human.
For example, believe it or not, the California Vehicle Code has a very nice index. If you are looking up rules that apply to bicycles, for example, they are all listed as sub-entries under the "Bicycles" entry in the index. A human can do that kind of thing far more accurately and completely than a computer can. Unfortunately, in far too many publications it is obvious that the index was an afterthought, thrown together just so they can check off "index" in the list of tasks. Al N1AL On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 09:50 -0800, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote: > As another technical writer and editor, I lean heavily on key words searches > in PDF in just about any documentation I must read. It's been years since I > bothered to look in an index if the document is available in PDF. However, I > become very dependent upon the index (and often frustrated chasing blind > leads) when only a paper copy is available. > > Of course, key word searches turn up many wrong "hits" too, but tapping > "next" is much faster than flipping pages and often uncovers some references > I want to look at more closely, either right now or later when I've answered > the pressing question. > > I know that Wayne makes use of the MS Word index building facilities in the > K3 Owner's manual, managing a concordance file that evolves over time. > > Ron AC7AC > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Ragle > Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 7:42 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 (Documentation) ... a hint > > On 12/7/2010 8:24 AM, Sam, KJ4VPI, wrote: (paraphrasing: I love books!) > > The list (nest?) of features hiding inside the K3 firmware is nearly > astonishing, and quite wonderful, but I find the Users' Manual to be > almost useless when one needs to find a specific item. > > The "finder" inside *.pdf readers is very limited. > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
