On Thu, 16 Feb 2006, John O'Gorman wrote:
I am embarking on creating an index for a manual of about 200 pages
(written in LyX of course).
Could someone on the list who has actually created an index advise if
this is really the best approach?
John,
If you want a good reference to read, get Nancy C. Mulvany's "Indexing
Books", published by U. Chicago Press. I read that before embarking on
indexing my book. Creating a good index is as much work -- if not more --
than is writing the book itself. Your index will make or break your book and
reputation.
You want to index both words and concepts. I have index entries that do not
appear in the book as words, but they are concepts with different terms that
people might use to look for what they want. It does hurt the brain sometimes
to think of how someone who knows a lot less than you do about the subject of
your book or manual might go looking for information that's in there.
I put in many, many words at first. Then looked closely at the list and
started culling. Eventually you reach a point where you say to yourself,
"I've no idea if this is good or bad, but it's going to the publisher just as
it is." Remember that we cannot predict how anyone might enter the index to
look for any given piece of information. We hit some and miss others. Oh,
well. Can't do 100%. At least, not us mere mortals.
Look at some books you use frequently, or know are excellent references.
Look at their indexes and see what they have in there.
Rich
--
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) | Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863
