On 05 Nov 2007, Helge Hafting wrote: > Anthony Campbell wrote: >> I find that if I have more than a few index entries for a word they >> overrun and are printed on top of other entries in the adjacent >> column. This is in 1.5.2 but it also happened in 1.5.1. A bug? >> > Strange. Too many index entries merely breaks the > line like this for me: > > overindexed: 1,3,5,7,9-11 > 13-16, 45, 48, 49, 54, 56 >> I could prevent this to some extent by changing to a smaller font for >> the whole index but I can't seem to do this. Putting latex commands to >> change the font after "Index" at the end of the book doesn't do it. >> Is there a way to alter the size of the text used by the index, or -- >> even better -- to stop the overlapping in the first place? >> > On the other hand, are you sure you really needs many > entries for one word? This depends a lot on how the index > is used. For a textbook, note that students usually > only ever look up a few of the entries. They simply don't bother > looking up all of 11 entries. So for such books, try sticking to > a maximum of three or so entries per word. Fewer is better. > That's what my publisher told me, at least. > > A word may be mentioned a lot througout a book, but this fact > is usually of no interest to the reader. The reader usually > wants to look up the one or two _important_ places, > such as the definition and the main explanation. And perhaps > another case. If they have to look up 20 times, then they just > skim through the book because that is less hassle and > almost as fast. > > Now, there are exceptions where one really needs lots > of indexes for a word, but make sure you really need that > before you do it. Don't add lots of indexes just because > you can do it. > > > Helge Hafting
I would expect it to break the line but it doesn't seem to, unless I was doing somethng stupid. However, I take the point about having too many entries. I'm trying to use subgroups as much as possible and also indexing concepts, with a range of pages, as much as individual words. There are occasions when it's useful to have every instance of a word indexed, which is when you can remember a particular context or phrase you saw it in and can't find it again. But obviously there are cases where an important word occurs so many times that it would be impractical to list all of them. -- Anthony Campbell - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Microsoft-free zone - Using Linux Gnu-Debian http://www.acampbell.org.uk (blog, book reviews, on-line books and sceptical articles)
