On Thursday 16 July 2009 06:15:28 am Pavel Sanda wrote: > Rich Shepard wrote: > > It can take an amateur like me > > almost as long to prepare the index as it does to write the text. Like > > just an idea - couldn't be this a bit automatized? something like export to > plain text, sort & uniq all words by alphabet, manually delete the boring > words (shouldn't be too much in tech documentation) and then run some > script mapping it back into the text.
This is exactly what I do, except I even automatically delete all words less than 4 letters. I then delete the boring words out of the remaining concordance, which then serves as a reminder of what concepts need indexing. It's still by far the most distasteful aspect of writing a book. > this would probably cause some problems for multiple-word entries As you go through the concordance, you imagine what multi-word phrases might be included, and write them into the concordance. Stuff probably falls through the cracks, but I'm not willing to pay a professional indexer, so small flaws must be expected. SteveT Steve Litt Recession Relief Package http://www.recession-relief.US Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt