On Thu, 16 Jul 2009, Pavel Sanda wrote:
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.
pavel, I don't think this will work. There are often variants of a word (e.g., 'environment' and 'environmental') and we need to decide which, or both, to index. Most importantly is trying to think of terms other than those we use by which someone would try to find a reference in the text. This last point was driven home a couple of years ago when I wanted to find the formula used to calculate Net Present Value (NPV) in my spreadsheet application (XessSE). I looked in the built-in help and in the manual. No luck. I called the vendor and the tech support guy also tried to find it without success. Then it occurred to him to look under "Formulas" in the index. Sure enough, that's where they were all listed, but they were not listed individually. It did not occur to me to look for "Formulas" when I wanted a specific one. Whomever wrote the index assumed everyone would look in for the generic name rather than for the specific name. A perfect reason for plenty of cross references ("See ..."). It is situations like this that prevent automation of indexing. Rich -- Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Integrity Credibility Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. | Innovation <http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863