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Subject:Re: query re help From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sat, 27 Nov 2004 15:02:08 -0600
In my experience, the most significant failure of documentation
(online and printed) is the frequent omission of a really good index.
Too often, you must know the application's use of specialized
vocabulary, with no indexed synonyms--especially the most commonly
found ones--to lead you to the answers you seek.
It is definitely not for nothing that indexing is a bit of an art unto
itself, and that good nonfiction books outside of the computer field
often employ professional indexers. Occasionally, the best computer
books do too--but I personally cannot recall any documentation that
has used such an indexer.
Another method I rarely observe is to have a thorough collection of
tech support questions, paying particular attention to the users and
the questions they ask. That way, a fairly good topic list can be
developed for use in the index.
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