RE: Index/TOC Needed in HTML &/or Browser-Based Help?

["Jessica Weissman" <Jessica -dot- Weissman -at- hillcrestlabs -dot- com>]

Janice Gelb wrote:


A few points about about indexing vs. text search:

   * Full text searches depend on what the author includes in the
   document (I remember an STC presentation by Jared Spool a couple
   of years ago in which he said a search of Smithsonian Magazine
   archives for "dinosaur" turned up an article on the American steel
   industry but not one on tyrannasaurus rex).
****

This is not surprising; you have to know the topic to find search terms,
and you can experience delightful serendipity.  Example: a decade or so
ago I was tasked with searching the Airplane Incidents database
maintained by the FAA to find certain patterns of incidents.  While
looking for incidents involving dogleg runways, I found out how many
small-plane accidents and incidents are caused by untethered dogs in the
cabin.  Apparently lots of bush pilots and their customers transport
dogs around Alaska by air.  Dogs have VERY creative ways of disrupting
those flights.

Jessica Weissman
Hillcrest Laboratories
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