Re: Indexes in the PDF era

Subject: Re: Indexes in the PDF era
From: "Samuel Wright" <lykoszine -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:25:40 +0000

On 19/02/07, Bonnie Granat <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> wrote:

I totally disagree, because a good index will have terms that are *not*
found in the book but that refer readers to the appropriate place for what
they are *really* looking for . Many people don't *know* the product at all
and will not know the right words to look for. An indexer thinks like both
an experienced product user and a totally clueless new user.

Besides, PDFs are frequently printed out and used, so what then? Unless
there's a fantastically detailed TOC, how happy would anyone be with no
index in a hard-copy PDF?

Bonnie,

I hear what you are saying, but _if_ users are not using your
fantastic index with terms that are not in the book, then there may
indeed be no point. Unless of course the index is included in the FTS,
then you get the best of both worlds... ;-)

And _are_ your pdfs frequently printed out? Or do people just use them
as online help?

Come back to knowing your users really.

S
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Indexes in the PDF era: From: Erika Yanovich
RE: Indexes in the PDF era: From: Bonnie Granat

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