TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Indexing Online Books: Cost Effective? From:Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 9 Nov 1993 10:02:53 CST
Mark,
Caught me in the act, so to speak. Yes, we're dealing with
linear documents. We haven't created "true" hypertext versions of
them yet. We are providing users with both turn the page keys and
hyper links. The problem we've found with hypertext, both in linked
linear and help system forms, is that it's sometimes hard to decide
where to start, where to go, and where you are. We provide a TOC
with its subject-oriented structure, and an index. These are tools
familiar to our audience.
There are other hyper navigational aids I'd like to employ,
but they are more time consuming to create than the index.
Regardless, the index won't go away when we add other aids.
It's possible to build a usable index for hypertext documents
with multiple entries and no page numbers. You just have to do a
better job of indexing or use daisy changes of 'more' buttons.
The documents aren't perfect, obviously; but we're getting
there. Give us po' ol' neophytes some time to catch up.
Best Regards!
Chuck Banks
--
__ ________ ______
|\\ | || // Chuck Banks
| \\ | ||_______ || Senior Technical Writer
| \\ | || || NEC America, Inc.
| \\| \\______ \\______ E-Mail: chuck -at- asl -dot- dl -dot- nec -dot- com
America, Incorporated CompuServe: 72520,411
