Summary: HTML index (part 1 of 3)

[Ruth Simpson <ruths -at- MCCABE -dot- COM>]

Hi listers,

Thank you, to all of you who replied to my question about HTML indexes.
It appears that all of the suggestions are in, so I've compiled them all
into a summary for this list. Unfortunately, my summary doesn't fit
within the 250 line limit, so at Eric J. Ray's suggestion, I'm breaking
it up into three messages.

Here's the original question:

> Hello,
>
> We have a problem with HTML indexes. We use WebWorks Publisher to
> convert our FrameMaker documentation, including our indexes, into HTML
> for UNIX onine help, but we have to keep the page numbers in the
> indexes.
>
> If each index entry pointed to only one page, then we could make the
> index entry into a jump. But since most index entries point to more than
> one page, we have to make the page numbers into jumps. It is my firm
> belief that online help should not have page numbers.
>
> Has anyone found a solution to this problem?
>
> Ruth Simpson
> Technical Writer
> McCabe & Associates

I've recieved a total of five suggestions for this problem. I'll list
them here, with the names of those who made the suggestions, to give
credit where it's due. I'm listing the suggestions in order of my
preference. (Of course, you might have a different order of preference.)

1) Replace page numbers with an icon or symbol.
   (Susan Rowlett, Julie Allen)
2) Use WebMaker to replace page numbers with numbers.
   (Sonya Keene)
3) Wait until WebWorks 4.0 to replace page numbers with topic headings.
   (Maureen Ostrosky)
4) Replace page numbers with topic headings.
   (Tom Goering, Cassie LaBelle)
5) Point each index entry to only one page.
   (Alice Preston, Simon Bate, Robin Clark)

The text from each of these suggestions is in part 2 and 3 of this
message.