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Subject:Re: Indexing style refs From:technical -at- theverbalist -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Thu, 7 Aug 2003 10:12:38 -0600
> As others have pointed out, it can be frustrating to look up a term in the index, go to the indicated page, and be unable to find that term on the page. In the index, the relationship between the reader's term and the preferred term is explicit ("garbage man. See sanitation engineer"): the reader knows what term to look for on the page indicated by the preferred term's index entry.
>
Ah, and when another whirler pointed this out to me, it totally made
sense--"See" references for synonyms that the reader may be looking for
but that aren't used in the text.
What I had been thinking of when I asked my question was "see" references
for a term that is in the text, but that also relates to another index
entry, so a reference for "garbage man. See sanitation engineer" would
send you to the "sanitation engineer" reference, which would send you to a
page that said "Sanitation engineers, historically known as garbage men,
are the unsung heroes of our time...especially in the summer."
