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On Behalf Of Ned Bedinger said:
[...]
> I agree, given a typical help file or electronic documentation, full
> text searching (FTS) is the only tool of value. Indexes these days,
and
> even hyperlinked indexed, are mostly there for appearances, and are
not
> developed systematically or thoroughly. If they were well developed,
> that would be a different fantasy, but as things exist today,
> fuggedaboutit, most of them are too mickey mouse to be useful.
An index often gives me some additional ideas for search terms, if it
doesn't give me exactly what I'm looking for. But what do you mean when
you say "systematically". Is there a particular system that you use?
Did you invent a new version of the wheel, or did you use somebody's
existing system for creating/populating indexes (like, out of a book
[that you could name] or from a website [even somewhere in a dark corner
of Techwr-l])?
Or have you given up on making indexes and just rely on the search
facility of your Help or PDF, or maybe a FTS engine that you provide on
the documentation CD??? Inquiring minds... :-)
> > To me, the index is part of the linear form of
> > documentation...a holdover from the print days.
>
> Exactly. FTS took the user's ability to look things up to a new
level.
That's true, as far as it goes, but an index can sometimes provide terms
that you hadn't thought of. "Oh, _that_ might be how they say what I'm
looking for..."
Kevin
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