Re: Testing an index

[Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Sandy Harris is of course correct - usefulness of an index comes from 
being able to find the entry you're looking for and not from 
consistency. The terms appearing as entries (and even their spellings) 
do not necessarily have to match, in every instance, what is found in 
the book.

If you are using software that automatically prepares your index from 
the book's pagination, off-by-one errors may appear. The entry pointing 
you to page 763 should actually have suggested 762 or 764. Fix these 
errors in whatever way you can. Try to avoid post-editing.

Look at a known good index for inspiration. Personally I like to study 
indexes in cookbooks. Notice Rombauer and Becker's use of "About" in 
entries such as "Beans, About". Notice how nearly all cookbooks use only 
two levels of indexing. You may find these entries:

   Baked Beans, 162

   Beans
     Baked beans, 162
     String beans, 74

   Cauliflower, 78

   String beans, 74

   Vegetables
     Baked beans, 162
     Cauliflower, 78
     String beans, 74

But never this one:

   Vegetables
     Beans
       Baked, 162
       String, 74

Although entries that tell the reader to "See also" are occasionally 
helpful, the entry that says, "See" rarely is. "Baked beans, see Beans, 
baked" could have just as easily said, "Baked beans, 162."

--Peter Neilson, happily contemplating the index in his grandmother's 
Fannie Farmer cookbook from 1906.


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