RE: Testing an index

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

See Also keywords can be useful for teaching your users about vocabulary,
too - for example, you know that your users may know several other products
like yours. So they come to your product with the vocabulary of the
competitors.

Indexing that vocab with See Alsos to your vocab can help your users learn
that Bob is called Sue in your product. Just giving them Bob 145 may confuse
them when they go to page 145 and can't find Bob, because it's called Sue
and they don't know that.


sharon

Sharon Burton
951-369-8590


-----Original Message-----

Responding to Wanda Phillips, Peter Neilson wrote (in part):
> 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."

And then Fred Ridder goes...

Where "See..." entries *are* useful is to identify a more fundamental
difference in terminology or to offer a close alternative.

To continue with Peter's example, your cookbook index might include
an entry "Boston baked beans, see Beans, baked" or "Cassoulet, see
Beans, baked" if there is some discussion of baked bean dishes that
mentions those specific preparations without actually giving recipes.
In this case, the "see" entry provides a clue that the reference is
not an exact match for the topic the reader is looking for.

Or your cookbook index might include an entry like "Legumes, see
Beans" if all your entries for legume recipes are indexed as bean
recipes. This is most appropriate where there are multiple entries
that use the different term you identify so that you really couldn't
pick just one to topic (recipe, in this case) to point to directly.
-Fred Ridder


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