Re: Acrobat Catalog and Index

[David Chinell <dchinell -at- MSN -dot- COM>]

Kandis:

We publish technical reference libraries for our
product lines on CDs. Each library consists of
four to eight manuals. Catalog is the only way we
could provide a full-text search across such
multi-document collections.

Creating an index with the Catalog is pretty
straight-ahead. You just have to be careful not to
change the relative paths of the collection after
you index it. Also, it helps to have a "Home" PDF
for the collection -- one that the user always
starts from. That way, you can automatically open
the correct index when the user starts a session
in your collection.

Finally, are careful about the document titles (as
defined in the General Info dialog) as they are
the identifiers that appear in the Search Results
box.

Looking at this the other way...

There's no need to use Catalog if your user is
dealing with a single document, since the built-in
Find command will search all the text. There's no
need to use Catalog if you simply don't need to
provide a full-text search capability for a
multidocument collection.

I don't know if our end readers appreciate or even
use this feature, I just know I rely on it
heavily, and most studies I read suggest it is
valuable.

I use the prepared help PDFs to show the user how
to use the Search function. But I sometimes put
bookmarks in my collection that take the reader
directly to the Help PDF, or even to a topic in
the Help PDF.

Bear

-----Original Message-----
From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical
Communication issues
[mailto:TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU]On Behalf Of
Weiner, Kandis
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 1999 4:58 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Acrobat Catalog and Index

Howdy All,

I'm reaching out from behind my desk to pick your
collective brain about
Adobe Acrobat Catalog and the Index feature...

Anybody care to recount their experiences with the
Adobe Catalog,
specifically the Index? Any success/failure
stories out there? Do users
actually appreciate the index feature? Is it
usable/useful? Do users need
instructions on how to use the search tool in
Reader to search Indexed
documents? What about just notifying the user that
the Index is available?

I have not seen any examples of the Index, besides
Adobes. Any pointers to
examples and/or resources would be greatly
appreciated!

Thanks!
Kandis Weiner.
Technical Communicator - Positron Public Safety
Systems
http://www.postron911.com
mailto:kweiner -at- positron -dot- qc -dot- ca

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