Indexes and PDF Files

Thu Mar 1 11:14:05 MST 2007

Just a note from a professional indexer and editor looking at the 
shifting sands of information access in the high-tech world:

The full text search of PDF docs has its pros and cons. Like a search 
engine, it brings up every instance of a term mechanically, whether it's 
really relevant to your search or not (main discussion plus incidental 
mentions in individual procedures, etc.). It works, but it lacks any 
intelligence and doesn't weed out anything trivial for you. But if your 
docs are not going to the general public and everyone is familiar with 
the vocabulary of your technology, it may be cost/time effective to 
ignore indexing. The bookmarking method seems to have more merit, 
although humans do tend to find it more intuitive to scan an 
alphabetized list. The bookmarks are basically a redo of the TOC, right? 
A lot depends on the length and complexity of the doc itself as to 
whether a hierarchical organization of material will be easy to scan.

For print manuals, particularly for devices used by novices (personal 
computers, cell phones, etc.), indexes created by competent humans seem 
to be valuable from my experience so far. One user study says one thing, 
another another thing. One cell phone manufacturer looked us up 
specifically for training on term selection and index structuring for 
their user guide writers because their usability study said that over 
50% of their users use the index to find stuff. As Mayur pointed out 
about synonyms and such, novice users also often come to a doc with a 
vocabulary that doesn't match that of the insiders who wrote it, so 
double-posting and cross-referencing in an index would be of value to them.

So, the value of human-created indexes seems to depend on the content 
and structure of your material, and most importantly, your audience. 
Unfortunately, the embedded indexing tools in most software used for 
technical writing are not made to help the writers create quality 
indexes in an efficient manner, so, with the short deadlines I've seen 
in the tech doc world, indexing ends up getting short shrift anyway. And 
so the technical support people get more calls. That seems to be the way 
it goes with consumer products anyway.

Joanne

AfterWords Editorial Services
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joanne at aweditorial.com <mailto:joanne at aweditorial.com>
sue at aweditorial.com <mailto:sue at aweditorial.com>
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PRASANNA PRABHU wrote:
> Hi Nick,
>
> I have a strong suspicion that the sampling methodology used for your user surveys did not accomodate all kinds of users. Surveys can throw up highly skewed results depending on the sampling methodology, sample size, and questions posed in the survey questionnaire. 
>
> Also, the inclusion or exclusion of an index in the manual will depend on the content in the manual. If the various key words of the product/service appear in the topic headings, you would not need an index. Such manuals have very little text content in the pages; they have more illustrations and lists - something like an instructions manual...Your manuals may be of this type. Hence the results of your user survey show that indexes are not required. 
>  
> Regards,
>
> Prasanna M. Prabhu
> Technical Lead
> Citec Engineering and Information India
> +919886754228
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jay Maechtlen <techwriter at covad.net>
> To: "Klasovsky, Nick" <nklasovsky at nordson.com>
> Cc: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
> Sent: Wednesday, 28 February, 2007 1:11:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Indexes and PDF Files
>
>
> Klasovsky, Nick wrote:
>   
>> Nobody addressing this subject has mentioned PDF bookmarks. 
>>
>> We do not include indexes in our equipment manuals, only tables of
>> contents, because our user surveys have showed us that most of our users
>> don't know what an index is much less how to use it. Most don't even use
>> the table of contents, just page-flip until they find what they want.
>>
>> We publish our printed equipment manuals on the internet as PDF files,
>> and we bookmark each and every one. We set the file to open with
>> bookmarks displayed. Our users use the bookmarks to jump to the topics
>> they need. The primary bookmarks are the topic headings, and by manually
>> adding bookmarks as needed we can make the bookmarks serve the same
>> purpose as indexes.
>>   
>>     
> dang- someone with a clue!
> very good...
>
> Jay
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