Index vs. Search

[Ned Bedinger]

Al Geist wrote:
> Indexes may be helpful to those who use them, but for online work, I always
> go to the search function. That's just me, but I don't think I'm that much
> different than others. 

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.

> 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.

> If I don't know the term,
> the index won't help me; however, if I know the concept, the search function
> will.

Someone who makes and uses help files and indexes could do a little 
science to see if FTS searches the index of a help file. I think it does 
search every part of a PDF or document, but if it thumbs through the 
index, then it could find any instance of a word that is found only as a 
  cross-reference, and THAT is better is than the user trying to find a 
word that is cross-referenced only, no?

The only reason I can think of why FTS wouldn't search an index is that 
the architects of Help didn't want to twist the knife after FTS plunged 
it into indexes and their limitations, which were, and continue to be, 
the product of weak indexing by indexers without a budget or skills 
necessary to create a reliable index.

Ned Bedinger
doc at edwordsmith.com