Testing an index

[Marguerite Krupp (mkrupp)]

Wanda asked: "How do the see and see also entries work out in an online
index? I think we were having trouble with them, though I cannot recall
the details."

We're using FrameMaker 7.2 to create more-or-less traditional books that
users usually access either as HTML or pdf, so the indexes we generate
are the same for both print and online. All of our Index entries are hot
links online. And yes, it can take a lot of time. Our "See" and "See
also" entries are not extensive, but at least we do have a few for key
concepts/topics.

We also create and index online help (single-sourcing as much as
possible), and we generate a separate, traditional html/pdf book from
that help, too. Same story for this book index.

With that preamble, the online indexes seem to work out pretty well with
the "See" and "See also" entries. A user can go directly to the Index of
a document to look up a term, but s/he can also find the term using a
synonym/related topic in the Index by using a full-text search, then
following the link to the base term. So I think that these constructs
remain a good idea, online of off.

Marguerite

-----Original Message-----
From: Wanda Phillips [mailto:wanda.jane at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 12:19 PM
To: Marguerite Krupp (mkrupp)
Cc: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: Testing an index

We are not, currently, using alternate terminology to point to our
content (ultrasound equipment), though I used to it with the data
management software I used to document. Part of our issue has to do with
the time required to build the word lists. Maybe once we get a handle on
DITA and if it produces even a tenth the efficiencies we're promised...
well, maybe then we can start expanding our index in that direction.
Wanda