Tip of the
month from PRC
April 1997
Index and table of contents in manuals
Issued 2 April
1997
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Tip of the month is edited by Peter Ring, PRC (Peter Ring Consultants, Denmark)
- consultants on how to write
user-friendly manuals
The purpose of an index
A good index is a must if the
manual is more than approx. 8 pages. In fact it is often more important than
a table of contents for small manuals. Bear in mind, that there are two ways
of using a manual:
- Read it from start to end
of in order to learn how to use the product before you start using it. This
is done by 10-20% of the manual users, depending of the product and its complexity.
- Look for the solution(s)
to a problem with the product when using it. This is done by the remaining
80-90% of the users! In this case the user will either
- look in the index under suitable
search words.
- browse in the manual to
find the solution. If the manual is big, they might use the table of contents
first to find the volume or at least the suitable level 1 heading.
The only exception I know of
is computer programming language manuals, where you approximately know the
name of the order which are listed alphabetically. Here, the alphabetical
list of orders can be considered a sort of second index in itself.
The purpose of a table of
contents (TOC)
Many authors believe, that their
readers look in the TOC to find a given subject. Of course some do, but most
readers prefer the much better solution: the index - if it exists. In most
cases the TOC is used to give the reader a survey over the structure of the
manual.
By a suitable grouping of the
sections, and a good selection of section headers, the TOC in a small manual
with max. approx. 20-30 headings may serve as a primitive index, too. The
reason is, that browsing through 20-30 lines is for most reading people a
relatively small effort.
Above approx. 30 pages, both
an index and a TOC is needed. If possible (and permitted) I put them on the
same page instead of the traditional layout: TOC at the beginning and the
index at the end of the book. That gives the reader a very practical two-in-one
tool for finding what (s)he is looking for.
Indexing is a profession
Indexing is a profession, in the
USA covered by the "American Society of Indexers". Their publications include
"Freelancers on Starting and Maintaining an Indexing Business", "Generic
Markup of Electronic Index Manuscripts", "A Guide to Indexing Software",
"Indexing: A Basic Reading List", "Indexing Biographies and Other Stories
of Human Lives", and "Indexing from A To Z".
American Society of Indexers
P.O. Box 386
Port Aransas, TX 78373
Tel: (512) 749-4052
Homepage: http://www.asindexing.org/
(very informative - and well indexed!)
Literature about indexing
for technical writers
The following literature list
is compiled from John Renish's booklist
for technical writers, and from an abstract of the responses to a question
to TECHWR-L
by Nate Rush - Director of Documentation Karmak, Inc. Carlinville, Illinois
- "Indexing Books" by Nancy
Mulvany. 1994. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-55014-1. Hardcover
$26.95. The author is past president of the American Society of Indexers
and teacher of indexing at UCBerkeley. This is the text book for the USDA
Graduate School correspondence course in Basic Indexing.
- "Indexing from A to Z" by
Hans H. Wellisch. 1991. The H.W. Wilson Company, New York. ISBN 0-8242-0807-2.
400 pages, $40.00. An encyclopedic work covering basic indexing techniques.
A lot of practical, how-to information.
- "The Art of Indexing" (Wiley
Technical Communication Library) by Larry S. Bonura, 1994. ISBN 0-471-01449-4.
Hardcover, 233 pages, $24.26.
- "Science and Technical Writing:
A Manual of Style" (A Henry Holt Reference Book); Philip Rubens; Paperback;
$17.96. See Chapter 11.
- "Read Me First! : A Style
Guide for the Computer Industry"; Sun Technical Publications (Editor); Paperback;
$26.96.
- "Book and database indexing:
A comparison" 1992 by David Billick. American Society of Indexers Newsletter
March/April: 19-20.
- "Introduction to Indexing
and Abstracting" by Donal and Ana Cleveland:. A lot of good information,
including practical material. Short on information about indexing practical
material.
- "Keywords, titles, abstracts,
and online searches: Implications for technical writing" by Donnelyn Curtis
and Stephen A. Bernhardt: 1991. The Technical Writing Teacher 18, 2: 142-161
- "Handbook of Indexing Techniques:
A guide for beginning indexers" by Linda K. Fetters. $20.00. Port Aransas,
TX: Fetters InfoManagement Co., 1994, 72 pages, softcover. Excellent introduction
for those who will not prepare indexes frequently.
- "Indexing and Abstracting
in Theory and Practice" by F. W. Lancaster, Ph.D.
- "Will indexes survive?"
by Dov Lungu, Blair Nonnecke, Tom Carey, and John Mitterer in Conference
Record, International Professional Communication Conference, pages 632-636
Piscataway, NJ: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Professional
Communication Society, 1992.
- "Proposed American National
Standard guidelines for indexes and information retrieval devices". National
Information Standards Organization (NISO). NISO Z39.4-199X.
- Key Words. $65.00 per year
American Society of Indexers, E-mail: asi@well.com
- If you just want a chapter,
get the Chicago Manual of Style. The indexing chapter was written by Nancy
Mulbany. ISBN 0-226-10388-9.
- IBM's internal publication
entitled "Information Development Guideline: Indexing." It is for internal
use only, but if you ever see a copy lying around in a book sale or something,
grab it!
If you disagree
with these ideas - or have other relevant points, experiences, or ideas +/-,
please e-mail me
!
Ideas for new "Tip of the month" subjects are very welcome, too!
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