The success of a technical document depends heavily on the index. The task of indexing a technical document often cannot begin until insufficient time remains to do a good job. However, for many users of the document, a good index is mandatory to its usability. A good index is especially crucial for technical documents because readers tend to look up specific topics instead of reading the document from cover to cover. A poor index often frustrates readers and taints their view of the entire document. To create a good index, you have to know what makes a good index, understand the indexing tools available, and follow the steps to producing a good index. Additionally, you must make many process decisions that affect the quality of the final index you produce. The skills and processes for creating a good index are similar to those required for most technical communication projects: methodical approach, knowledge of the users' needs, collaboration with colleagues, and testing. This paper discusses how to create a good index and how to make decisions about using personal computer word-processing tools to create an index. It also discusses the feasibility of creating maintainable indexes using these tools.
End of preview. The entire article is 4 pages. To view the full-text, please rent this article to continue.
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/the-role-of-indexing-in-technical-communication-g7eVxuvJOd
Welcome to DeepDyve! Rent Premier Research Articles and Save Up to 90%
The role of indexing in technical communication
Northrop, Mary Jane
Follow ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation
, Volume 14 (4)
Association for Computing Machinery – Sep 1, 1990
More Info
More Like This Article
View All dataSource[]=actageo&dataSource[]=aspet&dataSource[]=aaos&dataSource[]=aacc&dataSource[]=aacr&dataSource[]=aea&dataSource[]=aip&dataSource[]=ajnr&dataSource[]=ams&dataSource[]=aps_physical&dataSource[]=appi_book&dataSource[]=appi_journal&dataSource[]=apha&dataSource[]=asip&dataSource[]=asm&dataSource[]=asn&dataSource[]=aspb&dataSource[]=avs&dataSource[]=annual_reviews&dataSource[]=arxiv&dataSource[]=acm&dataSource[]=berghahn&dataSource[]=cabi&dataSource[]=clinical_trials&dataSource[]=dailymed&dataSource[]=degruyter&dataSource[]=du_press&dataSource[]=esa&dataSource[]=eu_press&dataSource[]=elsevier&dataSource[]=emerald&dataSource[]=ejtr&dataSource[]=emea&dataSource[]=epo&dataSource[]=faseb&dataSource[]=gsa&dataSource[]=health_affairs&dataSource[]=hindawi&dataSource[]=imanager&dataSource[]=imedpub&dataSource[]=informa_healthcare&dataSource[]=informs&dataSource[]=iop&dataSource[]=iucr&dataSource[]=iospress&dataSource[]=jbjs&dataSource[]=leftcoast&dataSource[]=lu_press&dataSource[]=mesharpe&dataSource[]=mary_ann_liebert&dataSource[]=medline&dataSource[]=mit_press&dataSource[]=nature&dataSource[]=oxford&dataSource[]=pier_professional&dataSource[]=pnas&dataSource[]=portlandpress&dataSource[]=psyc_articles&dataSource[]=psyc_books&dataSource[]=psyc_critiques&dataSource[]=plos_journal&dataSource[]=pubmed_central&dataSource[]=rsna&dataSource[]=rockefeller&dataSource[]=rcn&dataSource[]=ria&dataSource[]=rsc&dataSource[]=sage&dataSource[]=spie&dataSource[]=springer_journal&dataSource[]=springer&dataSource[]=taylor_francis&dataSource[]=aps&dataSource[]=the_scientist&dataSource[]=uc_press&dataSource[]=uspto_abstract&dataSource[]=wiley&dataSource[]=pct
© 2012 DeepDyve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
