#24232
So How Fast do you Want this Index? 
Scheduling adequate time for index preparation is difficult. We will present strategies to help you provide the best index your document deserves.
Coughlin, Maria, Frances Lennie, Peg Mauer and Alexandra Nickerson. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Indexing
#18482
The software tools used to generate indexes come in many flavors and varieties. Which technique is used depends on variables such as budget, eventual re-usability of the source material, time constraints, media used to publish the material, file sizes and transferral issues, and individual preferences. There are essentially six different methodologies for indexing.
American Society of Indexers (2003). Articles>Indexing>Software
#18545
Subheadings enable your readers to find detailed information quickly. They also give the reader an idea of how deeply a topic is covered. Subheadings provide more detail about the topic stated in the main entry. Effective subheadings represent distinct aspects of a topic.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2001). Articles>Indexing>Information Design
#21397
Synonym Rings and Authority Files
In part 3 of the continuing series on controlled vocabularies and faceted classification, the authors explain synonym rings and authority files and how their use can bridge the gap between natural language and complex controlled vocabularies (taxonomies and thesauri).
Fast, Karl, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Indexing>Language
#18551
Including synonyms can be one of the most effective ways to improve the usability of an index. Synonyms assist users to navigate easily to the information they are looking for using their own terminology. In an index you use the terms that appear in the text of the document. But, the user may employ different words for the same concepts. This situation can happen when a user is familiar with another environment, for example when an experienced Microsoft Windows user is learning about Linux. The user may also be familiar with common terms while the document may use scientific or other official terminology. Different industries, organizations or product groups can also develop their own specialized vocabularies.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2001). Articles>Indexing
#10619
Technical Writing 101: Indexing 
A complete, user-friendly index is an important component of a professional, finished document. This chapter of Technical Writing 101 focuses on creating and editing an index.
Pringle, Alan S. and Sarah S. O'Keefe. Scriptorium (2000). Articles>Indexing
#25865
Ten Common Mistakes in Indexing
Ten common mistakes when indexing technical documents.
Hall, Heather. STC Indexing SIG (2002). Articles>Indexing
#20734
Taxonomies have recently emerged from the quiet backwaters of biology, book indexing, and library science into the corporate limelight. They are supposed to be the silver bullets that will help users find the needle in the intranet haystack, reduce 'friction' in electronic commerce, facilitate scientific research, and promote global collaboration. But before this can happen, practitioners need to dispel the myths and confusion, created in part by the multi-disciplinary nature of the task and the hype surrounding content management technologies.
Montague Institute Review (1992). Articles>Indexing>Information Design
#18550
Recently on INDEX-L, the indexer’s listserv, there was a thread on quotes about the value of indexing. See the article for some select examples.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2001). Articles>Indexing>Assessment
#24976
Visual Indexes for Visual Products
Many people prefer to use indexes to find the information they are looking for. As software products become more visual, so too can their indexes. Visual indexes allow users to find information about something without having to know what it’s called. And by organizing information in visual indexes by time, location, continuum or magnitude, or category, you can reveal aspects of a subject that might not otherwise be revealed. Visual indexes can be included in print and online.
Dukay, Kristin L. and Charles Tyrone. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Indexing>Visual
#25872
It wasn't too long ago that the concept of creating an index for hypertext documents was completely foreign. However, many webmasters, corporations, and new media publishers are seeing the clear benefits of using human indexers to design and write indexes to their Web sites and intranets, hoping for superior results in information access and retrieval. Technical writers may also be called on to provide indexing for Web sites.
Broccoli, Ken. STC Indexing SIG (1999). Articles>Web Design>Indexing
#30787
Web Indexing: Extending the Functionality of HTML Indexer
HTML Indexer is a commercial stand-alone indexing tool that is designed solely for the indexing of web sites. This article shows how to extend the functionality of HTML Indexer by including special codes in the entries, then post-processing the generated HTML to obtain final HTML.
Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2006). Articles>Web Design>Indexing>Software
#22274
Review: Website Indexing: Enhancing Access to Information Within Websites 
Browne and Jermey say that 'increasingly sophisticated retrieval methods' will be needed as the Web gets more complex. They believe that good, back-of-the-book-style indexes 'are effective tools for improving the speed and accuracy of user searches.' With their book as a guide, you are in a position to determine that for yourself and for your Web site.
Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Indexing>Web Design
#18559
#12974
To understand the importance of an index, it helps to consider the alternatives. The most prevalent means of access to information in HTML files seems to be the search engine.
Broccoli, Kevin. FiniteSite (1999). Articles>Indexing>Web Design
#19490
Working With Freelance Indexers
An otherwise good book can be significantly enhanced by a good index and seriously weakened by a poor one. Nevertheless, it seems to be a house rule in publishing, probably for reasons of cost, that the editor asks and expects the author to create a book's index. But while, of course, an author can sometimes produce a good index, many authors are not well-suited to the task. Unless an author has previously indexed a book, he or she is unlikely to have the experience or proficiency, not to mention the time, to create an index that comes close to the level of quality routinely achieved by an experienced professional indexer. That is because there are, in fact, particular indexing skills that are developed with experience.
#32684
Quick, Quality Indexing for Environmental, Safety, and Health
Indexing for environmental, safety, and health texts, you provide sure, quick access to critical information in times of need.
Wyman, Pilar. STC Proceedings (2008). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Policies and Procedures
#33197
A-Z Indexes to Enhance Site Searching
On a Web site or intranet each of the alphabetically arranged entries or subentries is hyperlinked to the page or to an anchor within a page to where the topic is discussed. Since an alphabetical index can be quite long, it is often divided into pages for each letter of the alphabet. Typically, each letter is linked at the top of the page allow a jump to the start of that letter’s section of the index.
Digital Web Magazine (2005). Articles>Web Design>Indexing>Information Design
#33236
Extended Faceted Taxonomies for Web Catalogs
Which would be easier to remember: one thousand individual terms or three facets of ten terms each?
Tzitzikas, Yannis, Nicolas Spyratos, Panos Constantopoulos and Anastasia Analyti. ERCIM News (2002). Articles>Web Design>Indexing>Metadata
#35433
DITA is useful for helping writers create small units of organized information that can be used in multiple contexts. Of course, the reader's problem then becomes locating the information they want in a quick, reasonable timeframe. Although DITA provides enough metadata to simplify searching, or even to present information the reader needs based on a profile, there are some media that cannot make use of those facilities. To bridge that gap, you can use the tried and true index.
Vazquez, Julio J. SDI Global Solutions (2009). Articles>Information Design>Indexing>DITA
