Developing Indexes

As a technical writer, you'll typically have to create indexes for the print books and for online helps you develop. The type of index we mean here is the classic back-of-book index that shows page numbers on which topics and subtopics occur within the book. An online index is much the same except that you supply hypertext links rather than page numbers.

McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2004). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Technical Writing

Indexing: A Step-By-Step Workshop  

This workshop presents a step-by-step methodology for producing thorough, usable indexes for technical documents. The methodology consists of these four steps: 1) Creating entries based on the material; 2) Creating entries based on users' questions; 3) Adding synonyms; and 4) Cross-referencing related entries. The workshop also includes hands-on exercises which illustrate the methodology and give participants a chance to practice using it.

Hash, Christine Milligan. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Indexing>Technical Writing