#10734
If you're like most technical writers, you have had little (if any) training in creating indexes for the documents you produce. Even technical writers who graduate from Technical Communication degree programs receive little or no training in writing indexes. Consequently, most technical writers learn indexing 'by the seat of their pants ' and, unfortunately, many of the indexes they produce fall short of readers' needs.
Lathrop, Lori M. Boulder Writers Alliance (1997). Articles>Indexing
#10736
Boulder Writers Alliance Resource Village
Welcome to the Resource Page for the BWA. Please walk your mouse through the different houses to access a variety of valuable resources for writers.
Boulder Writers Alliance (2000). Resources>Writing
#10735
Consideration in Indexing Online Documents
Printed indexes were the precursors to hypertext links. If you have good indexing skills, you can apply those skills to writing indexes for either printed books or online documents. Although locator systems are different in electronic media than in printed books, the basic principles of indexing apply to both online documents and back-of-the-book (b-o-b) indexes. Most online indexes look very much like b-o-b indexes; however, because online information is not linear, the biggest difference is that hypertext links in online documents serve the same purpose as See and See also cross-references in b-o-b indexes. Another difference is that most indexes for online documents use just one or, at the most, two levels of index entries--that is, main headings and subentries, but no sub-subentries.
Lathrop, Lori M. Boulder Writers Alliance (1996). Articles>Indexing>Online
