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JRessler -at- ewa-denver -dot- com wrote:
>
> I would like to know if there is a decent program that automatically
> builds/compiles a glossary or index. There is a program called "Bookends"
> (a name with subtle irony) that seems to be exclusively for Macintosh that
> will search a document and enter "unique" words automatically. Are there
> any worthwhile, or even any that do a slapdash job for Word 2k?
You're thinking of Sonar Bookends, one of many tools that creates index entries automatically. There's been a lot of discussion about this, so you can check the archives for details, and I'll just cut to the chase:
Computers make lousy index entries. It takes a human intellect,
a knowledge of the subject matter and intended audience, and an
understanding of the principles of indexing to make good index
entries.
Once you have good entries, though, let the computers do the
"grunt work": compiling, collating, formatting, and so on.
That's what computers are for. Word and most other text
processing programs have built-in index compilers that work
just fine.
On the other hand, if you don't care about the quality of the index, and you just want to have a list of unique words with the page numbers they appear on, Word has a built-in concordance feature that'll fill the bill. I wouldn't use it, but it's there if you want it.
I should point out that the same people who make Sonar Bookends also make a nifty little tool called Sonar Bookends Activate. Activate is a one-trick pony that takes an index in a PDF file and turns every page number in that index into a hyperlink to the appropriate page--very handy!
Stay away from the other stuff, though. With rare exception, automatic creation of *good* index entries is not ready for prime time.
As for a tool that created an automatic *glossary*--terms and definitions--well, I'd have to see it to believe it.
--David
=============================
David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
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