That's quite true, but the way to deal with it is to use "see" references. You have your preferred term with all the page references, and you have your other terms listed, followed by "see [preferred term." This prevents having to list all the page references under each of the synonymous terms, and eliminated the danger of those references getting scattered among the various terms.
Isn't the purpose of an index to provide synonyms? 20 people reading documentation will think of 20 different words for the same concept when they consult the index. (Or am I missing the point?)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Downing, David [SMTP:DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com]
> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 9:09 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Indexing style refs
>
>
> Well, I have a suggestion inspired by my former days as a technical
> services librarian. I suggest you put together what they call a
> "controlled vocabulary." This is a list of terms that serves as an
> authority. Anyone constructing an index must used only terms on this
> list. The list will no-doubt be updated often, but there should be a
> list in existence at all times. This will prevent 20 different people
> from using 20 different synonymous terms for the same concept.
>
>
