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RE: Frame Maker deletes my changes when updating the index
Subject:RE: Frame Maker deletes my changes when updating the index From:"Mike Schmidt" <mschmidt -at- weathercentral -dot- tv> To:"Stuart Burnfield" <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 4 Aug 2006 10:58:18 -0500
I've been reading all the replies to this, and it looks like other
programs' index creators are similar. The question, I think, is that if
you have an automatically generated index, and then make a manual (not
automatically generated, that is) change to it, that change is gone the
next time you generate a new index. In my case, I avoid manual changes,
but sometimes I have to. For instance, in alphabetization. It creates
the letter, say G, and then starts the entries that begin with G. If
it's spaced just right (or wrong) sometimes that G will be the last line
on a page, and the entries will start on the next page... so I put a
manual page break before the G. Well, next time I update the index, I
have to go looking for that again.
In Ventura, I could find the paragraph tag that it uses for the letter
headings, and put a page break before it, but then every one would do
that, and that's not necessarily what I want either.
I think in some cases, you just have to bite the bullet and go redo some
of those things. Make a list of the things you have to look for. Maybe,
don't bother with that until you're finally finished, and have a
checklist of those touchups and just do them once at the end of the
process.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Stuart Burnfield
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 10:52 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Frame Maker deletes my changes when updating the index
** Hi Yoann -
> "continued" at top of columns: I think it is a way to facilitate the
user's
> browsing in the index, advising him that the column he's starting to
read is
> the continuation of the previous one.
Yes, there are at least two situations where this is useful:
- where the character formatting makes it hard to tell apart
main entries from second- and third-level entries
- where there are entries with very many sub-entries, so that
a whole column or even a whole page consists of sub-entries.
> See / See also ref. : I thought they were links to create inside the
> index, without any marker to put in the text.
Think of them as cross-references in words rather than in the
form of links.
"See X" means "Look for index entries under X instead of under
this keyword."
"See also X" means "Look for index entries under X as well as
under this keyword."
> Are the <$nopage> markers just a
way to avoid the delete-all feature when regenerating the index?
Not quite. It means "Create a normal entry in the index, but without
a page number and a link at the end of the entry."
> ...do you have good arguments to convince my boss the page ranges
> are needed, in place of just putting a marker at the beginning of the
> topic, whatever its length?
A page range indicates that the subject is treated continuously,
and not as unconnected references in a topic that's mainly about
something else.
Imagine that hockey is mentioned in passing on pages 18 and 19
and is discussed in detail in a topic on pages 76 to 79. Your boss
would index it as:
hockey 18, 19, 76
If I saw this I would look at pages 18-19 first, because it looks
like a cluster of entries about hockey. If you had indexed it as:
hockey 18, 19, 76-79
... I would look up page 76 first.
> Thank you, and sorry for my English: I'm a stinking-cheese eater!
You're welcome, and your English is fine (although the way you placed
the hyphen indicates that you're an eater of stinking-cheese--if you
wanted to make it clear that you're really a cheese eater who stinks,
you would say "stinking cheese-eater" ;^)
Stuart (likes cheese, the stinkier the better)
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