Re: Testing an index

[J Wermont <jwermont -at- sonic -dot- net>]

Peter Neilson wrote:

 > Sandy Harris is of course correct - usefulness of an index comes from 
 > being able to find the entry you're looking for and not from 
 > consistency. The terms appearing as entries (and even their spellings) 
 > do not necessarily have to match, in every instance, what is found in 
 > the book.

I wonder, though, if the term the user is searching for doesn't match
the terminology used in the book, but is more or less synonymous such that
you would put the user's term in the index, wouldn't the user be looking
for his/her own term in the text? What would alert the user that the word
"bar", used in the text, actually means the same thing as the word "foo",
which he or she was looking for? Wouldn't the user be scratching his/her
head, thinking "What's all this about 'bar'? And where's the stuff about
'foo', as the index said would be on this page?"

 > If you are using software that automatically prepares your index from 
 > the book's pagination, off-by-one errors may appear. The entry pointing 
 > you to page 763 should actually have suggested 762 or 764.

I've never had this problem (I use FrameMaker).

Joyce

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