Learning to index my own project

Subject: Learning to index my own project
From: "Jennifer C. Bennett" <fritillary -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:33:49 -0600

Hello,

I am a technical writer working in the software industry. I've been working
on a large RoboHelp 7 Web Help project. I really need to create an index
for this project - but I want to go about it the right way, and I'm not sure
where to begin. I don't trust the RoboHelp "Smart Index" feature for
creating an index. It might be more useful for a smaller project. Since
the project is so large, I am tending to think that the index should be well
thought out, rather than relying on an automated system.

I've looked up a couple books on Amazon - does anyone have any insight as to
whether these books would be useful for someone who is indexing her own
WebHelp projects? My goal is simply to make the information in the WebHelp
project (which is also compiled into DOC and PDF files) as easy as possible
for my users to locate.

* Can I create an excellent index from scratch using "Indexes: A Chapter
from the Chicago Manual of Style"? (nice price!)

Or should I purchase a book that is more in-depth on the subject - or would
that be overkill? The books I've been looking at include:
* "Indexing Books" by Nancy C. Mulvany (As mentioned in the title, this
book is for indexing *books* - does the information translate to indexing
for WebHelp?)
* "The Indexing Companion" by Glenda Browne and Jon Jermey

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Jennifer

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