Re: Indexes - Printed vs. On-line

Subject: Re: Indexes - Printed vs. On-line
From: Chet Ensign <Chet_Ensign%LDS -at- NOTES -dot- WORLDCOM -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 10:16:11 EDT

Jan Bates writes:

<--
The answer of course is that they should not be different. The
interesting question is "Why are they?". Until on-line information
is indexed as well (as densely?) as paper information, I'll stick to
the printed manual.
-->

I agree with Jan. An index should be a dense, rich collection of the ideas and
terms contained in the document. It's quality and value does not depend on the
delivered form of the document.

The only *difference* that I can immediately see between a printed index and an
online, hypertext version is that print versions can show page ranges. I have
yet to see a hypertext index with an equivalent construct.

Other than that, there is nothing inherently different about executing an index
on line or on paper. Most indexes fail for the a more pedestrian reason; the
people responsible for them were not given enough time to do a good job.

/chet

---
Chet Ensign
Director, Electronic Publishing
Logical Design Solutions, Inc.

Phone: (908) 771-9221
Email: chet -at- lds -dot- com
Email(home): censign -at- interserv -dot- com
---


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