Indexing

An index in a book, guide, or online help is a helpful component for users when users need to locate information relating to specific words quicker. The option for an automated index is sometimes available in software programs, but an index automatically generated isn’t created by a human trained to think of all possible entries/terms that other humans would possibly search to locate specific information. Knowing how to think about text to create the most usable indexes for books, online help systems, manuals, and other documents is important for effective indexes.

In my Indexing course in graduate school, for a final project, we had the option to choose what project, book, or paper we wanted to index. I chose the InDesign Help System that I helped create in Software Documentation. My professor generated an automatic index on the computer because we didn’t have time to create one after finishing the project. Our users needed an index created specifically with them in mind. I've provided a sample of that index and an index of the style guide that I created at a previous job.

Samples

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