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Topics in Technical Indexing
A Joint Meeting with the Boston Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC)Indexing Moving Documents
Presented by Seth Maislin
Indexing, especially technical material, in today's world is "like trying to catch fish with your hands." Information changes, users change, and the context around both changes, too.
Seth's presentation addressed two approaches to indexing moving documents---reactive and proactive---and two technologies: auxiliary or "standalone" indexing, usually undertaken using dedicated indexing software such as Cindex, Macrex, or SkyIndex; and embedded indexing, often used by technical writers and completed using the embedded indexing function in Word, FrameMaker, and other software applications.
Because the audience consisted mainly of technical writers who index, as well as a few traditional indexers, an explanation of the differences between the two types of indexing was in order. Depending on which type of indexing one is doing, one will encounter different types of problems; however, in both cases, the bottom line is that time pressures often accompany the indexing of moving documents and therefore the indexer should focus on getting the job done as efficiently as possible.
After explaining the differences between the two approaches and between the two technologies, Seth described the kinds of issues that may need to be addressed in a "moving document": changes in content, in content location (pages), and in meta-content; and specific kinds of changes in each indexing technology, including changes in language, in pages, in page units, and in content. Additionally, Seth addressed dealing with structural flaws and page limitations in indexing and, finally, the management of meta-content and global context.
Seth Maislin is an indexing and information architecture consultant. He is the current president of the American Society of Indexers, and he teaches for Simmons College, Bentley College, Middlesex Community College, and nSight. Given that he works at home with two children under the age of two, it's amazing he gets anything done. Nevertheless, Seth's current client list includes Mercedes Benz, Elsevier, Progress Software, Microsoft, MIT, Pitney Bowes, and several others.