I've just posted this elsewhere in response to a question as to how to index a book. Thought it might be handy to others who don't know how. It's really very straightforward.
How long an index takes to do depends on how big the book is, and how detailed you want the index to be! Don't put any old word in - that's a dictionary then! Make sure that you only include words people might actually want to search for.
1. print off a copy, sit down with it and a highlighter.
2. go through and highlight every word or phrase you want in the index. I do this at the same time as I proofread it and check for graphical glitches. This is the tricky part, not in the physical action of it, but deciding what sort of things you want to put in the index. I always put way too much in, then go "why would anyone want to search for bunyips?" and take it all out.
3. once you've done that, sit back down at your computer and work your way through the highlighted doc. Each time you encounter a highlighted doc, type it up into word with the page reference: bunyip, 5
4. hit return after each one so every single entry is on a different line. This is important.
5. once you've done it for all 70 pages, highlight all and then in word go to table > sort > by paragraph. This will put them all in alphabetical order.
6. so now you've got a big long alphabetical list of index entries and page references, but you'll have lots of repeated entries too. so go back through and consolidate entries, so that you end up with: bunyip, 5-7, 10, 14
7. you might also end up with something like a hierarchy of entries too, which can end up like this: bunyip, 5-7, 10, 14; lesser-spotted, 12; society, 56
And that's it - simple but time consuming, and you have to keep in sharp focus what people will use it for, and what phrases are useful. I find it kinda therapeutic ;-)
Software
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Tue, 09/01/2007 - 17:35.
I used to use a progam called Macrex for indexing (we're talking 10 years ago). It was powerful and you could, with the use of the function keys, make cross-referenced entries and sort key-words, etc. But that was back in the days of Word Perfect, Word Star and all that jazz.
A more useful way might be LaTeX. If you are producing your document in this format (and I know a few people that do) then indexing can be trivially easy to do, as long as you tag things. Powerful and deep indexes are then generated by the compiling program with you only needing to add one line of code ("\makeindex").
At the moment I use Adobe InDesign. I haven't tried to index with this really (and Best Friends was too short for one). However, I tagged the Best Friends document to create a richly linked PDF file. This similar rich linking can be utilized to create an index, if desired.
My next task is to try this for Three Sixteen. Does anyone have experience of doing this kind of tagged index in InDesign?
And, just to agree with Andrew. A truly good index is not a list of words, but a collection of things that people will search for and need to find. Listen to Andrew when he says add words meaningfully.
For instance, in some games I found it frustrating to locate, say, the dodge rule. Maybe because they used the word "evade" rather than dodge. And didn't have "combat" as a general index entry with "evade or dodge" as a subentry to Combat.
I think one of the Werewolf books did a good job with its index. They had the Gifts sensibly arranged under Gifts, I think they may even have been arranged by Tribe, etc. Which was most useful as you can't always remember the exact name of the thing you're trying to look up.
And let's not forget a|state which has "Theatre" listed for instance. Who'd want to look that up? Well, I did and to my delight I found it.
>At the moment I use Adobe
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 09/01/2007 - 17:40.
>At the moment I use Adobe InDesign. I haven't >tried to index with this really (and Best Friends >was too short for one). However, I tagged the Best >Friends document to create a richly linked PDF >file. This similar rich linking can be utilized to >create an index, if desired.
Tell me more about this - what did it do? Linked between the various sections? I've never tried this but might do one day.
>My next task is to try this for Three Sixteen. >Does anyone have experience of doing this kind of >tagged index in InDesign?
I use InDesign and, funnily enough, was experimenting with tagging words yesterday for a product index. I haven't quite cracked it yet though ... I've managed to automate the creation of a contents page though!
My dad is retired now, but
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Tue, 09/01/2007 - 21:57.
My dad is retired now, but does indexing for a bit of extra income. He mostly does scientific indexing but I am sure I could put anyone in touch with him should you want an idex done. He has properly accredited for it now, but I am not sure of the amount he charges. I am sure we could work something out there.
Feel free to contact me privately or through the forums if you would like me to put you in touch.
Cheers
Iain
Index
Submitted by Pelgrane on Tue, 06/02/2007 - 23:11.
I discovered a new way of indexing when we did Esoterrorists. It sounds time consuming, but it's actually pretty fast. You need Word.
1. Have the layout artist send you the laid out PDF.
2. In Word, stick page breaks where they are in the laid out document. (This is the bit that sounds teim consuming but isn't really)
3. Use Words manual index entry system to make index entries, adding individual page references and using bookmarks to make page ranges.
4. If it's appropriate, use the automatic facility, too.
5. Build the index then email it to the layout artist.
Simon Rogers
http://www.profantasy.com
Blog - http://sjrlj.notlong.com
I laid out Ruby using
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Thu, 22/03/2007 - 16:14.
I laid out Ruby using openOffice, which is free and a damn site better than microsoft word! It has table of contents and indexing tools, so you can set up an index and automatically update it as the document changes. Most decent word processors allow this and it's not hard to do - it really is criminal of a decent-sized rpg not to have an index. I learnt all this word prosessing crap when I wrote my thesis - keeping track of 250+ references is not easy!
www.fireruby.co.uk