Biblioso -- Managed Documentation and Localization Services

An index is a systematic collection of reference entries that enable the reader to locate relevant information in a document quickly and efficiently. Some types of content, such as technical, academic, and other nonfiction should always include an index. Complex content benefits from multiple indexes, such as a name index for author and people names and a general index for the subject matter terminology. Although indexing is a creative process, the mechanics of creating indexes are well described in The Chicago Manual of Style and a number of national and international standards, including the indexing standard BS3700 of the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Z39.4 standard of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and the ISO 999 standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Indexers traditionally use page proofs when preparing the index. First, relevant terms are marked in the page proofs and then index entries (entry heading, subheadings, and page numbers) are typed on separate cards. After alphabetizing and editing the entries on these cards, indexers create and proofread the final version. Computer software such as Indexing Research CINDEX, Sky Index, and Macrex Indexing Program, can help to streamline the construction, sorting, editing, and formatting of the index. To save time and costs even further, word-processing applications, such as Microsoft Word, are increasingly used to create the index entries directly in the manuscript before the desktop publishing process begins. Desktop publishers can import a manuscript with embedded index entries into the desktop publishing environment and compile the index with correct page references (locators). After index generation, the index can be proofread and edited as a separate document in Portable Document Format (PDF).

With respect to the index length, Biblioso distinguishes between the following two general types of indexes that you can create for your documentation:

Summary index The summary index focuses exclusively on the most important topics in the documentation. The primary goal is high-precision information retrieval. To achieve this goal, summary indexes are concise and typically do not include subheadings in index entries.
In-depth index The in-depth index is the common index found at the end of books. The length of the index is usually defined by a percentage of the overall volume. For example, the American Society of Indexers recommends an index size of 3-5% for nonfiction books, 5-8% for historical documentation and biographies, and 15-20% for reference books. Your organization may have different expectations, but it is usually necessary to pull in a substantial amount of less relevant entries to create an in-depth index. Because in-depth indexes are substantial in volume, it is common practice to organize the index entries by means of subheadings (two-level index) or subheadings of subheadings (three-level index).

Especially in low-budget projects, it is often the responsibility of the author to perform the indexing. The author understands the relevance of the various parts of the manuscript in relationship to the overall purpose of the content. However, authors often lack knowledge of the complexities of the indexing process and therefore tend to produce substandard indexes. For this reason, Biblioso recommends using professional indexers in all relevant documentation and localization projects to create efficient and useful summary and in-depth indexes that are prepared with the audience's expectations in mind.