Creating Online Help (Part 2): Strategies and Implementation

Ideas for Generating Index Entries

Below are some useful ideas to consider when developing your index structure.

Include Topic Titles in Your Index

If you have not taken the time to generate a rich index, consider at the very minimum including topic titles in your index. Make sure to drop the article at the beginning of the title so that it sorts in a meaningful way. For example, change "The Table of Contents" to just "Table of Contents." Titles for procedure topics create particularly good index entries because they directly represent a task users want to perform, such as Open a document.

Create Index Entries Out of Topic Title Near-Matches

As you develop a rich index, create entries that represent variants to your topic titles. For example, take a title such as "Table of Contents" and create index entries like "TOC" and "Contents." Suppose you have the topic title "About Bullets and Numbering." You could have index entries that say bullets as well as numbering.

Often multiple index entries can be created simply by rephrasing a topic title. For example, the topic title "Working Inside the WYSIWYG Tab" can produce WYSIWYG tab as a first-level index entry and working in as a subentry.

Invert Index Entries

Inverted index entries, also known as reversals or flipped entries, are not only easy to produce but they are intuitive for users. Titles with verbs are particularly easy to invert into more than one entry. For example, the title "Modifying Images in the Image Editor" could produce a first-level entry modifying and second-level entry images. Alternatively, you could use a first-level entry images and second-level entry modifying. If there are more areas applicable for developing images, and you have a topic called "Modifying Images in the Resize Tool," you might consider creating third-level index entries in Image Editor and in Resize Tool. These tools would also make very good first-level entries.

Use Synonyms

Synonyms are often challenging to produce for technology terms. Consider related, descriptive words instead. For example, the topic "Passwording Documents" could yield index entries such as locking documents,securing documents,concealing documents,encrypting documents, or even protecting information. Let's say users are seeking a topic that helps them create images. You could include a synonym for images such as pictures and then cross-reference this index entry back to images.

Use Associated Terms

Associated terms represent words and phrases that are likely to come to users' minds as they try to formulate an appropriate index entry to look for. Associated terms very often are highly specific. For example, a user looking for information about creating graphics in a document might think of lists or bullets.

More Tips for Creating Index Entries

One of the challenges of creating associated terms is to decide which potential entries are the most likely to be used. Listed below are some other ideas to consider when creating your index:

• Lowercase most of your index entries.
• Uppercase proper nouns and commands in index entries.
• When entries for commands are included in the index (Copy command), there is rarely any need to modify the command name.
• Use concepts in index entries for overview style topics. For example, an overview topic dealing with developing different types of GIF images might include index entries GIFs, transparent images, and animated GIFs.
• Assign index entries to screen region topics that match the various interface elements.
• You do not typically need to include definition-style topics designed for pop-up windows in an index. Instead, consider putting such definitions in your glossary.
• Context-sensitive "What's This?"–style Help topics are rarely included in an index. Instead, include information about these screen controls inside larger Help topics and then associate index entries to those topics.

Figure 19 shows how an index might look for this article, taking these ideas into account.

Figure 19. Index entries based on this article

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