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When I’ve taught indexing, it’s always been fun to see students go through the first lesson, which has nothing to do with building their own indexes. I start by asking them to go find two books with indexes and describe what those indexes are like: what aspects are useful, what aspects seem to be less useful.
Most index users are pretty savvy about what works for them in an index. And of course my students, most of whom have had library backgrounds, have been even more astute at seeing how easy or hard it is to find information within the index.
One of the things that they always comment on if they see it, is the difference between the two basic index layouts: run-in/paragraph and indented/line-by-line. Here are examples of each so you can decide which one you think looks better for finding things:
Control, sense of: in adolescence, 95; assumptions about, 147; coping with illness, 36–37; as critical family issue, 30–31; fear of losing, 95,182, 202; with Parkinson’s disease, 353; in patient behavior, 258; physician’s need to maintain, 298–299; and power issues, 254; vs. sadness, 84
OR
Control, sense of
adolescence, 95
assumptions about, 147
coping with illness, 36–37
critical family issue, 30–31
fear of losing, 95, 182, 202
Parkinson’s disease, 353
patient behavior, 258
physician’s need to maintain, 298–299
power issues, 254
sadness, 84
Run-in/Paragraph Layout
I know, why on Earth would anyone choose the first one? The subheadings for the entry are so much easier to scan with the second one. Well, it’s all about space and tradition. Back in the halcyon days of traditional publishing, it seemed like a good idea to save on paper costs by squishing all the subheadings into a paragraph. Also, if you read through the first example, you’ll see more phrase-like wording, and the information does flow like paragraph reading, so it’s not as hard to read as it might look at first. That said, the indented/line-by-line version is certainly a quicker scan to find what you want under the main topic.
So, originally it was a marginal space save, this run-in format, but you know how traditions are, particularly with larger educational institutions and such. Although we now have ebooks and different ways to design books to save space, a number of traditional publishers, particularly university presses, still use the run-in format, and if you do any indexing yourself, you’ll be likely to “run-into” it and have to use it.
Indented/Line-by-Line Layout
If you have a technical manual or textbook to index, though, you’ll be much more likely to see the indented format in the publisher’s style guide or sample index.
Although the terms in the index may seem of primary importance in many respects, the layout is quite critical to usability. The index is like a map; you’re looking at the book from “above” the actual narrative text, so to speak, so the visual organization is just as important as the content itself.
Whenever I can, I do try to wean my clients off of the run-in/paragraph style to the indented/line-by-line style, but either way I’m just happy that my indexing software can switch between the two styles (with appropriate punctuation) with a simple setting change. Whew!
Whether you need your index in run-in or indented format, we can set that up easily for you. Just take a look at our portfolio to see if we’ve worked on something similar to your subject matter, and contact us with the details of what you need for indexing. One of our partners will get back to you within a day.
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