Something indexers often get are term lists from authors. These can range from a handful of key concepts to a complete index, with the comment that “the index is done, and all you have to do is put in the page numbers.” Many indexers, having been faced with the latter example, reject author term lists […]
Indexing Names: Passing Mentions
All professions, whether they admit to it or not, develop specialized vocabularies—jargon, terms of art, whatever you want to call them—and indexers, to whom vocabularies are the bread and butter, are no exception. Last time on the blog, Joanne wrote about a couple of basic errors to look for when evaluating indexes. The first one she discussed […]
Usability: Understanding Cross References, Part II
Note: This is an updated version of a post that appeared in 2016. Cross references are the instructions in an index that point a user from one place to another, usually taking the form of See or See also. They’re awfully convenient for indexers, providing a way to collect information outside the structure of the index. That is, […]
