Indexing recommendations

[Linda G. Gallagher]

Kevin,

I've only used the Silicon Prairie plug-in, and it does use regular Index
markers. You create your index entries using the tool, which creates a
condition and paragraph tag. You see the index entries in your text, each in
a separate paragraph, then you tell the tool to update all markers (from the
book level), which adds regular Index markers for each entry you created.

I've used it on several books, and it works great. I'm only a satisfied
customer, who started using the tool when I wanted to put variables in index
entries.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda G. Gallagher
TechCom Plus, LLC
Intelligent technical communication since 1993
Technical writing, help development,
FrameMaker and WebWorks Publisher conversions
lindag at techcomplus.com
http://www.techcomplus.com/
303-450-9076
800-500-3144
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Manager, Consulting and Independent Contracting
Special Interest Group
Society for Technical Communication
http://www.stcsig.org/cic/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+lindag=techcomplus.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+lindag=techcomplus.com at lists.frameusers.com]On
Behalf Of Kevin Hunter
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 9:10 AM
To: 'framers at lists.frameusers.com'
Subject: Indexing recommendations


Hi all,

I'm at the indexing stage of a 400 page book for a product I hadn't worked
with for about 3 years (so no memory of what I indexed before). The manual
has also been totally restructured, and many features superseded by
different ones. Now I'm looking at building the index, and the 'old', manual
way is probably not going to work for me too well.

The minimum I'd like is to see index entries inline. Anything extra is
gravy, but I'm not convinced I do need much extra, so if I can see and work
with entries inline (a View option?) for cheap/free, I'd start there. But if
I have to pay for this feature, can you all recommend a product that has the
best combination of other, extra features for the price?

I've so far found:

http://www.fsatools.com/ - IXgen (comparatively more costly, lots of
features, but would I use them all?)
http://www.leximation.com/tools/info/markertools.php - Leximation marker
tools, less costly, but I have more trouble seeing the usefulness of some of
the features
http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html  -Silicon Prairie index
tools, cheapest, but doesn't seem to link directly into the frame marker
system, does some other kind of marker?

Anyway, I realize this is a regular question, so I do appreciate any time
taken to send suggestions. Succinct, bulleted lists would be sufficient.

Thanks,

Kevin Hunter
ESDI, Victoria BC

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