The Art of Indexing
Ask your company's technical support personnel how many calls they receive concerning problems users have when they try to find information in your documents. Recent studies show that it can cost a company as much as $25 per call for technical assistance. If you could lower the number of technical assistance calls to increase your company's productivity and revenue, wouldn't you want to do so?
To produce the best possible documents for your readers, they should be able to locate the desired information in less than 10 seconds. If they can't, then your writers must become better indexers. Our experience indicates that the best way for technical writers to create better indexes is to learn how to create a good index, then index based on what the technical writer learned.
The "Art of Indexing" workshop includes a variety of dynamic presentations that will help your technical writers create comprehensive and usable indexes that will answer the needs of your specific audience. Designed for the novice indexer as well as those more experienced, this workshop has been presented to more than 300 technical communicators — and the response has been extremely favorable!
Technical writers, editors, and managers from Texas Instruments, Compaq Computer Corporation, Tandem Computers, Convex Computer Corporation, Micrografx, Recognition Equipment, Agora Associates, Contact Software International, Richland College, Solutions, Taft Group, TRW Information Services and others, have completed "The Art of Indexing" workshop. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and immediate for the technical writers and beneficial for their readers and customers.
The workshop leader's book, The Art of Indexing, published by John Wiley & Sons, is an excellent tool for learning how to index technical documents. In addition to discussing the mechanics of creating an index, it is an excellent reference for learning more, and contains a detailed bibliography, addresses for indexing societies and journals, and indexing software for various operating systems. Each workshop participant receives a free copy of this book in addition to a copy of all slides and exercises.
Now that you've had the chance to see how we can help improve the quality of your technical documentation and add value for your users, give us a call to schedule your workshop. Call 972/907-9673.
Instructor Biography
Larry Bonura has been an indexer since 1977. He has indexed trade books, technical manuals, daily newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. A past president of the District of Columbia chapter of the American Society of Indexers (ASI), he is the author of many professional articles, papers, and books, including the Desktop Publisher's Dictionary and The Art of Indexing.
Larry provides indexing, technical marketing, and Internet/Intranet services to various industries, including telecommunications, semiconductors, and computers. He earned an MA in American history at Emporia State University and a BS in journalism at the University of Kansas. Larry is a senior member of the STC Lone Star Chapter.
Workshop Contents
The following tasks required to create a high quality index are addressed in this workshop:
- Defining an index
- Determining your audience
- Discerning the functions of an index
- Describing the major index elements
- Determining the index size and format
- Creating the actual index
- Editing the index
Also, we present solutions to managing the indexing process, for example:
- Determining costs
- Calculating time requirements
- Creating an in-house index style guide
The workshop includes four hands-on exercises where each participant creates a sample index based on what is learned. Also, you will receive a valuable list of the most common problems encountered with technical indexes.
Two Workshop Choices
Larry offers two workshop arrangements:
- Half-day workshops—These workshops are 4 hours long, usually starting at 8 and ending at noon.
- Full-day workshops—These workshops are 8 hours long, usually starting at 8, breaking for lunch at 12, returning at 1, and ending at 5.
Of course, starting and ending times for either workshop arrangement are up to you.
Number of Participants
We prefer to limit workshops to 12 participants. The maximum number of participants allowed in one workshop is 20. Most attendees like the smaller classes because they feel freer to ask and answer questions.
Costs
These are the costs for the "Art of Indexing" workshops:
