Tips for Creating Great Indexes


Tip #1: Be anal retentive ... and follow the rules!

Tip #2: Read the book, cover-to-cover, first - especially if you are not the author. Don't even make notes in the margins on your first read-through. Just read and absorb the author's terminology, the organization of the book, and the relationship of various topics. Then, and only then, should you begin developing index entries.

Tip #3: Ask yourself: "Who is the audience for this book?" If you don't know, ask someone who does. Create index entries that will be meaningful to that audience. If the terminology in the book is likely to be unfamiliar to readers, it may be necessary to think of synonyms and use See references to point to the author's terms.

Tip #4: Create main headings in noun form, preferably singular. Some examples of entries that would be inappropriate in singular form are: commands, graphics, messages, menus, and printers..

Tip #5: Arrange all entries alphabetically. In an effort to keep related topics together, you may occasionally be tempted to break this rule, but ... don't do it!

Tip #6: Be concise. Eliminate unnecessary entries if they can be consolidated into a more general entry.

Tip #7: If a primary entry (main heading) has only one subentry, eliminate the subentry and include the page reference with the primary entry.

Tip #8: If entries have more than 3 page references, it may be a good idea to create subentries that would provide readers with a better topic analysis.

Tip #9: Be sure that subentries are concise and that they "relate back" properly to the primary entries. Do not use unnecessary articles and prepositions.

Tip #10: Use See and See also references when appropriate. Be careful, however, not to pepper your index with too many See references. Readers don't appreciate being bounced around the index unnecessarily.

Tip #11: Consider ways to expand the index and improve readability by:

- using subentries as primary entries (double posting)
- creating additional entries by rearranging the word order of existing entries
- including synonyms for important terms and concepts.

Tip #12: Use capitalization, punctuation, and other stylistic conventions consistently. Most importantly, follow the publisher's guidelines.

Tip #13: Place page references with the lowest-level entries. If a primary entry (main heading) has subentries, use page references with the secondary entries only. Likewise, if subentries have tertiary entries, use page references with the sub-subentries only.

Tip #14: Qualify commands, fields, parameters, and other special names; for example: MERGE command and DIF (data interchange format) files.

Tip #15: Do not rewrite the book in the index!
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