[mea] Re: estimating for Indexing
- From: cheri.frazer@xxxxxxxxxx
- To: mea@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:52:52 -0500
Ugh, a design tool. Not my favourite for managing content, but I'll ask my
InDesign guru at work and will let you know what he says about it.
I'm thinking your e-mail address has slipped through the cracks of our
Gmail account somehow! Tomorrow is our annual general meeting (AGM) and
10th anniversary celebration:
http://www.manitobaeditors.ca/upcoming_events.htm
I hope you'll come! I'm sure it's not too late for one more person to
RSVP. Just forward this message to meaworkshops@xxxxxxxxx to let them
know. We have spots to fill on the exec and events committees if you're
interested (and it looks really cool on a résumé). :)
-C.
"Jonah O'Neil" <jonah.oneil@xxxxxxxxx>
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[mea] Re: estimating for Indexing
Hmmmm... my client is working in InDesign, and I am making draft
corrections directly to the InDesign files. I don't know that he's using
Word at all. Shoot, I don't know how I'm going to do this, or get any
sort of automatic page number updating as he adds or removes text.
Yes, I think I would prefer all lower case except for proper nouns, too.
Oh, oh - what's happening tomorrow? I'm out of the loop.
-J.
On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 9:27 AM, <cheri.frazer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yep, been there!
Word and FrameMaker are content authoring tools that have indexing
features built-in. Macrex and Cindex are programs used just for indexing
(I think Macrex is for Macs and Cindex is for PCs, but I could be wrong).
The Office 2004 version of Word has a very friendly indexing feature, but
you have to get used to seeing the ugly codes when Show/Hide is turned on.
Also, the author will have to get used to the way the text expands and
contracts as they turn Show/Hide on and off. (Show/Hide is the paragraph
marker symbol in the toolbar for those who don't know. It shows all hidden
marks in your text, such as spaces, paragraph marks, index codes, etc.)
It's much better to use the automated indexing feature because the page
numbers will update automatically as the au. adds or removes text. Same
thing with the TOC.
Editing an index is an interesting exercise as well. I prefer it when all
terms are lowercase except for proper nouns, which is something I didn't
realize until after I tried my first index in Word. That was an irritating
do-over, lemme tell ya. At least in Word you can click the page number to
check that it works; when editing a paper index you have to flip through
pages manually. Oh, the horror.
Wikipedia does a decent job of summarizing indexing issues:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_(publishing). And Carrie is certainly
right about padding your estimate! You can always practice on some random
Word doc to see how you do. I have a few ugly old drafts of manuals I can
send you if you like. They're unedited and written by engineers, so you'd
have to brace yourself. Let me know.
See you tomorrow?
-Cheri
Hi Cheri,
Whoa, boy, now I must declare my ignorance. I was not aware of programs
like FrameMaker, Macrex, or Cindex. And I did not know that MS Word had
an index feature.
I was going to make an index manually. But now I will look into Word's
index feature. Rather, I use a Mac, so maybe I'll look into Pages' index
feature, if it has one. (I do not own Pages. I have Microsoft Office
2004 for Mac, but it's not a great program.)
Nor have I looked into any particular method - Mulvaney's, Chicago's, or
otherwise.
There's an Indexing Society of Canada??
Okay, time to do some homework.
My client needs a quote on the overall project soon, so what I think I'll
do is quote separately for the indexing, after I've done more research.
Thanks so much, Cheri!
-Jonah
On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 8:31 AM, <cheri.frazer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Jonah:
I see your question and raise you a few more:
-What tool are you working in to make the index? MS Word, FrameMaker, an
Indexing program (such as Macrex or Cindex)... ?
-If MS Word or Frame, etc., will you use the tool's index feature or make
an index manually?
-What method of indexing are you using? I've used Nancy Mulvaney's and
Chicago's, which are slightly different from each other. I liked
Mulvaney's but haven't checked out her updated version yet.
Here are some resources if that helps any:
http://www.indexers.ca/resources.html.
It took me about 2 hours to index a 100-page user manual last time I did
one in MS Word, plus an hour of testing and troubleshooting. But I'm not
an experienced indexer, so there may have been an easier way.
-Cheri
"Jonah O'Neil" <jonah.oneil@xxxxxxxxx>
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[mea] estimating for Indexing
Hello,
A few weeks ago I posted a question regarding quoting for editorial work,
and received some excellent responses - so thank you very much for that!
My new questions is about Indexing. I have never created an index for a
client, although I grasp the general concept.
How would one estimate the amount of time creating an index will take?
And what kinds of questions should I ask the client to help me estimate
the amount of time it will take to do the indexing?
Cheers,
Jonah
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