In a recent post we discussed the problem of “passing mentions” related to names in indexes and the strings of “undifferentiated locators” that may result. This problem applies to any topic covered in the index, though, not just names. When you put the two together (passing mentions and lots of page numbers) you have the […]
References
As indexers, we all use our recognized professional references (e.g. The Chicago Manual of Style, Mulvaney, and Best Practices from our professional organization, the American Society for Indexing (ASI)). But those are not all that we should have to hand. As much as I love Google, it is not a reliable reference, but it can […]
Working with COVID-19
Lock-down! The news that we were under a stay-at-home order really didn’t make much difference to me—at the beginning. Working now is much like the usual working at-home day. I mean, I’ve worked at home for many years as a freelance indexer. We at Potomac Indexing are used to having virtual meetings, so I didn’t […]
An Index Manager Add-On
Some software can be wonderful, some not so much. I’m a huge fan of Index Manager (IM) to do embedded indexing. I’ve been using the index-import add-on to IM recently. To say that I’m impressed and pleased is really an understatement since I tend to be cynical about how well much software works. The problem […]
Dead Indexes
I’ll never give up real, paper books (hardcopy) but I love ebooks, too, although I have a serious pet peeve about ebooks: indexes that are “dead.” A book without any index is sad, but a book with an unusable index is no only frustrating but not just plain painful. A lot of time and thought […]
How Do You Read for Indexing?
As indexers, we spend a lot of time reading. Good reading skills are essential. As I indexed more books, I found that my reading strategy changed. I remember plowing into that first book without any thought about how I could read it most efficiently to write the index. I just went right for the nitty-gritty […]
