Indexing

[Jason Morningstar]

Hey friends,

My next game is going to need an index.  Please give me advice on how to make that happen - can we leverage the tools in InDesign to do it ourselves?  Should we pay an indexer to do it?  If so, who and how much?

Thanks for any experience you can share with indexing games. 

--Jason

[Eero Tuovinen]

Haven't had to index a game (mostly because I haven't done any index-type games; I only believe in indexes for books that are supposed to be used as handbooks), but I've done it for other stuff. Talking for Quark, it certainly has tools that allow me to whip up passable indexes without checking page numbers manually. Don't know about InDesign, but I'd be surprised if it didn't have the same functionality. At least it seems to do everything else better :(

As you asked for general information, the general method for indexing is as follows: decide whether you want a run-in or nested index. Decide what kind of things will be searched from the index. Take a finished layout of the book and start reading. Mark down all entries that you want to include in your index. For each term, decide which is the primary reference and which are secondary. (This can be done with a printed version of the layout as well.) If you're lazy, the layout program probably has a function for just listing all places where a given term is found. The actual creation of the index is pretty easy at least in Quark, as you just click and clickety click all over the layout to mark entries, how they'll be indexed and where they should point. Quark takes care of page numbers, nesting and all that. The last part is laying the index out in whatever manner suits the book.

Probably the most important point in the above is to spend a little while really thinking about the functionality of the index. The easiest way to go wrong with indexing is to have a vague sense of purpose when you start going over the text. That will result in redundant and/or lacking entries. In a game context, for instance, you should be aware of not only game and setting terminology, but also play processes that might be searched for. In an extremely complex project you could even have separate indexes for fluff and mechanics, for example. Start with different scenarios for how the index will be used and go from there, if you will.

Indexing is not something I'd pay an outsider to do for a game, because it is actually a content-based job, as I hope to have demonstrated in the above paragraph. Might be reasonable for really large projects, but I have difficulty believing in a rpg of that size. It's also not that difficult to do yourself passably well, especially as you're a rpg expert and an outside indexer is probably not.

Hmm... I'd offer to take a look at indexing your game for the ulterior motive of getting inside the process, but I fear our layout programs are not compatible. Might be too much bother, taking that into consideration.

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Professional indexers are worth the money if your budget allows for it. First, they are (theoretically) skilled and experienced at the job of indexing. Second, they can approach the material from the perspective of an end-user--unlike the author who comes to the task with baggage gained in development.

For my part, I do all of my indexes myself because (a) my budgets generally don't allow for paying an indexer, and (b) I'm a control freak.

[nystul]

In my experience all game books are going to be used as reference at some point. Indexes are invaluable and automated tools have never given me anything I found particularly useful. You need to either hire someone to do it or sit down yourself and compile a list of things you think your players are going to need to find.

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks, guys.  Eero, there are automated tools in InDesign, which is what our layout guy is using.  I'm sure they are similar to what Quark offers - my question was whether the results of automated tools are worth doing, or whether manual indexing is essential.  I'm hearing conflicting things about the utility of an outside indexer. 

[Steve Segedy]

I tend to agree that all game books end up being reference books- even something as straightforward as the Shadows of Yesterday could use an index ("where was that section about refreshing Pools again...?"). 

Right now I'm assuming- having never done this before, of course- that we can build the index using a combination of careful reading and thought about the content, the indexing features of Word (or perhaps OpenOffice), and the "topic import" feature in InDesign.  Does that seem overly optimistic to anyone?

[Eero Tuovinen]

I think you'll be fine, Steve. As has been mentioned, indexing tools are really there only to save monkey-work, the brains do all the important stuff in any case. In that regard your indexing process is essentially the same whether you do everything by hand or automate page number lookup and part of the layout. Although Justin brings up a very good point - it's much better to let somebody else do your initial indexing, with yourself checking the results of course. The author can be too wedded to his work, indeed. I would still say that it's important that the indexer is well versed in roleplaying and the intent of the work, though; expertise with the subject matter is more important than work routine when indexing a specialty book.

For the necessity of indexing: while I'm sure this project needs an index just like Jason says, not all of them do. TSOY is actually a pretty good example, being that it's clearly to the longer side of books without index, and I edited the Finnish version. I left the index out after considering it simply because it didn't fit with the way I used the book; the only lookup that I've personally witnessed has been of the chargen process and crunch-checks for abilities, secrets and keys. I think I did those from some random print-outs when playing the game for the first time, too, as I didn't have the book then. The crunch bits are a bit difficult to find in the English version of the book as they are scattered in the setting fluff (Clinton has a compiled list at his website.). My solution was to put all the crunch into one alphabetized list at the back of the book. An index became unnecessary, as the crunch lists themselves act as their own indexes. (One could say that I should have made an index anyway, but my call is that an unnecessary index would skew the message about how the book is supposed to be used. The rules are simple enough to learn on one sitting and the setting is not supposed to be learned in detain anyway.)

[David Artman]

Thanks, guys.  Eero, there are automated tools in InDesign, which is what our layout guy is using.  I'm sure they are similar to what Quark offers - my question was whether the results of automated tools are worth doing, or whether manual indexing is essential.

Yes, InDesign has indexing tools. At the least, you can manually place index markers; at the best, it should have an automated dialog/tool that helps you out with that process. (My real experience is with FrameMaker, InDesign's grandfather; and it has a built-in automation process, plus there's a TON of plug-ins available to do it even easier. I'd be surprised if Adobe hamstrung those features, when they ported to InDesign.)

As far as automation is concerned, there's automatic and there's automated. You want the latter (I'll explain):
An automatic indexer is going to snag onto every instance of any term it finds significant: proper nouns (capitalization is its cue), terms in definition lists (if it's a structured doc, of course), terms in figure and table captions, particularly one-word captions. This is not an index, but a concordance.
An automated indexer is going to let you pick terms (or define a list of terms) and then will find them for you, so that you can manually tag them for indexing or not (yes, there are times when a term instance is not "meaningful" enough to warrant indexing). Further, such an automated process will allow you to choose what nesting you do (ex: are verb-object phrases reversed, so that the object comes first, then the verb? Or is the doing what's important, and the objects nest below the common verb?). It might also help with "See" and "See Also" cross-indexing (when you index synonyms or when there's a close relationship between two terms that don't actually appear in any nest relationship).

I'm hearing conflicting things about the utility of an outside indexer.

Professional indexers are meticulous and smart people (that I've met, of course) and they will certainly take the time to comprehend your text before starting in with index markers. I am in agreement with those who say they will also have "fresh eyes" and will address things the designer might overlook due to close familiarity.
But, yep, they charge for it; and, yep, you'll be paying someone to just read the text, before a single marker is placed. And, yep, it will take a pass or two, as they miss a few things or add too many or misunderstand the relationships of terms.

As a possibly useful data point: I work for a Big (Blue) Corporation, producing manuals for products that sell to other Big Corporations for thousands of dollars, if not millions for a whole enterprise system. Want to know how we index? We tag the headings with the significant terms--we do little more than duplicate the Table of Contents, but as an Index, it is sorted alphabetically rather than just presented in order of appearance (as in the TOC).
I do NOT say this to claim it is a "right" way to deal with an Index. I say this to provide an example of a Major Player that no longer sees the merits of a well-developed indexing methodology. This company, however, pretty much exclusively delivers PDFs to the web; and as such, they know full well that users employ Search/Find functions in PDF readers, to get to some specific kernal of information. So as a data point, this might not be so useful, for folks delivering printed books into the hands of impatient GMs who are interrupting play to seek info.

In closing, I fee that a sufficiently granular book organization (i.e. TOC has a lot of headings and divisions) obviates the need for an index, in RPGs. It is rare that a particular element of an RPG is "engaged" at several points in a book. Usually (in my experience) an RPG has a major heading to address every discrete mechanic or setting element, and then rarely introduces significant additional detail about that element outside of its major heading. SO, once a user has read the book once and has a "page memory" developed, they find it far faster to flip through the book until they "see" the right page; or they hit the TOC because it's the first part of the book and easy to locate (and its headings lead to comprehensive, isolated address of each element).

So a lot of it has to do with what you plan to deliver, how it is organized and structured, and how an end user is likely to reference it in play (if at all). An index could be superfluous, irrelevant, or critical, based on those aspects of the deliverable.

HTH;
David

[GreatWolf]

I'm not familiar with InDesign, so I can't help you specifically there.  However, I'll tell you what my wife and I did when indexing Legends of Alyria.

First, I took a manuscript and went through it, marking on each page what I thought needed to be indexed on that page.  I also wrote up in the corner any concept that appeared on the page without having the specific words show up.  This took a while.  Then Crystal went into the layout program (PageMaker 4.0) and, using the manuscript as a guide, tagged each item as needing to be indexed, using the indexing tools.  After this was done, she generated the index pages.

The important part of the indexing is the identification of items to be indexed.  Don't trust a computer to do it for you.  Be a man and do it by hand.  You'll hate your life by the time that you're done, but you'll actually have a useable tool when you're done.

Also, I'd be of the opinion that you are the best person to do the primary indexing.  You're the designer; you should have a good sense of what people will need to find in your game.  Think of this as just another way of helping them out.  If you want another set of eyes for the index, ask someone to review your marked-up manuscript when you're done with it to see if you missed anything.

[Jason Morningstar]

Thanks, everybody, this is very useful information and advice.  I appreciate it.

[MatrixGamer]

Jason

I manually indexed my Matrix Game books two years ago and found it very helpful. You know your text better than anyone else so it is a simple matter of going through the text and pulling out the important points off each page and putting them in a text file (alphabetically) with page numbers. The really neat thing I noticed when I was doing this was that I was able to add "(also see "argument")" which allowed me to integrate ideas together in a way you can't do in the body of text.

An index in a book makes it look much more professional because it makes it so easy to use. It is time well spent. You'll look at your own work differently after you do it.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Luke]

Jason,

I build the extensive indexes for BE/BW using some of Indesign's automation. I don't have time to go over the whole thing right now, but contact me and we can talk about it.

-L

[selvi]

While creating index for a book, is there any way to create a index for only one chapter and taking all the entries to the remaining chapters like appending. Is there anything please help me..
Because at present what i am doing is, i added all the 30 chapters to a book and i am opening each and every chapter and creating an index for the particular word. So please tell is this a way to do or any easiest way is there...