The index for a help volume is similar to the index for a
book. As an author, it is important to create index entries for
your topics that will allow users to search for keywords or concepts.
Creating a thorough index ensures that users will be able to find
topics quickly and accurately.
In the DocBook markup, an IndexTerm is the tag for a word
or phrase in the help volume text that you want to be included in
the index. An IndexEntry is the element in the Index that holds
the references to the IndexTerm. Thus IndexEntries might be constructed
by extracting and processing the IndexTerms.
IndexTerms are words or phrases to be indexed. IndexTerms
may occur almost anywhere in the text flow, but are not part of
the text itself. That is, the contents of IndexTerm do not appear
in the text itself.
An IndexTerm must contain a Primary, and may contain a See
and one or more SeeAlsos, as well as a Secondary. Secondary, in
turn, may contain a See and one or more SeeAlsos, as well as a Tertiary.
IndexTerm has the Common attributes, and also SpanEnd and
Significance attributes.
An empty IndexEntry with the SpanEnd attribute is used to
mark the end of a span of text that begins earlier at an IndexTerm
that does have content. The value of the SpanEnd attribute must
be the ID of that earlier IndexTerm.
The Significance attribute may have the value Preferred, indicating
that the IndexTerm is the most pertinent of the series, or the value
Normal (the default).
To Mark an Index Entry |
 |
Within the topic you want to index, use the IndexTerm element
as shown:
<para>This text deals with two subjects that should be listed in the index: how to rotate your terminal and how to adjust its height.</para>
<IndexTerm>
<Primary>rotating your terminal</Primary>
</IndexTerm>
<IndexTerm>
<Primary>terminal
<Secondary>rotation of</Secondary>
</Primary>
</IndexTerm>
<IndexTerm>
<Primary>terminal
<Secondary>adjustment of</Secondary>
<SeeAlso>troubleshooting</SeeAlso>
</Primary>
</IndexTerm> |
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