The prevalence of search engines hasn’t pushed out indexing yet. I’m not an avid fan of indexing because of the time involved in putting one together, but a search capability is not always what users will employ to find information.

Search functions are generally included in help systems and is built in to Adobe Reader, so usually, users will not neglect the search with the excuse that there isn’t one. Like other conventions from when the only documentation was a manual, however, indexes continue to be a standard component, and I’m sure some people use them out of habit. But in cases where you provide a PDF and users print it, there’s no search, and it’s up to the table of contents and the index to tell them where to find what they’re looking for.

› Continue reading…