[Elecraft] K3 (Documentation) ... a hint

[Alan Bloom]

I find a well-designed index to be very helpful.  But the key word is
"well-designed".  Computer-generated indexes leave a lot to be desired
unless they are edited by a human.

For example, believe it or not, the California Vehicle Code has a very
nice index.  If you are looking up rules that apply to bicycles, for
example, they are all listed as sub-entries under the "Bicycles" entry
in the index.  A human can do that kind of thing far more accurately and
completely than a computer can.

Unfortunately, in far too many publications it is obvious that the index
was an afterthought, thrown together just so they can check off "index"
in the list of tasks.

Al N1AL


On Tue, 2010-12-07 at 09:50 -0800, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
> As another technical writer and editor, I lean heavily on key words searches
> in PDF in just about any documentation I must read. It's been years since I
> bothered to look in an index if the document is available in PDF. However, I
> become very dependent upon the index (and often frustrated chasing blind
> leads) when only a paper copy is available. 
> 
> Of course, key word searches turn up many wrong "hits" too, but tapping
> "next" is much faster than flipping pages and often uncovers some references
> I want to look at more closely, either right now or later when I've answered
> the pressing question. 
> 
> I know that Wayne makes use of the MS Word index building facilities in the
> K3 Owner's manual, managing a concordance file that evolves over time. 
> 
> Ron AC7AC
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of John Ragle
> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 7:42 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 (Documentation) ... a hint
> 
> On 12/7/2010 8:24 AM, Sam, KJ4VPI, wrote: (paraphrasing: I love books!)
> 
> The list (nest?) of features hiding inside the K3 firmware is nearly 
> astonishing, and quite wonderful, but I find the Users' Manual to be 
> almost useless when one needs to find a specific item.
> 
> The "finder" inside *.pdf readers is very limited.
> 
> 
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