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RE: [dita] indexing question

  • 1.  RE: [dita] indexing question

    Posted 07-14-2006 22:07
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    Subject: RE: [dita] indexing question


    Chris, Erik, and Bruce,

    I want to bring up a concern that was discussed at last Monday’s meeting of the Translation Subcommittee. We are working on an indexing best practice that ensures that index terms do not interrupt sentence flow for segmentation. In the discussion of index ranges, the translation professionals were concerned about having to duplicate the index tag content in the start and end tags. Please clarify for us if that is indeed the case:

    Startindexterm = DITA and Endindexterm = DITA

    The concern is that the indexterm may not be translated exactly the same way by two different translators working on topics in parallel or even by the same translator working at different times on different topics. That is – if the index start and end ranges can span topics (is that the case?).

    There was also a concern that having the same text entered twice might result in a spelling error that would affect translation.

    Here are the recommendations that the SC has been discussing. Please let me know if there are misconceptions.

    • Insert index entries that refer to entire topics in the prolog element using the <keywords> tag (prolog—metadata—keywords—indexterm). Index entries using <keyword> should be processed as index terms referring to the beginning of the referenced topic. clarify
    • Insert all block-level index tags immediately following the start tag of the nearest containing block element.
    • If an index term is intended to span several elements in one topic, insert the start range at beginning of start block (i.e., the parent block element) and the end range markup at end of the end block element. See Chris Wong
    • Question: Is this allowed at all?If you want an index term to span a group of topics, insert the start range of the index tag in the prolog of the first topic and the end tag in the prolog of the last topic in the DITA map. Do not do this. Prolog across multiple topics.

    Thanks for your help, … JoAnn

    JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
    President
    Comtech Services, Inc.
    710 Kipling Street, Suite 400
    Denver, CO 80215
    303-232-7586
    joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com
    joannhackos Skype

    www.comtech-serv.com


    From: Esrig, Bruce (Bruce) [mailto:esrig@lucent.com]
    Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:23 PM
    To: 'Chris Wong'; Erik Hennum; Grosso, Paul
    Cc: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
    Subject: RE: [dita] indexing question

    Well, we may need to discuss it, but here's a position statement.

     

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    As Chris Wong wrote, index entries are point-like by default.

     

    Here's a potential accomodation.

    Chris wrote: > We can leave open the possibility that a processor may elect to treat an indexterm in a topic prolog as a page range: for example, if that topic is deeply nested.

    This one is a tempting accomodation, but I'll try an argument that justifies not making this accomodation.

     

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    Suppose that we are looking at a topic with no nested sub-topics.

     

    When indexing the first reference to an item, the entry should generate a point reference to the initial point where that item enters the discussion. If the item is a prominent item within that scope, a reference to the initial point is sufficient, because the reader is likely to be interested in a large fraction of the scope without being prompted by an index entry.

     

    If the item is a subsidiary item in the scope and only occurs once, a reference to the initial point is sufficient, because the item only occurs once.

     

    If the item is a subsidiary item that occurs multiple times, or if the occurrences span multiple adjacent scopes, than a page range is appropriate.

     

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    Now applying these guidelines to topic-level index entries ...

     

    A topic-level index entry is an assertion that the item is a prominent item within that scope. The reference is to the topic as a whole, and a reference to the initial point is sufficient.

     

    A start-of-range assertion at the topic level is not well defined. How do you know in a single topic that there will be other subsequent topics that will address the same item? Ranges are inherently appropriate for spans across contents of a topic or contents of a grouping of topics.

     

    In a map, a start-of-range assertion does make sense.

     

    Best wishes,

     

    Bruce