Most help authoring tools create a well-designed index automatically.
▪If you create a compiled help format, usually there aren’t any customization options.
▪If you create browser-based help (plain HTML), the only thing that you usually need to do is to customize fonts and colors.
The key elements of the index area are:
▪a search box where users can enter the first letters of the term to search for; alternatively, a list of letters with links that take users to the places where the index entries for each letter start
▪subheadings for each letter
▪index entries
▪index subentries |
Alle Abschnitte ein- / ausblenden
When possible, put the search box or the links into a non-scrolling region so that they remain in place when users scroll down within the index.
If you add letters and links, omit those letters in the index for which there’s no entry.
If space is limited, use a narrow font. If you use Verdana for the topic text, Arial is a good choice for the index entries. Use the same font size as for the topic text.
Within the list of index entries, make the subheadings for each letter visually prominent so that readers can identify each section clearly even while scrolling. Use bold font style and an increased space before the paragraph. Indent subentries.
 (DE)
Behandeln Sie Umlaute nicht gesondert. Behandeln Sie Ä wie A, Ö wie O und Ü wie U.
▪Fügen Sie also keine zusätzlichen Abschnitte für die Umlaute ein.
▪Sortieren Sie ein ä so ein wie ein a (nicht wie ae), ein ö so wie ein o (nicht wie oe) und ein ü so wie ein u (nicht wie ue).
Behandeln Sie ein ß wie ss.
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The following picture contrasts some different implementations:
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If your authoring tool supports it, activate synchronization with the table of contents so that when a user clicks an index entry the corresponding topic is also highlighted in the table of contents.
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