The two exercises from the first edition of 'Website Indexing' (pp.
78-81) are reproduced below. They have not been updated.
HTML INDEXER EXERCISE 1: MULTIPLE DOCUMENT NEWSLETTER
The zipped file called ANL.zip contains documents
from a number of issues of the AusSI Newsletter. Create a new folder (directory)
on your PC and extract these files to that directory.
1. Have a quick look at the webpages you will be indexing to get an
overview of the type of information, the average length of each page,
and the number of pages.
2. First you have to decide what types of information you will include.
For example:
- ephemeral information (e.g. meetings notices; meetings reports)
- advertisements
- author’s names
- article titles or subjects
- newsletter sections by title (e.g. Noticeboard; From the Webmaster)
3. Next decide how you will enter the information. For example:
- Will article titles be capitalised throughout?
- Will authors’ names be inverted?
- Will you use abreviations?
4. Then decide how much detail you will include in the index. First
you will have to estimate the amount of material needing indexing. Be
clear about the number of entries you want, or you can get carried away.
5. Finally, decide if you will be creating more than one index to the
same site.
Note: Decide which order to do them in, and make separate copies of the
files. Plan an updating strategy. HTML Indexer is useful for updating
indexes, but it can become complicated when you want to update multiple
indexes.
6. At this stage you can print the pages and choose index entries. However,
it is much more efficient with online indexing to select entries and type
them in at the same time.
Now to start entering...
7. Open HTML Indexer.
8. Select the New Project button (the page with corner folded). The
Browse for Folder dialog box appears.
9. Select the folders to include from the hierarchy in the dialog box
and click Add. Our files are in a folder called anl. The Add Files to
Project dialog box appears. Click on the anl folder then on Add then on
Close.
10. Change the name of the project and index. Select Preferences, then
Filenames. Change the project file (.ipj) and index file (.htm) to something
meaningful.
11. The default index has already been created, and you can see the
entries in the display on the right. To check how the index looks in its
final format select the Create Index icon (yellow key with a black i).
Close the index.
Note: The way pages are set up can affect the default entries you get.
On the AusSI website some titles are generated automatically, meaning
you do not see them as default entries. There are also a number of system
files generated. These entries have to be deleted, or the files removed
as targets.
12. Now we have to edit the existing entries and add new ones. First
delete all entries to files with addresses containing _vti_cnf; _vti_log;
and _vti_pvt. These are generated by FrontPage and are not content files.
You can delete them by selecting the entries and pressing the Delete key.
(Select a range of entries by clicking on the first one, then Shift-clicking
on the last one). Alternatively you can block the pages from the index
by selecting them on the left and clicking the icon with the red circle
and slash.
13. Move through the files on the left one at a time. Edit the default
entries by double clicking on the entry then typing the new version. Add
new entries by clicking the key icon (leave the Add Entries dialog box
open and you can use it again and again).
To see the webpages you have selected choose View/Selected Source File
from the menu.
Note: You can cut and paste from individual lines of the source file
(ie, you can have problems if your cut and paste includes a carriage return).
14. Make notes of synonyms and related terms as you create the index.
Now make sure that you have entered all synonyms at both terms (eg have
the same links at vitamin C and at abscorbic acid). Alternatively create
a See reference from one synonym to the other. You can easily add See
references to the final index by typing them in and creating a link. You
can also create See references that will be reproduced in each index following
slightly complicated instructions available from the HTML Indexer website.
15. Create See also references between related terms either using the
HTML Indexer instructions for reproducible references, or by typing a
one-off reference in the final index. (These one-off references will be
lost the next time a new index is generated).
16. You can change the index style by selecting Preferences from the
menu.
17. Now create the index again by selecting the icon with key and i.
18. Return to HTML Indexer for more editing if required, then check
the final index again.
19. Experiment with indented and run-on layouts and different options
for letter links (select Preferences/Index options).
20. Set the index to load into notepad instead of the browser (HTML
Tools).
21. Save the project and close HTML Indexer.
Opening an existing project
1. To open an existing project:
- Open HTML Indexer
- Select the open project icon (the second from the left)
- Select the project folder and file from the hierarchy that is displayed.
Note: Alternatively, click on the ‘indexer.ipj’ file (or
equivalent, if you have renamed it) in Windows Explorer. The folder will
also contain the files that you indexed (with the indexing metadata included)
and the index (called ‘indexer.htm' unless you renamed it).
HTML INDEXER EXERCISE 2: EXTERNAL WEB SITES
You can create a back-of-book style gateway index containing only external
links if desired. This could be in addition to, or instead of, a classified
gateway to mount on the web, or as a way of maintaining your ‘bookmark’
lists.
In this exercise we will make an index to the endnotes in the course notes
(which are in need of some structure!). Index the first few, or the ones
of most interest to you, as time permits.
1. Decide what sorts of information you will create entries for (organisations,
types of index, website addresses, etc).
2. Create a directory in which HTML Indexer can write the output file.
Open Windows Explorer, click on A:/, select File/New/Folder. Type in a
folder name (eg ExtIndx) and press Enter.
3. Open HTML Indexer.
4. Select the New Project button (the page with corner folded).
5. Select the new folder (called ExtIndx) from the Browse for Folder
dialog box by clicking on it, then clicking OK. The Add Folders to Project
dialog box appears. Select the folder, click add, then Close.
6. Change the name of the project and index. Select Preferences/Filenames.
Change the project file (.ipj) and index file (.htm) to something meaningful
(eg ExtIndx).
7. Add each URL in turn as an external URL. Select Actions/Add External
URL. Then type the URL in the dialog box and press Enter.
Note: Type the full URL starting with http://.
8. Add one or more entries for each URL. Click on the Add Index Entries
icon (the yellow key). Type the entries into the dialog box and press
Enter. Keep the dialog box open for later use.
9. After you have added a few URLs, build the index (click on the key
with ‘i’ icon) and check that it looks OK. Click on a few
links to make sure that the connections work.
10. Return to HTML Indexer and add more URLs and index entries.
11. Build again, save, and close.
Note: You can use this technique for adding external URLs to other indexes
(eg adding a link to the American and British societies of indexers from
the AusSI website).
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