Publishers that don't add indexes--RANT

[FraserRonald]

Hey All

Here's a question for you: if a PDF of under 64 pages has extensive bookmarks, do you see a need for an index? SEP bookmarks our products, but our last product didn't have an index in it. I didn't think that a 50 page PDF with bookmarks would really require an index, but maybe I was wrong.

 

[philreed]

Sure, a 3 pager may not need one...

My shortest PDFs are 4 pages and have bookmarks. I think they're useful and like them when I buy a PDF.

I agree though. Some publishers are pretty lazy and don't bookmark a single one of their PDFs.

 

[trancejeremy]

I almost always comment favorably when I review a book with an index. I like 'em a lot, though I understand if a company doesn't want to spend the time

 

[Bardsandsages]

The index for Neiyar took me all of two hours to make. Considering the amount of time that went into writing, finding art, layout, production, and advertising, two hours is nothing, particularly for a print product. I stopped playing Rifts just because it got too hard to find information during game play. Players may not buy a book because of an index, but they will stop playing a game that they can't easily use.

 

[engrishonly]

If you write for professional reasons in industries where indices matter, then the actual creation of an index is not a problem. You simply flag text in your source files AS you are writing - long before you compile the source files as a final book... and the index is compiled during the final run. (And it's not like checking random index entries as part of the final checklist for analyzing your finished product adds a lot of time, IMO... plus, the art department shouldn't be mucking around in the index anyway. You can bet that we don't spend much time actually writing an index in other professional writing areas... there's no time to waste when it comes to publishing deadlines.)

Since page numbering often has nothing to do with your source files (especially when art gets added), using software to track indexed text is unbelievably useful and good... especially with revised editions. You just can't rely on page numbers to stay stable throughout the process, and this is why an index has to be compiled at run time. The only trick is teaching your writing peons to use the tools the right way.

Now, if you're not using actual professional writing tools to produce your manuals (Microsoft Word is not very good for anything beyond a couple pages) and/or you have never used the indexing tools in your software, then I can see where creating an index might be an issue. Then you'd have to actually flip through page by page and create an index afterwards... which sounds ass-backwards to me, but I'm sure it's done.

The licensing cost of tools like Adobe Framemaker might be prohibitive for lower-run RPG books though... and page count considerations are definitely a problem for anyone who produces physical books.

 

[swrushing]

What logic is there behind NOT putting an index in a full campaign setting?

possible answer: because there aren't X pages of vital material we can cut to provide an index.

Why would you deliberately make it difficult for people to use your book? Particularly for us DMs who need to be able to find info quickly in the middle of combat without flipping through fifty pages at random.

if i have to stop and look something up in combat, i consider it already to be a failure of scenario prep. I tend to gatyer lists and printouts of scenario pertinent stuff before the scenario, not during crunch time.


mainly tho, they all got together and decided to do it to specifically tick you off.

there was even a memo!

 

[wedgeski]

There's no excuse for not including an index in this day and age - it really is so easy to create one with modern software.

 

[Bardsandsages]

possible answer: because there aren't X pages of vital material we can cut to provide an index.


if i have to stop and look something up in combat, i consider it already to be a failure of scenario prep. I tend to gatyer lists and printouts of scenario pertinent stuff before the scenario, not during crunch time.


mainly tho, they all got together and decided to do it to specifically tick you off.

there was even a memo!

Damn! I knew it! Can't believe I didn't see that memo!

Seriously, the first rule of gaming is that there is an inverse relationship between the amount of time a GM plans and how quickly a party will screw up said plans. Somebody attempts to use a spell in a way that doesn't sound right. Party decides to go visit X town before continuing the quest. Party detours through the woods to avoid detection. You can't predict everything the players will do (or try to do), and sometimes you need to be able to look something up.

And even during the planning stages, it's a pain. Going back to the Dragonlance game I'm running. I have a map of the area, and I want to look up such-and-such location on the map. Guess what? The info isn't in the same section as the map. It's all over the book. This is where an index comes in handy. With an index, I see a location, say to myself "What's there?" and flip to find where it is. The information on Draconians and Minitours are in two separate sections of the book (Player races and monsters), making it difficult to find info to create NPCs.

Page count isn't an excuse to not have an index. Adding two pages to a print book adds all of .04 cents to the material cost of a product, and that's using a POD printer. It's less if you're printing in bulk.

 

[diaglo]

There's no excuse for not including an index in this day and age - it really is so easy to create one with modern software.

or print an address where you can visit on the web. many publishers have websites. and it isn't hard to include an index on a website.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Biggest Pet Peeve EVER with my gaming books: The The Monsternomicon's lack of monster by CR index. *grumbles*