Index with Subheadings

[Christina Conroy]

Hi! I'm transcribing a 12th grade literature book with extensive indices. I have a question about how to handle the formatting.

There is a centered heading for each index (such as "Index of Skills"). I am starting that on a new braille page.

Under the centered headings, there are cell-5 headings (such as "Writing Strategies").

Under these are cell-7 headings (such as "Prewriting").

The cell-5 headings are NOT alphabetized.

The cell-7 headings are NOT alphabetized.

The entries under each cell-5 or 7 heading are alphabetized.

My first thought was to start each cell-5 or cell-7 heading on a new braille page so that my guide words made sense (and don't do something like "works cited--bibliography". But then there are some cell-7 headed sections that have only 1-5 entries and so those would be very empty braille pages.

On top of this, some of the entries are quite long, and shortening the guide words makes the guide words not very usable.

Any advice you can offer on how to format these indices would be much appreciated.

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[claurent]

You get the most interesting things! Guide words would not be useful for this index. My advice is to leave them off. It does break a rule - but the rule is in place for AN INDEX - not multiple forms of an index. I considered suggesting a funning footer that consists of the MAIN entries... but again, those aren't in any order so it wouldn't be useful.  Guide words are intended to help someone find information in the index and there is no way to make that happen here.

Cindi

[Christina Conroy]

Thanks so much for your fast reply, Cindi! Should I eliminate all guide words, or just those for the cell-5 headed sections where they aren't going to work? (I was inclined to just eliminate them for the sections in which they aren't useful, and put a TN after the heading saying as much.)

Also, do you think I'm doing the right thing by starting cell-7 headings on new braille pages, since that causes very blank pages sometimes? Or if I'm totally eliminating guide words, is that not necessary?

Thanks again!

Christina

[claurent]

You could do a TN before the start of the whole index and state that guide words are only used on sections that take more than one braille page - that would mean starting each of those sections (ones that need guide text) on new braille pages...but I don't think it would be necessary to start ALL of those smaller sections on new pages...but it might be easier (for you AND for the reader) to just eliminate ALL the guide words for this complicated index.

I'd take a couple pages for a workshop example (no rush - whenever you have time) - you should be giving my "It's Complicated" workshop! You tackle some hard things.

Cindi

[Christina Conroy]

Thanks for the suggestion Cindi! I'll see what seems to work best and be most logical as it gets put together.

I'll send you a couple pages that are better photographed, and not so compressed. I'll send the B2K files when I get them finished as well. I couldn't do these interesting things without you! 🙂

Christina

 

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