Posts Tagged ‘Virtual Conference’

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ASI 2021 Virtual Conference: Indexing Without a Client–The Mueller Report

Friday, June 11th, 2021

The American Society for Indexing held its 2021 Virtual Conference, “Get Your Indexing Shot in the Arm,” on Friday, April 30, 2021 and Saturday, May 1, 2021.  Three sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

In the second session on Friday, Peter Rooney and Julia Rooney presented in Socratic-question style, Peter’s work of indexing the Mueller Report.  This is the Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.

He emphasized the importance of the document and shared his frustration that this historic work did not have an index.  He covered the importance of avoiding bias, and the efficiency of using the table of contents for structure, the use of the metatopic, and the glossary for guidance.  He discussed the difficulty of indexing redacted sections of the manuscript.  Unique categories in the index included events, actions, legal concepts, court cases, and quotes.

The presentation then compared commissioned work with independent work, which is Julia’s area of expertise.  She also discussed publishing the index, including venues and formats for the index.  A website was created for the index, http://www.MuellerReportIndex.net.  Outreach was implemented, including email and mailing campaigns, along with press/media.  The index has also been published in print format as a pocket booklet and folio, with possible alternative formats.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the third Friday session of the ASI 2021 Virtual Conference.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

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ASI 2021 Virtual Conference: Maximize Your Data-entry Efficiency!

Monday, May 3rd, 2021

The American Society for Indexing held its 2021 Virtual Conference, “Get Your Indexing Shot in the Arm,” on Friday, April 30, 2021 and Saturday, May 1, 2021.  Three sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

In the first session on Friday, You Can Do It!  Maximize Your Data-entry Efficiency!, presenter Connie Binder focused on ways for indexers to increase their speed in order to increase their income, as the more work you can do, the more money you can make.  The session explored time-saving data entry tips, including importing lists of terms, as well as using abbreviations/acronyms, macros, indexing software functions, and keyboard shortcuts.

Abbreviations save an incredible amount of time, frustration, keystrokes, and scrolling.  In Cindex, you can maintain multiple sets of abbreviations for use on different occasions.  Abbreviations in Cindex are case-specific, so she recommends using only lowercase.   They are unlimited in Macrex and SKY, where they are called acronyms.

For acronyms she uses the spelled-out form as the main-entry, with a cross-reference from the acronym.  She creates an abbreviation with the lowercase version of the acronym that expands to the spelled-out form.  That way, she can use the uppercase acronym in subentries.

Macros allow you to combine actions that would normally take multiple keystrokes into a single keystroke combination.  She recommends Margaret Berson’s Megabit Macros (https://edit-mb-com/megabit/).  Using this program, an indexer can copy and paste data from a PDF into the indexing software, stripping out unwanted formatting and line breaks.  An indexer can copy the direct name of a person and paste it into the indexing software in inverted format.  Among other possibilities, it may also be used to copy the title of a work and paste into the indexing software in italics with parentheses ready to type in the name of the creator.

Each indexing software has the capability to create macros.  Any time you are repeating the same keystrokes, create a macro to do the tedious work for you.  Macros can be set up for the following:

  • Name inversion
  • Scientific names
  • Double-post creative works
  • Copy a record and change the page number to bold for illustrations
  • Make dates parenthetical
  • Turn “city in state” into “city, state”

Cindex has up to 10 macros, while Macrex has up to 48 macros, and SKY has up to 26 macros.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the second Friday session of the ASI 2021 Virtual Conference.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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ASI Virtual Conference: Macros

Thursday, October 1st, 2020

This is the sixth in a series of blog postings on the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Virtual Conference, held on Saturday, May 2nd.  The Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19.

Held on Zoom, the sixth and final session, Macros for Indexer Profitability, was presented by Gale Rhoades.  She defined macros as a collection of keystrokes or commands for a program, such as Microsoft Word or dedicated indexing software.  The purpose of macros is to manage repetitive or frequently used actions.  Reusable, macros can be transferred from one document file to another within the same program.

She demonstrated the internal Microsoft Word macro “InitCleanup.”  This macro prepares a PDF file of a previous index, which she imported into Macrex, the dedicated software she uses for indexing.  PDF files can be easily converted into Word and then edited for use in dedicated indexing software.  The macro performs dozens of operations, including many find/replace occurrences, yet takes only a few minutes.  She said it is worth the usually brief time needed to set up a macro.  All dedicated indexing software programs have the functionality to create macros.

She also demonstrated the external macro set Megabit Macros, created by Margaret Berson.  Megabit Macros operates with the engine Macro Express, both of which must be purchased in order to work.  The indexer highlights the chosen text portion in the open PDF of the manuscript page proofs and presses the appropriate keyboard shortcut.  Megabit Macros is especially helpful when entering names from the PDF into the index.

This concludes my discussion of the Virtual Conference.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

 

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ASI Virtual Conference: Before You Say Yes (Or No)

Tuesday, September 1st, 2020

This is the fifth in a series of blog postings on the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Virtual Conference, held on Saturday, May 2nd.  The Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19.

Held on Zoom, the fifth session, Before You Say Yes (Or No), presented by Anne Fifer, focused on how to evaluate an indexing project before accepting–or declining.    To evaluate a potential project, she suggested asking questions about the client, the client’s indexing expectations, and questions about the text.

Questions about the client:

  • How did the client find you?
  • What does the client know about the indexing process?
  • Will the client treat you like a professional?
  • Will there be respect for personal boundaries?

Questions about the client’s indexing expectations:

  • Is this an embedded indexing, standard back-of-the-book, or e-book indexing project?
  • Expectations for length or granularity of the index.
  • Project style, layout, and typography requirements.
  • What is the turnaround time?  When will the manuscript be available for indexing?

Questions about the text:

  • How structured is the text?
  • Evaluate the topic and level of subject.  Is the topic in your comfort zone?
  • How will the quality of writing affect the indexing process?
  • Determine what needs to be indexed.  Are there special elements, for example: illustrations, tables, footnotes or endnotes, or appendices?
  • Evaluate several chapters from the middle of the book to assess the quality of the writing and the organization of the book.

I will discuss the sixth session of the Virtual Conference in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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ASI Virtual Conference: Tables of Cases

Thursday, August 6th, 2020

This is the fourth in a series of blog postings on the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Virtual Conference, held on Saturday, May 2nd.  The Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19.

Held on Zoom, the fourth session, Tables of Cases, presented by Bonnie Taylor, gave an overview of the rules for legal indexing of cases.  She began by describing a table of cases, which is an alphabetized list of the judicial decisions cited in a work, a type of bibliography for legal cases.  Other tables include those for statutes, regulations, constitutions, and court rules.

Case citations follow rules, which can be found in the legal Bluebook, available in print or as an online subscription from https://www.legalbluebook.com.

She broke down a citation into its parts, explaining what each meant and how it was written.  Every case mentioned in the text is included in the table, by specific citation.  A citation includes the name (Party v. Party), the volume of the report in which it’s found, the series name, the page number, and the date.

Reversals are flipped citations that put the leading information first with a cross-reference.  For example, use the cross-reference “United States v. See name of opposing party,” and use “Doe, United States v.” as the actual entry in the table of cases.

This presentation served as an excellent introduction into legal indexing and tables of cases.

I will discuss the fifth session of the Virtual Conference in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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ASI Virtual Conference: The Naked Indexer

Wednesday, July 1st, 2020

This is the third in a series of blog postings on the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Virtual Conference, held on Saturday, May 2nd.  The Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19.

Held on Zoom, the third session, The Naked Indexer, featured an experienced indexer, Fred Leise, working on an index in real time.  The session opened a window into his indexing processes and methods as he explained his choices along the way. On a split screen, he showed the PDF of the document and the Cindex indexing software in which he was working.  He selected headings and subheadings and entered page references for the scholarly book which he was indexing for the first time.  He also answered questions, prompting lively discussion.

The session, often presented at ASI past conferences, was a highlight of the virtual conference.

I will discuss the fourth session of the Virtual Conference in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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ASI Virtual Conference: Time Management Techniques

Monday, June 1st, 2020

This is the second in a series of blog postings on the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Virtual Conference, held on Saturday, May 2nd.  The Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19.

Held on Zoom, the second session, New Time Management Techniques for the Savvy Indexer, was presented by Diana Witt.

She started with a review of basic time management techniques.  She recommended using time tracking tools to see how fast you are indexing.  Dedicated indexing software often keeps track of how long you have been indexing in a session.

Although she said embedded indexing is slower than back-of-the-book indexing, software such as Index Manager can reduce the amount of typing by highlighting terms and, thus, increase speed.

She said it is important to manage the amount of time spent on clients’ e-mails.  Be sure to give a prompt response and have indexing samples ready in case they are requested.

She also focused on how publishing industry changes have impacted our ability to manage our time and workflow.  She described portal systems now used by publishers, which are third party billing systems that require more documentation.  These changes have greatly increased the amount of time indexers must spend on non-indexing tasks in order to run their businesses efficiently.

I will discuss the third session of the Virtual Conference in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

 

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ASI Virtual Conference: Standout Self-Promotion

Friday, May 8th, 2020

Since the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) Annual Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina was postponed until 2021 because of COVID-19, a Virtual Conference was held on Saturday, May 2nd.  In a series of blog postings, I will discuss the six sessions at the Virtual Conference.

Held on Zoom, the first session, Standout Self-Promotion: Four Steps to Winning More Work Before You Start Chasing Clients, was presented by JoAnne Burek.

Four Steps

  1. Specializations
  2. Indexing society directory profile
  3. Website
  4. Responses to email queries

Step 1: Specialization

  1. Makes it easier for clients to find you
  2. Helps you focus your marketing
  3. Reduces the number of sample indexes you need
  4. Makes it easier to produce your first paid index

Step 2: Indexing Society Directory Profile

  1. How clients make buying decisions
  2. How we read a web page, most critical at top
  3. Write your profile “excerpt-first”
  4. What not to put on your profile – meaningless statements applying to all indexers

Step 3: Website

Template includes:

  • Home Page (Specialties, Contact Info)
  • About Page  (Qualifications)
  • Portfolio Page  (Books published, Sample Indexes)
  • Services Page  (How I work)
  • Testimonials
  • Authority Content

Step 4: Responses to Emails

Elements for Emails

  1. Meaningful connection
  2. Unique value … your Why
  3. Credibility and proof
  4. Soft call to action

I will discuss the second session of the Virtual Conference in the next blog posting.  For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com

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