Re: [dita] DITA 1.3 documentation -- shall we remove the Contains and "Contains by" tables

["Jang F.M. Graat" <jang@jang.nl>]

Hello all,

I agree with Tony that the problem is the search method, not its availability. Having an alphabetical list of elements, possibly having more than one such list - grouped per domain - as hyperlinks in an obvious location (appendix ? or up front immediately following the TOC) would do a lot of good for readers of the specs. Full text search is a must if you want to find that certain phrase you know you have seen before but forgotten where. Paging through those 1200 pages to find the phrase is almost impossible to do. Killing the full text search because some people use it in the wrong way is a bad choice. Removing the tables is a bad choice, too. Rethinking possible ways of disclosing the information is a good one.

Ciao

Jang

JANG Communication
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Amsterdam - Netherlands
Tel.  +31 20 755 8466
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http://www.jang.nl

On 12 sep. 2012, at 02:54, Tony Self wrote:

> Greetings all
>  
> If the problem is in text searching in PDFs, could we guide readers to using the index as a means of better locating information? While disabling the search function would push readers to use the index, it may cause more angst than it relieves. Sorry this isn’t a brilliant solution, but I suspect there isn’t one!
>  
> Cheers
>  
> Tony Self
>  
>  
>  
> From: dita@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:dita@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Kristen James Eberlein
> Sent: Wednesday, 12 September 2012 6:50 AM
> To: DITA TC
> Subject: [dita] DITA 1.3 documentation -- shall we remove the Contains and "Contains by" tables
>  
> As we start working on DITA 1.3 documentation, we need to consider whether to include the Contains and "Contains by" tables in the Language Reference topics.
> 
> Pro = Useful information
> Con = Makes it impossible to search the spec and find information about a specific element, since there are so many false hits. For example, if you search the PDF version for indexterm, you get over 130 false hits before you land on the actual topic.
> 
> Best, 
> Kris 
> 
> Kristen James Eberlein 
> Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting 
> Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee 
> Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee 
> www.eberleinconsulting.com 
> +1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)