When you are indexing a document, that is, creating an index for a document, be sure to observe the following three golden rules for maximum user satisfaction:

1) Limit your Index to a maximum of THREE levels of indentation. The human mind begins to lose track of nested groupings once you cross over to the fourth level and beyond. It helps a lot if each level has its own style. For example, the first level could be in bold, the second level in normal fonts, and the third in italics. I would recommend using the same font family and not switching to different fonts between indentation levels.

2) Always start your index words with LOWERCASE letters, unless it’s an acronym. Lowercase letters are easier for the human eye to read. But all acronyms must be in capital letters. It is good practice to repeat each acronym in its open form as well, beginning each word with a CAPITAL LETTERS. For example, repeat “ACS 115” also as “American Cancer Society 115”, but not as “American Cancer Society 115”, etc.

3) Make sure all important phrases are CROSSED, cross-referenced, under their respective letters. For example, repeat “space shuttle” as “space shuttle” as well. In this case, both are under the letter S. Repeat “welfare state” as “welfare state” under the letters W and S, respectively. Do the extra work if you want your users to find what they are looking for easily. Cross-referenced index entries will keep users from thinking. And a user who can read a document, book or manual without thinking is a happy user.