---
title: "How To Create a Usable Index — Interview with John McGhie"
date: 2006-10-20
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canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2006/10/20/how-to-create-a-usable-index-john-mcghie/index.html
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# How To Create a Usable Index — Interview with John McGhie

**Listen here:**

[Audio](https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/podcasts/john_mcghie_indexing.mp3)

[![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/apple_podcasts.png)](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id-rather-be-writing-podcast/id277365275) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/watchonyoutubeblack.png)](https://www.youtube.com/@idratherbewriting) [![](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/spotify.png)](https://open.spotify.com/show/4HeOZfPGMMfViOhVS40QBD)

John McGhie, technical writer and Microsoft MVP from Sydney, Australia, explains how to create a usable index for your help material.

In this interview, John covers the following topics:

- Deciding whether to create an index
- Skills required to create an index
- Steps in creating an index
- Audience considerations in creating an index
- Time required for creating an index
- Pitfalls writers face when creating an index
- Myths of the concordance file method for creating indexes
- Strategies for entries and subentries
- Methods for updating an index
- Determining whether your index is usable

For additional information, see the following:

- [John McGhie's bio](http://word.mvps.org/AboutMVPs/john_mcghie.htm)
- [John's helpful article on indexing](http://word.mvps.org/FAQS/Formatting/Createindex.htm)that I mention in the podcast
- [The Word MVP home page](http://word.mvps.org/index.html)

** To contact John, you can e-mail him at (email address hidden).