Who does the index for the 1600+ page PDF skip from page 273 to 424, leaving out everything in between?
Did you mistype “why does”?
It probably just happens to be a long section of the PDF about the same topic - note input - which is, in itself, a part of long chapter: Write Mode. I guess the simplest reason could be that there’s an index for a detailed list of topics and there isn’t a need for a list of everything discusssed in “note input” in the contents (this is a matter of opinion, of course!). Having not written the manual, there are likely other reasons! I have a hunch that you may get an official answer from one of the team who does write the manual.
Were you looking for something in particular that you couldn’t find?
Personally, I think the WebHelp version of the manual is the love of my life and I’m not ashamed of expressing my feelings and commitment to her/him/it.
NB
I’ve changed your topic title to “contents” instead of “index”
Boring clarification of terms: the list of topics at the start of the PDF is the “table of contents”. The index is the bit at the end of the PDF that pairs up all kinds of terms with relevant page numbers.
Essentially, what gets listed in the TOC is down to topic depth in the internal structuring. All the tasks that describe various ways and types of note input are nested beneath the introduction to “Note input”, which in turn is nested in the “Write mode” chapter.
Depending on your PDF viewer, you can show the TOC on the left with both navigable headings and disclosure arrows that will let you expose nested topics.
Was this a question born of curiosity or did the structure of the manual/PDF trip you up in some way?
OK. I made a typo. It should have read “why.” And I improperly referred to the “index” instead of the table of contents. However, it still doesn’t make sense to me for the table of contents to skip from page 273 to 474.
First, everything else in the table of contents has a new topic every couple of pages, not several hundred pages. Second, there’s lots of important stuff in those several hundred pages; for example, key signatures, time signatures, pick-up measures, tempo marks, etc., etc. It’s much easier to find things looking at the table of contents rather than going to the detailed index at the end. It seems like more of a mistake than and intentional act.
You’re right that it’s an unusually large gap, and perhaps I’ll take a look at this particular section and see if there’s something we can improve here.
However, it’s intentional inasmuch as it’s an expected consequence of how we (I) structure topics within chapters.