Stopping specific content on a page getting indexed

I want google to avoid indexing certain content on my webpages but index the rest.
Anyone got any ideas, I dont want to use javascript.
will this work
<!-- noindex --> content <!-- /noindex -->,

the noindex idea does not work.

another option is to put the words in images or do something like Brad Choate is doing
http://bradchoate.com/weblog/2004/07/02 ... n-my-terms
(although generally I do not recommend the technique)

my general recommendation is that if you do not want it indexed it shouldn't be on the page, the page should be blocked, or the words should be in an image (of course putting words in an image can also be a bad thing due to different sized monitor resolutions).