9.4. Creating an Index An index helps readers find the material that's most important to them. In many ways, indexing is an art, because you have to decide what is likely to be important to your readers. An index that's too cluttered is almost as bad as no index at all. Word can generate and format an index, but it's no help making the important decisions about what to index. That part of the heavy lifting is up to you. On the other hand, by building the index, keeping track of page numbers , and formatting the end result, Word takes a huge burden from you. Obviously, you don't want to create an index for your document until you're ready to print or distribute it. When you're ready, making an index with Word is a two-step process. First, you mark your index entries in your documentthat's the human job. Then, you generate the indexthat's the computer's job. 9.4.1. Marking an Index Entry The first phase of creating an index involves paging through your entire document and, using the Index group on the References tab or pressing a special keystroke, inserting electronic markers for the items you want listed. As Figure 9-11 illustrates, three types of index entries are available: -
Individual words, phrases, or symbols. -
Entries that span more than one page. -
Entries that reference another index entry, such as "execution, See guillotine." | | Figure 9-11. Word automatically alphabetizes and formats your index. This example consists of two columns , with page numbers aligned to the right margin. You can format your index in a number of different ways. | | | WORD TO THE WISE What to Index | | Here are some tips to keep in mind when you mark index entries: -
Take the reader's point of view . This tip is the most important and perhaps the hardest for an involved writer. As you mark index words, ask these questions: Why are people reading this document? What questions did I have when I first approached this subject? -
Avoid marking too many words . It's way easy to mark too many words, especially when you know that Word is going to spare you the job of typing out the entire index. If you want a truly helpful index, take the time to consider every marked entry carefully . -
Consolidate entries whenever possible . For a professional quality index, it's important to consolidate entries under the most logical index listing. Text like " Miss Manette," "Lucie Manette," and "Lucie" should all be consolidated under "Manette, Lucie" in your index. -
Make use of cross-references . Cross-references help your readers find answers. For example, the entry for execution may appear: "execution, See guillotine." -
Use page ranges to reduce clutter in the index . The index entry for "Lucie Manette" could read: "Manette, Lucie 60, 70-78 " Using page ranges reduces the length and clutter of your index, which makes research easier for your readers. | Here are the steps to mark an index entry: -
Select the word or phrase you want to add to the index . Word uses whatever text you select for the actual index listing (unless you make changes in the next step). When you select text, you're also marking its location so Word can identify the page number when it builds the index. -
Go to References Index Mark Entry (or press Alt+Shift+X) . The Mark Index Entry dialog box opens (Figure 9-12). In the "Main entry" text at top, your selected text appears, followed by its page number. You can edit or change this text. For example, you can change "Lucie Manette" to read "Manette, Lucie" so the index entry will be alphabetized under "Manette." | | Figure 9-12. Use the Mark Index Entry box to customize your index entry. The text in the Main entry box is used for the actual index listing. Use the three options in the middle to choose the type of index entry. With the buttons at the bottom, you can choose to mark a single entry or to mark every occurrence of the word or phrase. | | -
In the middle of the Mark Index Entry box, choose a radio button for the index entry type . As mentioned at the beginning of this section, three types of index entries are available: Select the "Cross-reference" radio button if this entry refers to another index entry. (For example, if you select the word "execution," and then type "guillotine" in the cross-reference box, the index entry looks like this: "execution, See guillotine.") For individual words, phrases, or symbols, click the "Current page" option. For entries that span more than a page, click Page Range, and then select a bookmark from the Bookmark drop-down menu.
Note: Before you can mark a Page Range index entry, you must create a bookmark. That's the only way Word can keep track of the page numbers. To create a bookmark, select the text, and then go to Insert Links Bookmark (or Alt+N, K). Detailed bookmark instructions are in Section 2.3.4.
Format the entry . Use the checkboxes under "Page number format" to apply bold or italics formatting to the page numbers. Typically, the page that holds the most important information about an entry gets bold formatting, and page ranges get italics, but Word will do whatever you tell it. This kind of formatting is completely optional. -
Click Mark to create an entry for a single page, or Mark All to create entries for every instance of the selected words that Word finds in the document . Word hides a special code in the text of your document to mark the entry or entries. Word reads all these hidden codes when it builds an index. (For details, read the box in Section 9.4.2.) Say you select the word "England," and then click the Mark button, Word places a single chunk of code after the word "England" on that page. If you click Mark All, Word looks through your entire document and inserts the code everywhere the word "England" appears.
Warning: It's easy to get carried away with the Mark All button because it's so tempting just to click it, and then let Word find every occurrence of a word or a phrase. The problem is, you can end up with too many index references. Instead of using the Mark All button, consider using the Mark Index Entry box in tandem with Word's Find tool. Use the Find box to search for words and phrases, but you can use your discretion when you mark items for the index. (The Mark All button has no discretion; it just marks the occurrence of a word or a phrase.) The Mark Index Entry box stays open , so it's easy to search and mark more index entries. When you want to close the Mark Index Entry box, click Cancel.
| POWER USERS' CLINIC Understanding Index Codes | | Whenever you mark an index entry as described in the previous steps, Word inserts a code right within the text of the document. It's just hidden so you don't usually see it. Hidden text (Section 16.4) doesn't show when the document is printed, but you can see it onscreen by going to Home Paragraph Show/Hide . An index entry marking the words Lucie Manette may look like this: { XE "Manette, Lucie" }. The code is within the curly braces, and the XE is how Word identifies the code as an index entry. Here are examples of the code Word inserts in your document to mark pages for different index entries: -
Basic Index Entry . Example: { XE "Manette, Lucie" }. All the code is within the curly braces ({}), and the XE identifies the code as an index entry. Word adds the page where this code appears to the Manette, Lucie index listing. -
Index Subentry . Example: { XE "England:London" }. The colon in this code means it's a subentry. Word adds a London subentry, with the page number, under the England index listing. -
Page Range Entry . Example: { XE "Dover Road" \r "DoverRoad" }. The \r marks this entry as a page range entry. DoverRoad is the name of a bookmark (Section 2.3.4) in the document that marks more than one page. The pages included in the DoverRoad bookmark appear as a range in the Dover Road index listing. -
Index Cross-reference . Example: { XE "execution" \t "See guillotine" }. The \t marks this entry as a cross-reference. Word lists "execution" in the index followed by the note "See guillotine." To create an index, Word reads all the entries and alphabetizes them, and then removes duplicate entries. For example, five Lucie Manette entries are in Section 4.2, Word lists the page only once. | 9.4.2. Building an Index Creating the actual index is a lot easier and faster than marking your index entries. You have only a couple decisions to make, and Word does all the rest. The first thing to decide is where you want to place the index. Follow these steps to create the index: -
Press Ctrl+End to move the insertion point to the end of your document, and then press Ctrl+Enter to start your index on a brand new page . Traditionally, an index goes at the back of a document, but Word puts it wherever you want. -
Type Index to give the section a title, and then choose Home Styles Heading 1 . Giving the title for the index a Heading 1 makes it look important and means that it shows up in the Table of Contents, to boot. -
Go to References Index Insert Index (or press Alt+S, X) to open the Index dialog box, where you make some choices about the appearance of your index (Figure 9-13) . At the upper-right corner of the Index tab, the Print Preview box shows you how your index will look on the page. Use the other controls to change its appearance. For Type, if you select Indented, then the index lists the subentries indented under the main entry. If you choose Run-in, then subentries and page numbers immediately follow on the same line as the entry. | | Figure 9-13. Use the Index dialog box to create an index for your document. Make adjustments to the appearance with the Type, Columns, and other controls. The Print Preview box lets you see the results of your formatting on example text. | | From the Columns menu, you can choose the number of columns per page (two or three columns usually work well). Below the Preview box, you find controls to align index page numbers on the right margin and to set the leader that links the entry to the page number. The Formats drop-down menu provides several formatting options that change the font size and style. If you want to customize the appearance of your index, click the Modify button, and then you can format your index using Word's standard style and text formatting tools (Chapter 4). -
When you're done formatting your index, click OK . Word builds the index and places it in your document at the insertion point. The process may take a few moments.
Tip: The Mark Entry button closes the Index box and opens the Mark Index Entry box (Figure 9-12). Click it if you decide you're not ready to create the index and want to go back to marking entries. Clicking the AutoMark button makes Word go through your document and mark entries for you, but only if you supply a concordance file.
9.4.3. Using AutoMark with a Concordance File If you have a long document and a short amount of time to index it, then you may find Word's AutoMark feature appealing. Basically, you type a list of every word you can think of that should go into the index into a separate Word documenta concordance file , like the one shown in Figure 9-14. You don't have to mark each entry in the document; you don't even have to read the entire document if you're already family with what it contains. When you References Index Insert Index, and click the AutoMark button, Word reads your concordance file and creates an index based on those instructions. It sounds good in theory, but in practice it often creates too many entries because, unlike a human being, Word is indiscriminate about marking entries. Here are the two major problems that pop up with both the Mark All button and the AutoMark tool: -
AutoMark returns way too many entries for each topic . Word has no way of telling an important occurrence of a word (like "England") from an unimportant one. -
AutoMark does not create page ranges . If a word appears on twelve consecutive pages, AutoMark puts twelve page numbers next to the index entry instead of a range. Still, if you're in a hurry, an AutoMark index may be better than nothing. If you want to go this route, here are the steps: -
Go to Office button New and double-click Blank Document. Create a table with two columns and as many rows as you need for index entries . This table holds your concordance file. -
For each entry, enter a search word in the left column and an index entry in the right column . You'll probably want to gather a few search terms under each entry. For example, instead of separate index entries for "guillotine" and "Guillotine," you want Word to list the page numbers for both "guillotine" and "Guillotine" under the same entry"guillotine""as shown in Figure 9-14. Save and close the concordance file when you're done. -
Follow steps 1 through 4 starting in Section 9.3.4 to position and format your index. Then, in the Index dialog box, click the AutoMark and open your concordance file . | | Figure 9-14. In a concordance file, type words that you want Word to search for and mark for the index in the left column. Type the words that you want actually listed in the index listing in the right column. Several marked words can lead to the same index listing. | | 9.4.4. Updating an Index What if you need to update an index? Perhaps you remembered and marked some additional entries after you built your index. No problemWord gives you a quick and easy way to add those new entries to your index. Place your insertion point inside your index, and then press the F9 key or (Alt+S, D). Or, if you can't remember keystrokes, just go to References Index Update Index on the ribbon. It may take a moment or two, since Word rereads all the index entries, but you end up with a new index including any new entries youve created. If you want to change your index's formatting, place the insertion point somewhere in the index, and then go to References Index Insert Index. Make your formatting changes, and, when youre done, click the OK button. An alert box pops up asking if you want to replace the selected index (Figure 9-15). Click OK, and the old index is gone and your all-new, improved index takes its place. | | Figure 9-15. If you try to create an index in a document that already has an index, you see this message. When you click OK, Word removes the old index and inserts a new one. When you click Cancel, Word leaves your old index in place. | | 9.4.5. Deleting an Index You may have a couple reasons for wanting to delete an index from your document. Perhaps you decided not to have an index, or you want to make major changes to your index, so you're going to delete the current index and insert a new one. The index looks like a lot of words on the page, but the entire index is represented by one relatively short bit of computerese known as a field code . With one command, you reduce your entire index to a field code of just a few characters , making it much easier to delete. Press Shift+F9, and your index disappears. What you see looks something like this: { INDEX \c "2" \z "1033"}. Select this text, including both brackets, and then press Delete. Good bye index.
Note: A different command is used for hiding field codes and displaying the results. If you've turned your index into a field code but want to change it back to the index text, press Alt+F9.
9.4.6. Deleting an Index Entry It may seem odd, but it's easier to delete the entire index than it is to delete individual entries from your document. For one thing, you probably don't have to search for the indexit's big and it's usually at the end of your document. The marked index entries in your document could be anywhere , and if you're deleting every vestige of Lucie Manette index entries in A Tale of Two Cities , that's a lot of deleting. If your plan is to have a document without an index at all, you may want to delete the index as described above and not worry about deleting each and every hidden index entry code in your text. Under normal circumstances, the hidden text doesn't show when you print or view your document. To delete an index entry, you need to find the index code in your document, and then delete it, just as you would any text. Here are the steps: -
Go to Home Paragraph Show/Hide to view the hidden text in your document . You're on a search and destroy mission, so the first thing you need to do is make sure you can see your target. When you turn on hidden text, you can see the index codes (along with other hidden characters like, well, paragraph marks). The index code looks something like this: { XE "Manette, Lucie" }. You can scroll through your document and scan for entries you want to delete, but it's faster to use the Find dialog box, as described in the next step. -
Press Ctrl+F to open the Find box to search for the index codes. In the "Find what" text box, type XE . You can't search for the curly brackets, but you can search for some of the other text within. That way, Word searches for each index entry so you can inspect them one by one. -
Click Find Next, until you find the first index entry you want to delete. Select the entire code including the brackets, and then press Delete . The entry is a goner. Of course, that's just a single entry on a single page. If you want to remove an item entirely from the index, you must keep clicking Find Next until you've foundand deletedevery marking of that entry. |