BS: I need to make AN INDE£X for new book

Subject: BS: I need to make AN INDE£X for new book
From: GUEST,Beachcomber
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 10:28 AM

I have just completed a book on local history and am required to create an INDEX of the proper nouns etc. Is there anybody there who could guide me through the "easy" steps to so doing ? I am using W"ORD 2003 (which is the programme that "came with the computer" so it would have to be in that format of file. Please ?

Subject: RE: BS: I need to make AN INDE£X for new book
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 10:38 AM

If the proper nouns are capitalized, there are ways to search for them... (I would use special programs, but I'd imagine Word would be able to do that)

You don't say what 'etcs' there are beyond proper nouns.

Subject: RE: BS: I need to make AN INDE£X for new book
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 11:07 AM

You're handicapped by such an old version of Word. No chance you can update? The later versions have a lot more power. 2007 even, but 2010 or 2013 would be better (though there is a learning curve with that last two).

Here is an article about creating an index in Word 2003. Follow the link on how to create the index field. And be aware that you may need to save and print out or in some way save all of that index information so that someone printing the book doesn't have to rebuild the index. Word doesn't always play nicely with printing software. Typically I've had to re-do endnotes and footnotes before sending items to the printer.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I need to make AN INDE£X for new book
From: Mr Red
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 08:17 AM

My thought would be to read your book.
But if all the proper nouns are capitalised you can search for (say) A* - select "case match". Then at each chosen word insert a TOC or Index field. Then run the TOC or Index facility.
I haven't used it recently but you just dun gotta read the help file for information. Enter about 10 Index fields and run the Index and see what happens.
Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.

Of course if I was doing it I would write a macro to do the repetitive stuff like "next find" and "insert index" but unless you have a mass of text to sift through you really don't want two learning curves. Trust me!

a TOC would be a nice touch, but you may have done that another way.
If the document becomes (say) a PDF the index can be hyperlinked to the page in question. More learning curves!

Subject: RE: BS: I need to make AN INDEX for new book
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 10 Oct 14 - 09:37 PM

The biggest problem isn't the technical, it's the editorial: what do you want in the index? Some are so superficial as not to be worth bothering with - others go into such excessive detail you can't find anything, becoming concordances. In general, I'd go with the core thesis of the book and the principal supporting cases, and possibly anything controversial you want to stand on.
One approach might be to ask the proofreaders to point up the bits they found most interesting. As a historian, I sometimes find three indexes useful, General, People and Places.
The TOC should be extractable from the Chapter Headers - it's probably too late now, but if you format them, with, say, a Header Level of 2 (keeping 1 for Sections, ie Front Guff, Preface, Main Text, Annexes, Notes, Index), and use 3 for section headers in the chapters, then you can get it to do the TOC automatically as well.