Microsoft® Word 2007 Bible

Chapter 38. Indexing

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Marking index entries

• Creating index subentries

• Automatically marking index entries using a concordance file

• Compiling an index

• Decrypting the INDEX field

For paper books, especially reference books, the index is the key to whether readers will find the book useful as a reference. Word enables you to create indexes (or indices, if you prefer) in a variety of different formats and styles. For online documents, indexes are less important because the reader is able to search for what they're looking for. Even there, however, an index can help steer the reader to more substantive discussions, as opposed to incidental mentions of a given topic or keyword.

Unlike tables of contents and figures, the indexing process can't be fully automated, although there are some things you can do as you're writing to make things easier. We'll look at some of those in this chapter, along with how you set up a document for indexing and how you insert an index.

As a feature set, indexing lives in the Index section of the References ribbon, as shown in Figure 38.1. Tools provided there are as follows:

• Mark Entry—Use to mark locations in the text you want indexed, as well as to specify how each location is treated.

• Insert Index—Use to insert and format an index.

• Update Index—Updates the index. This command is available only when the insertion point is located somewhere within an index.

Indexing is a two step process:

1. Create the index entries—places in the text you want indexed, as ...