Building an Index In Word (and all the best bits they don't tell you) 

To recap, I install the entries [field codes], then install them into a concordance file before I create the index? I pray this question makes sense Jason

Wrong way around. 1. Create your concordance file. 2. Use the Automark option which will create your field codes throughout your document. 3. Create the Index (the keywords and page numbers at the end of the document).

Thank you Don. I appreciate the kind words and I'm glad I was able to straighten things out for you,

You're very welcome. I'm glad to help.

Cheers David. Appreciate your comment.

Good stuff Eileen. Keep going!

Thanks for the kind words Helen.

Thanks Joe. I'm glad it helped and saved you lots of wasted time and chasing your tail.

It's funny you say that. Most Aussies call me out as a pom as soon as the first word is uttered, even though I moved here 20 years ago!

Brilliant. I'm glad it helped you. All the best in your exam and for the future.

No worries. Glad to help.

No worries. I'm glad it helped.

Thank you Anika. Useful feedback

Keep going Ellie.

You're very welcome Carol

I'm glad I was able to help, Katietoo.

Thanks. Appreciate your feedback.

I really appreciate your kind words. They mean a lot.

Glad to help. Thanks for your feedback.

You're welcome @meditationandhealing5333 . Have a fantastic 2023.

This is correct. Tables, images and equations are first captioned (you can have 2 levels of captions) and then collated into a Table of Figures. I'm glad you figured it out (pun intended).

Cheers buddy!

Good on you. Keep it up.

Appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks Joanne. I'm glad I was able to clear things up for you. Good luck building your index.

That's great! I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Appreciate it Dave

You're very welcome

Thank you ArcticWolf. You're very welcome

No worries. Cheers JW.

Cheers Icy. My pleasure.

That's good to hear Sylvia. You'll find the links in the description.

Cheers Josh. I appreciate your comment.

No worries.

Cheers J W.

Cheers Jayanta

That's a bummer. Did you manage to fix it? Could you describe how your report is messed up - what do you see?

@@JasonMorrell when I tried doing an index, biography or table of contents the way shown by other channels, it would make my report disappear

@@wonky_shoebox7514 Oh okay. I thought you meant my method messed up your report! Panic over!

Thank you

Cheers Pat. Appreciate your kind word.

You're very welcome!

Thank you

You're very welcome

Well, how did I do? Did I pass?

@@JasonMorrell yes, and with honors, good sir 😎

Cheers. Appreciate it.

I'm glad you liked the tutorial. Different formatting does not create separate index entries. If the indexed subentry word is the same, it will be listed once with all relevant page numbers.

@@JasonMorrell Thanks. I"m indexing my 85,000-word book. OMG. Hope I survive it :)

Ken, only 2 levels are offered. If you want more, perhaps the Table of Contents is a more logical option. Either way, it can't be done with an Index. Sorry.

Hi Julie. To create an index for a selected area rather than the whole document: 1. Mark entries using the Mark tool or a concordance, in the usual way. 2. Select the portion of the document you wish to include in the index (i.e. exclude the front and back matter). 3. On the *Insert* ribbon, choose *Bookmark* (in the *Links* group). type a bookmark name (no spaces allowed) and click *Add* . Close the dialog. 4. Go to the place where you want to place your index. Create the index (on the References ribbon). 5. If necessary, right-click the index and choose *Toggle Field Codes.* You will see something like *{ INDEX \e ...........}* . 6. Place the cursor after the word INDEX, add a space and type *\b "yourbookmarkname"* . Word will then only index the area identified by the bookmark. Obviously, change yourbookmarkname to the bookmark name you entered in step 3. 7. Right-click on the INDEX field again and choose *Update Field* . I hope that helps. Let me know how you go. Jason

@@JasonMorrell , thank you for your quick response. I will try that :-)

@@JasonMorrell YAY! It worked! Thank you sooo much - you saved me so much time :-) !

@@juliafunnell3446 Cool. Thanks for the update. All the best.

Unfortunately you can't cross reference with the concordance method. However, you can use a concordance for all the benefits it does offer, then add your cross references manually (by marking) afterwards. A combination of the 2 methods works well. Jason

@@JasonMorrell Ah, got it. That makes sense. Thank you very much for the quick reply!

Unfortunately with the functionality that Microsoft gives you, there is no way to index footnote content, or customise the page numbering in the way you have outlined. It may be possible with VBA if you have some money to invest. Head to Freelancer, Upwork or Fiverr (in that order) and search out your own experts or post your project and filter the results. Good luck and all the best.

@@JasonMorrell Thanks for the zippy reply. If Jason the Index Expert says it can't be done, then I need look no further!

Tut, the table of contents and the index features are both found on the References ribbon. You can create either or both. Here is a TOC video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z0o1FN17CYs.html

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. It doesn't matter whether the marked items are regular text or styled in some way (e.g. bold). The index itself can be styled to your preferences by modifying the *Index 1* , *Index 2* ... styles. (On the Home ribbon, click the *launcher* in the bottom-right corner of the Styles gallery, then click the *Options* button at the bottom of the Styles window/pane and change *Recommended* to *All Styles* , then locate *Index 1* in the list, right-click and *Modify* .) If I've missed the mark, give me a fuller description and i'll help where I can.

Word creates the index and associated page numbers when YOU decide to create or update the index. So once you have marked everything you want to include, click the Show/Hide icon to hide all the fields, then create/update your index. The page numbering will be correct. I hope that helps.

@@JasonMorrell Thanks, that makes sense as clicking the Show/Hide button will "erase" the XE inserts and bring the text back to its original position.

Hi Jonathan, thanks for your questions. The concordance file is a separate document. You can call it anything. It contains a list of words or phrases you want to see in your index. The left column contains the item you want to mark within the document (i.e. an XE field is created for each item). The right column contains the item as you want it displayed in the Index. The advantages of using a concordance are that you have a comprehensive list of everything you have indexed, rather than searching through your main document for XE fields. It also handles variations. Manual marking is case sensitive, so marking 'Author' would not pick up 'author' and vice versa. The concordance allows you to to create 4 separate entries for Author, Authors, author and authors (1 per line in the left column) and consolidate them under one index item called "author" (placed in the right column for each of the 4 lines). The disadvantage of using a concordance file is the lack of a cross reference feature, e.g.for 'writer' show 'see author'. However, after using a concordance to handle the bulk of the indexing, you can always add the cross references by marking those items manually. Once your concordance document is ready, in the main document, you choose Insert Index on the references ribbon, then click the Automark button and select your concordance file. This creates all the XE entries within your main document using the information contained in the concordance file. Once you have marked everything that you want to include in the index (using manual marking and/or a concordance file) you create the actual index choosing Insert Index and configuring the options. As far as I can tell, Word on Windows brings the original formatting into the index but Word for Mac does not. I've checked out the switches and options for the Index and XE fields but there is nothing that controls the formatting. Just another Microsoft inconsistency! I would suggest that a uniform-looking index is best anyway! You can modify the Index1 to Index9 styles to provide a consistent look for your index. Let me know how you go.

Hi Marlene. There is no way to do this (to my knowledge). Word simply collates the items that you mark. Sorry. Jason.

@@JasonMorrell thank you…I suspected as much🥲

@@JasonMorrellHello Jason, yes, as a 50+ year experienced computer programmer, I find this ESSENTIAL missing “feature” almost as UNBELIEVABLE as the fact that indexing isn’t semi-automatic (as it clearly ought to be). I could design a better way to index in my sleep. I have spent three days already, manually indexing my existing book and I have still not finished. I could have written a program to do it in half the time. Google docs has no indexing feature at all, which I find equally amazing.

I'll be glad to straighten this out for you. 1. To create two different index entries for 'Franklin' based on the context, you have no choice but to methodically go through the document and index each occurrence one at a time. You can use the subentry feature ion the Index dialog to list 'USS Franklin' under 'Ship'. of course, in the unlikely event that the terms 'President Franklin' and 'USS Franklin' are used consistently throughout the document then you can select each phrase and Mark All. 2. To delete a single occurrence of a marked entry, first ensure that you have are displaying hidden text then use the Find feature (Ctrl F) and search for ^d XE "your term". Use the Fine Next button and once you have located the correct occurrence, delete it. 3. To solve the mystery of the missing XE entries, the most likely cause is that indexing is case sensitive. You might consider using the concordance method for the bulk of your indexing as this allows you to consolidate all case variations under one index entry. This video explains how to set up a concordance - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jnYWmfxDOag.html. The best results come from using a combination of concordance and manual marking. I hope that helps. Jason.

Moufid, you cannot do this with the standard index feature. It does not create the links like the TOC. Perhaps it could be done with VBA?

You don't have to create every combination every time, just the one(s) that you use. It's one of the things that Microsoft did right. If the concordance was not case sensitive, it would save you a bit of time and you would have a shorter concordance but you would also lose the flexibility and there would be heaps of people complaining! It's better to have the option than not. You can bring the index up-to-date at any time by right-clicking the index and selecting Update.

​@@JasonMorrell Thanks for the reply! Sorry I don't get what you mean by "just the ones you use". Because the way I'm understanding this is like... I would have to do it for every single word because if the word shows up with a capital in the beginning of a sentence, then that's one instance, and when it appears in the middle of a sentence with a small letter then that's another instance. Is that right?

@@chrischien6023 Correct.

@@JasonMorrell Thanks.. that definitely seems like I have to do it for everything then! lol since I would want to find every instance of every term whether it's at the beginning or middle of a sentence

@@chrischien6023 Yep. Stop overthinking it. Get your head down and dig in!

Hi @annan1971. As far as I know, that's not possible. Sorry.

Here are some things to check: 1. The concordance file has 2 columns. Column 1 is the word or phrase you wish to mark in the main document. Column 2 is the entry you wish to see in the index. 2. Auto-marking with a concordance is case sensitive. So if your concordance contains 'Banana' and your document contains 'banana', nothing will be marked. Same with plurals such as banana vs bananas. You can include several case and singular/plural combos in your concordance all pointing to the same index entry. 3. Check that field codes are visible on your doc. Click the pilcrow icon (looks like a backward P) on the Home ribbon. Pressing Alt F9 (or Alt Fn F9) on a PC also toggles the whole document between showing/hiding field codes. 4. The location of the concordance file is irrelevant as long as you have access to it on your computer. 5. You can update the document any time by going to References | Insert Index | Automark. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. It's a pretty straight-forward tool.

@@JasonMorrell Well, this is interesting... When I saved 'concordance' in the same OneDrive folder as my doco, I got an error. However, when I saved it in my downloads folder (on my PC instead of cloud), it worked! OneDrive has always been problematic for me. Now... new question. I see that it also added field codes to my table of contents and table of figures. Any way to automatically change that? I can manually delete and it will still have saved me about a week's work, but would be nice as I will be making new editions regularly.

Glad you got problem #1 sorted! Onto problem #2. SOLUTION #1 1. Remove the table of contents/figures. 2. Create your index. 3. Re-create your TOC / TOF. SOLUTION #2 Index just a portion of your document, not all of it. 1. Select the main part of your document (i.e. exclude the TOC / TOF). 2. On the Insert ribbon, click Bookmark (in the Links group). Type a bookmark name. Spaces are not allowed. Click Add and close the dialog. 3. Create your index in the normal way. Or modify the one you have. 4. Click inside the braces { }. Place the cursor after the word INDEX, add a space and type \b "yourbookmarkname" . Word will then only index the area identified by the bookmark. Obviously, change yourbookmarkname to the bookmark name you entered in step 2. 5. Right-click on the INDEX field again and choose Update Field . If you want to clear your document of all field codes for the marked entries, go to the Find and Replace dialog and type ^d XE into the Find box and leave the Replace box empty. Then Replace All. I hope that helps. Let me know how you go.

@@JasonMorrell Well, now, that's interesting! I used the second option - selecting just the text, bookmarking, then creating the index and it worked! The ToC and list of figures have the field codes added, but they don't show in the index. Too cool!

That's it. Some people like to create mini-index pages for each chapter in a longer document. That kind of thing. It's quite versatile. Anyway, all the best. Keep rocking it!

Hi Michel. (1) No you do not need to paginate pages before marking entries. (2) No, you cannot mark part of a word. You must select a whole word or a phrase.

@@JasonMorrell Thank you for a quick reply, but unfortunately mine Word apparently does not mark just parts of the word. A also tried with concordance file but the problem stays the same.

You can achieve this using a concordance. On the left column, list Djokovic and Djokovica. In the right column, list Djokovic for both. The index will only show Djokovic. Word only adds an XE field code (a marked entry) for the first occurrence on each page.

In that exact format ... no. You can mark text within a caption for inclusion in an index. Or you can just use captions and tables of figures in the way they were designed to be used! All the best.

@@JasonMorrell thanks for your quick reply. It doesn't have to be in that format. I just want to include figures in the INDEX so that readers can go back to that page to look at that figure. How would you mark text within a caption for inclusion in an index? Can you provide a link? Thanks very mich.

The same as you do for regular text. 1. If necessary, right-click the image and choose Insert Caption. Add your description and click OK. 2. Press Alt Shift X to open the *Mark Index* dialog. 3. In the document , highlight the caption text (or the portion that you want to include in the index). 4. In the dialog press *Mark* or *Mark All*. 5. Create your index.

@@JasonMorrell Thanks again for the instruction. but would that only gives page number in the INDEX? Would it indicate figure in the index such as f1? Is there a way to show something like it is from the figure? Thanks again.

You cannot mark something that includes another field (in this case, the figure number). You would need to highlight the description then add the "Figure 1:" at the beginning. Be aware that if you update your document and the figure numbers change, ths will not be reflected in your index as you have manually added it. My strong recommendation would be to create a regular Table of Figures and then if you still really want the index, then mark the key word(s) in your caption. After all, people refer to the index for a particular thing. They will not be referencing the index for "Figure x". Put square pegs into square holes.

Yes, I have an idea. 1. Set the Text Wrap option on the image to "In line with text". 2. While the image is still selected, click the launcher on the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group (on the Home ribbon), click the "*Line and Page Breaks*" tab and check "*Keep with next*". Close the dialog. 3. Place the cursor in the label following the image. Re-open the paragraph settings and check "*Keep lines together*". This simple process will keep the image and all the text of the label together even if that means placing both on the next page. You can play around with this. For example, to have 2 images and labels side by side you could create a 2x1 table, switch off the table borders, then in each cell insert an image and label, and change the settings accordingly. Because you have so many, I would make use of the F4 key which repeats the last single action you performed. So you could start at the beginning of the document, select the first image and set the paragraph settings. Then move through the document, select each image one at a time and press F4 to apply the same settings. Saves a lot of time. Then sweep through a second time for the labels. The F4 key only works on Windows PC. I'm not sure what the Mac equivalent is. I hope this helps. Let me know how you go (or if I've missed the mark completely). Jason

If you want to create two or more indexes (e.g. an index for each major section) then: 1. Select each section one at a time (click the start point, hold SHIFT then click the end point). 2. Bookmark the section. The Bookmark tool is found on the Insert ribbon. Note: you cannot use spaces in the bookmark name. 3. Create a separate index for each section. And the \b "yourbookmarkname" switch inside the field braces but after the XE field code (you may need to first right-click the field and toggle the field code on). Each index will then only pick up the marked entries from each bookmarked section. Let me know how you go. Jason,

Tut, a table of contents is normally placed at the beginning of a long document and it lists all the sections and topics. An index is found at the back of the book and contains a list of keywords that the reader may check to find a page number for a specific item of interest. I hope that clarifies.

1. Go to the File tab and choose Options. 2. Under Display | Printing options, make sure that 'Print hidden text' is off. That should fix it.

Also, still in File | Options | Advanced ... ... under the ' *Show document content* ' section, uncheck the box labelled ' *Show field codes instead of their values* ', ... and under the ' *Print* ' section, uncheck the box labelled ' *Print field codes instead of their values* '

It has been said before!! But I'm glad it was helpful.