Need help indexing a multi-chapter book

[cwoodhou]

After writing 300 pages, I have arrived at the indexing. I have found some third party tutorial videos and found that I just get the beachball of death on my mac when I try to insert an index. If I open a book, one chapter and the index chapter, inserting a single entry causes the issue.

It is probably me, but is there a link to a V2 Publisher tutorial on creating indexes?

I'm actually on the beta program, but since I have not attempted indexing before, I cannot draw any further conclusion.

[cwoodhou]

Bizarrely, the beta version has just updated and, without changing anything, it seems to be working. Fingers crossed.

 

[MikeTO]

There were changes made to the Books feature in the latest 2.1 betas so if you're using an index with Books then yes, it may work better with today's beta version.

[stokerg]

Hi @cwoodhou,

That's great news the updated beta is working as expected  

2 hours ago, cwoodhou said:

I'm actually on the beta program, but since I have not attempted indexing before, I cannot draw any further conclusion.

If you do encounter any issues in the beta version, please post them in the Beta Section of the Forums and the team dealing with the beta will pick it up and be able to help  

[cwoodhou]

certainly seems that way - this book will certainly stress-test it!

[cwoodhou]

Hi stokerg - I was unsure if it was a Beta issue, which is why I did not post there and I could not run the regular 2.0 as it would not open my files

 

[steve whit]

On 3/22/2023 at 12:57 PM, MikeTO said:

There were changes made to the Books feature in the latest 2.1 betas so if you're using an index with Books then yes, it may work better with today's beta version.

I hope so - I am having a bit of a mare with The index and book chapters- crashing and losing your indexes at the end is not advised

[steve whit]

On 3/22/2023 at 10:14 AM, cwoodhou said:

After writing 300 pages, I have arrived at the indexing. I have found some third party tutorial videos and found that I just get the beachball of death on my mac when I try to insert an index. If I open a book, one chapter and the index chapter, inserting a single entry causes the issue.

It is probably me, but is there a link to a V2 Publisher tutorial on creating indexes?

I'm actually on the beta program, but since I have not attempted indexing before, I cannot draw any further conclusion.

Hi Cwoodhou

Here is a tutorial that MikeTO sent me - also if you go onto you-tube Elaine Giles does a good video - not using book chapters though but you should get the gist

1. Choose Window > References > Index to show the Index panel if it's not already open.
2. Click the Toggle icon in the panel if it's not already selected to show index marks. There's also a menu command for this in Text > Index.
3. Place the cursor before or in the word you want to index. Click the Insert Marker (bookmark) icon in the panel and then click OK. Don't click the + icon, that creates a topic you can use later but doesn't insert a mark. There's also a menu command for this in Text > Index.
4. Add all of the other index marks you want. Tip: If you want to index a phrase such as "Apples and Oranges", adding the index mark while the cursor is in or before Apples will pre-fill the dialog with the word Apples. But if you select the phrase before inserting the mark Publisher will pre-fill the dialog with the whole phrase.
5. Once you have a bunch of marks inserted it's time to insert the index. First save your work, always a good idea. Then draw a text frame to place the index in. You don't have to create a blank frame, you could insert the index anywhere in your document, but it's hard to see the exact start and end of an index so it's a best practice to insert it into a blank frame. Tip: If there's a heading above it such as Index put that in a separate frame.
6. Insert the index by clicking the Insert Index (page) icon. The default format is the indexed word or phrase followed by two spaces followed by the page number. You can change the separator from two spaces to whatever you want - I use a comma followed by a single space but it's up to you.
7. Turn Include Section Headings on or off as you choose. It adds letters such as A, B, C above the indexed words.
8. When you insert an index mark, you're creating an index topic and a mark at a certain position. This is important because you could insert multiple marks for the word "Apples" and then Publisher would list them as Apples, 4, 5, 6, 18, 26. Note that if Group Page Ranges is selected Publisher would list them as Apples, 4-6, 18, 26.
9. You can create sub-topics such as Fruit and then Apples and Oranges be part of the Fruit topic. Publisher will then list them hierarchically. Play around with this to see the effect if you want a hierarchical index.
10. Right click an index topic such as Apples if you want to create a cross reference to a related topic such as Oranges. This one is a bit more involved. In the following example, Apples is indexed on pages 15 and 23 so it's listed as "Apples, 15, 23" and Apples has a cross reference to Oranges:
    1. If Oranges has its own index mark on page 7 and Expand Cross References is not selected, Publisher will show "Oranges, 7. See Also Apples" -  you can customize the words "See Also" to whatever you like.
    2. If Oranges has its own index mark on page 7 and Expand Cross References is selected, Publisher will show "Oranges, 7, 15, 23".
    3. If Oranges has no index marks of its own and Expand Cross References is not selected, Publisher will show "Oranges. See Apples" - you can customize the word "See" to whatever you like.
    4. If Oranges has no index marks of its own and Expand Cross References is selected, Publisher will show "Oranges, 15, 23".

 

Notes:

• You can insert only one index per document
• The Style Override feature does not work with Facing Pages and since most indexes are in books with facing pages I didn't bother explaining it above. It's intended to let you make some page numbers a different style such as bold, for the most important index references. I'd love to use this feature but can't until the bug is fixed.

[cwoodhou]

Many thanks Steve - I will compare this with what I have been doing. Cold sweat remembering how fickle Indesign CS was...