Merging Index Entries

[Smithtim47]

Hi, I have another newbie question. Is there a way to merge variant forms of index entry terms, so that they will all be listed under a single Index Entry term? For example, in the book I'm working on, some individuals are mentioned in multiple ways, such as Albert Melville Smith, A. M. Smith, and Bert Smith—and even words like dad or my father? Is it possible to use Publisher's indexing function to gather all these variations together under, say, the entry term Smith, Albert Melville?

As before, I really appreciate any help y'all can provide me with this! Thanks!

 

[MikeTO]

When you add an index reference, you get to decide what to index it under so you can choose any index topic you like and thus you can index completely different words and phrases under the same topic.

Indexing is a manual process. The only automated feature is the "Find in Document" option and that doesn't add the index references automatically, it just helps you find where to place them. If you searched on Albert or Bert you wouldn't find "A.M. Smith" so you'd have to search on Smith or do multiple searches.

Cheers

 

[Smithtim47]

Hi Mike...Thanks again for your really quick response to my query! I think I've caught on to what you were saying about choosing any index topic I like for a given index mark. That answered my question...I hope. I think, however, that I must be doing something wrong when I try to update the index. 

The first screenshot shows the Index Panel and the Index itself before I update the Index. As you can see, the Index Panel shows a number of entries I've added since updating the index. For some reason, when I click on the little icon with the two arrows to update the Index, nothing happens. The only way I seem able to update the index is to click on the Insert Index button, which does creates a new index, right after wherever my cursor is blinking, and with a different Text Style. The second screenshot shows what this looks like. The only thing I've been able to figure out to do is to select and delete the older, smaller version of the Index and re-style the newer one. Somehow this doesn't seem right to me, very cumbersome. What am I doing wrong here?

Another question, related to the Index Panel itself. It is showing the actual pages in the document, including the Title Page and other Front Matter. Fortunately, the numbers it generates in the Index itself seem to be the correct ones. Is there any way to get the page numbers on the Index Panel to match those in the Index?

Huge thanks for helping a newbie like me! BTW, as a retired librarian, I fully understand that indexing (at least good indexing; not sure I trust machine indexing) is a manual process. And that it's an important part of most non-fiction books.

Tim Smith

 

 

[MikeTO]

The original index doesn't look like a complete index - it starts with E instead of A. Is that all the entries you had?

The biggest problem with indexes in Publisher is there's no way to tell where the index starts and ends. If you delete all the text from a frame containing and index and then type a word into the frame and then update the index, you'll lose the word you typed. It's just a bit confusing because there are no control characters or shading to help guide us.

I suggest deleting that index before updating which will avoid having that remnant added to the new index. As for why the new index is italic and the old one is not, you'll have to look at your index styles. That doesn't happen with my own index so there's something up with your index style. If Italic is set to No Change (a -), change it to off. If Font Style is set to No Change, set it to Regular. That should solve the italic issue.

Good luck

[Smithtim47]

Yes, I am just beginning the index—I have  something like 99+% to go😀—so what you saw is all there is. For now. I posted the query because I wanted to try to solve any problems sooner rather than later.

I understand what you said, "If you delete all the text from a frame containing and index and then type a word into the frame and then update the index, you'll lose the word you typed." The same thing is true with the Table of Contents, right? I have no problem with that; it makes sense.

What you wrote about deleting the old index before updating makes sense, too. But then what is the little Update icon that looks like two curved arrows supposed to do, if not update an existing index???

I'll check into the business about the Styles. It's really no biggie, either, as long as I can get the entries to be the way I want them to be. Updating Styles is easy enough to do. I imagine I'll be messing with the Text Style for the Index sooner or later, in order to make tighter line spacing, if nothing else.

Am I right in assuming/hoping that if I add or remove content, thus changing the pagination, the Index entries will also be updated? I would hope so, since they seem to be based on the location of the Index Marks.

Do you have any thoughts/suggestions on the discrepancy in page numbers on the Index Panel and the Index itself?

Thanks again ever so much!

Tim

[MikeTO]

1 hour ago, Smithtim47 said:

What you wrote about deleting the old index before updating makes sense, too. But then what is the little Update icon that looks like two curved arrows supposed to do, if not update an existing index???

Am I right in assuming/hoping that if I add or remove content, thus changing the pagination, the Index entries will also be updated? I would hope so, since they seem to be based on the location of the Index Marks.

Do you have any thoughts/suggestions on the discrepancy in page numbers on the Index Panel and the Index itself?

You can use the update index, it's just that you had some index text that wasn't getting replaced - basically orphaned index text - so deleting it first is easier.

The index doesn't update automatically.* My workflow is to keep the preflight panel open and click the Fix button next to the preflight warning that the index is outdated whenever I want to update the index. I don't actually keep the index panel on top while I'm working unless I need to check or fix something.

* It will update automatically if you do certain actions, such as renaming an index entry. Then all queued updates to the index will be made at the same time.

The page numbers shown in the index panel are the absolute page numbers while the numbers shown in the actual index are relative page numbers. For example, if you have 8 pages of front matter and then restart page numbering at 1, an index entry on page 10 would be shown as 18 in the index panel and 10 in the actual index.

Cheers