Index page numbers indent

[thetasig]

Looking at the "default" style/formatting for the index entries (inside a text frame) I would like to see the following:

1. Page numbers always starting on the same line as the indexed item. This has the advantage of saving space (extra lines) in the index.

2. Page numbers that wrap around to the second and subsequent lines, should be indented from the indexed item itself. Also helps the viewer to scan for index items easily.

Example (ignore empty lines - they are an artifact of this forum's format):

P

     Parts     11, 12, 16, 21, 22

     Photo    10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,

          20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 100

     Plano     33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42,

          43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 200, 201, 202, 203,

          204, 250, 251, 300

      I could not find a way to do any of this with the existing UI. Are there some specific settings that would accomplish it?   

 

[walt.farrell]

For #2, I'm a bit confused, as the continuation lines you show are indented from the indexed term.

If you want them indented further, I would suggest looking at the text style Index Entry 1. If you edit that style, in the Paragraph section, you'll see a First Line Indent of .25 inches, and a Left Indent of .25 inches. Increasing the Left Indent should do what you want (but I don't have time to test that right now).

[thetasig]

Walt - thanks for your help. I tried your suggestions.

And it worked. Many thanks.

Now if Serif will just fix the splitting of single page numbers across two lines, line-leading commas and spaces, then it will be nearly ideal. (Separate bugs have been submitted already.)

[thetasig]

I am unable to find the "separate bugs" that I originally opened. I'd like to repeat some of the content here.

@Pauls originally found the problem. The spaces between the page numbers in the index are automatically generated non-breaking spaces - so they wrap around in very non-standard ways. To get non-breaking spaces, you have to select the index, then show special characters and copy one of the non-breaking spaces. Using find/replace you can replace the non-breaking spaces with a standard "space bar" space. This corrects the non-breaking problem of page numbers in the index.

After making those changes, you will always get a warning when you attempt to save or export, print, etc.

I would hope that the developers will look at this and decide that a standard space is more desirable in the index creation process. Anyone else agree?