Combining index entries

[robins62901941]

INDESIGN 14.02

Hi all,

I'm indexing a book, and running up against what I'm sure is a very common and obvious problem - to which I can't find the common and obvious answer; abbreviations vs. the phrases they represent, and plural / singular versions of words.

The book is on the use of multivariate statistics. As an example, the phrase Principal Component Analysis, and its abbreviation PCA, both occur frequently, and I'd like to index them. I can make a separate index entry for each, thus:

PCA - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

Principal Component Analysis - 2, 4, 6, 8, 10

but what I'd really like is:

PCA - See Principal Component Analysis

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

If I simply add PCA as a "See" entry, I risk missing out pages where 'PCA' occurs, but 'Principal Component Analysis' doesn't. So, how do I take the two entries, and combine them under a single entry?

As another example, the word 'eigenvalue' occurs, legitimately, as singular and plural, capitalised and lower case versions. By adding the plural as a cross-reference, I can create:

eigenvalue  19, 21, 26, 37, 42, 114, 115. See also eigenvalues

eigenvalues  19, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, 37, 42, 43, 46, 106, 114, 115, 116, 120
- but that looks messy. So, again, how can I take the 4 variant entries and combine them?

eigenvalue(s) - 19, 20, 21, 24...

I'm sure I'm missing something very obvious...

[vinny38 · Accepted solution]

Hi

Just rename topic names ("PCA" and "Principal Component Analysis")  with the same name ("Principal Component Analysis (PCA)").

Index will merge accordingly.

A picture is worth a thousand words:

[FRIdNGE]

Salut Vincent! ! Sûr que dans un tel index à 6 entrées c’est l’approche la plus ... pertinente !

[vinny38]

Salut Michel

Disons qu'il s'agit de la solution "no-script" de base.

(Et je suis également parti du principe que les entrées étaient déjà indexées, ce qui n'est peut-être pas le cas...)

Après évidemment, gérer l'ensemble des pluriels et des casses des entrées d'un ouvrage à la main... c'est l'horreur.

Je vois bien que tu veux suggérer un bon vieux script pour gérer ça, et tu as très certainement raison ^^

N'hésite pas à nous en dire plus

[FRIdNGE]

Une entrée d’index est définie par son “contenu” ! Avant même sa “representation” !

... Ce qui signifie qu’elle et ses petites copines peuvent être manipulées, entre autres, avec Grep et des patterns comme par exemple gérer les pluriels ou les casses !

Ce que tu fais donc manuellement dans ton ex. peut être systématisé via un script épluchant les “contenus” et modifiant les entrées “à la source” !

[robins62901941]

A very good point, thank you. For the moment, (1) I'm not particularly familiar with GREP, so it may take as long to become familiar with it, as it would to do the amendments by hand, and (2) doing it by hand forces me to think about the structure of the index, which are the best key words, etc etc.

But, thanks again for the suggestion; in the long term it is obviously better, and I will try it, as an educational experience, if nothing else.

[robins59808416]

vinny38, that's perfect; problem solved. Many thanks!
Robin

[deboraht43520393]

Thank you!
If only there's a visual like this tackling how to do subentries. That would be very much appreciated.