Disappearing Index

[organrambo]

I made an Index for a book with 11 chapters some weeks ago. Now it has disappeared. The list of topics is still there, but all the markers are gone. There were dozens and I don't wamt to remake it. What happened? Can I recover the reference marks from the Index?

[Randy Hagan]

To confirm that the entries are there:

1. Open the Index panel
2. Click the right-pointing chevron for the letter corresponding to an index entry — in the example at right, chicken pieces.
3. Below that you will see the reference, with another right-pointing chevron. Click on it and you should see the page(s) for that reference. If you see page numbers, you have index reference(s).

That lets you know whether you have page references or not. If you want to see that page reference, find the text on your page that's referenced, place your cursor inside the words for the reference and select the Edit>Edit in Story Editor menu command. As shown in the illustration at right, if you can see the little thunderbird-lookin' icon at the left of the highlighed text, you can see but not open or edit, the reference through Story Editor.

If you have both the index reference page on the Index panel, and the marked index entry in your Story Editor, you have the materials to generate an index with InDesign. You just need to go to the three lines at the upper-right of the Index panel, known as the flyaway menu, select the Generate Index... menu command. Be sure to select the Include Book Documents check box and point to your InDesign book file (.indb) to build an index using all the documents in your book if you're using multiple files.

Let us know what you have got — and what you don't — of these indexing markers for your book and we can better help you get past your issues here.

Hope this helps,

Randy