Indexing Issues in InDesign: Tags Misalignment in Long Documents

[petervogkhaire]

One of InDesign's few persistent serious bugs affects indexing large numbers of occurrences of a word in long documents. The first few occurrences are tagged perfectly, to the immediate left of the first letter of the word, but from then on the tags start getting placed further and further to the right of this position. After a while the tags land up in the word following the one to be indexed, then the word after that, and so on. The rightward drift gets worse and worse with every occurrence, even going into the paragraph after the word to be indexed. All the obvious workarounds I have tried are annoyingly time-consuming.
I am very angry that Adobe deducts money from my bank account every month supposedly to finance ongoing development and bug-fixing, yet this serious bug has never been attended to.
It seems unlikely there is a workaround that actually saves time instead of wasting it. The only real solution would be for Adobe to finally correct their own very annoying programming error.

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[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you post a screenshot? 

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @petervogkhaire,  

Were you able to capture a screenshot or gather more details about the issue? This can help us better understand the indexing behavior you're encountering. Additionally, could you let us know if the issue persists in a specific document or across multiple files? We’re here to assist in narrowing down the problem!  

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao

[petervogkhaire]

Hello, Abhishek Rao,

Thank you very much for contacting me!

I have not produced a screenshot yet, because I manually correct the dozens of cases that appear in each book so have none to show. I could easily simulate the problem but I am inundated with work and have not had time to do this.

An important point: I forgot to say that the problem arises when the ADD ALL option is chosen. There is no problem if each word is indexed individually.

And the problem only occurs if the word to be indexed appears at least 20 times in the book.

Even without a screenshot, the problem is easy to describe. When you index a word, InDesign places a little tag called an index marker next to the word. The index marker contains all the information needed for the index entry for that particular word. Its position is crucial for accurate indexing. If you choose the ADD ALL option, InDesign goes through the whole document, finding all the occurrences of the same word and inserting index markers. These markers should all go just before the word, but the bug I am talking about results in the markers being placed further and further away from the word – the distance from the word increases with the number of times the word is used in the book. The index markers end up so far from the word that it is sometimes difficult to work out which word they should go next to.

This is a very serious bug. I get the feeling it may have quite a straightforward cause and thus be easy to fix, but clearly Adobe is either unaware of it or is not prepared to spend any money on it. This enrages me: they force users to pay every month, which must bring in torrential quantities of money. I resent paying every month for extra features I do not want while a basic programming mistake like this remains uncorrected.

To answer your question: I have encountered this problem in many books over the past 10 years or so. In each case it is a document with between 300 and 400 pages.

If each chapter in the book is a separate story, the problem is much less acute, but most of the books I typeset need to be one long story.

I hope this helps.


Best wishes,
Peter

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[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @petervogkhaire,

Thank you for your detailed response and for clarifying the issue further-this information is very helpful. I understand how frustrating this can be, especially when working on large, complex books with tight deadlines.

From your explanation, it seems the issue arises specifically when using the ADD ALL option, particularly in long documents with numerous occurrences of the indexed word. This insight is crucial and will help in narrowing down potential causes of the issue.

To assist further:

1. Could you share which version of InDesign and operating system you’re currently using? 
2. While I completely understand the time constraints, if you manage to simulate this issue in a smaller test file and share it (or even a simple outline of steps), it would be a tremendous help in diagnosing the bug.
3. Have you considered splitting the document into multiple smaller files or using separate stories for chapters? While it’s not ideal, this could reduce the severity of the issue as you’ve noted.

Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to explain this thoroughly. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any additional details or need further assistance!

Best,
Abhishek Rao

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Abhishek Rao

It doesn't have to be 100 pages document - 2x pages of text with a few tables - and it goes high-wire.

[petervogkhaire]

Hello, Abhishek Rao,

Thank you very much for getting back to me. I appreciate it.

Unfortunately I am struggling with a very heavy workload, and cannot deal with the indexing problem right now. I will return to it as soon as I have some time. Please accept my apology for this situation.


Best wishes,
Peter

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[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@petervogkhaire

Please check this thread: 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/crazy-bug-with-index-entry/m-p/15000142#M599060 

[petervogkhaire]

Hello, Robert,

I looked at your post but I’m sorry to say I don’t think it addresses my specific problem, which is unrelated to indexing words in tables, and I don’t use a script, just the set-up InDesign provides.

Maybe your post will be helpful for some other people.


Best wishes,
Peter

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[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@petervogkhaire

Adding each occurrence individually works fine in UI - only if you click ADD ALL it will go high-wire.

It's not about indexing words in Tables - the problem with shifted index markers is because of Tables. 

Using free script - or not free my ID-Tasker - with the fix I've found - will add index markers correctly. 

[petervogkhaire]

Thank you very much for your helpful reply!

Can you tell me how I can get your script?

And I might be interested in what you call your ID-Tasker. Can you send me information about it?


Best wishes,
Peter

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