Inspiring

Question

Short name in wrong place in index

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
December 18, 2018
2 replies
1480 views

I am using InDesign CC 14.0.1 x63 in Windows 10.

I have an index for the back of my book that is built from single lines of text at the start of each story. Each line starts with the author surname which should be in alphabetical order and, mostly, this is working fine. But I note that when the surname is very short as in the graphic placed here the names are not in order. I have found extensive text about this issue from back in 2010 but nothing that would fix this problem for me.

Li should be before Libeau.

Any help appreciated

This topic has been closed for replies.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Dick:

Are you generating an InDesign index from markers added to the document?

Or is this a list of paragraphs in alphabetical order generated using the Table of Contents dialog box?

Or, none of the above?

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

D

dickveitchAuthor

Inspiring

It is a list of paragraphs in alphabetical order generated using the Table of Contents dialog box. The paragraphs are created from the author names (with surname first) and item title combined and given a specific paragraph style. The index is then all paragraphs with that style. In the Table of Contents dialog box I ticked the box to sort them alphabetically - but it does not get them right for this one short name.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Ok, an InDesign index has the option to control the sort order, and alphabetical list of paragraphs does not.

I agree that Li should precede Libeau. Now what version are you using? I'm on 14.0.1 and that isn't happening to me.

Source doc:

Result:

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Peter Kahrel

Community Expert

When you set the sort-by string of 'Li, J.' to just 'Li', the name is sorted correctly.

D

dickveitchAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks. That makes it look like you know what you are doing but does little to help me.

I have created an index by naming a style and there it is. How does one set a sort-by string? If I do it for this entry then do I have to do the same for all other entries - about 140 of them.

Peter Kahrel

Community Expert

To set a sort-by string, go to the Index panel and double-click the Liu entry. That opens the Topic Options window, you'll see the 'Sort By' field next to Liu. Type 'Liu' there. In the Index panel you can see how the index sorts, and you can change any topic names that sort incorrectly.

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