Creating an Index based on Character Styles?

[Tuuluuwag]

Firstly, I need to get much better in InDesign. But, I am trying. 

I have a product catalog. It's 300 pages. 

There is a specific character style that has been created, and the 7,000 + part numbers are all within that character style. I am trying to generate an Index that I can paste into a Word document or Excel file that a client can use to check against their part database. That index needs to have:

Part Number - Page Number

The part numbers vary in complexity from a simple term like HB, all the way to TX-005-007-HB.

I understand that Indesign doesn't support a way to create a TOC using Character styles. So I thought that maybe an Index would work better, but I seem to have a handicap when it comes to these things. 

Any insight would be extremely helpful.

All those part numbers are currently in a Character style only used by those part numbers.  

[Jean-Claude Tremblay · Accepted solution]

Hello!

You can probably do it that way. Give it a try.

1. Create a GREP find/change query using .+ plus the format of your character style
2. Save that Query
3. Use Peter Kahrel GREP Query Manager script to find your save GREP Query, BUT instead of doing a change, you enable  the [Collect Found Items] and [Add Page Numbers] options. This will produce a new InDesign document with your Products SKu and page numbers sorted.

https://creativepro.com/files/kahrel/indesign/grep_query_manager.html

[Tuuluuwag · Accepted solution]

Jean-Claude,

Thank you for the post! I have tried it without success - but I can assume it's something I have done and not your instructions. I am still learning the GREP process, so this is all somewhat new to me. 

I have attached an image of what I put into the query, but when i Execute the query in the GREP query manager, I get a new document with an empty text box. Any thoughts?

Thanks again

[Jean-Claude Tremblay]

Nothing wrong in your settings and query. Strange. It works here.

[Jean-Claude Tremblay]

@Tuuluuwag Check your private message. 

[Tuuluuwag]

You managed to solve this! It was the Script in my User - not Application. Once I changed that, We were back on track! 

Thanks again Jean-Claude!

[OliverHevvy]

I just found this, and tried it. I have a book with 30 or so files. In most of the files there are part numbers, and I have applied the V-PartNumber char style to each. The grep query is .+V-PartNumber. When I run the script, wiht collect found items and add page numbers selected, it appears to work - it creates a new InDesign document, but it is empty. The script is in my Application scripts folder. I'm running the latest version of InDesign, 18.2.1 on Windows 10.

Any suggestions?

[Peter Kahrel]

Try using .+ instead, as Jean-Claude suggested in hist post earlier.