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No need to apologize for a detailed response. It makes it much easier to help you.
I need to preface what I say in that this is my preferred workflow for manually doing an index. There are some folks around here who are quite adept at scripting/automating parts or all of this process, with varying degrees of success. Let's use your example of "rowboat" to illustrate the process:
Open all InDesign document(s) which comprise the book. Hopefully you've already compiled the document(s) into an I
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Hi Dan:
It's how you set up the index entry. Be sure that each occurence of the word Rowboat is set to Type: Current Page. This will produce a page number followed by a comma on each page where the word is referenced.
This is the default so if you're getting an actual page range (i.e., 56–62), then the Type is not set to Current Page.
~Barb
No need to apologize for a detailed response. It makes it much easier to help you.
I need to preface what I say in that this is my preferred workflow for manually doing an index. There are some folks around here who are quite adept at scripting/automating parts or all of this process, with varying degrees of success. Let's use your example of "rowboat" to illustrate the process:
Open all InDesign document(s) which comprise the book. Hopefully you've already compiled the document(s) into an InDesign book document (.indb file). It eats a lot of computer power, but it makes the search/indexing process much easier in the long run. If you haven't compiled the documents into an .indb book file, you can learn more about it here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/creating-book-files.html. This will be one of many aspects of producing your book which will be made much easier by working with smaller InDesign document .indd files and compiling the whole lot with and InDesign .indb book file.
- Go to the first page of the first document listed in the book file. Get your Text tool and click to place the cursor in the first word of the document. You want to do this for each word or phrase you search. Some may tell you this isn't necessary, because you can start a search from anywhere in the document file(s). But I find it pays dividends to start from the Foreword on so I have to only go through the document sequence once. Starting from the middle of the book sequence practically guarantees you'll end up cycling through the sequence multiple times because you've forgotten exactly where you started.
- Go to the Window>Type & Tables>Index menu command to open the Index panel. This will let you see each entry you make as you set up your index. In this instance, make sure the Reference radio button at the top of the panel is selected.
- Select the Edit>Find/Change... menu command. The keyboard shortcut is Cmd/Ctrl+F, depending on whether you're using a Mac or a Windows PC, respectively. Get familiar with the keyboard shortcuts; they'll speed the process dramatically and provide more benefit the more times you search for each index entry.
Type in the word you're searching for in the Find what: options box, and change the Search: options box to read All Documents. You'll notice that I typed Rowboat with an initial capital letter. This tells InDesign to search all open documents in the application for the word "Rowboat." So you'll only have to do this once/twice (more on that later).
Click the Find Next button, which will take you to the first instance of Rowboat in your open document(s). Double-click in the word with your Text tool to highlight the entire word, then go to the select the Index Flyaway menu (the three lines at the top-right of the panel and select the New Page Reference... flyaway menu command. The keyboard shortcut for that command is Cmd/Ctrl+7. Again, you'll want to memorize that keyboard shortcut quickly; it'll make life a lot easier.
This opens the New Page Reference dialog box. If you double-clicked into the first instance of Rowboat before using the keyboard shortcut, that will be the word highlighted in the Topic Levels: 1 edit box. Which makes life a lot easier. Change the initial cap R to a lower-case r to make a common-noun reference in the index. Then highlight the entire word again and use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy it. You can either click the OK button or press the Return/Enter button, depending on whether you're on a Mac or PC to make the index entry and close the New Page Reference dialog box. That's the first index entry for rowboat. Note the difference in capitalization for the index reference. It's important.
- Go back to the Find/Change dialog box. Click the Find Next button to be taken to the second instance of Rowboat, if there is one. If there is, double-click on the word to highlight it and press Cmd/Ctrl+7 to open the New Page Reference dialog box. The word Rowboat will be highlighted in the Topic Levels: 1 edit box. Press Cmd/Ctrl+V to replace it with rowboat. Press the Return/Enter key to close the dialog and make your second index reference for rowboat. Lather/Rinse/Repeat this step until you retern to the first reference in your book sequence.
- Now, to find the lower-case instances. Go back to the Find/Change dialog and replace the Rowboat initial cap R with a lower-case r and make it rowboat. Repeat the process as necessary to get every instance of rowboat in the book sequence, because InDesign reads the initial cap and lower case instances as different words as you search for them. Since we're starting with the word rowboat now, we can dispense with the Cmd/Ctrl+V substitution part of the process. That's something, I guess. If you're dealing with a proper noun with capitalization, you won't have to search twice, but if the author has capitalization issues, doing it anyway will be a quick way to proof the work for un-capitalized instance(s) quickly.
This ain't easy. In fact, it's hard, exacting work. But the more you do it, the quicker it goes. And to save myself from repetitive stress injuries, I use a cycle of one hour on, one hour off to keep from hurting myself. Let your conscience — and your hand cramps — be your guide.
Unless you find someone who's develooped the magic script to make this work flawlessly, I'm afraid this is about as good as it gets.
Good luck,
Randy
Randy
Is there a reason why you are using such a compex process, when you could find the first instance, and then use Add All to pick up every instacne of your highlighed word?
In this instance, I put the word on four pages, started the reference for the first one, and used Add All to index all of them with one click.
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