Seeking best way to correct an index

[Nedlaw]

Is there a way to click an entry/page number in a generated InDesign index and go to the page/marker that created the entry?

I'm proofreading a 10-page index for a long InDesign book (60 doc files). The index generated correctly. However -- as with all proofreading -- I'm seeing small inconsistencies in how I phrased various topics and subtopics. I need to correct them.

I realize that I have to open the page where the original index marker was put in order to make the change. In olden times, when I worked every day with FrameMaker, I could click the index citation and it would open the correct file and take me right to the marker for correction. InDesign does not seem to do this with a generated index; the generated index appears to be inert -- you can't even click in it to verify a style. At least I haven't found the right method, yet.

With Frame, the ability to click in the index and go to the marker made correcting an index almost a pleasure. (Well, it was still detail work.) Is there an equivalent methodology in InDesign, or do I have to look up the indexed page by number in the files list and then search for the index marker manually?

Thanks for any help.

-J

[Derek Cross]

Might be worth having a look at this: LiveIndex | Id-Extras.com

[Obi-wan Kenobi]

Hi Derek! Sorry but nothing to see with Ned's question.

Imho, a cool way to basically correct an index is of course to play with the Index panel!

… But other complementary ways could be cool too as, e.g. find "all the entries" containing "Derek Cross" and changing them with "Obi-wan Kenobi"!  =D  , create simply in 1 click "sub-entries" or apply char styles in the Index that we don't loose after each index generation! …

Seriously! … Everybody knows I'm always serious when I talk about InDesign! 

(^/)

[Nedlaw · Accepted solution]

I'll answer my own question, because I think that answer is non-intuitive (and I was also able to answer an unanswered question from 2012. Tough wait, that. The generated index is more-or-less inert (unlike in Frame). Instead, the preview panel of the Index window holds the index, and you can click the various entries to change them there. HOWEVER, the Index window only shows index entries from book files that are open on the desktop. Thus, if you have only the generated index pages open (as I did), you're not going to have easy access to the index entries that comprise it. I will note for the Adobe programmers that clicking in the preview pane of the Index window opens the Page Reference Options dialog, but does not display the -- mandatory open, remember -- file where the marker resides (and so, I do not immediately have recourse to the context of the entry, only the entry per se.)

I suppose this makes sense for someone preparing a 1200-page history book, where it's unlikely that entries for the Black Death (see Death, Black) will appear alongside entries for Architecture, Prairie Style. You can safely index that history book in sections. Indexing an API, on the other hand, may need the same calls referenced throughout the book, so all the book files... all 60 or 70 or so... would need to be open at the same time to allow access to all the index entries.

-j