Building An Index In Word: How The Experts Do It

[@conwaybown1959]

Probably the best video I've seen on indexing. I was going to make a comment on how fast you talk (I'm Australian so I could understand it but I have spent a lot of time in the US and know to slow down my speech), but I note that some people have already mentioned it. Nevertheless, this video was extremely helpful. Cheers, mate!

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Conway. You actually picked up my 'old' Index video. I recently updated and expanded them (with a slower voice). Here are the links: Part 1 (Mark and Index): kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGWvXqCFqtJ1q7s Part 2 (Concordance): kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJ-8iKCcramCl8k Part 3 (Formatting): kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5mqZpaQe9qSpNE Enjoy. Jason (from the Gold Coast)

[@conwaybown1959]

@@JasonMorrell Thanks mate. I'll check it out. I'm currently finishing a text book that I wrote (it started out as a handbook of 60,000 words... now it's a textbook of 110,000 words) so I thought I'd better put in a professional looking index and TOC. Your video was very good, so I look forward to your updated one. Cheers!

[@mohamedalmosly3170]

Thank you so much for this excellent video. I am preparing an index for my PhD thesis and this video saved me many days of boring work!!

[@JasonMorrell]

You're very welcome Riyad!

[@marcdefaoite]

Thanks a million. I had a separate word document with all my index terms (thousands). I chose it in the same way you added the concordance file and it built the index from it. Literally saved me a week's work.

[@JasonMorrell]

Fantastic success story Marc. Thank you for sharing.

[@marcdefaoite]

@@JasonMorrell I will mention though that when using this method it fails to include and entries with commas for some reason. For example if 'Smith, John' is one of your index terms it won't appear in the index. My workaround was to use 'find and replace' to remove all commas from my list. Save that comma-free list as a new doc. Use the new doc to compile the index Refer to the original list and add the commas back in to the relevant index terms one by one where needed.

[@JasonMorrell]

I'm glad you found a workaround. And thanks for sharing again - this could be useful for somebody else in the same situation.

[@AndyWicks]

I'm trying to index a large document. You have literally saved me days!!! Thank you and thumbs up. :-)

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Andy. I'm glad you found it useful. Being an online educator yourself, it's nice when you hear that you've hit the mark!

[@joan-mariacbrooks]

Thank you for this; we have had issues with Indexing and Cross-Referencing so now I have a way to handle it. (I live in the US and have no problem understanding you. But I also work with a lot of international attorneys, which has probably given me an edge to understanding different accents.)

[@JasonMorrell]

Joan, I'm glad you could understand me. Many people say I speak too fast and my accent is a bit of a hybrid! These 3 videos are more recent and cover indexing in a bit more detail: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGWvXqCFqtJ1q7s - building an index using mark and index kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJ-8iKCcramCl8k - building an index using a concordance kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5mqZpaQe9qSpNE - formatting an index Jason

[@kristenj2009]

Very helpful

[@JasonMorrell]

Thank you

[@GuruprasadNH]

Good, thanks for video tutorials.

[@abrahamj2691]

Thank you so much for these videos. You are really good at explaining and is very straight to the point. Appreciate that very much. I don't know why people disliked your video. Good job and keep it up.

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Abraham. My aim is to keep things simple and to-the-point. Mission accomplished. Thanks for your affirming comment. Stay safe and healthy, Jason

[@mosama22]

Man you really talk too fast, I live in the US, & you speak too fast for me :-)

[@JasonMorrell]

Fair enough. Enjoy the rest of your holidays.

[@chitsey92]

Just slow it down, I'm finding 0.75 speed being the perfect pace

[@Rainstorm121]

He wants to be your history teacher :)

[@charlesabela9661]

Very well explained. Will certainly listen to it again and will use it for a book I am writing.

[@JasonMorrell]

Thank you Charles. Encouraging words.

[@tkthorne9526]

For Mac Word users with issues adding stuff after End Notes, here are O2RIV's instructions translated into Word for Mac (specifically ver. 10.15.6): HOW TO ADD MATERIAL (INDEX AND BIBLIOGRAPHY) AFTER AN END NOTES: 1. Insert Page Break after last material before End Notes. 2. Create new section by inserting a Continuous Page Break, adding a few spaces and then Insert another Continuous Page break. [The area between these CPBs is the "New Section." 3. Position cursor IN the New Section. 4. Open Footnotes options [Insert -> Footnotes] 5. In the Footnotes options, choose ENDNOTES option and END OF SECTION. Set numbering to CONTINUOUS. Apply to WHOLE DOCUMENT. Click APPLY. 6. With cursor still in the same place, go to Layout->Margins-Custom. In options box check SUPPRESS ENDNOTES. Select APPLY TO WHOLE DOCUMENT. 7. With cursor still in the same place, go again to Layout->Margins-Custom. In options box clear the Suppress Endnotes box. Choose APPLY TO THIS SECTION. This apparently keeps the EndNotes suppressed everywhere except the section you have contained it in and you can add whatever you want after it.

[@JasonMorrell]

👊

[@tkthorne9526]

@@JasonMorrell All is well. You can copy the index and paste it, so it can just be copied right into InDesign. Thank you again for all the help and quick responses.

[@DrMxy]

Nice, I imagine there's a little bit of you in a lot of books out there :)

[@JasonMorrell]

Maybe!

[@JennyJardin]

A link on how to create the table used for the concordance would be nice.

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Jenny. The concordance is just a simple table. 1) Go to the INSERT tab. 2) Click the TABLE icon. 3) Move your mouse pointer into the grid until you have 2 columns and as many rows as you need (you can add more rows later), then click. 4) In the left column, add the entries you wish to mark. 5) In the right column, add the entry you wish to appear in the index. For sub entries, separate the main entry from the sub entry with a colon (:). Be aware that the concordance table is case sensitive. To use the concordance file to generate the index: 1) Select the REFERENCES tab. 2) Click the INSERT INDEX icon. 3) Click the AUTOMARK button. 4) Locate and select the concordance file. Click OK. 5) Click the INSERT INDEX icon again. 6) Set your index options as required and click OK. I hope that helps. Here is a PDF cheat sheet for you. trst.com.au/cheat-sheet-word-index.pdf Jason

[@robtragerDC]

This is by far the best video on the topic, but I have one question - is there a way to get "Mark All" to avoid certain chunks of text, like a references or works cited list? What if those references have the index entries in their title? Thanks!

[@JasonMorrell]

The only approach that comes to mind is to us the FIND tool (Ctrl F) then FIND NEXT to locate each entry, then if it is not part of the reference table, MARK that entry. In other words, use FIND and MARK selectively instead of MARK ALL.

[@robtragerDC]

@@JasonMorrell Thank you!

[@hesoerus59]

Hi Jason. Thanks a lot for your quick response. Too bad; it seems it's a feature they should have. I will see if you what you recommended works for me.

[@JasonMorrell]

Yes, Word is buggy and many features are not intuitive, but it's the best we have. There s nothing else on the market that comes close to what Word offers..

[@hesoerus59]

@@JasonMorrell I agree.

[@davidmilstone1359]

How do I change Index page listings from individual page listings to a run (i.e. 4-9)?

[@JasonMorrell]

It's a bit of a faff and requires some manual intervention, but here is the method: 1. If the word or phrase you wish to index appears in page range 1-3 then first select all the text on pages 1-3. 2. On the Insert ribbon, click the Bookmark icon, type a name for the bookmark (spaces are not allowed) and click Add. 3. Press Alt Shift X (anywhere in the document) to display the Mark Index Entry dialog. 4. Type the word or phrase you wish to index into the Index Entry box. 5. Select the 'Page Range' option and select your bookmark name from the dropdown list. 6. Click Mark. You should see something like { XE "Index item" "Bookmark_Name" } in your document. 7. Generate or refresh your index. The index will show something like 'Index item ............. 1-3'. Let me know how you go.

[@uttaranerurkar6251]

Hi Jason. Thanks for the great info on indices. Really helped me. I had one more q: if I need to create two indices and am using a concordance file, how do I put '/f' switch in it, so that I don't have to go separately for each entry?

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Uttara. I assume you've tried right-clicking the Index and choosing "Toggle field codes" ... from there you can directly type in your \f switch. The longer way is to right-click the Index, choose Edit Field, then click the Edit Fields button, then the Options button. Let me know how you go.

[@uttaranerurkar6251]

@@JasonMorrell, thanks a lot for your response. I think I did not express myself clearly enough... I understand the /f switch. I want to add entries to a particular index from a concordance file. How can I achieve that without having to edit each entry manually?

[@JasonMorrell]

Ah, I understand. If the index phrases from both indices are intertwined throughout the document, then to my knowledge there is no way, using any method, that you can achieve what you need without manual intervention. If the first index refers to one section of the document and the second index refers to a separate section, then you could bookmark each section, then use the \b switch in the INDEX field to only index the entries in one bookmarked section. I don’t think this is what you're after, but though I'd mention it..

[@uttaranerurkar6251]

@@JasonMorrell thanks once again! Yes, I know about the bookmark bit, and no, that is not what I want. Your response confirms my suspicion. I think Microsoft needs to enhance its index facility and provide better help on it. All the switches are not even mentioned in the help or otherwise... Thanks once again for your time and help!

[@earthling1386]

Awesome job man! The concordance file looks tricky though

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks. Check out this updated video on how to build an index using a concordance file. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJ-8iKCcramCl8k

[@earthling1386]

@@JasonMorrell Thank you very much. Your channel is quality 👌

[@lpanades]

In the Concordance File if I put for example: "Format (Collumn 1); "Format" (collumn 2). "format" (collumn 1); "Format" (Collumn 2) "Formating" (collumn 1); "Format" (Collumn 2) It will index the "Formating" word on document to "Format" word on index. Ok. But if a write in another line "Formatting" (collumn 1) and "Formatting see Format" I will do a cross referencing or not? Thanks! Note: the "see…" part will be written in italic.

[@JasonMorrell]

Unfortunately you can’t cross reference using a concordance. However you can use a combination of manual marking (which allows cross referencing) and concordance (better for handling word forms).

[@deborahdibari9327]

Super - thank you

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Deborah.

[@alvinho4078]

very useful one, well done

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Alvin

[@chiashinhsu9997]

Hi, thanks for your great lesson. I have a question. I am the editor of a volume of collected essays. If I start out indexing individual chapters using Word, can I simply combine them later? Will the index columns automatically merge?

[@JasonMorrell]

By default, a Word index will pick up every marked entry in a document, which is good if you want a master index at the end of your compilation document. To create separate indexes at the end of each essay, select the entire essay and bookmark it. The Bookmark tool is found on the Insert ribbon. You cannot use spaces in the bookmark name. Then create the index for the essay and add a \b "bookmarkname" switch to the INDEX field. This will only index the area identified by the bookmark. Obviously, change bookmarkname to the bookmark name you entered. Let me know how you go.

[@hesoerus59]

Hi, I have a question. I'm building a concordance file (for names) in a book. I want to know if the concordance file allows you to ignore specific words, as well as add them. This would be very helpful with two people who have the same name, but at highly varying levels of frequency. For example, if I have two authors named, say, Michael Smith and John Smith, but the first is mentioned 10 times, while the other only once, I could simply mark the search term for the first one in the right column as Smith and add an exclusion for John Smith. As it is now, I have to go to each occurrence of the name and mark it separately based on words in its context. I have to do that because the names are hardly ever stated in full, except the the first time. They are usually mentioned only as last names only, e.g. "Smith says", "according to Smith", etc. I hope I managed to explain what the difficulty is.

[@JasonMorrell]

Tarek, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place! Word needs something unique to mark. To answer your question, you cannot exclude, you can only include. You could leave the Smiths out of the concordance then mark once to create { XE "Smith" } followed by a copy and selective paste for each correct Smith. But that becomes a nuisance to maintain down the track. Sorry I don't have a better solution. Jason

[@eimaanish]

Hello Jason, first of all thank you for your amazing video. Is it possible to get a glossary of acronyms in a table on a Word Document ? Greetings from Portugal

[@JasonMorrell]

You wouldn't really use an index for that purpose, as there are no speed advantages. Just create a 2 column table for each glossary item and its description. All the best.

[@bearshs]

Oh but thanks for showing me how to do the page range thing. I needed that badly. Thank you!

[@JasonMorrell]

No worries!

[@nicole-secondaryemail-mort9617]

For the left-column of the concordance file, do we need to replicate italicised and bold formatting from the original text for the words to be picked up? This was very helpful and easy to follow. Thank you! I love to watch brief video instructions before looking for more detailed writted instructions.

[@JasonMorrell]

No. the concordance entries need only be entered once and Word will pick up all formatting variations. I'm glad you found the video helpful.

[@nicole-secondaryemail-mort9617]

@@JasonMorrell Thank you!

[@joaoluisesquivel2810]

Great video. Thanks. 1st Q: Is it possible to include in the index words that are in figure or table's captions ? 2nd Q: Can you include TWO different indexes, like a regular index and a second of names, personalities, people, authors index?

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Joao. (1) Yes, when you choose Mark All, every occurrence of that word is marked whether in the main text or part of the caption text. (A better option for captions is to create a Table of Figures). (2) Yes, you can create two different indexes but there is some manual intervention involved. When you mark an entry, an XE field code is added. When you create an index, an INDEX fieldcode is added. Press CTRL+F9 ti display all field codes or Shift+F9 to display just one. Inside the closing brace of the XE field add \f "a". Inside the closing brace of the INDEX field add \f "a". a is an arbitrary name/letter. Use one for each group. Let me know how you go. Jason

[@joaoluisesquivel2810]

@@JasonMorrell Thanks for taking the time to answer. :)

[@harfaudiobooks]

@@JasonMorrell Do you know of a filmed tutorial of this? I tried and tried but couldn't do it. Thanks a lot!!

[@sarfendboy]

Many thanks - even a total technophobe like me could follow this!

[@JasonMorrell]

I'm glad it helped sarfendboy. Jason

[@jimmclaughlin8845]

Excellent training lesson. Very helpful and well organized!

[@JasonMorrell]

Cheers Jim. I appreciate your feedback.

[@doctordeej]

It kind of works, and this is MS Office not your advice, but it throws up stuff tat is not in the index document (the list of terms). It also doesn’t update properly. I think MS Office has a major fault somewhere along the line. reat video though, very helpful - if a title fast.

[@JasonMorrell]

If stuff is appearing in the index then it has been marked by you or somebody else. Do this ... 1. Position the cursor at the beginning of the document. 2. Turn on the Show/Hide (looks like a backward P) so you see the hidden formatting including the XE codes. 3. Open the Find dialog and type '^d XE' (without the quotes). This will find each occurrence of an XE field. 4. Work your way through until you find the erroneous inde entries and delete. I hope that helps.

[@johng5295]

Thanks in a million.You nailed it!

[@JasonMorrell]

Cheer John

[@grahamcailes3563]

Excellent material, thank you. I am compiling a master volume of documents, all of which have their own page numbers and line numbers for referencing. How does one deal with page numbering in an index (and ToC) please, where retaining the original page and line numbering is essential?

[@JasonMorrell]

Thank you for your compliment Graham. A TOC is built from existing styles in the document so line and page numbering are not affected. A INDEX is built from marked entries which insert XE fields throughout the document (which can be subsequently hidden) and therefore do not impact line and page numbering.

[@unlink1649]

My index for some reason does not use the whole width of the page and that despite setting Layout > Margins > Normal. There is a lot of dead space right of the index, and it aligns left.

[@JasonMorrell]

Check the paragraph settings of the Index1 and Index2 styles for left and right indentation and alignment. To see the styles in the list, first click the launcher in the bottom-right corner of the Styles gallery (or click the Styles Pane icon on Mac), then at the bottom of the pane, change the List dropdown to 'All Styles' and you'll find the Index styles towards the end of the list. If your index is displayed in two or more columns, you may also want to check the column settings (Layout ribbon, Columns icon, More Columns). Let me now how you go.

[@rorygerard1637]

Hi! I have created my index. Because of the addition space taken up by {XE etc} my 100 page document has increased in length. A page reference is given for that indexed item which does not correspond to the actual page when the {XE...} are deleted. Any ideas how I can avoid this problem? Grateful for any suggestions. Cheers!

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Rory. Just click the pilcrow (the backward P) in the Paragraph group of the Home ribbon. This hides all the hidden formatting and your page numbers should return to normal. Jason

[@rorygerard1637]

@@JasonMorrell Hi, Jason! I know this is a dumb question but where is the Paragraph group of the Home ribbon? It is ok. I found it. Thanks again, Jason, for your expertise and generosity to sharing your brains. If it is appropriate, I'll say a prayer for your intentions. Cheers!

[@JasonMorrell]

No worries Rory. I'm glad to help. Pray away. I appreciate it. Jason

[@tkthorne9526]

When building a list to use for the AutoMark, will it pick up the possessive of the name or do I need add that possibility? Example: If the name is "Smith" do I need to add "Smith's" to the list? Thanks!

[@JasonMorrell]

TK, Using the concordance method, put all word forms in the left column and link them all to a common entry in the right column, i.e. have two concordance entries 1. Smith --> Smith 2. Simth's --> Smith If you are marking index entries manually, then marking "Smith" will automatically add {XE} field entries for "Smith's" as well because "Smith" is a subset of "Smith's".

[@alt-enter237]

Nicely done! This was super helpful.

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks ALT-Enter. Appreciate your feedback.

[@tkthorne9526]

Hi, thanks so much for this. I have a question. I need to index after pages are set in a .pdf. I can convert the .pdf to a Word doc (keeping formatting) and build the index in Word, but I notice the addition of codes throughout the doc shifts the lines (because there are now more words per line). Will the index list the pages as they were BEFORE the insertion of codes or after?

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi TK. Click the pilcrow (backward P icon) on the Home ribbon to hide all the field codes. Then refresh your index and the page numbers should be correct. Jason

[@EudaemoniusMarkII]

Nice video. Very helpful. Thank you.

[@JasonMorrell]

Thanks Eidaemonius. Appreciate the comment. I'm glad it helped.

[@carolward1142]

Hi - me again (!) - is there any chance you could show how to align wonky alignments in numbering/bullets/sub paras etc when somehow some input just doesn't line up with the rest of the paras/document? many thanks

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Carol. While this question isn't connected to this video, let me provide a couple of suggestions. "Wonky" alignment often occurs because people are still using tabs, which in my opinion is an outdated tool and should be outlawed! To check whether tabs have been used on your document, if you go about half way along your Home ribbon and click the backward 'P' to turn on your hidden formatting, you'll probably see lots of small right arrows appear on your document. These are tabs. To fix them: 1. Make sure your rulers are switched on (via the View tab) 2. Click somewhere in the "wonky" line. On your ruler you will see a 'down' triangle, an 'up' triangle and a square block. You can drag each of these with your mouse. The down triangle marks the start position of the first line in the paragraph. The up triangle marks the start position of the second and subsequent lines. the square block moves both triangles as one. A better long term solution is to use borderless tables to control the positioning of one-off content, or alternatively, set the positioning up within the numbering and attach each numbering level to a style. There's a video for that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpbCoJVursmWb6c Good luck, Jason

[@carolward1142]

wow, thanks so much Jason! - will check this out :)

[@JasonMorrell]

You're welcome

[@dorotheaperzamani5626]

how can i change the alphabet that index uses? i am working on a language with special characters, so i need that one to be accurate

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Dorothea. I have no idea, I'm sorry.

[@alvinho4078]

@2RIV, is there a way that the "concordance file-generated" index updates itself like the list of figures does? normally, the table of figures updates when we right-click the figures and select the update field. But the concordance file-generated index does not have that features as i try it using your suggested method. Great method as i said in the earlier message but can you suggest a way to deal with updates?

[@JasonMorrell]

Try this: 1. Press Ctrl A to select the whole doc. 2. Press Ctrl H to display the Replace dialog (Edit > Find > Replace on Mac). 3. In the find box, type ^d XE. This searches for XE field codes. 4. Leave the Replace box empty. 5. Replace All 6. Delete and recreate the index. Updating the index is not as seamless as updating a table of contents or table of figures. The TOC creates an entry for each item in the document with a particular style and the TOF creates an entry for every image caption. Because the index is created by reading marked entries, there is more human intervention required. Anyway, I hope that solves your issue. It's still only about 10 seconds of work!

[@alvinho4078]

@@JasonMorrell thank you!

[@alvinho4078]

apparently in Microsoft 365 environment, the index is updated when you do a document-wide automatic update, just like table of content etc.

[@user-qn2ww1th9e]

Great explanations!. After you create the index, say you have an index at pages 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10; how to show them as 1-3, 6, 9-10? Thanks.

[@JasonMorrell]

The quick answer E 2011 is that is can't be done. Sorry.

[@user-qn2ww1th9e]

@@JasonMorrell Tx

[@JasonMorrell]

E 2011, I found a solution and thought I would post it here even though it is 4 months since you asked! 1. In the document, select the full range of text across each page in the range that you want to appear in the index (e.g all the text on pages 1-3). 2. On the Insert ribbon, click the Bookmark icon, type a valid name for the bookmark and click Add. 3. [Anywhere in the document] Press Alt Shift X to display the Mark Index Entry dialog. 4. Type a name for the index item. 5. Select the Page Range option and select your bookmark from the dropdown list. 6. Click Mark. You should see something like { XE "Index item" "Bookmark_Name" }. 7. Generate or refresh your index. The index should show something like Index item ............. 1-3. 8. For situations where an indexed item appears on pages 1-3 and 9-10, select all the text in the second page range and add a bookmark with the same name. When you refresh the index, BOTH page ranges appear in the index.

[@user-qn2ww1th9e]

@@JasonMorrell that's great. Thanks!!!!

[@BlackRockExecutive]

Hi. I am an EndNote user and I have incorporated unformatted citations in my document. For example, {Zhu, 2020, Efficient Organic Solar Cell with 16.88% Efficiency Enabled by Refined Acceptor Crystallization and Morphology with Improved Charge Transfer and Transport Properties}. The reason I want to leave it unformatted is because I only want to convert everything to formatted citation only once I finished writing the document, as any formatting may mess up the document. If the word I want to index is say 'Organic Solar Cell' (it is a phrase in the citation), how do I prevent microsoft word from capturing anything that is part of the citation?

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Chrissilverence. Thanks for your question. If you are importing citations from EndNote to Word, then they are treated as regular text and subject to inclusion when marking entries for your index. When using the Citation tools on the References ribbon, text in citation fields is NOT marked but text in the bibliography IS marked when preparing your index. It comes down to a matter of process. 1) Complete your document. Include citations if you want. 2) Mark your index entries manually or by using a concordance, then create your index. 3) Finally, insert your bibliography. 4) If, in the future, you need to re-index your document, remove the bibliography first, mark the new entries and refresh the index, then re-add the bibliography. I hope that's helpful. All the best. Jason

[@tkthorne9526]

I've already said thanks, but saying it again because this was so helpful. I have a large text document (history book) and I have End Notes. How do I get the index to come AFTER the End Notes? Word is not letting me put anything after the End Notes.

[@JasonMorrell]

TK, assuming you have multiple sections in your document and that the index is contained in it's own section you need to create a new section between the last content section and the index section, suppress all end notes up to that point and then show all the end notes all at once at the end of the new section. Here is the process to do that. Part 1 - Create the new section and set endnote settings 1. On the Layout ribbon, insert a NEXT PAGE section break between the last content section and the index section. 2. Position the cursor in the new section. 3. On the References ribbon, click the launcher in the Footnotes group (the small icon in the bottom-right corner) 4. In the Footnote and Endnote dialog, click the ENDNOTES radio button and choose END OF SECTION from the dropdown list. 5. A bit further down the dialog, set NUMBERING to CONTINUOUS and APPLY CHANGES TO to WHOLE DOCUMENT. 6. Click APPLY, then CANCEL to close the dialog. Part 2 - Suppress all endnotes for the entire document 7. On the Page Layout ribbon, click the launcher in the Page Setup group. 8. In the dialog, on the Layout tab, tick/check the SUPPRESS ENDNOTES check box. (This check box is only accessible if two conditions are met: (a) There are endnotes in your document and (b) endnotes are set to appear at the end of the section instead of the end of the document.) 9. Set APPLY TO to WHOLE DOCUMENT. Part 3 - Place all endnotes in the new section by un-suppressing them 10. Clear the SUPPRESS ENDNOTES checkbox. 11. Set APPLY TO to THIS SECTION. 12. Click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog. Let me know how you go, Jason

[@tkthorne9526]

@@JasonMorrell I followed this all the way to Part 3 and then got lost. How do I "place all Endnotes in the new section? The new section exists between the end of the document and the beginning of the Endnotes. How do I get the EndNotes "in" that section? [I trying following your directions literally and ended the Supress Endnotes in the newly created section, but that didn't seem to do anything about being able to add anything after the Endnotes and didn't seem to make sense to me. I must be missing something.]

[@JasonMorrell]

Gotya. Yes this is another example of Word playing weird. Here is the workaround. - Replace point 1 with 'On the Layout ribbon, insert a NEXT PAGE section break then a CONTINUOUS section break between the last content section and the index section.' - Before point 10, position the cursor before the CONTINUOUS section break. It should now work. For some reason, Word inserts all the suppressed endnotes into the next section. Go figure. I have placed a working example here if you want/need to refer to it. officemastery.com/example/Endnotes-all-together-at-end-of-document-but-before-index.docx Let me know if this has resolved your problem. Thanks TK.

[@tkthorne9526]

@@JasonMorrell Thanks, I will dig into this and see if I can make it work. Meanwhile, could you check the link you gave for an example. It isn't working for me.

[@JasonMorrell]

Sorry, I missed a hyphen which broke the link. The correct link is officemastery.com/example/Endnotes-all-together-at-end-of-document-but-before-index.docx

[@user-bi5iu1ks5z]

Great job! Hi, I would like to ask two things: a) If I want to change the detailsor contents (adding subentries etc) of the entry I highlighted, for example from apple to apples, how do I do it? b) why does it say sometimes that the content I highlighted cannot be found?

[@JasonMorrell]

First make sure the hidden formatting is turned on (click the backward 'P' on the Home ribbon). If you change a word that has already been marked, e.g. apple to apples, you will need to remark the fields. You can either do this manually or use the find and replace tool. To speed things up, press Ctrl F to display the Find dialog, then type ^d XE "apple". ^d searches for the open brace. This will locate each occurrence of a specific marked entry. If a marked entry occurs many times, press Ctrl H to display the Replace dialog. Type ^d XE "apple" into the Find What box and leave the Replace With box empty, then Replace All. This gives you a clean start so you can remark the entry correctly. Also FYI, Word only marks the first occurrence of an entry on each page. The best approach is to finalise your document THEN mark and create your index. That way, you only need to do it once. All the best. Let me know how you go. Jason

[@user-bi5iu1ks5z]

@@JasonMorrell Thank you Jason, you are an angel!

[@nasirahmad3653]

Thanks a lot i really appreciate well done.

[@JasonMorrell]

You are welcome Nasir. Jason

[@TheArrisya]

thank you so much.

[@JasonMorrell]

You're welcome Arrisya. I appreciate your comment. Have a fantastic day. Jason

[@bearshs]

I have the 13 version. It won’t let me select and change in the index. Anywhere else is fine.

[@JasonMorrell]

If formatting manually doesn't work, then use the styles method.

[@kaitlintonti5757]

I know this video is old -- but maybe someone will respond. I am trying to create subentries. I click on the main entry I want and then type in my subentry. The problem is I need multiple subentries and when I go back to add another under that main entry it says "no entry found." What do I do?

[@kaitlintonti5757]

To be clear - I don't want three levels of subentries - rather, I want the first main entry and then multiple ones below it that have their numbers associated.

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Kaitlin. To use an example where a document has occurrences of video games, video player, video camera and online video and you want an index entry that says 'video' with 4 sub-entries each with a page number. First, select the first phrase, e.g. 'video games' then in the Mark Entry dialog set Main Entry to 'video' and the subentry to 'games. Return to the document and repeat for each phrase, i.e. video player, video camera and online video. Then create your index. Let me know how you go.

[@philbeenhouwer356]

Pretty cool. Great presentation! However, I am trying to do something a bit different, which is to index entire sentences that contain certain words like a person (e.g., Phil, Rob) and also months of the year (e.g., December, March, etc.). Then, instead of an index that references the page numbers in the document, I just want all of the "Phil" sentences collected together in an Appendix, all of the "Rob" sentences collected together in another Appendix, and all of the by-month sentences collected together in another Appendix. So I have an appendix for Phil, one for Rob, one for December, and one for March. How the heck do I do that??

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Phil. Interesting question. You cannot do it with the indexing feature, but you can do it using find and replace, smart selection, fields and the Table of Contents feature, if you're clever about it. I have included a working example at trst.com.au/phil_and_rob.docm which does it with a macro. Open the document then press ALT F8 and run the 'Phil and Rob' macro or press ALT F11 to see the code. Here's how it works: 1. First, it clears down any existing TC or TOC codes in the document. 2. Find occurrences of each person (or month). 3. Find the beginning of that sentence, then select to the end of the sentence. 4. Insert a TC field code using the selected sentence and the switches \f and switches. The code generates this field: { TC "Whatever Phil's sentence is" \f P }. The P after \f is a marker for Phil. Rob's would say R, December would use D etc. You can choose whatever letters you like but they must be single letters and unique. The switch means don't include a page number or leader lines when the table of contents is built. 5. Create a TOC field that reads { TOC \f P }. This means create a Table of Contents based on TC fields with the \f switch equal to P (for Phil) or R (for Rob). Take a look at the code. You'll get the idea and you can clone it for the other items you mentioned. Click the Hidden formatting button on the Home ribbon and press ALT F9 to see the field codes. Let me know how you go. Cheers Phil. Jason

[@philbeenhouwer356]

@@JasonMorrell DAAAMN, that's awesome!! Just seeing it produce the TOC based on what you did with Phil and Rob is amazing. Wow. Now I just need to figure out how to edit your code, but it shouldn't be too hard since you used "Phil" and "Rob" as examples. Thank you sooo much. Total man-crush now. Over MS Word software code. Couldn't be much dorkier. Thank you!!

[@JasonMorrell]

@@philbeenhouwer356 Hey, I'm glad to help. I might even post a KZbin video at some point to run through the process for anyone else that might find it useful. Thanks for the opportunity to develop an interesting idea. Jason.

[@philbeenhouwer356]

@@JasonMorrell Jason: I'm still in awe over your solution. So cool. Since I am in grad school now, I am sensitive to plagiarism, documenting sources, and providing proper credit. So I would like to reference you if that's okay, and if that might help you in any way. Feel free to provide me with your name, website, etc. And thanks again!!

[@jasonmorrell253]

@@philbeenhouwer356 Sure thing. Here are some details: Jason Morrell Blog: officemastery.com Website: trst.com.au KZbin Channel: kzbin.info Twitter: twitter.com/_JasonMorrell

[@vishalturi1970]

how to order the entry page number-wise, It shows in a different order.

[@JasonMorrell]

Indexes are sorted alphabetically by marked entries. A Table of Contents will present content in page number order. Try that.

[@vishalturi1970]

@@JasonMorrell Thanks for your quick reply, I can see The Table of Contents tab but it is disabled not able to open it.

[@JasonMorrell]

@@vishalturi1970 Check the following: 1. Are you in the header or footer (you cannot access TOC from there). 2. Is you document Read Only? If so, enable editing. 3. Is the document yours or somebody else's. If the latter, it could be protected against changes. Can't think of another other reasons right now why your TOC tool is not accessible.

[@bearshs]

I would like my index (family history) to be 10 pt. I can’t figure out how to make it smaller than regular text. I am 81, please make it simple.

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi Leonard. You can either select the text and adjust it manually using the font size tool on the Home ribbon ... or for a more consistent finish you can modify the Index1/2/3 styles. This video shows you how: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5mqZpaQe9qSpNE

[@chrischien6023]

Do we seriously have to do capital letter and small letter for every single entry in the concordance table? That's wild... why would it be case sensitive!

[@JasonMorrell]

It's one of the things that Microsoft did right. If it wasn't case sensitive, it would save a bit of time but you would lose the flexibility and there would be heaps of people complaining! It's better to have the option than not.

[@neel6978]

I MADE AN INDEX AND I WANT TO UPDATE IT WHEN I'M TRYING TO DO THAT THE PREVIOUS UPDATE DISAPPEARS...IOT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ANNOYING IVE TRIED EVERYTHING

[@JasonMorrell]

An update to the index is supposed to replace the old index. Each time you update the index, it pulls in the latest items that are marked in your document or listed in your concordance. Could you describe your process and exactly what is is happening?

[@neel6978]

​@@JasonMorrell I'm working on my thesis there are some abbreviations I need t to have in my paper. but my main language is Farsi so I write the abbreviation which obviously is in English then I insert the Persian synonym in the cross-reference box. then I click on the mark and done. I wrote about 5 6 lines of it. and then I had to close it and open it again for some reason thus this action apparently made a gap between the two index lists. but in fact, I want to merge them like they have been one since the start. i wrote the second index in 8 lines and when I was finished with it I tried to merge them. i used update-index and insert index none of them works for me in the way i need. and there is a one-line width gap between them ... so I just filled it with another abbreviation I wrote manually so it LOOKS natural. It's gonna be fine but I wanna learn the correct way for my own knowledge since it's just a temporary solution. thx in advance

[@JasonMorrell]

Are you trying to create two indexes or one? If you only need one then delete the existing index and create a new one. Each time you create or update an index it will pull in all your marked entries. Review your XE entries to ensure there are no duplicate or old entries that are being picked up. To create a separate index for each section of a document, select each section, one at a time and bookmark it. The Bookmark tool is found on the Insert ribbon. You cannot use spaces in the bookmark name. Then create the index for the section and add a \b "yourbookmarkname" switch to the INDEX field. The index will then only contain XE entries from within that section. Check out these guides for more ideas: officemastery.com/word-index-using-mark-and-index/ officemastery.com/word-index-concordance/ Hopefully I've hit on something that will help you. All the best.

[@neel6978]

@@JasonMorrell I was trying to make one index. thx dear

[@CrimsonFan]

This is a help to understanding Word, but it's not how experts write an index for, let's say, a book. Experts don't use Word's functions at all - certainly not directly. They use specialized indexing software. Besides, indexing is a skill that has to be learned. There's software that can help, but understanding software is emphatically NOT the main challenge. Writing an index of any great length or complexity (at least, one that's any good) is painstaking work. If you need a high-quality index, but don't have time to learn what indexing really involves, you should consider hiring a professional indexer to do it. These organizations have lists of professional indexers: www.asindexing.org/ (USA), indexers.ca (Canada) www.indexers.org.uk (UK) www.anzsi.org (Aus/NZ).

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi CrimsonFan. I take your point. Some authors do. Some don't. There are many factors that determine the decision such as technical ability, budget, whether you're self-publishing etc. I appreciate your insight and links. Jason

[@davidronbrothers1764]

Having field codes named field codes, and cross reference in the concordance where you can't cross reference is both clever and very meta. However, it's also very confusing, and it's not clear what exactly you're doing. When you're showing an example for how to do something, choose realistic text that might actually be in a document. You don't want to (for example) make an index of every time "index" is used, or make a table of contents where several headers are called "table of contents." Very clever! Very confusing. Don't be clever. Be clear.

[@JasonMorrell]

Hi David & Ron Brothers. Thank you for your honest feedback and constructive comments. I'm currently in the process of re-recording several videos including this one, and I accept your points completely. While the aim of the video was solely to demonstrate the process of creating an index using 2 different methods, it was not my intention at all to try to be clever (I always try to keep things simple). I realised a few days after uploading that I had probably picked a dumb example to use and could have been smarter with my choice! Sorry for any confusion. Jason

[@zajamestillor2358]

Exactly my thoughts. Realistic texts should have been better.

[@zajamestillor2358]

@@JasonMorrell Your video could have been more helpful if you use realistic texts. I hope you will recreate this video for normal viewers who just want to learn and not be confused at the same time...