indexing plug-ins for Word

[Mark Pavlick]

List members:

I've been told that there are plug-ins for MS word for the Mac
which are fairly good at indexing long documents. I don't see these
plug-ins on the MS site, nor on a Google search. I'd appreciate any
help with this inquiry, thanks in advance.
I work with MS Office 2004 on a Mac running OS 10.4.11.

- Mark Pavlick

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Mark,

Where did you hear this? I don't think I know of recommended index
plug-ins for either Mac or Win Word.

Word has built-in features that will find and mark every occurrence of a
list of words you give it, and generate an alphabetical list of the page
numbers where words appear, but you'll have to do some fine-tuning on
that to arrive at a quality index.

More info here (written for WinWord, but same principles apply, keyboard
shortcuts may require tweaking, can return here with more specific
questions)
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=209
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/Createindex.htm

Note: Word does NOT create a hyperlinked index.

PS. Compilation of links for long documents in Word here
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm

 

[the3rdParty]

Mark

I have only made indexes with fairly short docs (100 pages or less)
and use a concordance file to automatically mark the items to go in
the index.

This usually works quite well, and is already in Word 2004 (no plug in
required). 'Help' will guide you through the process. If this isnt
enough for what you want post back with more details

JW

 

[CyberTaz]

As an extension to JW's mention of concordance files...

I've had success with them myself but there is a potential for problems. If
you do go that route, the index should not be generated until virtually
everything else in the document has been completed. IOW, if you keep
revising the document & updating/regenerating the index it can get quite
messy. Revise the index content as necessary in the concordance file before
creating the index in the document.

Also, if you're using Track Changes it's a good idea to Accept/Reject all
changes & turn Track Changes of before creating the index.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Mark Pavlick]

As an extension to JW's mention of concordance files...

I've had success with them myself but there is a potential for problems. If
you do go that route, the index should not be generated until virtually
everything else in the document has been completed. IOW, if you keep
revising the document & updating/regenerating the index it can get quite
messy. Revise the index content as necessary in the concordance file before
creating the index in the document.

Also, if you're using Track Changes it's a good idea to Accept/Reject all
changes & turn Track Changes of before creating the index.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Daiya, JW, CyberTaz,

Thanks very much for all of your advice, very helpful.

- Mark Pavlick