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Sheri2's avatar
Sheri2
Copper Contributor
Apr 05, 2026

Index not formatting correctly when using the Latin Symbol small letter "e" with acute

Hi, I'm writing a document with Latin based names that require symbols and creating an index.  I am having trouble with the index in regards to the name "Vélez."  It gives multiple entries instead of...
Jamony's avatar
Jamony
MCT
Jul 17, 2026

Your result suggests two Unicode forms of é: one precomposed character versus e plus a combining acute accent. They look identical, but Word may see different XE text and create separate index entries.

 

Choose Home > Show/Hide to reveal the XE fields. Compare the text inside quotation marks in every affected { XE "Vélez" } field, including capitalization, spaces, and subentries. Copy one correct Vélez spelling from one source and paste the main-entry text into every field; avoid retyping it. If there are many occurrences, delete the affected XE fields and use References > Mark Entry > Mark All from one normalized spelling.

 

Then select the generated index and choose References > Update Index, or press F9. If duplicates remain, compare the suspect forms in a Unicode-aware editor and reinsert the same canonical text. Save a backup first. Replacing é with e only masks the mismatch and loses the spelling.