Forum Discussion
The index in my Word document has duplicate entries
I'm trying to index a 243 page document. I selected words that I would like to appear in the index, then presses Alt Shift X to create an index entry field, then Mark All to index every occurrence o...
Mark All is a very crude tool and likely to give you a barely useful index, if at all useful. IMO, there is really no good substitute for manually marking. It is almost never that the reader really wants to be able to find all instances of a term.
"But the end result is that you have every term indexed at EVERY place it occurs. Most of the mentions of a term in a book are simply passing references: what the reader wants to see in the index is only one page number; the one that contains the main topic for the term. If you send them on a wild goose chase to 20 other places first, they will think most unkindly of you." John McGhie How Do I Create an Index in Word?
Thank you for your help, I will use your input if I ever have to index another Word document.
In this particular instance I was trying to bring the existing index up to date. The original book is in the public domain and its index reflects the religious and class beliefs of the early 20th century. It references vicars, bishops, lords and public officials, but doesn’t mention the ordinary people who played an important role in the history of my home town. Their bravery saved the lives and property of many people who were shipwrecked in The Downs.
Mark All was used to find every reference to these people, and significant places. I then edited the index, but as I said in my original post, there were many duplicate entries. This has not been satisfactorily explained.
In this particular instance I was trying to bring the existing index up to date. The original book is in the public domain and its index reflects the religious and class beliefs of the early 20th century. It references vicars, bishops, lords and public officials, but doesn’t mention the ordinary people who played an important role in the history of my home town. Their bravery saved the lives and property of many people who were shipwrecked in The Downs.
Mark All was used to find every reference to these people, and significant places. I then edited the index, but as I said in my original post, there were many duplicate entries. This has not been satisfactorily explained.
