The index in my Word document has duplicate entries

[STeveF48]

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 of that word, or phrase.

For Example Deal Castle, would be indexed as Castles:Deal.

The index contains lots of duplicate entries and page numbers. e.g.:

Castles

Camber, 52, 86

Deal, 16

Deal, 3

Deal, 58

Deal, 95

Deal, 96

Dover, 96

Sandgate, 52, 53, 54, 55

Sandown, 3, 4, 5, 7, 40, 46, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 67, 70, 73, 75, 85, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95

The Three, 63

Walmer, 3, 5, 9, 15, 27, 53, 56, 58, 69, 70, 71, 74, 86, 92, 96

Castles

Walmer, 96

Castles

Walmer, 97

Castles

Deal, 97

Castles

Walmer, 100

Castles

Walmer, 100

Castles

Walmer, 101

Castles

Walmer, 101

Castles

Sandown, 102

How do I fix this so that each entry appears once on a page, grouped alphabetically, like a proper index?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[#2]

BTW
I have contacted MS Support, but they couldn't help. Repaired Office 365 twice (local and online), recreated the index too many times to count

[#3]

Hi @STeveF48 

Strange and frustrating, indeed. 

I find a very old thread about something similar - but no real solution (beyond editing the INDEX field).

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/index-page-duplicates/1524677a-24bc-4304-9641...

What I'd try is to make hidden characters visible (Ctrl+8)) and then find (Ctrl+F) through all XE entries to see if you see something strange. My first idea is trailing or leading spaces...

Kind regards

Hans

[#4]

Thanks for trying to help.

First, all of the entries were created by using "Mark All" when I inserted index marks, so there should not have been any variations.

Second: I had a problem, as detailed in my other post, with searching for hidden text. It was only on one PC, so On the other one I Searched/replaced all possible variations of XE “Castles:Deal”. I.e. Starting with a space, or ending with one.

Third, There are about 120 lines where the main entry is Castles and the sub-entry is Deal, that's 12 varieties of each letter in Castles:Deal.

Fourth: I don't know how to explain the sorting of the entries, I've copied them all into a plain text file.

Some entries are correct, which makes this so much weirder.

Thanks again

Steve

[#5]

Hello. This problem is happening to me too. The microsoft support agent could not fix it. Was there a fix in the end? Thank you!

[#6]

@katherine_backler 

It’s been a while since I posted my question. I think that I manually edited the document and made sure that each word/phrase in the index was absolutely identical.

If memory serves, there were hidden characters; spaces; tabs. Capitalisation also played a part “Index” is not the same as “index” and there isn’t (as far as I know) a way to tell word to ignore the difference, however you can fool Word by replacing words (ignoring case) with the same word plus the index entry code. Show all characters including hidden text will reveal these. I will post more when I am working on my PC.

[#7]

 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?

• Indexes - Complex Documents
• How to Make a Really Good Book Index in Word

@STeveF48

[#8]

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.