NO loss of index entries in RTF documents

[dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com]

This is for anyone who was as surprised as I was at the recent claim on this list that RTF files somehow "lose" index entries and other information.

Off-list, the person who made that claim explained that he doesn't own Word--he was just going on information from people he trusts...and a Google search.  Anyway, he asked me to prove my position, saying it would make his "book-writing experience much happier."  (??)

So I made a small Word file with a few lines of text, an embedded index entry (XE field), a page break, and an INDEX field.  I saved the file as RTF, quit Word, and opened the RTF file again.

Needless to say, the fields worked just fine.

Rather than attach the test file, I've included a snippet from the RTF in which the fields and the surrounding text are easily identifiable.  (The ellipses are inserted for brevity.)

  \par There\rquote s an index entry here: }{\pard\plain...
  \v\fs24\lang1033\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp1033\langfenp1033 {\xe {test}}}{
  \par If you see a single-entry index at the bottom of this file and a 
  single letter-group heading, then both the XE and INDEX fields are 
  retained when the file is saved to RTF.
  \par \page This is the index:
  \par }\pard\plain\s16\ql... {\field{\*\fldinst { index \\h "A" }}

As you may know, {\xe {test}} defines the text of the index entry, and 
{ index \\h "A" } specifies an index with letter-group headings.

Rest easy, tech writers everywhere.  Your index entries (and probably other "formatting") are safe in RTF.

--David

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