Indexing several files in one Word index

[Iain Harrison <iharriso -at- SCTCORP -dot- COM>]

Since posting a comment about not liking multiple indexes in Word,
I've had several people email me directly saying that it is necessary
because Word can't index across files reliably.

I read the digest, so I don't know if this has been dealt with, but
anyway...

Microsoft suggests linking multiple files by using master/sub
documents. This gives easy 'global' ToC and Index, but should be
avoided at all costs. It will go wrong and destroy your documents. The
only question is when it will do it, not whether it will. Avoid
master/sub documents!

Now that's out of the way, how do you create a ToC or Index that spans
several different Word .doc files? As I said in my previous post (but
people either didn't read or didn't understand) it is easy to do this.

In the document you plan to physically place your index in, insert RD
(reference document) fields that refer to the individual .doc files.
When Word generates or refreshes the index, it includes all index
entries in all the referenced documents. The same technique works for
ToCs as well. It is not flaky, unreliable or difficult to use, but it
does leave two issues that you have to check:

1. Leave the user a way to know which page 89 you are referring to. I
suggest including section numbers in page numbers to do this.

If necessary, change them by search-and-replace in the index (for
example, change all instances of '2-' to "Getting Started " in the
index.doc) after refreshing the index, prior to printing.

2. Save the index document before generating or refreshing the index.
For some reason, RD fields don't always work unless Word has been
reminded where the current document really lives.

Sorry if this is a bit Word-specific, but a global index makes
documents far easier to use!

Iain Harrison
iharriso -at- sctcorp -dot- com
iain -at- hairydog -dot- clara -dot- net