Re: Word Indexing Problem

["Thompson, Sarah" <SThompso -at- RESDATA -dot- COM>]

Catheryn,

Yes, I have!  In fact, it's probably easier than you think.  I've been
working with several docs, each of which I divide by chapter in separate
files (makes 'em smaller & easier to work with, as you probably know :).
What I've done takes a couple of preparatory steps:

1. Start with the chapter headings (or some equivalent where you're
numbering your sections).  Your chapter number should have a {seq} field
(not just a number), which creates a basis for pages numbered with
chapter and page numbers.  Mine looks like this:

{ SEQ Chapter \* Arabic\r1 \*MERGEFORMAT }

Since I don't know how much reading of fields you do, I'll explain -
skip this bit if you already know it:  that field specifies a sequence,
named "Chapter," that is set as arabic numerals, starting with 1.  I use
this same field for all the chapter numbers in my docs, going into *the
field* to change the number, then updating the field.  What shows when
the field is turned off is just the number, but all the other stuff runs
off of this.

2. In my footer, rather than just add a {page} field, I've added a {seq}
field, followed by a divider of some kind (I use a colon, but I've also
seen hyphens, en dashes, etc.), then the {page} field, so that in each
chapter my page reference comes out looking like this: 3:1, 5-7, etc.

The {seq} field references the chapter number (from step 1) and
therefore repeats the same 1st number on each page.  It looks like this:

{ SEQ Chapter \c \*MERGEFORMAT }

3. Then, my index field (in a separate document) then looks like this:

{index \c 2 \s Chapter \d ":" \h "- A -" \*mergeformat}

Basically meaning a two-column index, which references the sequence
"chapter" (back to that chapter number thing again), with a separator
defined as ":", and headings looking like this: - A -.

HTH!
Sarah T

Sarah Thompson
Resource Data International
sthompso -at- resdata -dot- com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mason, Catheryn [SMTP:CMason -at- INFINITEC-COM -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 1998 11:25 AM
> Subject:      Word Indexing Problem
>
> I'm hoping that someone can shed some light on my difficulty, as I
> don't
> belong to the Word listserv, cannot find any answers in my $40,
> 1180-page Office 97 reference book, and find the Help feature to be of
> no help for this particular query. I'm a little frustrated. *If you
> consider this to be an off-topic posting, please respond to me
> off-list.*
>
> BACKGROUND:
> I have created a manual with 5 sections (about 120 pages total) that
> will require an exhaustive index. The sections are numbered
> separately,
> each beginning with "1" (Section 1, page 1-30; Section 2, page 1-40;
> etc.).  I do not want to re-number the entire document sequentially
> because we plan to distribute updates and additions separately (rather
> than sending out an entire manual to a customer each time a change is
> made).
>
> PROBLEM:
> My problem is with the index. When I generate the index, it is of
> absolutely no use because it only grabs the page number and not the
> section number (various entries are listed on page one with no clue as
> to which section is involved, and editing this by hand would be a
> nightmare, never mind that I would lose all of my edits any time that
> I
> updated the index).
> I have tried formatting the page number to read, for example, 3-1, and
> I
> get the following error message: "Start At must be between 0 and 32766
> for this format."  When I try to include chapter numbers, Word directs
> me to the Bullets and Numbering option where I cannot seem to link my
> Heading 1 to Chapter 1.  I recognize that this is all very tedious to
> hear, however, here is my ...
>
> QUESTION:
> Have any of you successfully generated an index in Word for a document
> with multiple sections, all of which began with "Page 1"? If so, how
> did
> you do it? And if anyone has encountered or knows how to solve my
> present difficulty, I'd appreciate any advice.  I hope that there is
> some way to do what I am trying to do without having to edit an entire
> index by hand, checking each reference and manually adding in "2-1" or
> "3-5."
>
> Thanks for any help, guidance, or advice -- I'm stumped.
>
> Catheryn Mason
> Technical Writer
> Infinitec Communications, Inc.
> cmason -at- infinitec-com -dot- com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=