The last reference type we’re going to look at is an index. An index is like a table of contents only it’s arranged a bit differently. Rather than listing pages in sequential order, an index lists topics, words, or phrases and tells you where to find that topic. This is really useful for long documents, and it saves readers time (and their patience).
There are many ways to create an index in Word. To get you started, we’re just going to cover the easiest and most commonly used methods. Indexes are like other forms of references: if you use Word to create them, they are automatically updated and they’re easy to add to, saving you a big headache.
First, we need to tell Word what words to include in our index. To do this, we’ll use the Mark Entry dialog box. The short way to get to this box is to select existing text and press Alt+Shift+X. The other way is to click the Insert menu, choose Reference, click Index and Tables, click the Index tab, and click Mark Entry.
Under Options, you can choose what will be listed as the reference for this index entry. You can choose a cross-reference (for Chocolate Cake, the reference may say See Chocolate), the current page, a page range, or a bookmar.
Then, under page number format, you can choose to make your page numbers bold, italic, or bold italics.
Once your options are set, click the Mark button to mark the text as an index entry. (You can also click the Mark All button to mark all instances of this text in the document as an index entry.) The dialog box will stay open so you can select other index entries and click back into the box to repeat the entire process. Also note that the Cancel button will change to a Close button.
Once you’re done marking all your index entries, click Close. You may notice that your document looks a bit different:
All this gibberish
just means paragraph marking has been turned on; you can see that our
Index entries are marked with XE and curly brackets. To hide paragraph
markings, just click the paragraph icon (
Once your text is marked, it’s time to insert the index. First, make sure that paragraph markings are hidden. Then, click so your cursor is flashing at the point that you want the index to appear. Then, click the Insert menu, choose Reference, and click Index and Tables. Once again, we want to be on the Index tab:
At the very top of the screen is a sample index that will let you preview any changes you make. To the right of this preview are your index options: the type, number of columns, and language that it will be. Below the print preview is the option to align page numbers with the right margin. If you choose this option, you can also choose the character for the tab leader, which fills the space between the index entry and the page number. Last but not least, you can choose the format (style) of your index.
Once your entries are set, click OK and the index will be inserted wherever your cursor was:
Note that sections have only been created if there are topics for that letter. Also note that the text has been formatted in the index exactly as it was in the document.
Indexes are very similar to tables of contents, so remember that the following rules apply: - You can go back to Insert – Reference – Index and Tables – Index tab to change the index’s settings, as long as your cursor is in the index. - You can update the index by right-clicking it and clicking Update Field or press F9. - It is not recommended to edit or format the index itself as these changes will be overwritten the next time you update it. - When you select the index, the letters and index entries will have gray boxes around them. This is for identification purposes only and will not be printed. - Adding index entries is a lot like adding table of contents entries: mark the text in the body of the document and then update the index to have that entry added.
That’s all there is to creating a basic index! |
) on the
standard toolbar. If paragraph markings are hidden, your indexed text
will look just like any other text.
