Getting an index into InDesign

Getting an index into InDesign from an external indexing system.

We are going to use IndexImporter and MarkerMover.

Open all the InDesign documents associated with the index. Place the index in appropriate place in the book or document.

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Preparing the index

IndexImporter expects to find the page numbers at the end of the index entry. If your index contains headings that end with a number, for instance:

The return of the Klingons, Episode 13, 10-12

There several things we can do.

1, change the entry, to: Episode 13, The return of the Klingons, 10-12.

2, insert a double space after Episode 13,<space><space>. The double space will be removed by the import routines.

The import routines know about page ranges, you may use a hyphen, or an em dash.

The IndexImporter plugin uses tabs at the beginning of the index entry to determine the entries level, main, sub1, sub2.

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Using IndexImporter.

Highlight the entire index and choose Index Import from the Index Utilities menu.

Use the palette to make any amends to the index. You can also enter any special sort strings.

Once you are happy with the index, press the build index button.

You will see the fields in the palette update with your index entries as the index is being built. Once the index is built you see an alert stating the number of index entries created.

Done, you have an InDesign document with your index embedded at a page level.

Scroll to a page where you expect to find some index entries. The palette will update automatically. Click into the page where you want your index entry to be embedded and click move.

It is helpful if you have hidden characters showing, you can see the marker being inserted.

If the 'Only New Markers' check box is checked the list will only contain markers that have not been moved.

Go through the documents moving the markers to the appropriate place, once done you have a truly embedded index. The index will update as the pagination changes.

Once all the index markers are in the right place use "RemoveTempImportBoxes" under the Extra Tools menu to remove the temporary boxes created by the import process.