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Indexing - 200+ words

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denice

Programmer
Mar 15, 2003
130
US
Greetings
I have a word document listing 200+ words that need to be indexed in a 1,000 page book. We just converted over from Quark where we were using Sonar as the indexing plug in. Is there a way to import the topics from word, or a tab file into Indesign CS? I read previous posts and no one had answered them, I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Id rather know that it cant be done, and start plugging away at putting them in manually. Rather than finding out that there was a simple way after I already put them in... :)
Your time is appreciated.
~D

Denice :)
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
 
I'm not sure I understand the question that well, in that I very rarely have to work on any kind of indexing.

ID has a bunch of Index features - including some with Word. Real basically - whne you go to import the Word doc, make sure to click Options. There, it will import indexed text - somewhat.

Indexing is controlled via the Index window - available from Window menu/Type/Index.

If you go to ID Help and search "Index", you'll find a full range of information, including a section on Word index import. You sort of have to look down the whole list of results to find stuff.

 
I have InDesign CS on a Windows Machine. I do not see the "options" for importing. I am using the Index pallet, clicking the radial button indicating more options, choosing Import Topics. It takes me and allows me to open InDesign documents which currently have an index, but when I try to force the tab, word, excel... document it tells me that its not a valid file.

I started coping out the text from the word document and putting them in manually. I've got A,B,C done. I've tested the generating and it comes up with nothing for those three letters. I thought that maybe the document didnt have them in there, but I did a search and found them. Any idea why the index function didnt find them? Could anyone point me in a direction for an indepth look at indexing in IND? The help menu doesnt have the information required.

Thanks

Denice :)
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
 
Go to File menu/Place

One the very first window look for Show Import Options. Thats' where you get the options afer you select the Word doc to import. One will be "index text"

The indexing bit takes a lot of reading of the Help. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to navigate, after getting the search results for "index".
 
What you have to do is index the words in Word BEFORE you import your .doc file to InDesign. In Word you open your 1000 page book and choose "Insert ..." -> "Reference" -> "Index".
Now you want to generate your index automatically, by using a seperate Word file containing all your index words. You don't have to place the index in your Word book, you do that in InDesign. When Word is done marking up the index words in your Word book, you save your Word document and place it in InDesign. Open the Index pallet and, voila, your index is imported and ready to place in your document.
 
JmGalvin
There is no " index text " listed as an option under Import Options.


Kristian
I dont have my 1000 book in word. Its in 60 chapters converted from Quark. I cant take the text out and put it into Word, chapter by chapter. There are also images embeded in the text that wont convert to Word.

I have read and re-read the help files and all the forums I could find on IND indexing. I have done what it says, but it just doesnt work. It wont find the words in other chapters listed in in the same book, yes the chapters are open as I am generating. Help says I have to import the topics into each and every chapter, that doesnt make sense but I did it and it still didnt find any more than the single word located on the very last document.

Thank you for your advise, it is appreciated. If anyone has any more thoughts, I am willing to try anything.

Thanks
~D

Denice :)
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
 
Sorry, I misunderstood. But I read your first post saying that you had "a word document listing 200+ words that need to be indexed in a 1,000 page book." So I assumed you had the text in Word. Then you wouldn't have a problem.
The only way you can import an index to InDesign is by generating the index BEFORE you place the text in InDesign. Otherwise it is hard manual labour :)

It doesn't matter if there are images in the Quark document. You don't need the images in Word to generate a valid indexfile. I know it is complicated, but let me try and explain ... What happens is that Word generates code that helps InDesign create an index. Every indexword is tagged with an index tag in Word (if you follow my instructions in my previous post). Once you generate the index in InDesign the index uses the code to relate to the tagged indexwords position in your InDesign document and NOT their position in Word. This means that it follows your layout, with pictures, tables and illustrations, in InDesign. Of course you have to update your index in InDesign if you make changes to the layout later, but it is very easy.
I do it all the time at work and it is a breeze :)

There is no import option that can help you if you have the text in InDesign already. Not that I know of anyway :) It is not possible to import a Excel or Word file to help you generate the index.

As far as I can understand you have the text in Quark and you have placed images and everything in a finished layout? Then you converted each Quark chapter to InDesign and collected the in a book? All you need is to generate the index?
 
We have chapters and chapters of information. The information is requested and a new book is built based on the chapter selections. So sometimes some chapters are left out. The text in word that I have is only the list of words that need indexed.
I wish I could pull out the text and put it into word to index the reference there. The problem is the images. I havent placed them in InDesign, they are embedded in the text. If i copy out all the text the images go with it. CMD/CNTRL A CMD/CNTRL X removed ALL including the picture boxes.
OH this is a bummer!
I do appreciate everyones help...

Denice :)
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
 
You are right. It is a bummer :)

If you want to clear all images/graphics embedded in a Word file you can do it by using "Find and replace". Find ^g and replace with nothing (whitespace). Hit "replace all". ^g finds all images and graphics.

I hope you find a solution for your problem :)

Regards
Kristian
 
You have to:

1. Check Show Import Options on first Place window
2. Select the word doc to place. You will NOT get the options until AFTER the Word doc is selected
3. The Microsoft Word Import Options window will have 3 Check boxes under Include. They are: 1-Rable of Contents text, 2-Index text, 3-Footnotes & endnotes
 
Kristian
Thank you -
I do not want to remove graphics from a Word File, they are a requirement of my document.

jmgalvin
I did find that I could import the word document with the index option. This does not help because my book is not in Word, only the words being indexed are in word. Its simply a list.

I just want the index feature of InDesign to find all occurances of the specified word in all 60 chapters. I do not understand why this is so difficult.

Thank you for your time with my situation
~D

Denice :)
Mac OSX, Running Classic for Quark 4.1. System G4.
 
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