Indexing advice needed on a completed document.

[eppik]

Hi everyone!

I have a completed book that is now being revised. The files were originally indexed and I now know that the new text content will be replaced *but* much of the indexing needs to be the same. So I have a few questions:

1. Does the indexing HAVE TO reference to a specific word on the page? Is there some sort of "metatag" type of tool that can allow me to tag the page rather than a word that I know will be replaced?

2. If it must be tagged per word, what would be the smartest way to go about it so that in the long term I don't have to repeat the process?

The only solution I can come up with (although I should really call it a hack) is that I use a separate layer to list my indexed words and then update those as necessary when future revisions come up. This way if the content on the page is replaced, I don't lose my index in the process and have to rebuild it. Hopefully I'm being a newbie about this and you will all tell me that Adobe has a provision for this. If not - so be it and then I'm off to the feature request section. So ... help! ... and many thanks!

///ep:ik
Running InDesign CS with a CS2 upgrade not far away.

 

[TYPPIET]

Not really clear what the problem is. Anyhow.
You probably have an indez, that is a list of words that must be indexed.
With the index tool of Indesign you can select a word from this index,for example "Robert".
Then click on the icon at the bottom of your window that looks like a piece of paper with a left corner folded. This is "Make new index item" or something (I am a dutch language user).
Click Add all in the window that now appears.
The index tool will search and tag all the appearrances of "Robert" in your document.
No matter how many times you change the text (or order of the pages) in your document now, the index can be updated over and over again.
Good luck

 

[eppik]

Hi TYPPIET

Oh I know how to *create* the index. That was already done a year ago. But as you may know, if I update a paragraph and delete a tagged object, that tagged word disappears from the index. I need to avoidf that because I need to keep 90% or more of the index the same. The content in the paragraph will udpate but I need a smart way to retain the index.

>> No matter how many times you change the text (or order of the pages) in your document now, the index can be updated over and over again. <<

I'm not clear on how the index can update if you delete the tagged word. Can you explain that further please?

Thanks

 

[TYPPIET]

After deleting a tagged word, update your index by generating the index again. It will overwrite the existing index.
(Sorry it took so long to answer)