How to index a book – Part 4

Posted on December 7th, 2008 at 8:20 am by admin

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If you’ve followed the first three parts of this series, you should have a saved draft index in page-by-page order, as well as a copy named Index 1 which is the one you will be working with.

In this part, you will alphabetize and start sorting Index 1.

1. Select All and Sort.

In the Index 1, select all, and click on the Sort button. In new versions of MS Word, Sort is in the main toolbar near the font options. In older versions, it’s in the Tables toolbar (for reasons only Microsoft understands!).

When it’s all sorted, do another Save.

Then do a Save As to create Index 2.

Why?

Because you want to have an unedited, alphabetized version to refer back to in case you change your mind about anything.

2. Eliminate repetition.

Remember that you repeated each entry for each sub-entry.

Now you need to go back in and delete the repetition. Remember to do this in Index 2, not Index 1.

Select the repeated entry and comma, then hit [Return] and Tab. You will go from

water, sources of, 19-21
water, wells, 22-24

to

water
–sources of, 19-21
–wells, 22-24

Tip: If there is no comma, then do not substitute with a return-tab. Some entries are noun phrases (see water lily below). Noun phrases need to stay all on one line. If you wouldn’t put a comma in between these words, then don’t put a tab.

water
–sources of, 19-21
–wells, 22-24
water lily, 122-24

Tip: There should be some page ranges beside the main entry. Page ranges on the main entry indicate the main discussions or definitions of this topic. Readers look there first.

Tip: If an entry has just one sub-entry, delete the sub-entry.

Tip: Use prepositions (for, from, at, of) in your sub-entries to link them grammatically to the main entry.

When you are done this step, save Index 2. Then do a save as to create Index 3.

3. Trim your index.

Index 3 is probably very long and unwieldy. You now need to trim out over-indexing to fit the page limit your publisher gave you.

Look for sub-entries that can be combined into one. For example, wouldn’t water, well go under water, sources of? Do you really need a separate entry for well? If wells are discussed just once, you probably don’t. But if wells are discussed in detail later on, then you might want to keep it.

Look for places where a page range may be more appropriate than a series of pages. If France is discussed on page 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20 as part of a larger discussion of European water policies, then condense it to 12-20.

Don’t cut out key ideas. Just group them so that the index breaks down an idea only once.

Tip: As a general rule, there should be no more than 8 sub-entries for any entry. On occasion, I will go as high as 12. Group concepts together to reduce long lists of sub-entries. Use see also to refer readers to look up the sub-entries to find a finer breakdown of the concepts.

4. Clean up the alphabetizing.

Go back through the main entries looking for places where the word-by-word alphetization needs to be converted to letter-by-letter.

Then clean up the alphabetization of the lists of sub-entries. Prepositions (in, from, at, etc.) should be ignored in the alphabetizing. Move sub-entries starting with prepositions so that they are alphabetized based on the first noun.

5. Check cross references.

Provide cross references to help readers who look up a concept under the wrong word. Follow your publishers guidelines for placing these see and see also lines.

Check every one of them. Don’t leave any dead-end cross references.

6. Convert indented style to run-in style (if necessary).

If your publisher has insisted on run-in style, then you have one extra step left. You need to go back through the index and replace those return-tabs with commas. This will make each entry for a block, instead of an indented list. Run-in indexes are harder to use because your eye can’t scan them well. But publishers like them because they take up less space.

Why not just leave the commas in the first place? Because you needed to alphabetize and trim. You couldn’t do that if the index had already been in run-in style.

7. Proofread.

Proofread an index three times. It’s slow and very tedious. But it has to be right.

8. Pour yourself a scotch and get a good night’s sleep.

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