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Navigation Aids for Long Word Documents (6)

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An Index will list alphabetically the entries you identify, with their page numbers, to automatically create an index in your document. Word can collect entries you mark with special Index Markers.

To insert an Index Marker, follow the steps shown:

1. Select the text you want to mark.

2. Press <Alt>, <Shift> and <X> keys simultaneously to open the 'Mark Index Entry' dialog box. Or you can open it by choosing 'Index and Tables' from the 'Insert' menu, clicking the 'Index' tab, and then clicking the 'Mark Entry' button.

3. Click the 'Mark' button to mark this one entry, or click 'Mark All' to mark every occurrence of this entry throughout the document. The dialog box will stay open even after you have marked an entry, so that you can select other text in your document and mark it as well.

4. Click outside the dialog box and select another index entry, and then click the 'Mark Index Entry' dialog box to reactivate it so that you can mark the selection.

5. Repeat step 4 until all index entries are marked.

6. Click 'Close' button to put away the dialog box when finished.

Notice that there are several options about how the entry will be formatted in the index available in the dialog box.

Editing 'Main Entry' text

You can edit the text you selected in the 'Main Entry' box. You may also want to create several different index entries for the same marked text, because you have used different words to refer to the same concept. For example, text that refers to 'profitability' might also appear in the index as 'cash flow' or 'financial performance'. To create alternate index entries for the same text, just edit the 'Main Entry' text and click 'Mark' after each alternate listing.

Creating Sub-entries

Sub-entries are index entries that are indented under a more general main entry. For example, a report on crime occurrence might have main entries for each crime (burglary, rape, forgery, and so on) with separate sub-entries under each for specific occurrence in each.

Below are steps for creating a sub-entry:

1. Select the 'Main Entry' text in your document.

2. Press <Alt>, <Shift> and <X> keys simultaneously to bring up the 'Mark Index Entry' dialog box and the 'Main Entry' text is in the 'Main Entry' box.

3. Enter the sub-entry text in the 'Subentry' box.

4. Click the 'Mark' button.

I will continue setting entry options in the dialog box in the next issue. In brief, they let you decide how an index entry's location will be listed. Besides, I will introduce how to create, reformat and update the index.

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(Email address: 'Daniel_KC_To@police.gov.hk')