Book Tips #3: Creating an Index

1. Pointers for creating an index

It’s lovely when a book project nears its conclusion, but even then, there’s still a lot of time required to finalise the book….starting with the index!

Here are some basic pointers:

• Compile your index at the very end – once the book has been proofread
• Keep the index simple – it should be intuitive for the reader (easier said than done!)
• To get started, I’d suggest jotting down 20 most important subjects your book covers
• A Mind Map is useful for summarising the relationship between the core messages
• Do not index the foreword, preface, or bibliography

2. Do I really need an index for my book – what’s all the fuss about?

Here’s why a good index is required:

There’s a big difference between an alphabetical list of keywords, which is what indexers call a concordance and a real index that organizes and cross-references the theme and message of the author’s intentions according to topics, individuals, and relationships.

3. The nuts & bolts of Indexing

Right, onto to the ‘Doing’ part!

Like anything, Indexing becomes easier the more you do it…and it always helps to have a plan first! [see 1. Creating in an Index]

i) ENTRY: Single word, lower case, unique reference, using nouns first (rather than adjectives or verbs)

• e.g. accountability 40

PUT nouns before verbs

• accountability, assumption of 40

ii) Explain acronyms – even if not in the body of the text

• B4 (business to business network)
• Search Engine optimisation (SEO)
• Talent Dynamics (personality profiling)

iii) Decide between ordinary v italics – I like to think of Temporary in italics, Permanent in ordinary font

• Newsweek  65  [i.e. name of publication]
• Movin’ Out (ballet/musical), 247-50

BUT

• Proctor & Gamble (companies/organisations not italicised)
• NASA

iv) Reverse proper names 

• Evans, Martin  100  [i.e. written as ‘Martin Evans’ in the book]
• Utah, University of  112

BUT not organisations, places, or books/play titles…etc

• Medical Research Council  76
• Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University 116
• King William Street
• John Lewis Partnership Ltd
• Importance of Being Earnest, The (

v) Strive for Consistency

• If a word is used both singularly and plurally, only use this form in the index:
• bishops
  • duties of
  • income of

NOT

• bishop, duties of
• bishops, income of
• Treat similar items in a similar fashion throughout the book
  • France, industry
  • Spain, industry

NOT 

• Spanish industry

iv)  LOCATOR: Use page ranges sparingly – distinguish between a SPAN (continuous discussion of a a topic) and a POINT (two separate mentions)

• Accountants 92-3, 151-2

vii) SUB-ENTRIES – no hard and fast rule, but if a key word/theme appears in more than, say 5, indexed items, it should be sub-divided

• branding 154,164
  • brand awareness 16,173
  • brand guidelines 136
  • see also advertising agencies

viii) CROSS-REFERENCING – see also should be the final sub-entry in a group of sub-entries [see above]:

• Also used for directions to where a word is located
  • politics  see government and politics [note – you don’t need this for government as it is referred to as ‘government and politics’]

ix) NOTES – Draw attention to notes in the index (if important)

• Sobel, Dava,  Longitude 107*
• Note: this is a book by Dava Sobel called Longitude, and on p107 there is a footnote containing information about the book

4. The Practicalities – How to set up an Index

Finally! How to actually build the index on your computer (I’m using a Mac, hence the keyboard commands are arranged accordingly).

Let’s assume, for the purposes of this example, that you are indexing the word ‘assumption’

i) Index an ENTRY

• Insert / Index & Tables / Mark Entry [i.e. ‘assumption’]
• [Mac Shortcut: CMD + ALT + SHIFT + X]
• Type in the ENTRY in the ‘Main Entry’ box – see formatting guide above!]
• [Note: this is where you also enter SUB-ENTRIES, CROSS-REFERENCES, and PAGE RANGES]

ii) Index a PAGE RANGE

• Select the page range
• Insert / Bookmark / Add  [i.e. ‘assumption’]
• [Mac Shortcut: CMD + SHIFT + F5]

THEN

• Repeat the ‘Index an ENTRY’ steps, but select the PAGE RANGE option and the dropdown ‘assumption’

iii) Review your indexing

When you view your Word document now, you will see XE (Index Entry) fields have been added; e.g.

• {XE “assumption”} = Single ENTRY
• {XE “assumption” \ t “See theories”} = Single ENTRY + cross referencing
• {XE “assumption” \ r “assumption”} = Range ENTRY

Once set up, you can edit these index entries directly within the array brackets on the face of the document.

And that….is all that it takes to set up an index! Phew….you can see why it can seem like quite a grind, having finally finished your book, and then having to go through all that!