Tips for creating a book index

Fivestep process for writing a book index the writing cooperative. I have a book mansucript in pdf, and i want to create an index. Lets talk about the term index this can have two different meanings in. Weve put together this helpful infographic which offers 8 tips on compiling your index. Book indexing for authors webinar learn how to index your own. Ill need to create an index for the print versions of my how to write and selfpublish a travel guide series. Writing means thinking of an idea and creating content for it. If you have finished writing your book then you should be willing to create an index for it. Creating a book index by yourself is not impossible.

This list of five faqs, kindly provided by professional indexer amron gravett, who is currently. A reader asked me to do a video on how to make a book index in word. For each idea segment, create an entry with a name that. An index is a document reference or list word 2016 can build and format, providing that you know the trick. A good index is accurate, concise, and provides complete coverage of the book s information. Before you selfpublish your book, you can easily add an index to your back matter. Following the success of the index card post, pollack and olen teamed to write a book, the index card. Hi, i just wrote an article click here to see article that illustrates how btree indexes work. Consider on a sliding scale where the book falls between a onetime read and a reference book, and provide less or more detail accordingly. The index for a typical nonfiction book can look bewildering, with its entries and subentries, each with its own indentation plan. Ten tips to help you create a great book index index busters. Theres four books in this series and ive already started to release the ebook versions, so im looking at the best route i should take to index my books.

An index is an alphabetized list of subjects and terms used and discussed in the book with their corresponding page numbers and is great to use in nonfiction books. If youre creating an index for a single document, you may want to add a new page at the end of the document. Prepare the file in which you will put the entries. More tips for creating books here are some more advanced tips for creating photo books. Large files like real books are difficult to navigate because you cannot search them by the songs. August 8, 2016 by alex reading printed books, it is so common to. Read the whole book again during preparation of an edited book i figure i have probably read the. This is a video tutorial on how to create an index of large scores in the ipad app forscore.

You believe that an index will add value to your book, and maybe you have even sat down to write an index only to get lost in the details. Apologies if this sounds mindnumbingly obvious but here are my 10 steps to generating a book index. To create this, the indexer needs to read the whole book. To make an index you must ask, for every passage in a book, if i were looking. In this article im going to leave aside the editorial. To make an index you must ask, for every passage in a book, if i were looking for this, what words would describe what i. How to make an index having made an index for several different nonfiction print books over the years, i have a set of suggestions for how to create an index. A good index will ultimately make your book more useful, easier to navigate, and will ensure that your readers refer back to your book time and time again. Its quite easy from the standpoint of operating the software, but it wont. If youre creating an index for multiple documents in a book, create or open the document. In the age of smartphones and ebooks, a book index might seem like a relic of the past. How to create an index table like a pro with microsoft word. The beginners guide to indesign styles in this bitesize tutorial, well look at how to create styles and apply them to text and objects throughout your indesign documents.

Basically, they store key values that are to be looked up in their associated table. How to make a really good book index in word tck publishing. Before you buy before you click the buy book button to place your order, do one last proofreading pass of any. Are you a nonfiction author tasked with creating an index for your soontobe published book. Fivestep process for writing a book index the writing.

How to create a key words index in back of pdf book edit pdf. How to create a key words index in back of pdf book. An index is curated, written to guide the reader to what is most important and relevant. Thats all we have on how to create an index table with a concordance file. Timeconsuming, yes, but most of my writers produce an index in the three or four weeks i give them, even while theyre teaching or traveling. Think in terms of 10thousand work increments and break each chapter into roughly equal lengths. The sublime joy of making a book index without bullshit. I have been writing indexes professionally since 2011, with over two hundred indexes under my belt, and i still get lost in the details for a particularly complex book or index. Read the first chapter and skim the remainder of the book. Now, for some libraries or book stores, creating displays requires. X research source for example, if youre writing a book on bicycle.

To roundup all the pages a certain topic falls on, search for that word or phrase in your microsoft word document. Creating an index card for each individual entry can help you sort and organize the entries before typing them up. I love to index books, because it requires intense thinking thats like writing in reverse. Theoretically, an index is a structured sequenceresulting from a thorough and complete analysis of textof synthesized access points to all the information contained in the text. But if i had to pick an area that takes up the majority of my bookrelated time, it would be creating library book displays. Lets take a closer look on how we can customize the index style.

An index lists the terms and topics that are discussed in a document, along with the pages that they appear on. To make the task easier i wrote a macro to assist me. Its like youre poking holes in a dark box to let the light in. Pdf index generator is a powerful indexing utility for generating the back of your book index and writing it to your book in 4 easy steps. An index is a critical, yet often undervalued, piece of many nonfiction books, especially informationdense books like reference books, selfhelp and advice books, textbooks, and cookbooks. Creating an index in microsoft word typefi support.

Important writing tips and a professional writing model are included. Ive created a concordance file in wp and it runs very efficiently though all the index entries are. Separate these terms into main entries and subentries. I have index built across the songs and print the page numbers out with the index of titles. Its quite easy from the standpoint of operating the software, but it wont turn you into a professional indexer, which. For further information on indexing, and other aspects of manuscript preparation, take a look at our book authors resources here. The type of index we mean here is the classic backofbook index that shows page numbers on which topics and subtopics occur within the book. When you index a book, youre creating thousands of access points that allow a reader to quickly get to the sections they need.

I have been sent a draft 6 chapter book prepared in adobe pdf library 11. You must mark text in a document for inclusion in the index. An online index is much the same except that you supply. I am trying to create an index for a 150,000 word document actually a book. You can also use professional tools like cindex or sky index to build an index outside of microsoft word and then embed your index back into your original document using a thirdparty tool like dexembed or. For further information on indexing, and other aspects of manuscript preparation, take a look at our book. Here are 10 tips to help you better understand all the main principles of book indexing. Creating a book index from pdf page proofs posted on august 20, 2012 august 8, 2016 updated. M y book was published just over four years ago and part of the writing process was creating an index. Blog 10 tips youd know before creating a book index. Go to the end of the master document and click the insert index button one more time and click the ok button this time to create the index. You can sign up for a monthly or annual subscription, and cancel anytime, so if you. If youre writing a book and need to create an index, this article will tell you everything you need to knowfrom tips and tricks for identifying the best terms to. To gauge your own aptitude, you might look at the indexing chapter of the chicago manual of style.