How To Write A Book In Word

How to Make a (Really Good) Book Index in Word image If you're writing a volume and need to create an alphabetize, this article volition tell you everything you demand to know—from tips and tricks for identifying the best terms to include, to step-past-stride instructions for using Microsoft Word'southward indexing feature.

An alphabetize is a critical, yet oft undervalued, piece of many nonfiction books, especially information-dense books like reference books, self-help and communication books, textbooks, and cookbooks. A skilful alphabetize will ultimately make your book more useful, easier to navigate, and will ensure that your readers refer back to your book time and time once more.

Creating an Index

For very complex projects, information technology is best to hire a professional indexer, but if you're self-publishing your book on a budget, you lot can definitely do information technology yourself. If y'all plan to publish your volume using Microsoft Word and want to create an index, Word's indexing feature is a expert option.

(Note: If your book volition not be published in Word, or volition be laid out in a different program, do not create your index in Word. The folio numbers won't transfer.)

Word'due south built-in indexing feature tin can make your chore a whole lot easier, but it won't do all the piece of work for you lot. To create a not bad alphabetize, yous have to know a matter or ii across the mechanics of marking entries.

If y'all simply want a tutorial on how to create an Index in Word, you tin jump to the bottom of this post. But if you're a first-time indexer, or if you're looking for a bit of extra guidance on how to create a loftier-quality index, read on for simple tips that will make your book stand out in the crowd.

Index Research

Earlier y'all start creating your index, take a look at books that are similar to yours in length, topic, and/or fashion. Read through some of their index entries advisedly. Endeavour using the index to find different things in the book.

Pay special attending to how the index is laid out:

How are the entries formatted? How are they worded?
What types of words are included in the index?
Can you hands find what you're looking for?

Familiarizing yourself with the style and linguistic communication of good indexes will help enormously when it comes time to make your own.

When thinking well-nigh your alphabetize, it'due south helpful to keep the following concepts in heed:

one. Save It for Last

An index should be the absolute last thing you do when writing a book. At that place'southward nothing more frustrating than carefully crafting an index merely to take to re-do the entries when changes are made to the copy.

Once your copy is final, yous can begin creating your alphabetize. While some writers like to marker alphabetize entries throughout the editorial process, leaving this job until the very end has a few distinct benefits:

You don't have to weed out entries that are no longer relevant. It's easier to create new entries than to sift through existing entries to ensure they however make sense.
You tin use it as a "last expect" at your copy to grab lingering errors. No affair how much review your manuscript has endured, in that location are always small-scale means to improve it or boosted mistakes to catch.
You lot tin think about the book every bit a whole. When deciding on cantankerous-references, subentries, and the like, y'all'll do good from a familiarity with all of the content—not just a minor slice of it.

2. Consider the Length

Depending on how many columns you lot utilize for your index (and the size of your type), the number of characters you tin reasonably fit in each entry will vary. Very long entries will almost always look foreign and be difficult for readers to follow. Continue each entry as curt and curtailed as y'all can.

While there is no "correct" page count for an alphabetize, you should use your judgment as to what makes sense:

If your book 600 pages long, but your index is merely ii pages, the index is probably too sparse to be truly useful.
Conversely, if you have a 25-page index for a book that is only 100 pages long, endeavor to condense it—your index shouldn't exist a quarter of the length of your book!

3. Put Yourself In Your Readers' Shoes

An index is worthless if it isn't user-friendly. While creating index entries, you should always exist thinking about the ways in which a reader might use your index.

For case, if yous are writing a book most dog breeds, having an index entry for "dogs" is too broad and not very helpful—it would probably lead the reader to every page in the book! Nonetheless, including index entries for each brood will help readers find the information that is well-nigh valuable to them.

You may likewise want to include alternative terms and synonyms, fifty-fifty if they aren't direct mentioned in the copy.

For case, if yous accept a department on the best dog breeds for families with children, you will probably include an entry that looks like this:

children, best dogs for, xxx

Your reader, however, may exist looking for the word "kids" instead of "children." If space permits, include both terms in your alphabetize (using cross-references) to brand information technology every bit easy as possible for your reader to discover what they demand. (Come across below for more on formatting index entries and using cross-references.)

Of course, some restraint is required—you can't (and shouldn't) include every synonym of every word in your index. Put yourself in your readers' shoes, and try to include terms that you lot experience readers are most likely to look for.

Finally, while it's not essential, information technology'southward a good thought to include entries for full general concepts that may non directly announced in the text, but which could still be useful for a reader. To return to the dog breeds example, the term "mixed breed" may not be used in the re-create, but would make a good header for other terms such as Golden Doodle or Maltipoo.

The Rules of Index Entries

Indexes are not only alphabetical lists of words or terms that appear in a given text. In guild to exist useful, index entries should be formatted to be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible. Here are some rules to follow when creating your own alphabetize entries.

one. Use nouns the reader is likely to look for

Whenever possible, index entries should brainstorm with nouns or noun phrases.

Let'due south think dorsum to our book on domestic dog breeds, and the reader trying to detect out which canis familiaris breeds are good for children. To find that information, that reader is most likely going to look in the index for physical nouns such as "children," "kids," or "family."

The reader is unlikely to find the exact term "best dogs for children," since adjectives are simply as well subjective to be helpful alphabetize categories.

To brand the phrase "all-time dogs for children" searchable, it needs to be inverted so that the noun comes first: "children, best dogs for."

Likewise note that the spelling of all index entries should lucifer what appears in the text—for example, if a term is hyphenated in the re-create, it should likewise exist hyphenated in the index.

ii. Use lowercase letters

Index entries are not capitalized unless they are referencing proper nouns.

iii. Use subentries to make things easier to find

Non every entry needs subentries, but if yous notice that a principal entry has a lot of page references that could exist frustrating for a reader to sift through, subentries can be helpful.

For instance, if you have an index entry for "terriers" that has a dozen folio references, you might create subentries for "Airedale Terrier," "Balderdash Terrier," "Miniature Schnauzer," "Russell Terrier," etc., to aid point the reader to exactly what they're looking for.

4. Fix image references in bold or italics

Images, including figures and tables, should exist included in the index. To indicate that a page reference leads to an image, the page number (not the whole entry) should exist set up in bold or italics (you lot tin can choose this choice when creating entries in Word).

Be certain to include a note at the top of the index to tell readers what the bolded or italicized numbers mean. For case, "Page numbers in italics refer to images."

5. Use cross-references as needed

Including synonyms in an index is remarkably helpful for readers, but you lot don't need to include all the page references in both places.

Choose which word y'all'd like to use as your "master" term, and treat that as yous would any other entry, marking it each time information technology appears in the text. For the synonymous term(south), you can only mark information technology one time and cross-reference the main term to re-direct your readers (Discussion's tools brand this very easy to do).

6. You lot don't need to include everything

Resist the urge to include terms that appear only once, have little to do with the master topic, or that readers are unlikely to search for. These will merely make your index seem long and cumbersome.

For example, if you mention that your childhood dog enjoyed playing in the snowfall, you exercise not need to add together an index entry for "snowfall."

At that place are also a few items that never need to be included in the alphabetize:

Basic front thing, such equally title pages, dedications, epigraphs, or tables of contents
Acknowledgments
Bibliographies, references, further reading lists, epitome lists, or glossaries
Source citations in footnotes or endnotes (Notation: If the footnotes or endnotes elaborate on concepts in the main text, they should be indexed.)
Other in-text citations
Author names that are concealed under 'et al.' in citations

How to Create an Alphabetize in Word

Microsoft Word's indexing feature is fairly simple to employ and will generate an alphabetized index with (bones, though customizable) formatting.

Pace ane: Paginate

First, brand certain your document is paginated. An index won't do a reader whatever expert if there are no page numbers to refer to.

To practise this, go to Insert, so select Page Number. Cull your formatting preferences and click OK.

Pace 2: Mark Bones Entries

Starting at the very beginning of your manuscript, comb through the text for a term y'all'd like to index. Highlight the term, go to the References tab, and, under the Index section, click on Mark Entry.

This will bring you to a dialog with several options. You can edit the text in the chief entry box so that it reads the way yous would like the index entry to read.

For a uncomplicated, repeated, main entry term, you can select Marker All to auto-index every occurrence of that exact term.

If y'all would like to mark just this occurrence of the term, select Mark.

One time y'all accept fabricated your selection, yous will see the bracketed XE notation(s) appear in the text to denote the alphabetize entry (or entries). If you practise not want these to be visible, go to the Dwelling tab and click on the paragraph symbol.

Step 3: Marking Special Entries

To create different types of index entries, choose the advisable options from the Mark Entry dialog.

If you lot would like to create a second-level subentry, you can do so using the subentry box. To create a third-level subentry, follow the subentry text with a colon.

To create a cross-reference, select cantankerous-reference under options and blazon in the entry to which you would like to directly your readers.

To create an prototype, table, or figure reference, highlight the image and click Mark Entry. The dialog volition come up bare; you can fill in the appropriate entry text and then select assuming or italic nether the page number format section.

Repeat this process until y'all take marked all of your entries. Note that you tin can select the aforementioned slice of text equally many times as you'd similar to create multiple alphabetize entries for it (for example, "Gold Doodle" might appear every bit a principal entry and also as a subentry for "mixed breeds.")

Footstep 4: Insert Index

When you are fix to insert the alphabetize into your document, click where you would like the alphabetize to exist.

In the Index section of the References tab, click Insert Alphabetize.

In the Index dialog box, you lot tin can select your preferred format, style, number of columns, and folio number alignment. Click OK, and your index should appear.

Footstep 5: Review Your Index and Make Changes

Take a close await at your newly created alphabetize. Make sure everything is spelled correctly, that the entries make sense, and that you don't accept any entries with an excessive number of folio references.

If y'all demand to go back and make changes, simply locate the XE fields for the entries you lot'd like to change and alter the text in the quotes. You can as well remove entries by selecting the whole XE field (including the brackets) and pressing delete on your keyboard.

When yous're done making changes, click anywhere in the index, return to the Index section in the References tab, and click Update Index.

For an overview of this process, bank check out our unproblematic video tutorial on how to brand an index in Word.

Get Assist from Readers

Once you take finished your alphabetize, have a few friends test-bulldoze it. They may nada in on a term you didn't include, or give you a heads-up that a sure topic was difficult to find.

And be enlightened: Fifty-fifty with the help of Word's tools, making a good alphabetize takes time and effort, and lots of it. Take comfort in knowing that your effort will pay off, and your readers will give thanks you.

Take you ever made an index for a volume? What problems did you run into? Allow us know in the comments below.

If you liked this article, yous might also like:

How to Create a Glossary in Word
How to Format Your eBook for Kindle
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Formatting Your eBook with a Mac
18 Microsoft Word Tips and Tricks

Melissa Drumm is a lifelong volume lover. She is passionate about helping authors make their piece of work the best it can exist. You can detect some of her writing here on the TCK blog, and learn more nearly her other projects at melissadrumm.com. When she's not writing, editing, or reading, you'll usually notice her in the kitchen, baking.