Index problems in Word 2003

Suzanne, i thought i had succeeded in creating an index, but now I'm not so
sure...

It's a long index, about 750 items, and I had no choice but to make changes
as I believe would anyone making an index using this program. In my text I
have written "John Lennon"--which is what the index program picks up as an
item. But any professional index must read "Lennon, John"--so I have no
choice but to make hundreds of changes.

But now I read the following in the "Create an Index" Help file:

"Don't modify index entries in the finished index; if you do, your changes
will be lost when you update the index..."

But now I also find that the Index has misnumbered many of the pages,
leaving me with the sole tactic (I think...) of updating the Index.

Which if I understand this correctly, it would bring me right back to the
original index created by Word, with hundreds of Entries in "John Lennon"
style.

Which is starting to sound like Catch 22, since if I correct all these
entries back to "Lennon, John" style & then again find a numbering problem,
I would then for a second time have to start over again, perhaps in an
endless loop...

I'm also puzzled that the book had 727 page before I ran the Index program
and now seems to have 699. Where have the missing 28 pages gone to...?
I've started to search for them in Print Preview, but so far without luck.

Any thoughts or hope you can provide...?

very best!

alex

Don't modify any entries in the index itself; instead, modify the XE (index
entry) fields. With Hidden text displayed, you can probably use Replace to
do this. Note that the difference in number of pages, with many index
entries, will probably be caused by whether you have XE fields displayed or
not; you need to make sure that they are NOT displayed when you generate or
update the index.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"alex gross" <language DeleteThis @sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:ZYydnUNnN702MI3XnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Suzanne, i thought i had succeeded in creating an index, but now I'm not
> so sure...
>
> It's a long index, about 750 items, and I had no choice but to make
> changes as I believe would anyone making an index using this program. In
> my text I have written "John Lennon"--which is what the index program
> picks up as an item. But any professional index must read "Lennon,
> John"--so I have no choice but to make hundreds of changes.
>
> But now I read the following in the "Create an Index" Help file:
>
> "Don't modify index entries in the finished index; if you do, your changes
> will be lost when you update the index..."
>
> But now I also find that the Index has misnumbered many of the pages,
> leaving me with the sole tactic (I think...) of updating the Index.
>
> Which if I understand this correctly, it would bring me right back to the
> original index created by Word, with hundreds of Entries in "John Lennon"
> style.
>
> Which is starting to sound like Catch 22, since if I correct all these
> entries back to "Lennon, John" style & then again find a numbering
> problem, I would then for a second time have to start over again, perhaps
> in an endless loop...
>
> I'm also puzzled that the book had 727 page before I ran the Index program
> and now seems to have 699. Where have the missing 28 pages gone to...?
> I've started to search for them in Print Preview, but so far without luck.
>
> Any thoughts or hope you can provide...?
>
> very best!
>
> alex
>
>