Can I index two Word files?
July 8, 2018 8:00 AM Subscribe
I'm going to have two separate files to have printed as two separate volumes of a book, and if it's possible, I'd like to index them both together, so the index would say "Vol 1, page 152" or whatever. Is this possible, or can you think of a slick way of doing something similar that doesn't require a shit-ton of work by hand?
About 10 years ago I put together a cookbook of all my favorite recipes and had it printed up at Lulu. Since I included most of our mom's special dishes, and grandmas' holiday dishes, and other family favorites, I also gave copies to my siblings. Everyone adores it! So this year I was thinking of redoing it, because my copy's cover is falling off and I have a bunch of new recipes I make all the time, and my siblings were all like, "YES, I have used mine to pieces AND ALSO I have all these new recipes for you to add!"
The thing is, it's already 272 pages and while I'm pulling some recipes that nobody uses, I'm going to be adding more than I'm subtracting, and I think I'd like to print it in two volumes, because 272 pages was pushing it and pages fell out faster than with a smaller book -- so it'd be one for mains and sides (your daily cooking), and one for breads, appetizers, desserts, things like that that are more special occasion.
But the OTHER thing is, there is no way I want to index the whole thing by hand, but I'd love for the index to include both books. Is there a slick way to do this? Or can you think of a better way to do this?
About 10 years ago I put together a cookbook of all my favorite recipes and had it printed up at Lulu. Since I included most of our mom's special dishes, and grandmas' holiday dishes, and other family favorites, I also gave copies to my siblings. Everyone adores it! So this year I was thinking of redoing it, because my copy's cover is falling off and I have a bunch of new recipes I make all the time, and my siblings were all like, "YES, I have used mine to pieces AND ALSO I have all these new recipes for you to add!"
The thing is, it's already 272 pages and while I'm pulling some recipes that nobody uses, I'm going to be adding more than I'm subtracting, and I think I'd like to print it in two volumes, because 272 pages was pushing it and pages fell out faster than with a smaller book -- so it'd be one for mains and sides (your daily cooking), and one for breads, appetizers, desserts, things like that that are more special occasion.
But the OTHER thing is, there is no way I want to index the whole thing by hand, but I'd love for the index to include both books. Is there a slick way to do this? Or can you think of a better way to do this?
To create an index using Happy Dave's idea, you can do the following. Combine the two volumes into one document, starting a new section at the beginning of the second volume. Tell Word to restart page-numbering at 1 in the second section.
In both sections, tell Word to include the chapter number in the page numbers, and to start a new chapter at every level 1 heading. Start each of the two sections with a level 1 heading (and don't include any other level 1 headings). Autonumber the level 1 headings, say with roman numerals.
This way, the page numbers in the first volume will look like I-1, I-2 etc, and in the second volume II-1, II-2 etc. When you build an index, if say volume I contains the word "beans" on page 2, and volume II contains the word "beans" on page 1, the index entry for "beans" will say: beans, I-2, II-1.
Where to click what for each step depends on the Word version you're using.
posted by bleston hamilton station at 11:37 AM on July 8, 2018
In both sections, tell Word to include the chapter number in the page numbers, and to start a new chapter at every level 1 heading. Start each of the two sections with a level 1 heading (and don't include any other level 1 headings). Autonumber the level 1 headings, say with roman numerals.
This way, the page numbers in the first volume will look like I-1, I-2 etc, and in the second volume II-1, II-2 etc. When you build an index, if say volume I contains the word "beans" on page 2, and volume II contains the word "beans" on page 1, the index entry for "beans" will say: beans, I-2, II-1.
Where to click what for each step depends on the Word version you're using.
posted by bleston hamilton station at 11:37 AM on July 8, 2018
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posted by Happy Dave at 8:31 AM on July 8, 2018 [1 favorite]