Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Cross-Referencing Index Entries.

Cross-Referencing Index Entries

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 21, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

Creating index entries in a Word document is easy, as you learn in other WordTips. It is not uncommon to cross-reference items in an index, and such cross-references require a change in how you create the index entries. For instance, instead of page numbers after an entry, you might have the text See Johnson, Abigail. To insert a cross-reference in an index entry, follow these steps:

  1. Select the text you wish to appear as the main index entry. This is the text under which the cross reference will appear.
  2. Press Alt+Shift+X. Word displays the Mark Index Entry dialog box. Notice that the Main Entry text box is already filled in with the text you specified in step 1. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Mark Index Entry dialog box.

  4. Select the Cross-reference radio button.
  5. In the text box to the right of the Cross-reference radio button, enter the cross reference, as you want it to appear.
  6. Click on Mark.
  7. Click on Close to dismiss the Mark Index Entry dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12816) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Cross-Referencing Index Entries.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Canceling a Menu

Want to back out of whatever you are doing in a menu? As with many tasks, Word provides several different ways you can ...

Discover More

Appending to a Non-Document Text File

Your macros can easily add information to the end of an existing text file. This is done by opening the target file in ...

Discover More

Automatically Formatting for Decimal Places

Cell contents and cell formatting are, in Excel, largely independent of each other. You can enter something in a cell and ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Formatting Issues with Indexing Levels

When you insert an index in a document, Word automatically takes care of formatting that index. What if the index levels ...

Discover More

Creating a Single Index from Multiple Documents

When dealing with large projects, it is not uncommon to break the project into multiple documents. When it comes time to ...

Discover More

Creating an Index Entry for a Range of Pages

Putting together an index for your documents can be challenging, but Word provides some great tools to make the task ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 + 0?

2020-10-24 14:30:37

Liliana Hartwig

Hello, I would like to create a list of acronyms below the TOC by marking the text of my document and then inserting this as an "index"? below the TOC; however, I don't want to show in the body of my document what was marked, as this will be disruptive to the reader, nor I want this Index to have page numbers or be formatted in a column.

Don't want to show this in the body of my document: { XE "Longhole (LH)" \i }

Would like the list to look as follows (Full name followed by a dot leader TAB then the acronym):

American wire gauge............................. AWG
Amperes................................................. A
Canadian dollars................................... C$
Centimetre............................................ cm
Cubic feet per minute........................... cfm

What would be the best way of doing this?


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.