Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 8, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021
Maurice has five Word documents, each of which is rather large. He needs to create a single index that covers all five documents, so he wonders if there is a way to do it without merging the five documents. He doesn't want to merge them because of their sizes.
There are two main ways you can do this. The first way is to create a master document that contains references to subdocuments, and then generate the index using the master document. (Both approaches covered here assume that your documents already have the index field codes inserted within them. In other words, this tip covers just the actual generation of the index, not the creation of the index entries.)
To create the master document, follow these steps:
The second way to create the index is to use fields to combine the documents into a single document. Follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Field dialog box.
The RD fields cause Word to reference each of the specified documents and include them in your index. If desired, you could also add the fields to the end of your fifth document rather than creating a blank document for the index. (If you do this you won't need to include a field for the fifth document itself; only the first four.) This assumes, of course, that you want the index to appear at the end of the fifth document.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13128) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.
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 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
When indexing a document, you may find that some of your index entries aren't formatted the same as your other index ...
Discover MoreWhen indexing a document, you may get some funny results once in a while. If you get single index entries when you were ...
Discover MoreWhen you insert an index in a document, Word automatically takes care of formatting that index. What if the index levels ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
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.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2024 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments