DEXembed Indexing Software
April 3, 2008 – 3:45 pmI’m pleased to announce the release of DEXembed, a Microsoft Word add-in created specifically to meet the needs of indexers who use standalone indexing programs (such as SKY Index, CINDEX, or MACREX), and who need to embed index tags in Microsoft Word documents or DocBook XML:
http://www.editorium.com/dexembed.htm
DEXembed, in a more rudimentary form, was originally part of its parent program, DEXter, an add-in that is now designed exclusively for indexing directly in Microsoft Word and is analogous to IXgen for FrameMaker:
http://www.editorium.com/dexter.htm
DEXembed has been split off as a separate program and further developed and tested with real-world indexing projects for publishers with a variety of workflows. DEXembed accommodates these workflows with several powerful features:
* Use your favorite standalone program: You can write your index using SKY Index, CINDEX, or MACREX.
* Choose your locator: Use locators that correspond to page numbers, paragraph numbers, or precise word placements–whichever meets your needs.
* Automatically embed the entries: Have DEXembed embed the entries from your index into a Word or DocBook document, based on the locators in your indexing program.
* Work from paper or on-screen: Index from printed pages or view pages electronically, whichever is more comfortable for you.
* Add range codes automatically: Sure, DEXembed can use bookmarks to mark ranges of text, but most publishers want nothing to do with them. So, instead of bookmarks, use beginning and ending range codes, which make it possible to import the embedded entries into QuarkXPress or InDesign and have proper page ranges in the final generated index. DEXembed automates the entire coding process.
* Automatically clean up the index for final editing: At the end of the indexing process, the indexer often receives a Quark- or Frame-generated index (as a Microsoft Word file) with final pagination, and must then carry out a final edit. If the index includes range codes, DEXembed will properly combine the range page locators, delete the codes, and join any orphaned subentries with their main entries.
* Convert an existing index into a tab-delimited file that you can import into your indexing software: When you receive the index (as a Word file) back from the publisher for editing, updating, or revising, DEXembed can properly style the index and convert it to a standalone table (.dat file) that can then be brought back into SKY Index, CINDEX, or MACREX for final editing.
* Remove old index tags automatically: Strip out all previously embedded index tags in a single automated action–often used when a final edit dictates re-embedding all the individual chapter files (if they are available) or removing old tags from a previous version of the book.
You can download the entire DEXembed User Guide here:
http://www.editorium.com/DEXembed_User_Guide.pdf
DEXembed provides many other features that make indexing more efficient, including:
* Number the paragraphs in a document for use as locator references.
* Select a range of text, and DEXembed captures the locators in memory, making it possible to paste (rather than type) the locators into your standalone indexing software.
* Copy a locator from your standalone program, and DEXembed will take you to the corresponding text in a Word document.
* Add a Word comment containing the locator for any selected text.
* Set a special bookmark at the beginning of a topic. Then, when you put your cursor at the end of the text that discusses that topic, automatically select from your current location back to the bookmark.
* Index multiple documents at once.
DEXembed is a free upgrade for those who purchased the first version of DEXter (at $199.95).
If you’d like to try DEXembed at no charge, you can use the program without limitation for 45 days:
http://www.editorium.com/dexembed.htm
After that, you’ll need to purchase a license and program password to keep the program from timing out. The price?
1 user: $149.95.
2-10 users: $99.95 each.
11-49 users: $79.95 each.
50+ users: $59.95 each.
NOTE: If you’ve already downloaded the beta version (anything prior to April 3, 2008), please delete it and get the final tested version now available on the Editorium website:
http://www.editorium.com/dexembed.htm
Professional indexer Ron Strauss says, “I have used this program in my work and it is MAGIC!”
Database administrator Chris Hauptman says, “Thought I should let you know that we finally embedded our monster book, and it went without a hitch. It’s nice to pass on good news about successful embedding! Great program!”
I hope you find DEXembed extremely useful! Why not give it a try?
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RESOURCES
What punctuation mark are you? Find out here:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatpunctuationmarkareyouquiz/
(I’m a colon, evidently.)
Feed the hungry and test your vocabulary–everybody wins! My high score is 47. What’s yours?
http://www.freerice.org
If you’d like to share a resource that others might find useful:
mailto:resources@editorium.com
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HELP WANTED
If you need help with Word, there are actually lots of places to go. Some of the best include:
Allen Wyatt’s WordTips:
http://WordTips.VitalNews.com
The Word-PC List:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html
The McEdit list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McEdit/
Microsoft’s Word discussion groups:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx#13
(Look in the lower right of the page.)
The Word MVP site:
http://word.mvps.org/
Woody’s Lounge:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=wrd
But if you can’t find what you need in those places, send your question here:
mailto:help@editorium.com
I’ll put your question in the newsletter to see if some astute reader knows the answer.
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Editorium Update (ISSN 1534-1283) is published by:
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