IndexDeconstructor
April 25, 2008 – 4:00 pmI’ve been writing a lot of macros for indexing lately, and if you ever need to rework a previously created index, you’ll be interested in my latest creation, IndexDeconstructor:
http://www.editorium.com/indexdeconstructor.htm
IndexDeconstructor turns a previously formatted back-of-the-book index into a tab-delimited file that can be imported into a standalone indexing program such as SKY Index, CINDEX, or MACREX.
http://www.sky-software.com/
http://www.levtechinc.com/ProdServ/CINDEX.htm
http://www.macrex.com/
So how could you use IndexDeconstructor?
* Let’s say you’re doing embedded indexing–by hand (ugh). You’ve sent the file to the publisher, who imports it into QuarkXPress, generates the index in Quark, and sends you back the generated, formatted index as a Word document for final editing. You’d like to edit the index in your standalone indexing program, if only you had a way to do that. (And now you do).
* For whatever reason, a publisher asks you to *expand* an existing index that exists only in printed form. Your arguments for starting from scratch fall on deaf ears. So you scan the index, run it through OCR, open it in Word, make sure the entries are properly styled, and deconstruct it so you can bring it into your standalone indexing program.
* A publisher is bringing out a new edition of a large, long-out-of-print reference book and doesn’t want a new index. But all the page numbers in the book are going to change. You have tools in your standalone indexing program to help renumber the index locators, if only you could get the index into the program. (Again, scan, OCR, style, deconstruct.)
That’s a start, but I’m sure there are other possibilities. Any suggestions you may have would be welcome:
mailto:editor@editorium.com
IndexDeconstructor is also included as part of DEXembed:
http://www.editorium.com/dexembed.htm
Don’t have a standalone indexing program but need to do indexing in Word? You need DEXter:
http://www.editorium.com/dexter.htm
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RESOURCES
wordsnSync
If you’ve been reading Editorium Update very long, you’ll recognize the name of Richard H. Adin, who frequently contributes useful tips for the Readers Write column. Rich has recently released a Microsoft Word add-in, EditTools, that works very well with those I offer at the Editorium. His add-in is both useful and ingenious. You’ll find it here:
http://www.wordsnsync.com/edittools.php
Rich sent me the following explanation about two specific EditTools features, and if you’re an editor, you’ll want to pay close attention:
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The MultiFile Find & Replace works similar to your MegaReplacer in that it replaces all instances of a word or phrase in all documents in a directory. However, MultiFile Find & Replace is complementary to MegaReplacer. MegaReplacer works when you have a known list of changes you want to make globally; MultiFile Find & Replace is designed to do the replacement as you come across it while editing and to do one replacement at a time.
Smart Highlighter does the typical highlighting. For example, if you want to highlight “gizmo,” it highlights all instances of “gizmo.” But the reason it is “smart” is this: Suppose you come to “Escherichia coli” in a manuscript. You want to note that you have (1) already seen it spelled out and that (2) when you come to “E. coli,” there is no need to spell it out. If you select “Escherichia coli” and run Smart Highlighter, all of the subsequent instances of the following will be highlighted–
Escherichia coli
E. coli
Escherichia
–giving you visual cues that subsequent instances of “Escherichia coli” should be changed to “E. coli” and that “Esherichia” has already been spelled out, as well as that “E. coli” is okay because it has been previously spelled out.
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Now those are both *very* cool features. Imagine this: You’re editing along and come to a misspelled name. You fix it in the current chapter, but then EditTools fixes it in *all the other chapters,* so when you open one of them to start working, the misspelling is already fixed! Yeah, I’ll definitely be using that one.
I know what you might be thinking: “How come you’re promoting a competitor’s product?” Simple: It’s a great product! And Rich has been a great supporter of mine over the years. Other than that, I’m not getting anything out of this. So what are you waiting for? Check out EditTools today!
http://www.wordsnsync.com/edittools.php
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Feed the hungry and test your vocabulary–everybody wins! My high score is 47. What’s yours?
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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I *love* SpamArrest. After unsuccessfully trying to fight the battle against junk email with a couple of top-notch programs, I decided to try SpamArrest, and I’m thrilled to say it’s actually won the war. Boy, has my email been quiet! When people send me an email message, they receive a message in return asking them to click a link to register themselves (a one-time operation) as someone who can send me email. Spammers, of course, won’t bother to do this, which basically means no more spam! It’s easy to preregister family, friends, associates, and email newsletters. The online program (no software installed on your computer) provides complete control over how spam is handled, and it’s very easy to use. You can try SpamArrest for 30 days at no charge. To learn more, click here:
http://spamarrest.com/affl?1403707
And if you decide to sign up, please do so through that affiliate link. Your support will help keep Editorium Update alive and kicking. Thanks!
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THE FINE PRINT
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