Indexes (Or Indices)

A good index requires careful thought, an understanding of the subject matter, and an ability to keep the whole project in your head at all times. In short, it requires comprehension—a quality software lacks. Fortunately, InDesign has a built-in indexing feature.

Some people ask us, “Why can’t a computer build an index? InDesign should just give me a list of all the words in my document and what page they’re on.” Unfortunately, this is not an index; it’s a concordance. A concordance records the location of words; an index records the location of ideas. In general, if you’re looking for an index, you’re going to have to do it manually with InDesign’s indexing features. Or, better yet, the professional indexer you hire should do that.