concordance and index

[Guest]

I have a document with an Index at the end. It has been built up using a
separate concordance document. Is there any simple way that i can update the
concordance (esp deleting an entry in the concordance) and then update the
index entries in the main document so that all previous entries to that (now
deleted) item in the concordance are deleted from the main document and
therefore also the main document index? In the past, I have deleted all index
entries in the main doc and then rebuilt the doc using the modified
concordance, but this is slow and clumsy and prone to mistakes?

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have a document with an Index at the end. It has been built up using a
separate concordance document. Is there any simple way that i can update the
concordance (esp deleting an entry in the concordance) and then update the
index entries in the main document so that all previous entries to that (now
deleted) item in the concordance are deleted from the main document and
therefore also the main document index? In the past, I have deleted all index
entries in the main doc and then rebuilt the doc using the modified
concordance, but this is slow and clumsy and prone to mistakes?

No, it doesn't work that way. The concordance file only supplies
things for the auto-mark routine to look for. If you did as you
proposed, you'd just get a second XE field for each entry, but only
the original one for the entry you removed. The final index would look
exactly the same as before.

The correct procedure is to find the XE fields that contain the
unwanted entry and remove them from the body of the document. You can
do that with Edit > Replace...

Turn on nonprinting characters with the ¶ button, so you can see the
XE fields (they're formatted as hidden). Open the Edit > Replace
dialog. Let's say the entry you want to remove is "thermonuclear".
Then type in the Find What box

^d XE "thermonuclear"

Notice the single space on either side of the XE, which is required to
match the field codes. Leave the Replace With box empty, and click the
Replace All button. Then update the index field at the end of the
document.

You can remove the unwanted row from the concordance file in case you
ever want to use it again to auto-mark a document, but that's of no
consequence for this document now.