how to make index page numbers links into document

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I have to deliver a seventy page manual. It's all done... except that the sample they gave me (also created with Word 2002) has an index that has page numbers which are links into the document. The TOC generated as links, but the index is plain text. I don't need info about formatting that text, I desperately need to find out how to gen an index that has pages numbers that are hot

This is my first book using MS Word. I'm used to FrameMaker, but this client required that I use Word. I sure could use a tip or two from you pros! Thanks!
 
There is no built-in, automatic way to create a linked index, and it's
exceedingly tedious to do manually.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

t-houselinda said:
I have to deliver a seventy page manual. It's all done... except that the
Click to expand...
sample they gave me (also created with Word 2002) has an index that has page
numbers which are links into the document. The TOC generated as links, but
the index is plain text. I don't need info about formatting that text, I
desperately need to find out how to gen an index that has pages numbers that
are hot.
This is my first book using MS Word. I'm used to FrameMaker, but this
Click to expand...
client required that I use Word. I sure could use a tip or two from you
pros! Thanks!
 
Hi =?Utf-8?B?dC1ob3VzZWxpbmRh?=,
I have to deliver a seventy page manual. It's all done... except that the sample they
Click to expand...
gave me (also created with Word 2002) has an index that has page numbers which are links
into the document. The TOC generated as links, but the index is plain text. I don't need
info about formatting that text, I desperately need to find out how to gen an index that
has pages numbers that are hot.As Suzanne says, Microsoft hasn't provided this functionality (yet, anyway).

It's possible to accomplish using some fairly advanced VBA, though. I wrote an article a
few yearsback on howthis works. I don't think it's available anymore on-line, but you can
buy a CD with article archives (pretty good investment, if you have to automate Office a
lot). That link is on my website.

The basic outline is
- You need to use the Double-click event (or possibly Selection.Change)
- When the user does this, there's a check to find out if the action was taken in an
Index field
- If yes, if it was taken on an index number
- If yes, go to that page number and search the index term

You could basically do the same thing, but create hyperlinks into the text around the page
numbers.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)
 
Oh my gawd. It's my hope that I do not have to use this tool for creating books in the future. (sigh) All I run into are limitations. I don't know what you mean by VBA... and it's unbelievable that I might not be able to accomplish a task that should take no more than selecting an option. Thanks for handing me the truth, even though it's wrecked my day. A curse on microsoft....
 
Hi =?Utf-8?B?dC1ob3VzZWxpbmRh?=,

Well, I agree it would be nice to have the option. But in all fairness to Microsoft, the
indexing feature existed long before anyone dreamed of hyperlinking indexes to textual
content. It was available over 15 years ago, when other word processors didn't even have
basic indexing capabilities.

I do know Microsoft is aware of people wanting hyperlink capability, and I suspect that it
will be built into the product in some future version. But first they have to figure out
how to get the poor little Index field to do something it was originally not designed to
do...

VBA = programming, BTW.
Oh my gawd. It's my hope that I do not have to use this tool for creating books in the
Click to expand...
future. (sigh) All I run into are limitations. I don't know what you mean by VBA... and
it's unbelievable that I might not be able to accomplish a task that should take no more
than selecting an option. Thanks for handing me the truth, even though it's wrecked my day.
A curse on microsoft....
Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the
newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)
 
To add to what Cindy has said, consider that the initial (and for many
people still the only) use of Word was to create *printed* documents.
Hyperlinks are of absolutely no value in a printed document. It is only
since so many people started viewing and reading documents online that this
type of functionality has started to spread.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Hi =?Utf-8?B?dC1ob3VzZWxpbmRh?=,
Sorry I wallowed in frustration.
Click to expand...
Not a problem :-) It happens to all of us, and MS is such a
big, juicy target!

Cindy Meister
 
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