Generating Indexes

[Fred Ridder]

Theresa de Valence wrote:
 

> I’m having trouble figuring out how to create indexes. I’ve looked up 
> lists of markers and indexes and I’m not sure what the difference is. In 
> the Help System, I can see a picture illustrating sub-entries of 
> indexes, but I can’t figure out what to change or how.

It used to be the case that the distinction between generated lists (TOC, LOT, LOF, LOA, LOR) and indexes was really clear cut: lists were compiled in order of occurrence (from front to back), while indexes were alphabetical. But some time around FM7 (or maybe 8) the distinction got a little blurred when FrameMaker provided the option to generate alphabetical lists so that you wouldn't have to sort the list after generating it. 
 
At this point, the fundamental distinction is that generated lists are filled with singular references (one line, one page number), while index entries are designed to accommodate multiple page references (and optionally page ranges) for any given entry. If each of the items you are listing only occur in one place in the book, what you want is a list to keep things simple; if the items you are listing can have multiple instances in different locations, you need to use an index. 
 
> WHAT I WANT:
> 1. Index of Subjects (these are really titles) with a TAB between the 
> subject and the page number. I have modified Level1SIX Paragraph format.
> Here’s what Fm generated on the reference page.
> 1, 2–3
> Level2SIX
> Symbols[\ ];Numerics[0];A;B;C;D;E;F;G;H;I;J;K;L;M;N;O;P;Q;R;S;T;U;V;W;X;Y;Z
> <$symbols><$numerics><$alphabetics>
> -_–—
> Level1SIX
> openObjectId <$relfilename>:<$ObjectType> <$ObjectId>
> <$pagenum>
> (These last two are on separate lines with a carriage return between 
> them, so I don't understand where to put the tab).

Since indexes are intended for entries with multiple page references, they usually use spaces rather than tabs to separate entry text from the list of page numbers. If your subjects/titles are unique, you may want to use an alphabetical list rather than an index. But if you stick with an index, you need to specify the tab in the reference page paragraph that is tagged *SeparatorsSIX, which is the first one you list (the one with the "1, 2–3" string). If you look closely, you'll see that the "1" is preceded by space, which is the default separator between entry text and the first page number. Replace that with a tab and you should be set. 
 
But by way of disclaimer, it's actually been a couple of years since I've had occasion to add an index to a FrameMaker document (Frame is a secondary tool at my current employer, and most of the documents we use it on are API references, which do not benefit much from indexes.), and I have *never* had occasion to generate an index with tab separators rather than spaces, so I'm only going on how I understand the index feature to be architected. 
 
-Fred Ridder
 

  		 	   		  
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