Desperate Word 2000 Index/SEQ field prob?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

adf1972 -at- yahoo -dot- com wondered: <<I have a 20+ chapter document, each 
chapter in a sep Word file, with a master TOC and master Index that use 
RD fields. All of the individual chapters are numbered with SEQ fields, 
using a sequence called "Chapter". Using the {TOC \s Chapter ..etc. } 
field (with the "\s" switch) in the TOC file works just fine, and gives 
me a TOC that reflects the SEQ'd Chapter numbers along with the 
individual page numbers. Perfect. But I can't get the ffrrffing "\s" 
switch to work in my INDEX field!>>

I'm no expert on these functions, but I do know that there's a bizarre 
gotcha with at least some of Word's field functions: If you type a 
"switch" such as \s into a field that you're editing, you sometimes 
have to click the cursor inside the field, then move the cursor within 
the field _before_ you type the switch or edit the field text. If you 
don't, the typed information will appear to be perfect, but simply 
won't work.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why this happens, but at a 
former employer, it used to drive us nuts with one field we used to 
open a reference document in a new window. So try this: delete the 
switch (\s), move the cursor back and forth a few times, then retype 
the switch. In any event, couldn't hurt and it'll only cost you 30 
seconds to try!

If this doesn't work nobody comes up with a _good_ solution, here's a 
kludge that will give you an index you can use until you figure out the 
real solution:
- Create a separate index for each file.
- Select the index and convert it into editable text (Control-F9 -- or 
Command-F9 for Mac Word)
- Copy all the indexes into a single document.
- Open the Table menu, and select Sort. Specify the following: 
ascending alphabetical order, based on paragraph breaks.

Voila! You now have a single index, but with many duplicated keywords. 
Manually delete the duplicated words without losing the page numbers 
and you're done. Time-consuming and ugly (you'll only want to do this 
after the chapters are frozen), but it works just fine in a pinch.

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5 - SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION!

RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward in Help authoring technology, featuring all new Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! View an online demo: http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.