Isn't it terrible? You can create the neatest index in Word, even a multilevel index, but in the end, the index is a "dead" list! There is no chance to mouse click onto any one of the entries in the index list to jump to the corresponding page, idealy directly to where the index entry has been specified. And because Word does not support such feature, there is no option to research the advantages of an interactive index in PDF.

At least, up to now. Today however, PDF-T-Maker offers exactly this feature: To convert all index entries of a Word document into PDF bookmarks. If the bookmark is clicked, the corresponding page is displayed, the position of the original index entry specification is located near the upper window edge. Depending on the Reader version, the index entries may even be checked quickly:

In the default settings, the Acrobat Reader 4 marks all bookmarks directing to the currently displayed page while browsing through the document (the Acrobat Reader 6 however, only marks the the bookmark which comes first in the vertical sequence). Also, because all index entries remain in the bookmark list (in contrast to an index list on a document's page, which disappears when a new page is opened), each index entry in the bookmark list can quickly clicked through and the corresponding destination be checked.

This way, a quick quality check of all index entries is possible.

And if until now the creation of index entries in Word was to tedious to you (there are enough dialog windows to drive you to despair): With PDF-T-Maker in the background specifying an index entry is as easy as highlighting the required word (or words) and hitting Shift-Alt-i.

Just download PDF-T-Maker onto your computer, to provide at least in the PDF files created by you an active index: To PDF-T-Maker.

It is to tedious to specify index entries?

Accepted, specifying an index entry in Word can drive you to despair. It can be easier: Highlight the word (or the words) that should be listed in the index and press Shift-Alt-i. Thereby you call up a macro, that copies the words highlighted into a Word index entry (single-level entry), removes any leading or trailing spaces and ensures, that the index entry is not located within a heading line (if the words highlighted are located in a heading, the index entry is moved to the next line below; index entries in heading lines can cause problems in some situations). A precondition is of course, that you have installed PDF-T-Maker.

Whatever way the index entry has been created: You can edit all index entries comparably easy: Make sure, that also all non-printable characters are visible (from menu |- Tools | Options | View | Non-printable characters: All | [OK] -| or the paragraph symbol in the icon bar). In the underdotted, curled brackets with "XE" at the beginning the index entry is located between the quotation marks. Everything between the quotation marks you may edit.

Note

The index conversion is not yet perfect:

The alphabetical sorting does not yet account correctly for umlauts and other special characters (e.g. ä, á), these are positioned according to their position within the ANSI character set (refer to Character table —available in German only) Multilevel indexes are displayed single-level only. The semicolon used by Word for the detection of subgroups is transferred into the bookmark text.

The "correction" of these problems is in the pipeline — if someone in his or her sparetime has the pleasure to do so. If you want to have corrected this quickly, just take some money into your hands and pay for our working time.

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