For Word embedded indexes, there are two Word add-ins that allow me to use my Cindex indexing software to write the index: WordEmbed and dexEmbed. The utilities create the Word index fields for me from my Cindex fields.
With WordEmbed, I work in Cindex and the Word manuscript document at the same time, embedding each entry as I go along.
With dexEmbed, I work in Cindex from a PDF of the Word file, then embed the full index of entries into the Word document at the end. (Well, I do a test embed after the first chapter.) So working in dexEmbed is closer to my normal indexing process; perhaps that’s why I’m more comfortable working in it than WordEmbed. And perhaps also that dexEmbed is still a live product being supported. I’m not sure about the status of WordEmbed.
The first step in working with dexEmbed is numbering the paragraphs. Those paragraph numbers are used in the Cindex locator field. Then when I embed, the index tags are put into the associated numbered paragraph.
dexEmbed has a utility to number the paragraphs. It also has a Go to Paragraph Number tool (keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Alt-p). So after numbering the paragraphs, I check the document by bringing up Go to Paragraph Number and entering the number of a paragraph near the end of the document.
If dexEmbed goes to the correct paragraph, I celebrate and move on to actual indexing.
But I recently had a Word document that landed two paragraphs ahead of the number I entered. I said to go to paragraph number 3728 and it landed on paragraph number 3726.
I tried to accept all changes, but there were no changes to accept. I tried to Open with Repair, but it made no difference.
So I started going to specific paragraph numbers and narrowed down where the problems occurred.
Paragraph 2481 was the first mess-up. I said to go to 2480 and it went to 2480. I said to go to 2481 and it went to 2480.
The second mess-up was at paragraph 3123. I said to go to 3122 and it went to 3121 (since it was now one paragraph off). I said to go to 3123 and it went to 3121.
Each of those trouble spots was at the end of a chapter. I made section breaks visible by clicking on the Home tab ¶ button. At each trouble location, there was a section break/new page that was not associated with a paragraph mark; they were each “floating” in space after the last paragraph mark of the chapter. AND just above each trouble spot was a chunk of references that were fields– they were text with gray background.
So I clicked on each reference field and then hit Ctrl-Shift-F9 to convert the fields to text. After doing that, each of the floating section breaks was associated with a paragraph mark. I renumbered the paragraphs and after, it went to the correct paragraph numbers.
Why is it important that Go to Paragraph Number goes to the correct paragraph? When I embed my index, dexEmbed uses the paragraph numbers in the locator fields to know where to put the index entry tag. If it goes to the wrong paragraph number, then it puts my index tag into the wrong paragraph.