IndexConvert Process
IndexConvert enables indexes to be reverse engineered into files that can be imported into indexing software.
Extremely high accuracy can be achieved because IndexConvert includes many of the rules followed when laying out indexes, derived from indexing course material and many actual indexes.
See the user guide or checklist for more information. These are available from the downloads page. The checklist is a Word document designed to keep a record of your conversion. Adjust it to suit your requirements.
Labelling headings ($H1_ $H2_, $H3_, etc.) and locator strings ($L_) allows the index to be manipulated into formats that can be imported into indexing software including Cindex, Sky Index and Macrex. Spreadsheet, database and Automark exports are also available. The index can be embedded into a Word document.
During the labelling stages the user is asked to respond to initial judgements made by IndexConvert based on automatic searches of the index. Examples of the dialogue are ‘Is this a level 1 heading?’ or ‘Is this a FIRST locator?’. At each stage, error labels ($ErH01_, $ErL00_, $ErL01_ etc.) identify positions in the index that must be reviewed before the next stage.
When the index is received as a PDF, conversion to a Word document will cause changes to the document format that may initially be invisible. These are likely to include the addition of returns at the end of some lines and the omission of returns at others. Adjustments should be made before using IndexConvert or much time will be wasted later on. Careful use of Word find/replace can help.
If you are converting from one indexing package to another, for instance Cindex to Sky SI8 idex, then get Cindex to do the labelling and export to RTF as a single column set-out index without headers, footers, page numbers or continue statements.
The first stage with IndexConvert is Preprocess. If the index is presented as multiple columns, it will be converted to a single column. Unnecessary page, section and column breaks, blank lines, and single letter group headings are automatically removed. Check for $Er labels and correct any errors.
Initial labelling of locators (Locators L) matches the region of an entry between the end of a heading and the beginning of a locator against a library of several thousand possibilities. Where a match can't be found an error label is inserted.
Headings and subheadings are labelled using a choice of three different methods. Method A is recommended for good Word files (such as an index exported from an indexing program), Method C is recommended when the index has been exported from a PDF.
Remaining locators are then labelled, Locators M.
An audit determines entries that may have been labelled incorrectly. The user needs to adjust the index at this stage to eliminate all error codes. The audit expects every entry to include a locator. If it doesn't then Ignore will prevent the entry being labelled.
An audit report can be created containing only the entries containing error labels.
Concatenation and style labelling follows if the export is to be a tab delimited file for Cindex, Sky Index, Macrex, spreadsheet, or database. Styles labelled are bold, italic, underline, subscript, superscript and smallcaps.
The 
Macrex export uses the Unicode file to insert keyboard codes into the exported file.
The Sky Index export uses a copy of the translation file to insert keyboard codes.
IXML export is available for Cindex and certain versions of Sky Index.
IDEX export is available for later versions of Sky Index.
An Index-Manager export is also available.
The index can be embedded into a Word document. This uses page numbers to determine where XE fields are written, therefore the page numbering in the index and the Word file must match. Entries are written close to the top of a page, context matching is not attempted.
Elided 123-4
Elided is an additional add-in supplied with IndexConvert for converting elided page ranges back to un-elided ranges to support repagination.
The file is then exported to the required file format.
TextConvert and CharConvert aid entry of diacritics into Sky Index or Macrex. You can also quickly establish the keyboard entry codes of any characters without the need to search massive Unicode tables.