PDF Proofs, Word Fields, and Paragraph IDs: When to Start Your Index
Understand what proof-page, embedded Word, and paragraph-ID indexes point to, when to start, and which handoff questions to ask your production editor.
Publication Intelligence articles
Articles on creating and reviewing book indexes
How to choose useful entries, check page references, and review subject, author, and Scripture indexes against the source.
What Belongs in a Book Index Before the First Entry Is Written?
Set a book index’s scope before choosing entries: notes, figures, captions, appendices, front matter and printed page labels all need explicit decisions.
How Long Should a Book Index Be?
Is your book index too short, too long or poorly organized? Learn what to measure and how to shorten repetition, clarify headings and recover missing subjects.
Indexing Footnotes and Endnotes Without Losing the Discussion
Decide which notes belong in a book index and where their locators should point, with a worked example of a note continuing onto a second page.
When to Use See, See Also, or a Second Index Entry
Choose useful index access with worked examples of see references, see also references, and double entry—and repair broken or unnecessary reader detours.
Should a Book Index Include Every Mention?
A substantive passage can justify a subject heading, but every page reference must still lead readers to useful information. Learn how good locators differ from passing mentions.
A Correct Page Number Can Still Support the Wrong Heading
A page can discuss the right subject while supporting the wrong index heading. Three worked examples show how to check relationships, compound headings and certainty.
How to Find What an Index Leaves Out
Correct page references do not prove a book index is complete. Use source passages, reader questions, and two audit directions to find missing access.
Different Good Indexes Can Lead to the Same Passage
Two sound indexes can organize the same passage differently. Learn when reader vocabulary calls for direct access, double posting or a cross-reference.
Why Good Chapter Indexes Do Not Automatically Make a Good Book Index
Three chapters can index the same subject well and still leave readers with fragmented access. See what whole-book editing adds—and which changes need the source.
How an Index Preserves Scholarly Uncertainty
A missing qualifier can turn a scholarly hypothesis into a fact. Learn how index headings preserve proposals, possibilities, inconclusive evidence and rejected claims.
What Happens to an Index When the Manuscript Changes?
Learn which manuscript changes affect index locators, which affect meaning, and how to keep an embedded manuscript and editable index in agreement.
How to Build an Author Index: Names, Citations, and Identity
Learn how to distinguish authors with shared names, reconcile citations with bibliography evidence, and decide which references belong under your publisher’s policy.
Why Scripture Indexing Is More Than Finding Chapter and Verse
Learn how a Scripture index handles bookless references, discontinuous verse ranges, publisher style, and the difference between Bible verses and book-page locators.
Why a High-Scoring Index May Still Need Correction
Compare two fictional index excerpts to spot defects a strong average cannot excuse: missing conclusions, false locators, misleading headings and broken references.
Can AI Evaluate a Book Index?
An Oxford history case study shows how AI can check index coverage, headings, and page references—and why a strong score can still require corrections.
How to Compare Human and AI Indexes Fairly
A practical checklist for comparing human and AI book indexes: select exact artifacts, match the source, share the rules and build an independent benchmark.
Why a Reviewable AI Book Index Takes Time
Plan for automated processing and human review: why whole-book coherence and source-linked locators take work, and what affects an AI indexing run.
The Impossible Third Index: How AI Changed Publication Intelligence
How a 1,104-page indexing assignment led from rule-based author and Scripture tools to AI-assisted subject indexes, source verification, and editorial review.
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