Master index creation

[Fiona]

I have a single project from which I generate multiple pdfs (as well as other targets, but it's the pdfs I'm interested in right now). I would like to produce a master index for all these in addition to the individual indexes that each pdf has. I'm flailing in the dark rather in trying to create this. I've made sure that each each individual pdf target is for a ToC that has a volume number but I'm not sure how to progress. Has anyone done this and is prepared to give me some pointers? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ajturnersurrey]

This facility is there by default if you generate all of the pdf targets out of the one Flare project. Your master index collects entries for everything. An individual target only contains an index to those items which appear in that target.

I've not tried to do this in the situation that each of your pdfs is generated from a separate Flare project, though I imagine it could be done by creating a global project that the others all link in to, to get you into this position. Perhaps you'd find more help on this on the Importing board?

[Fiona]

Thanks ajturnersurrey. However, I'm completely new to Flare...the facility might be there by default but how do I produce it? I have a single project with several dozen individual pdfs, each with an index. I can't work out how to produce a new pdf document called "Master Index" that contains an amalgamation of all the separate document indexes.

[ajturnersurrey]

I would suggest then that you add a new TOC to your project (Project > New > Add Table of Contents) which will be the TOC for the new combined document. You will need to create a new Target which points to this TOC.

If the new target is just to be a concatenation of the existing documents then you can drag and drop existing TOCs into that new one. Then add extra front matter such as cover and TOC topics.

More likely you will want to make a few changes to your TOCs and combined TOC so that this is more maintainable in the future. If I was to set up this sort of structure from scratch I would go for the following sort of system with three levels of TOC, which combine. Then I could add the content from lower level docs to my master doc, without the front matter of those lower level documents:

TOC Master would contain
- Cover topic
- TOC topic
- Doc A Content TOC
- Doc B Content TOC
- Doc C Content TOC

Then

Doc A TOC would contain
- Cover topic
- TOC topic
- Doc A Content TOC

etc...

[Fiona]

Revisiting this as I didn't manage to get it resolved last time round...

The situation:
1 project, comprising topics for 20 documents.
Each document is produced as a pdf and html5, and has a TOC for each. Only pdf is of interest here.
Each individual pdf has an index in its TOC.

The requirement:
An additional document that is a master index for all the others. This document should have a cover page and then just an index.
The index in this document will need to include the appropriate document name for each entry.

Example:
document called "BOB" has an index entry "bobby" on page 6
- index in "BOB" lists "bobby...........6"
- master index lists "bobby........BOB (6)

The problem:
I can generate a master index by setting up a master TOC with all the other TOCs in it and then an index at the end - this generates exactly what I need. However, I can't work out how to get a document that just comprises a title page and a master index without including all the other content.

Can anyone help me please?

[ChoccieMuffin]

The only thing I can think of is doing as you suggest by creating a big doc with everything in so the index appears, then in Acrobat Pro, delete the documents to just leave the index.

But that's a massive hack and probably not what you want to do at all, but it's all I could think of. I don't see how Flare could do what you want otherwise. (And if you do take that approach, when you include the topic for the index, make it a chapter break and reset the page number to 1, so when you remove the "body" of the big doc you still have sensible page numbering for your index doc.)

[Fiona]

Thanks ChoccieMuffin, that's how I'm currently doing it. I hoped someone might have come against this before and worked out a better approach. Our documentation is updated daily and rebuilt every night, with the newly-built documents being uploaded to the website automatically. Currently the master index can't be part of this process as it requires manual intervention

[ChoccieMuffin]

I suggest you investigate a filetype .pdx. A predecessor of mine managed to do something whizzy with them but I have no idea what it was he did, but there was a way that all the index information from the various .pdx files could be read together. Not sure if that'll be of any help as I think they might have been connected with our online deliverables, but in the absence of any other suggestions it might be worth a look.
Initially, take a look here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/c ... dexes.html