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why is it that in my index, same words where one starts with capital letter and one which does not, show as two different words? How to combine them?

Anonymous
2023-11-07T04:19:15+00:00

i want to make an index for my book that i make using microsoft word. when i put one word which starts with capital letter, it only shows pages where the exact word (starts with capital letter) appear in. How to make the same word that does not start with capital letter appear on that index too?

Example:

I mark the word "Diagonal". It only appears pages in which the word "Diagonal" there, not including "diagonal".

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-11-07T12:09:19+00:00

    Seems like it would be easier just to find the errant reference and change it from { XE "Diagonal" } to { XE "diagonal" }.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T08:08:54+00:00

    Hey there, my name is Ajibola and I'm excited to help you today!

    The reason why the same words with different capitalization show as two different words in your index is because Word treats them as different index entries. This means that you have to mark both the uppercase and lowercase versions of the word if you want them to appear in the same index entry. However, this can be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you have a lot of words to mark.

    Fortunately, there is a way to combine them without having to mark them individually. You can use the field codes of the index entries to change the case of the words to match your preference. For example, if you want all the words in your index to be lowercase, you can add the \l switch to the XE field of the index entries. This will make the words appear in lowercase in the index, regardless of how they are written in the document.

    • Turn on the display of non-printing characters by pressing Ctrl+Shift+8 or clicking the Show/Hide button on the Home tab.

    • Find the XE fields of the index entries that you want to change, for example, { XE "Diagonal" } or { XE "diagonal" }.

    • Add the \l switch to the end of the XE fields, for example, { XE "Diagonal" \l } or { XE "diagonal" \l }.

    • Update the index by clicking the index and pressing F9 or clicking Update Index on the References tab.

    This will make the words appear as "diagonal" in the index, and combine the page numbers for both the uppercase and lowercase versions.

    If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to ask. I'm here to help!

    Give back to the Community. Help the next person with this issue by indicating if this reply solved your problem. Click Yes or No below.

    Kind regards.

    Ajibola

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