[Scribus] Index

[John R. Culleton]

On Sunday 22 July 2007, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 09:42:59 -0400
>
> "John R. Culleton" <john at wexfordpress.com> dijo:
> > In the book business index means back of book index.  When it
> > comes to indexing, bibliography, footnotes etc. Scribus comes up
> > short compared to more book-oriented products . However one can
> > always use an external product to create the index and add that
> > in later on. That is what professional indexers do.  Commercial
> > products such as Cindex, Macrex and Sky Index are suitable.
> >
> > It is also possible to make up an input file using an editor for
> > TeX's makeindex program. You need to create a file called e.g.,
> > mybook.idx, run it through makeindex with a suitable control
> > (.ist) file as described in the makeindex manual. and then flow
> > the resulting mybook. ind  file into Scribus.   Perhaps I should
> > cobble up a Tcl/TK program to ease the input process.
> >
> > Typical line items for the makeindex raw file (mybook.idx) would
> > look something like this:
> >
> > \indexentry{life expectancy}{8}
> > \indexentry{reinsurer}{8}
> > \indexentry{reinsurance}{8}
> > \indexentry{reinsurer}{8}
> > \indexentry{life expectancy}{8}
> > \indexentry{mortality!predictors}{8}
> >
> > etc.
> >
> > These entries are extracted from an actual file for an index I
> > did for a customer.  The makeindex program will take these
> > entries, sort them by entry name, summarize where necessary
> > (e.g., "reinsurer" above) and produce a proper index  ready to
> > flow into the scribus document, complete with letter headings
> > etc.  Subentries under major entries look like the last item
> > shown above.
> >
> > For alphabets such as Czech etc. the alternative program Xindy
> > may be more suitable. It is a tougher product to work with
> > however.
> >
> > Or you can always make up  3 x 5 card records  and sort them by
> > hand as in centuries past...
>
> Might it be possible to link makeindex or xindy, or some other open
> source indexing utility, to Scribus somehow? It would be cool to
> have an indexing utility for Scribus.

Yes it would. But makeindex is effectively a standalone program. One 
pass thorugh Tex generates the IDX file from embedded tags , then 
makeindex is run creating the ind file, and the next run of TeX finds 
the ind file and imports it  into the document. This three run 
process can be hidden somewhat by a driver program but that would 
have no applicability to Scribus. 

The best implementation I can see is a four step process:
1. Run scribus and create a final pdf.
2. Run a pdf reader program and manually transfer the index items and 
their page numbers into an .idx file, perhaps using a little Tcl/Tk 
program to help ease the process (spinner for page number etc.)
3. Run makeindex, 
4. Flow the finished index file into scribus as text.

I have asked for help in copying/ pasting words from Scibus itself, 
thus eliminating step 1, modifying step 2, and incorporating step 3 
as part of the original Scribus run.  Haven't read the replies yet. 


-- 
John Culleton
ATTN Publishers/authors:
If you don't read you don't succeed.
Free short list of publishing/marketing books. 
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf




_________________________________________________________________
Need personalized email and website? Look no further. It's easy
with Doteasy $0 Web Hosting! Learn more at www.doteasy.com