A computer-generated keyword index lists a page number for a key term each time it occurs in the book. You simply provide Partridge Singapore with a list of words that you want to appear in the index. Partridge Singapore will create an index by tagging the selected words during the production process. The resulting alphabetical list of keywords gives the page numbers for each occurrence of the word.

The effectiveness of this type of index depends entirely on the keywords you choose. The choice of words needs to be carefully thought through. If words are not chosen carefully, the resulting index can be overly long and unusable. Do not use simple words or words that repeat constantly throughout the text. For example, if you are writing a cookbook, do not index the word egg. Every time the word egg is mentioned, the computer will index that page. We presume that egg shows up on many recipe pages.

Good to Know|information

A concordance-type index has no logical organisation other than alphabetisation, and only exact word matches can be indexed using this approach. We highly recommend our Professional Index service if you require an industry-standard index. A computer cannot do what a professional, human indexer can—evaluate the significance of each occurrence of a word and whether it’s really important to list, develop appropriate cross references and subentries, phrase entries in the most useful way, and more. Librarians and reviewers consider a computer-generated word list not simply less useful but a liability to a book.

This service generally adds 2 weeks to the design process depending on our work queue and the complexity of your work. To find out more or to order, please call 800 101 2657.