Scribe, Inc.

Indexing involves more than placing a list of keywords and locators in the back of a book. The indexing process requires the same steps involved in producing books. First, we write or create the content of the index to produce an index manuscript. Then we edit, design, typeset, and proofread this manuscript to produce the actual book index.

Scribe provides indexing services to both publishers and authors. We create two different types of indexes: traditional multilevel or "thinking" indexes, and keyword indexes. We produce thinking indexes in the traditional fashion of reading and recording all significant terms, concepts, and ideas, or by using cutting-edge typesetting software, such as InDesign. Within Scribe's Well-Formed Document Workflow, we employ the creation method best suited to the project.

• Thinking or multilevel indexes—Using the traditional method, Scribe first establishes the client's specifications and assigns an indexer with the appropriate skill and content expertise. The indexer creates the index manuscript based on a close reading of the proof pages, with the number of levels, density, and peculiarities of the book content in mind. Scribe also creates indexes using the technological method of embedding index tags in the data stream. We embed the tags after the copyedited manuscript is approved, and prior to converting the manuscript from a Word document to an XML document. The indexing logic is the same in both cases, only the technology and method of extracting the index are different.

• Keyword indexes—These are less sophisticated and therefore require less human intervention. In essence, a keyword index represents a concordance list of all words identified as important within the manuscript. Based on a list of keywords supplied by the author, we produce a keyword index by tagging each instance of the predetermined keywords in the manuscript. When we generate proof pages, the typesetting software can automatically generate a keyword index by associating locators with each tagged keyword and presenting these in the form of an index.

Either way, Scribe possesses the indexing skill and the technological know-how to create indexes of all levels of complexity for books of any size.