When your document page count creeps into double digits, you may need a way to direct readers to specific topics. Word's indexing tools take much of the mystery and labour out of the process.

Scroll through a document looking for a word or phrase you want to index. When you find one, select it and then press <Alt>-<Shift>-X. You'll see the Main Entry field of the Mark Index Entry dialog box filled with the selected text (see FIGURE 1). If you want to mark the term as a Main Index entry, click Mark. To mark all identical text in the document as a series of separate index entries, click Mark All. To create a subentry, type the text in the subentry field; and to create a third-level entry, type a colon after the subentry text, followed by the text for the index item.

The Mark Index Entry dialog box stays on the screen after you click Mark to allow you to create new index entries. When you finish marking entries, click Close. To create the index, press <Ctrl>-<End> to move the cursor to the bottom of the document. Then select InsertòIndex and Tables, click the Index tab in the Index and Tables dialog box, and click OK.

By GEORGE CAMPBELL