Index
(French: Indice)
Indexes should be marked up using unordered lists, as the alphabetized order of the entries is not significant (i.e. an index can be reverse sorted without loss of information). See Lists for how to apply to your document.
To aid in navigating an Index, use nested lists to enclose alphabetically (and/or numerically) related entries. Many indexes include the number or letter as a heading. You can add these to the lists as top level entries, and the items nests underneath, or has subheadings under the top heading for the Index.
The use of lists is recommended as it simplifies navigation by users of assistive technologies. Not only does it speed up the movement through entries, but the position within the list can be announced, allowing the reader to quickly return to the same spot again later, if needed.
Example
Screenshot of Index with Headings and Nested Lists:
Screenshot of Index with only Nested Lists:
Page Numbering and Producer's Notes
If we do not keep the original print pagination (which is most always the case), page numbers in the index will not be accurate. In this case, we retain the print page numbers listed in the index but add a producer's note at the beginning of the book.
Producer's Note section
Add a Producer's Note [heading 1] after the About this Digital Book section with the following text:
Producer's Note [Heading 1]
This book includes an index with page numbers, which were kept for informational purposes only. Original page numbers have not been retained in this digital book. Please use the search function on your reading device to find terms of interest. If you need a version of this book with original page numbering and references, please contact NNELS Support directly.
Q&A Archive
Q: In Cosmic Queries, the index includes a note that page numbers in bold refer to images. Should I apply strong formatting to the relevant page numbers or leave without formatting. I figure that the formatting here does provide additional meaning (that the references are to images), however, I wasn't sure if this was relevant in the case of an index.
A: In this case you can keep the bold. Don't forget to include the Producer's Note about Indexes!
Q: When editing Indexes should the letter headings of each section be set to Normal or Heading 2?
A: We set them to Normal. There's no real need to make the letters navigational points in the document since we don't link our indexes. You can make the letter headings stand out by applying the Strong style to it (you may need to modify the Strong style).