CS3 IndexFromList.jsx with a twist

Question

I'd like to thank Martin Fischer for rewriting the IndexFromList.jsx script for CS3: http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/foren/Skript_zum_Index_generieren_P322824.html#322824
It takes a list of index entries and indexes every occurence of the topics in the list. Usually the authors of the books I typeset have created such a topic list, so the script really speeds up the proces of finding the page references.
The list drawn up by the authors needs tweaking, as they don't take into account the way Indesign's indexing deals with case, whole word and proper names.
This is an example of what a portion of the concordance list could look like before and after tweaking:
postmodernism
postmodern
postmodernism
postmodernist
postmodernists
postmodernity
In the final index these topics are grouped into the 'postmodernism' entry. But that leaves a lot of manual work changing the index topics of the similar terms. An added step to the script could perform this automatically, if you change the concordance list into a two column list. The right column indicates which terms should be grouped:
postmodern | postmodernism
postmodernism | postmodernism
postmodernist | postmodernism
postmodernists | postmodernism
postmodernity | postmodernism
So instead of adding (oneWord) the script would add the term in the second column:
// Hinzufügen des Themas
myDoc.indexes[0].topics.add(oneWord);
Or is this too complicated a way to address the problem?

Answer 1

Hi Gaphic,
here's a new version of the script: http://www.hilfdirselbst.ch/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=343938#343938
// IndexFromList_withOneSubtopic_CS3.jsx  
//DESCRIPTION: Erzeugt Indexeinträge anhand einer externen Konkordanzdatei, die über einen Dialog ausgewählt wird. 
var myDoc = app.activeDocument;  
var myList = File.openDialog ("Liste mit Indexbegriffen"); 
if (!myList) exit(); 
clearFindChangeSettings();
app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = true;
app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = true;
app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = true;
var myEntries = getWords(myList); 
proceedWithList(myEntries); 
alert("Erledigt!"); 
// Konkordanzliste einlesen 
function getWords (aFile) { 
if (aFile.exists) { 
  aFile.open ('r', undefined, undefined); 
  var aText = aFile.read()+'\n'; 
  // löschen von Leerzeichen am Ende der Zeile + löschen von leeren Zeilen  
  aText = aText.replace(/ +\n/g, '\n').replace(/\n+/g, '\n');  
  // ersetzen von mehrfach aufeinander folgende Leerzeichen aller Art durch ein Leerzeichen 
  aText = aText.replace(/ {2,}/g, ' '); 
  var words = aText.split('\n');
  var myPairs = getPairs( words );
  aFile.close(); 
  return myPairs; 
else { 
  exit(); 
function getPairs( w )
var thePairs = new Array;
for (i = 0; i < w.length; i++ )
  thePairs.push( w[i].split(' | ') );
return thePairs;
// Begriffsliste abarbeiten 
function proceedWithList (w) { 
// bei Bedarf wird ein neuer Index erzeugt 
if (myDoc.indexes.length == 0)  
  myDoc.indexes.add();  
for (var i = 0; i < w.length; i++)  
  if (w[i] != "")  
   makeEntry(w[i]); 
// Aktualisieurng des Index 
myDoc.indexes[0].update(); 
// Indexeintrag erzeugen 
function makeEntry(oneEntry) {
if ( oneEntry.length == 1 )
  app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = oneEntry[0];
else
  app.findTextPreferences.findWhat = oneEntry[1];
var myResult = myDoc.findText();  
for (var i = myResult.length-1; i >=0; i--) {  
  // Fehler abfangen, z.B. Fußnoten ausnehmen 
  try { 
   // Hinzufügen des Themas 
   myDoc.indexes[0].topics.add(oneEntry[0]);  
   // Hinzufügen der Referenz 
   if ( oneEntry.length == 1 )
    myDoc.indexes[0].topics.item(myResult[i].contents).pageReferences.add(myResult[i], PageReferenceType.currentPage);  
   else
    //myDoc.indexes[0].topics.add( oneEntry[0]);
    myDoc.indexes[0].topics.item( oneEntry[0] ).topics.add( oneEntry[1]);
    myDoc.indexes[0].topics.item( oneEntry[0] ).topics.item( myResult[i].contents ).pageReferences.add(myResult[i], PageReferenceType.currentPage);  
  catch(e) {} 
//Clear any existing find/change settings.
function clearFindChangeSettings()
app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
This version supports one topic and one topic with one subtopic.
The list should look like this:
topic 1
topic 2 | subtopic 1
topic 2 | subtopic 2
topic 2 | subtopic 3
You can manage multiple indexes (names, places, subjects) like this:
names | Kafka
names | Peirce
names | Williams
places | Berlin
places | Munich
subjects | health
subjects | sunshine
Maybe some day there will be a version which manages more than one subtopic.
regards
Martin Fischer