Sort and Combine Cross References

This script is part of the Indexes and Concordances collection. See the full collection here.  For more information about working with indexes and concordances in InDesign, see here.

Unlike subtopics, which InDesign sorts, cross-references are printed in the order in which they were added to the document. If you create a cross-reference to the topic UXP, and later, at the same topic, create a cross-reference to the topic JavaScript, then another one to AppleScript, the Index panel shows them in the order you created them:

After generating the index you’ll see that the cross-references weren’t sorted:

In addition, cross-references of the same type (See, See also) aren’t grouped. What we’re after is See also AppleScript; Javascript; UXP. In addition, subtopics are often placed after the page references:

This script fixes all these problems. Run it against a generated index.

It has no interface, but you need to set two parameters: the text (language) of the cross-reference label and whether the cross-references should be moved. The script defaults to See also and placing cross-references after page references. To change these settings, open the script in a plain-text editor and change these two lines, which are at the top of the script:

var xrefString = 'See also';
var moveCrossRefs = true;

Change 'See also' to e.g. 'Zie ook' and true to false. Save the script (as a plain-text file)

With See cross-references moving them isn’t relevant, so make sure that moveCrossRefs is false.

Return to Index Fixes page.

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