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SumDex™

Developed exclusively for large-scale indexing projects, the SumDex utility helps you better manage your projects by creating a variety of useful authority lists tailored to meet your specific needs.  The authority lists can show the main headings, first-level subheadings, and/or cross references including their “from” as well as “to” locations.

With SumDex, you can create an authority list for a large index that is split into an unlimited number of separate files.  Authority lists produced by SumDex can be distributed to the indexers on your projects to help them gain greater access to the project’s current vocabulary, eliminating much of the tedium of merging similar headings later in the project. SumDex can also output the authority list so it can be imported into CINDEX for use with H/Check.

The cross reference validation feature is the most useful function. Index preparation software like CINDEX and Sky Index can validate main heading to main heading cross references. Larger indexes often have cross references which target the first and possibly the second subheading levels. The syntax of these multilevel targets varies and usually involves some punctuation or extra phrases to make it clear to the user what the target is. For example:

• see House pets, subheading: Cats
• see House pets, at Cats
• see Cats, under House pets
• Felines. see Cats, this heading
• Felines. see Cats, this subheading
• Felines. see Cats, ante
• see Mammals—Felines—Cats

Features

• SumDex understands indexes in CINDEX or Sky Index files.
• There is no limit to the number of index files that SumDex can handle in one processing step.
• You can specify word-by-word or letter-by-letter sorting for the report to be consistent with the sort order you are using in CINDEX.
• SumDex will either create a report to print or a data file to import into CINDEX or other software.  This data file can be used as an authority file for the H/Check utility.
• The report can be continuous or can start a new page at each letter break.
• Any cross references listed in the report can be displayed on separate lines or in run-in (paragraph) style. The former display aids readability while the latter produces less pages.
• SumDex will note headings in the report that are displayed because they are referenced in a cross reference but did not exist on their own.  This allows you to quickly check for specious cross references across all your index files.
• SumDex allows you to control which headings should be included in the output: only main headings; first- level subheadings only when they have cross references attached; or, all first-level subheadings.
• You can also control the type of cross reference information output: cross reference “from” and “to” locations; only cross reference “to” locations; or, no cross reference information.
• You can also reprint selected pages from a large report in the event you encounter any printer errors.

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