Sue Klefstad Indexing

01/30/2024

In the movie Oppenheimer, a fishbowl slowly fills with marbles that represent the purified uranium available for the Chicago chain reaction experiment, the Trinity test, and two bombs.

We have Iowa State University chemist Dr. Harley Wilhelm to thank for those marbles-- and the purified uranium.

Prior to 1942, only a few grams of not-quite-pure uranium were known to exist. They needed tons. Chicago alone wanted 6 tons, but settled for far less for their chain-reaction experiment.
By November of 1944, Dr. Wilhelm's Ames, Iowa, team had produced 653 tons of pure uranium metal.

"Wilhelm's Way" is a fascinating book about Dr. Wilhelm and his astounding accomplishment. This link simply shows to book cover and its author:
https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/lectures/wilhelm%E2%80%99s-way-inspiring-story-isu-chemist-who-saved-manhattan-project

05/31/2023

Good guy, FUN book

05/03/2023

Wilhelm’s Way won the 2023 Minnesota Book Award for general nonfiction!

It was the only self-published title in the general nonfiction category, up against publishers like the Minnesota Historical Society Press and the University of Iowa Press. I was fortunate to be asked to provide the index.

Written by Harley Wilhelm’s granddaughter, Wilhelm’s Way reveals the unsung hero who helped the US win the race to build the atomic bomb. The following is from the book back cover:

In February 1942, leaders of the Manhattan Project had a problem: to prove a controlled nuclear chain reaction was possible, they needed pure uranium— tons of it and in less than ten months. With only a few grams in existence, there was little hope anyone could achieve such a feat. Harley Wilhelm, a chemistry professor at Iowa State College, rose to the challenge.

A sharecropper’s son and former college basketball coach, Wilhelm was an unlikely character to impact the course of world history. Nevertheless, he and his small, dedicated team of scientists and technicians surpassed everyone’s wildest expectations.

Here’s your next winner: “Wilhelm’s Way: The Inspiring Story of the Iowa Chemist Who Saved The Manhattan Project” by Teresa Wilhelm Waldof, part of the General Nonfiction category, sponsored by The Duchess Harris Collection. Congratulations!

01/18/2023

ChatGPT is an AI model that interacts in a conversational way. When asked about its book index writing skills, it gave the following answer:

As a language model, I am able to assist with creating an index for a book by providing guidance and examples, but I am not able to create an index for a book autonomously. Creating an index for a book is a time-consuming and detailed task that requires a thorough understanding of the book’s content, as well as knowledge of indexing conventions and techniques.

An index should be created by someone who is familiar with the book’s content and able to identify the most important and relevant information. The indexer will also need to identify the best terms to use as entry headings, and decide on the most appropriate subentries, cross-references, and page numbers.

If you would like to create an index for a book, it is recommended that you consult an indexer or an indexing service to get guidance and support. They will be able to provide you with a professional and accurate index that will enhance the usability and accessibility of your book.

10/17/2021

How to Build a Simple iOS App: A Photo Album

This post will grow as my progress in building the app advances.

http://suetheindexer.com/2021/10/17/how-to-build-a-simple-ios-app-a-photo-album/

How to Build a Simple iOS App: A Photo Album In this post, I’ll step through building a simple iOS app. Theoretically, we’ll end up with an app that displays photos one at a time, stepps forward and backwards through the collection, and shuffles the collection. This post will grow as my progress...

01/07/2020

Indexes as art

For twenty years, Alejandro Cesarco has been making fake book indexes: alphabetical lists that look authentic enough,...

12/22/2019

Sh@dy Charac†ers: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks by Ke!th H*uston is a fun book that works chapter by chapter through roughly a dozen punctuation marks and symbols used in written communication, with countless others discussed along the way.

Sh@dy Charac†ers Sh@dy Charac†ers: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marksby Ke!th H*uston Ignoring its lack of a serial comma, the subtitle says it all: This is a fun book that works chapter by chapter through roughly a dozen punctuation marks and symbols used in wri...

09/26/2019

Should an author index her own book?

On first look, the author seems the perfect person to index her book: Who knows that book better than the author? So, should an author index her own book?

It depends.

One factor is the publishing schedule. If the book is on a tight to-printer schedule then the indexing will likely be done at the same time the author proofreads the pages. Therefore, the publishing schedule needs to be considered.

Another factor to consider is how sick and tired the author is of the book by the time it’s ready to be indexed. The author’s job doesn’t end with writing the book. In the process of publishing the book, there is a string of responsibilities expected of the author, from securing permissions and art to approving copyedits and proofing pages. Does the author really want to read this thing yet again to index it?

And, of course, the author’s indexing skills should be taken into consideration. Some authors are natural indexers, creating clearly worded entries and building the web of connections and relationships that bring an index to life. Other authors are indexing dunces, perhaps entering “quick fix” under the As as “avoiding the quick fix” (true example).

See my articles on indexes and indexing, answering such question as Can a computer create an index? and What does an indexer need from the author or editor?

http://suetheindexer.com/

How Can I Help You? Sue Klefstad Indexing Services Precise • Concise • Dependable Hi, I’m Sue the indexer and I like making books better. I write back-of-the-book indexes and do proofreading between indexing jobs. With nearly twenty years in publishing, I’ll make sure it’s right.  I’ve ...

04/17/2019

dexEmbed: Check Those Numbered Paragraphs The Word embedding utility dexEmbed by The Editorium generally uses paragraph numbers as the reference field “page numbers” (though you can choose a different level of granularity). So one of the first steps in using dexEmbed is to number the paragraphs....

03/19/2019

I used the DEXembed utility again for a Word embedded index. I needed to download the latest DEXembed dot file to get embedding to work. But the more I work in this utility, the more I like it-- for basic indexes.

DEXembed: I’m Liking This Embedding Utility Summary: If you have trouble embedding with DEXembed, download a new version of the dot file and use that. DEXembed by The Editorium is a utility for embedding an index into Word, with the index written in your favorite indexing software, exported to a t...

07/19/2018

My First Word Embedded Index with the DEXembed Utility I have been ground between the gears of Word embedded indexing—forced sorts, special characters, and a Word manuscript already formatted. My client planned to self-publish directly from this already formatted Word document, so I began the embe...

06/22/2018

This blog post has clues to special characters and sorting issues when generating an index in Word using the WordEmbed utility.

I'm still figuring out how to force sorting in DEXembed.

Word Embedded Indexing: A Trend in Publishing? Word Embedded Indexing: A Trend in Publishing? The content published in a print book may also on be published on CD-ROM, on a website, or in a format we’re not yet aware of. To handle this repurposing, publishers are increasingly embedding book indexe...

04/01/2018

Convert Word Index doc to IXML, Open Source Macro v1.1: Introduction IndexDOCtoIXML.dotm is a Word macro that converts a Word document to IXML format, which can then be imported into indexing software. It runs under PC Word. This is an introduction to the macro, which at this point is version 1.1. T...

12/22/2017

Fun Indexes An index is a roadmap to its book. The idea is that you should be able to scan it quickly to find what you’re looking for. As an indexer, I sure am hoping that what you’re looking for is there—and that you’re able to find it. There are two main types of indexes. The first is an i...

09/06/2017

A few links to free tools for DIY ebook creation.

Do-It-Yourself eBooks It’s the era of self-publishing, and that includes ebooks. Here are some useful tools for DIY ebook self-publishing. Sigil for Editing epub Files If you google sigil you get this wonderful definition: an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power But what I wa...

08/14/2017

IXMLembedder Utility for Embedded Indexes For Word embedded indexing, I’ve started using the utility IXMLembedder by David Ream of Leverage Technologies:IXMLembedder at Leverage Technologies Besides Word documents, this tool will also embed index entries into InDesign documents and a variety of tagg...

04/26/2017

One factor is the publishing schedule. If the book is on a tight to-printer schedule then the indexing will likely be done at the same time the author proofreads the pages. Therefore, the publishing schedule needs to be considered.

02/03/2017

An index, after all, is not a list or an outline or a concordance. In its highest incarnation, it is more like a map or tree showing the looping and scattered relationships of topics and subtopics throughout a book. Indexers harvest concepts as much as words; their index entries regularly fea...