" Though if you're doing it without wanting access to an electronic version, you're dafter than I thought, and if Issaries aren't offering access to same, for said purposes, then they're being even more annoying and/or disorganised than seems the norm...
It must be said, thoughg, that there's one large advantage to a web-published, after the fact index: once one is up, then you'll get to hear about any and all missing entries (whether one wanted to or not, I dare say...). "
Hmmm -- having an electronic version of a document isn't going to help all that much to do a proper index. If your electronic tools don't facilitate indexing, then the best way to approach an index (believe it or not) is to get yourself a hardcopy of the final laid out text (it would be easier at this stage to have a 'printers proof' -- that is, an 8.5 x 11 page with each laid out page of the book printed in the middle, so you have wide margins, and no binding to worry about).
Then you go through the text building up your index manually, using proper indexing techniques -- this is *not the same* as building a concordance (which is what flagging each term in the glossary amounts to). Typically, when I index, I take a green pen, go through the document once, writing down good index entries that should get used for each page, on each page. Then (if it's a long or complex book), I do it again with a blue pen, tweaking the entries (since you always get a better feel for how things need organising when you get halfway through). Then I sit down with my 'puter, and either do the indexing in the electronic version of the file (if I'm using a tool that supports that), or I create the index manually in a separate file making note of the page numbers in my hardcopy version (that's why, if your tool doesn't support automatic updating of index marker links, you have to work with a printers proof -- you don't want the page numbers to change on you).
For an excellent first step on the weird path that is indexing technique see 'The Art of Indexing' by Larry S Bonura, in the Wiley Technical Communication series.
Buying this book, and using it's principles lets you create a decent index in a very reasonable amount of time. I could decently index a book like Hero Wars in about a week. I could provide an index that's up to the size/depth of about 95% of the indices provided in the roleplaying industry in about *two days* using Bonura's techniques.
In this case, I'd start by kindly asking Issaries to send me a final printers proof and proceeding from there, or to do after the fact, to send me a hard copy of the book they want indexed which I would then take to my local bindery and have them shave off the spine. You'll make your job *much* less tedious if you can work with pages, and not have to worry about bindings *especially* with small sized books like these...
Viktor
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