Master Document Index Creation

[overyonder]

First question is why I am unable to open the insert index dialogue. It is grayed out, even after having selected a word in the master doc or in a subdoc.

Second question is about the capabilities of the indexing function: years ago I made an index in Microsoft Word, and was able to create a table with the first entry subject being "color", then I listed any word related to color, say white, green, brown, etc, the software did a search and the index showed "Color" with page numbers referencing any of those pages with the color-words I'd entered. At least I think that's how it worked. Can Open Office do something like this?
Desktop version.
Thank you

[overyonder]

OK, so I got some patience and poked around the help file and found out how to create the concordance file which will do what I need. But, there's a "read only" lock on the master doc that I can't seem to turn off, and I assume that's why I can't insert the Index. I see the toggle for Edit but it doesn't unlock the read only. Any suggestions?

[RoryOF]

The first step is to verify, at system level, that your Master document has not been locked read-only by the operating system.

[overyonder]

I checked windows 7 properties for the file and it is not read only, and I have permissions to modify. Other .odm documents I can edit fine. When I create a new .odm file it doesn't say read only but yet I still can't insert an Index.

[overyonder]

So I think I found a work-around: Create a new Master Document, then before adding sub documents, insert the index. That's working so far.

What I'm trying to do now is "To create a concordance file without the Edit Concordance File dialog". It says to make each entry on a separate line... and so I'm assuming you open an .odt and start doing it. When you go to save it, you don't have the choice of an ".sdi" file. So when you want to call up the file later to edit it, you're only shown .sdi files to pick from.
Confused

[John_Ha]

So I think I found a work-around: Create a new Master Document, then before adding sub documents, insert the index. That's working so far.

You need to have the cursor "in the master" part of the document, not "in a sub-document" for it to work.

Second question is about the capabilities of the indexing function ... Can Open Office do something like this?

Check the Writer Guide Chapter 12 - Tables of Contents, Indexes, and Bibliographies

Search the forum with master documents for much help.