Tutorials

Step 1

Begin by clicking "New Project"

Open your dashboard and click "New Project" to start a new indexing workflow.

Step 2

Name your project

Enter a clear project name so you can find the job later from your dashboard, then click "Create Project".

Step 3

Select what type of index you need

Choose the workflow that matches your source document and output needs.

• If you need a scripture index, click "Scripture Indexing".
• If you need a subject index from a PDF, click "Subject Indexing".
• If you have a list of terms you want to index in a PDF, click "Mass Extraction".
• If you need an embedded Word .docx file, click "Embedded Word Doc".

In this tutorial, we will select "Subject Indexing".

Step 4

Upload your source document

Upload or drag and drop the document you want indexed. Subject Indexing accepts PDF or DOCX files.

Step 5

Select the page range to be indexed

Use the start and end page fields to choose exactly which pages should be indexed. You can type page numbers manually or focus a field and use the up and down arrow keys.

Only give the system the page range you actually want indexed. For a book, that usually means the main text, not front matter, bibliography, or unrelated back matter.

Step 6

Format terms with AI

The Terms step is optional. Use it when you already know terms the index should include or prioritize.

For natural-language instructions, describe the people, institutions, events, concepts, or other topics you care about, then click "Format with AI".

As formatting runs, the step locks while IndexerLabs processes the request.

Once formatting completes, the screen shows exactly which terms were added as editable subject headwords.

You can edit or remove any formatted term before continuing.

Step 7

Or paste terms manually

Alternatively, if you already have a clean list, paste one term per line and click "Add".

After adding the list, you can quickly scan the generated rows and continue when the list looks right.

Use one term per line for manual addition. If your input is a sentence or comma-heavy prose, use "Format with AI" instead.

Step 8

Adjust the subject indexing settings

Confirm the target index length and structure settings, then continue to checkout.

1. Target Index Length: IndexerLabs suggests a starting target for the number of top-level terms, calibrated to produce an index that is roughly 3–5% of the book’s length. You can raise or lower the target if your publisher or editor wants a longer or shorter index.
2. Index levels: Choose whether the index should have no subentries, subentries, or sub-subentries. Almost all publishers want subentries, and most stop there; use sub-subentries only if your publisher allows that deeper structure.
3. Create subentries: When this is enabled, any entry that reaches 6 or more occurrences or locators will automatically have those locators organized into subentries. Lowering the threshold creates subentries for smaller entries; raising it limits subentries to larger entries and concepts.
4. Create cross references: This controls whether the system creates see and see also references.
5. Review Checkpoints: When this is enabled, IndexerLabs pauses after it creates the initial list of suggested index terms. You will receive an email that the job is paused, then you can add, remove, or edit the suggested terms before extraction resumes. Any terms you supplied at the start are retained in that list alongside the AI-suggested entries.

Step 9

Checkout and start indexing

At checkout, choose whether to use available credits or a book index run. If you do not already have a run available, select the index package you want and buy it without leaving checkout.

Once payment or an available run is selected, click "Start Indexing" and the job will begin.

Typically, books under 500 pages complete in under 6 hours.

View every running AI agent

Click "Active Agents" in the top toolbar to see all AI agents currently running for the job. Running entry, subentry, and cross-reference agents appear here while they work.

If the list is empty, the menu shows "No active agents running".

Edit, approve, reject, or delete a locator

Edit a locator when its page reference or evidence needs correction, approve it when it is valid, reject it when it should not be accepted, or delete the locator entirely.

Create one entry manually

Click "Create entry" in the top toolbar and stay on the "Single entry" tab. Enter the entry name, add any locators you already know, then click "Create entry".

You can create an entry without locators and add its evidence later.

Enter terms for the AI to extract

Choose "Add entries with AI", then paste one term per line. Each AI run reads the whole book and creates entries for the supplied terms with the locators and evidence it finds.

You can run Add entries with AI up to 10 times for each indexing job. The counter at the top of the dialog shows how many runs remain.

Convert the terms and start the run

Click "Convert to list" to turn the lines into individual terms. Review the list, remove anything you do not want, and click "Start AI run".

The run continues in the background and adds the completed entries to the draft index.

Open Attach entry

Select the entry that should become the parent, then click "Attach entry".

Choose the entry to place underneath it

Search for the entry you want to move and select it from the results. The "Subentry label" field controls how its label will appear beneath the parent, so edit it if needed.

Click "Attach" to merge the selected entry beneath the parent.

Review the new subentry

After the merge finishes, the moved entry appears as a subentry of the selected parent and keeps its locators and evidence.

Open Add locator for the selected entry

Select the entry you want to update, focus the relevant PDF page, and click "Add locator". Enter the printed page number in "Locator".

Use a highlighted PDF sentence as evidence

Highlight the sentence in the source PDF, then click "Add PDF Selection". The selected text is copied into "Evidence sentence" and the current PDF page is connected to the locator.

Click "Add locator" to save it. User-added locators are labeled "User added"; clicking the evidence card returns to and highlights the sentence you selected.

Delete a locator

Find the locator in the Evidence section and click "Delete Locator" to remove its page reference and evidence from the entry.

Choose See or See also

Select the source entry and click "Add cross reference". Choose "See" when the reader should use the target entry instead, or "See also" when the target is a related entry worth consulting.

Find the target entry

Type in "Find target entry" and choose the correct entry from the suggestions, then click "Add cross reference".

Jump directly to the referenced entry

Click anywhere on the cross-reference row to select and open the referenced entry in the editor.

Delete a cross reference

Click the X at the end of the cross-reference row to delete that reference.

Open the Cross-reference agent

Click "Cross-reference agent" in the top toolbar.

Choose how the agent should update references

Choose the mode that matches how much of the current cross-reference work you want to preserve, then click "Start agent".

• Add missing references keeps existing cross references and only adds additional cross references.
• Replace existing references rebuilds the complete cross-reference set.

Open Create subentries

Select the top-level entry you want to organize, then click "Create subentries".

Choose manual or AI-assisted creation

Choose "Create manually" when you already know the exact subentry labels. Enter one subentry per line or use "Add subentry", then click "Create manually".

Choose "Use AI agent" when you want IndexerLabs to organize the entry’s locators for you.

Guide how the AI should organize the entry

Add the subentry categories or organization you prefer in "Preferred organization". These are suggestions unless you turn on "Only listed suggestions".

• Allow sub-subentries lets the result use a third index level.
• Only listed suggestions restricts the AI to the subentry labels you supplied, so it will not create new categories.

Add or remove individual suggestions

Click "Add suggestion" to add another editable suggestion row. Click the X at the end of a row to remove that suggestion.

Create sub-subentries with Tab

Enter one label per line in "Preferred organization". Press Tab once to create a blue child subentry, as shown with "entry-1.1" beneath "entry-1" and "entry-2.1" beneath "entry-2".

On a line beneath a blue child, press Tab twice to create a green third-level sub-subentry. In this example, "entry-1.2" is nested beneath "entry-1.1". Tab keeps focus in the field and turns on "Allow sub-subentries" automatically; press Shift+Tab to move a line back one level.

When the organization is ready, click "Create subentries" and review the proposed structure before keeping it.

Undo an attached-entry merge

Open "History", find the merge action, and click "Undo merge". The editor splits the attached subentry back into its original standalone entry.

The button is disabled while the undo is being applied.

Redo the merge if needed

When the undo finishes, History records an "Undo merge" action and offers "Redo merge" if you want to attach the entry again.

Choose the index and file format

Open "Export" in the top toolbar. Choose "Full index" to include every entry and subentry, or "Top-level only" to strip out all subentries.

Download the result as PDF, JSON, IXML, or Word.

• Layout: choose an indented index or a run-in index.
• Sub-subentries: turn on "Run in sub-subentries" when third-level entries should run in.
• Page ranges: use regular dashes or em dashes.
• Sort: order entries word by word or letter by letter.

Embed the index in the original Word document

If the source file was a Word document, choose "Embedded" to download a copy of the original document with the completed index embedded inside it.