Glossary in Word 2010

Question

I need to build a glossary in my document and I can't find an easy way of achieving of what I'm looking for. All I've found is this article: How to create a glossary in Microsoft Word

… but I can't believe that there is no easier way. Thoughts?

I think I was not precise enough. What I'm looking for is a glossary where:

• all descriptions are listed together at the end of the document in alphabetical order and the list is updated automatically
• when document is read in Office 2010 then the description of a term is displayed in-line(e.g. a popup/tooltip) and I can navigate to the description by clicking the term (e.g. it behaves like a link)
• descriptions can contain images

Answer 1

Those are your best options at hand to create a Glossary in a Microsoft Word document.

The Table of Authorities technique is by far the best method. It looks long on that site but that's just a description. Once it's setup it but it's actually fairly simple to use and manage.

Answer 2

An Index can work nicely.

Each time you mark an entry, edit your definition term in the blank for "main entry".

Type your definition in the blank for "subentry".

Unless you want to show the page number(s) for each defined term, make your entry a cross-reference. Then delete the text from the blank for the cross-reference text.

You can change the appearance of all entries in your glossary using the Modify button from the Insert Index command.

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When using the Index feature for a glossary, I was concerned whether it's possible to use another Index as well, such as for a traditional index of topics by page. It is possible, if you use a less obvious technique.

You can set up more than one Index and control additional options if you use the Edit Field command for an Index. That provides the Field Codes button. After pressing that, you can edit options. The Options button gives you a list of which are available and what they are for.

To define more than one Index, at the end of the field codes, add \f. This option lets you give your Index a name. For example, you might use \f "Places" to define an index or glossary of places mentioned. When you turn on Show Paragraph Marks, you can see an "XE" tag in curly braces where you mark each entry. Just before the closing brace, you can add the same option \f "Places" to specify that the entry should appear in the particular Index. Don't worry whether the quotes in the field codes are straight quotes or curly quotes.

That technique worked for me in Word 2013. I never cared about field codes before. I didn't notice how to make more than one index when I looked at Word and its help. I suppose some people would be curious enough to notice Edit Fields and look up "field codes" in online help. I was simply optimistic (or stubborn) enough to search the web for "microsoft word multiple indexes".