Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Indexing Based on a Range of Letters.

Indexing Based on a Range of Letters

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 24, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word allows you to create indexes for your documents easily and quickly. Other issues of WordTips have discussed how to create index entries and subentries. Once this is done, you can create an index for a range of letters by following these steps:

  1. Place the insertion point at the location in your document where you want the partial index created.
  2. Press Ctrl+F9 to insert field brackets. Make sure the insertion point stays between the brackets.
  3. Type index \p followed by the range of letters for which you want an index. For instance, you could type index \p D-R to specify you only wanted an index created for index entries beginning with the letters D–R, inclusive.
  4. Press F9 to update the field information. Word replaces the field with the partial index.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1375) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Indexing Based on a Range of Letters.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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