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: Cross-Referencing Index Entries.

Cross-Referencing Index Entries

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated October 24, 2020)

Creating index entries in a Word document is easy, as you learn in other WordTips. It is not uncommon to cross-reference items in an index, and such cross-references require a change in how you create the index entries. For instance, instead of page numbers after an entry, you might have the text See Johnson, Abigail. To insert a cross-reference in an index entry, follow these steps:

Select the text you wish to appear as the main index entry. This is the text under which the cross reference will appear.
Press Alt+Shift+X. Word displays the Mark Index Entry dialog box. Notice that the Main Entry text box is already filled in with the text you specified in step 1. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Mark Index Entry dialog box.

Select the Cross-reference radio button.
In the text box to the right of the Cross-reference radio button, enter the cross reference, as you want it to appear.
Click on Mark.
Click on Close to dismiss the Mark Index Entry dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1900) 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: Cross-Referencing Index Entries.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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