Are you sure that you have Hidden text hidden when you generate the index?
BTW, I mentioned the Tools | Options | View setting only because many users
don't understand that the Show/Hide ¶ button toggles between All and any
specific boxes that may have been checked, so it is possible to toggle the
button without hiding Hidden text if it is checked (in fact, that's sort of
the way I operate when I'm working on indexes, except that I toggle between
All and everything *but* Hidden because I'm used to seeing nonprinting
characters but need to hide Hidden text to generate the index).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jeff Gilbertson" wrote in message
ups.com...
Wow, thank you for the quick response. Unfortunately for me, that
doesn't appear to be the problem. I'll explain further.

What I am doing is using a concordance file and automark to insert the
XE fields. You are correct in that Word turns on the display so I can
see the fields. It looks like it does that through Tools | Options |
View: Formatting marks - All, rather than "Hidden text" (minor point).
In either case, if I turn them all off (hide the fields) and insert an
index at the end of the individual file, it does the index correctly
for that file. I have tried saving the files just like this when I
close them.

This is where my problem occurs. I want a merged index of all the
individual files (chapters) in a separate document, so I create a new
document with a bunch of { rd chap1.doc }{ rd chap2.doc } etc. fields.
When I try to insert an index here, it grabs the page numbers from the
individual files as if the fields were not hidden. (This all occurs
inivisible to the user of course but I was able to figure out what was
happening by looking at the page numbers it creates and comparing them
to an individual file index generated with the XE fields showing) I
have tried inserting the index in this new document with various view
options on and off with no luck.

I'd be curious to know if anyone has been able to successfully create
an index from a file of sufficient length (where page numbers would
change depending on whether fields are shown or not) from a different
file using { rd }. I'm stumped!

Thanks again!

Jeff

Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:

XE fields are formatted as Hidden text. When you insert the fields, Word
turns on the display of Hidden text so that you can see the fields. You
must
turn this off again before generating your index. Generally speaking,
this
is a global setting: Tools | Options | View: Hidden text.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jeff Gilbertson" wrote in message
oups.com...
I recently discovered the RD field technique for making one index of
multiple documents, but I need some help. It appears when I try to
insert the index, Word makes the XE fields in the individual documents
visible, therefore throwing off all of the page numbers. Is there a
way I can make Word use the documents with the fields not visible?
I've been playing around with turning pagination on and off, saving in
different files in views, etc. but no luck. This is Word 2003.

Several years ago I wrote a (rather ridiculous) macro that merges
individual file indexes by cutting and pasting the page numbers. But
it would be nice if I could get Word to do it with the above technique
(it would be a lot faster too).

Thanks

Jeff