Now that you’ve got your exhibit marking and examination parentheticals or headers created, it’s time to create and/or modify an Index Template.
Obviously, the easiest way to make an Index Template that fits your needs is to figure out which of the ones provided by Case CATalyst most closely suits your needs, and then modify it so that it fits exactly. This could mean just applying the right Layout to an existing template and saving the changes, or it could be more involved; I don’t know. So instead of showing you how to modify an existing template, I am going to go through the process of creating your own, with the basic format that most of my clients use as a guide.
To start, go into your System Files case, and then into Index Templates. While inside that case, create a new text file (File –> New –> Text File or Alt+F+N+T).
Next, apply the proper layout (Format –> Apply New Layout).
Type in the headings for each index entry type, with at least two lines between them. Most of my clients use “I N D E X” or “I N D E X O F E X A M I N A T I O N” for examinations and “E X H I B I T S” for the exhibits index. Remember that the keyboard command for a centered line is F4+F.There are other index types, such as an index certified questions that a witness has refused to answer, but I won’t go into creating those in this particular post.
Add a table for each of your indices using Edit –> Table –> Insert Table (Alt+E+B+T). Usually, the index of examinations has two columns, and the exhibits index has three. Each table should have only one row.
As you can see above, the edges of the table are slightly too long, and the cells are all the same size, when we need them to be different sizes depending on the column. To fix that, click inside each cell and move the sliders on the ruler at the top of the page until the cells and tables are the proper size. You may want to add your column headers before you do this, so you can get an idea of where to place the borders (Use F4+L for a New Line Paragraph code).
Now it’s time to add your autoindexing codes. In each cell, add only the Index ON code that is appropriate for the cell. Remember: The code for the EXHIBIT column is the Index Heading code. The image below shows the Reveal Codes pane, slightly enlarged so that you can see more than a few lines of code. The code for the cell directly under EXAMINATION is highlighted. Note that there absolutely must be at least one paragraph of a non-table type after each table ends. That is why there is a <New Line Paragraph> code at the end of the page.
And that’s it! Just save your file, and it will be ready to use the next time you need to add an index to a job.
Next time, I will show you how to do autoindexing in a different software: DigitalCAT.