FAQs

• Operating System:
  • Windows: XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11
  • Mac: OS X 10.5 and later (including Tahoe, Sequoia, Sonoma, and newer)
  • Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, or any other Linux distribution
• Pentium IV processor or equivalent
• 1.0 GB of RAM
• 500 MB of free disk space
• 1024×768 screen resolution

Good to know: PDF Index Generator comes with Java 15 built in, so you don’t need to have Java installed on your computer. If you’d prefer to install Java yourself, you can download it here.

1. Download the program from here.
2. Windows:
   • Double-click the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen steps to install it wherever you like.
   • Then double-click PDF Index Generator.exe to launch the program.
3. Mac:
   • Double-click the downloaded .dmg file to mount it.
   • Double-click PDF Index Generator.app to run it.
   • For easy access later, drag the app to your Applications folder.
4. Linux:
   • Extract the downloaded *.tar.gz file.
   • Double-click the PDF Index Generator executable to run it.
   • On first launch, a shortcut is automatically added to your Linux Apps folder.

1. Windows:
   • Option 1: Open the installation folder, go into the Uninstaller folder, and double-click Uninstaller.jar. Follow the prompts.
   • Option 2: Open Add/Remove Programs, find PDF Index Generator in the list, and click Uninstall.
2. Mac:
   • Simply delete PDF Index Generator.app or the .dmg file from your Mac.
3. Linux:
   • Delete the folder that was extracted from the downloaded *.tar.gz file.

No — since version 2.9, Java is bundled directly inside PDF Index Generator for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You don’t need to install anything extra.

If you’re running a version older than 2.9, you’ll need to install Java manually. You can download it here.

This usually happens when the activation data is typed manually instead of being copied and pasted. Please copy the activation code directly from your email — including the dashes — and paste it into the program. Manual typing can easily introduce small errors that cause this message.

If you’ve tried that and it still doesn’t work, please contact us and we’ll sort it out for you.

Yes, PDF Index Generator works on all Mac OS X versions. The program includes built-in Java, so compatibility is never an issue regardless of which macOS version you’re running.

Here’s what the warning looks like on Mac OS X Ventura:

App Store warning dialog

Don’t worry — this is just Apple’s standard security check for apps distributed outside the App Store. PDF Index Generator is 100% safe and malware-free, as confirmed here. Apple explains why this warning appears here.

To open the program:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older Macs) and go to Security & Privacy.
2. Click Open Anyway.
3. Enter your administrator password if prompted.
4. Confirm by clicking Open.
5. The program will run normally from now on.

For more help with this, you can read Apple’s support article or watch this short video tutorial.

You might ask: Why aren’t you on the Mac App Store?
Apple’s fee structure makes it financially impractical for small and independent developers like us.

Here’s what the warning looks like on Mac OS X Ventura:

Developer verification warning

This is Apple’s standard security check for apps from unregistered developers. The program is completely safe — you can verify that here. Apple has a full explanation of this warning here.

To open the program:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences) and go to Security & Privacy.
2. Click Open Anyway.
3. Enter your administrator password if prompted.
4. The program will open and work normally from that point on.

For more details, see Apple’s support article or watch this video tutorial.

You might ask: Why aren’t you on the Mac App Store?
Apple’s fee structure makes it financially impractical for small and independent developers like us.

Here’s what the warning looks like on older versions of Mac OS X:

“App damaged” warning

Here’s how to fix it (3 easy methods):

Method 1: Right-click and Open (Easiest)

1. Right-click (or Control-click) the PDF Index Generator app.
2. Select “Open” from the menu.
3. A confirmation dialog will appear — click “Open” again.
4. The program will launch and work fine from now on.

Method 2: Terminal Command (Most Reliable)

1. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal).
2. Copy and paste this command, then press Enter:
   sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/PDF\ Index\ Generator.app
3. Enter your Mac password when prompted (you won’t see it as you type).
4. Launch PDF Index Generator normally — it should work now.

Method 3: Remove quarantine with a different command

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run this command:
   sudo spctl --master-disable
3. Then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and allow apps from “Anywhere”.
4. After launching the app, you can re-enable the setting with sudo spctl --master-enable.

Why does this happen? This is a standard macOS security feature, not an actual problem with the app. The app is not damaged — macOS just hasn’t verified it yet. Apple explains this here.

You can also watch this video tutorial for a visual guide.

Why aren’t you on the Mac App Store?
Apple’s fee structure makes it financially impractical for small and independent developers like us.

This error appears when leftover Java files from an old installation are still on your system. Windows picks those up instead of the Java version that’s built into PDF Index Generator.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Uninstall any version of Java currently on your computer.
2. Delete the following files — java.exe, javaw.exe, and javaws.exe — if they exist in any of these folders:
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath
   • C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath
   • C:\Windows\System32
3. Run PDF Index Generator again — it will now use its own built-in Java and should work fine.

This error usually shows up on 32-bit Windows systems. The fix is simple:

1. Uninstall the current version of PDF Index Generator.
2. Download and install the 32-bit edition of our program, available here.

Yes, the program is completely safe. This warning comes from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which flags software from publishers who haven’t purchased a Windows code-signing certificate. Because PDF Index Generator runs on multiple operating systems, we haven’t bought one — but that doesn’t affect the safety of the program at all.

To continue, just click More info and then Run anyway.

We’ve scanned PDF Index Generator with 72 different antivirus engines — it came back completely clean. You can see the full report below:

VirusTotal clean scan report

You can also add the PDF Index Generator installer to your antivirus whitelist to avoid seeing this warning in the future.

1. Right-click the PDF Index Generator shortcut on your desktop and select Properties.
2. Go to the Shortcut tab, then change the Run setting from “Normal window” to Maximized.
3. Click Apply, then OK.
4. Right-click the shortcut again and choose Run as administrator.
5. The program should now run without any issues.

You may need to install Java first. Some Linux distributions don’t come with it pre-installed. Here’s how to add it:

1. Open Terminal (press the Super key and type “terminal”).
2. Update your package list: sudo apt update
3. Install Java: sudo apt install default-jdk
4. Confirm it installed correctly: java -version
5. Now try running PDF Index Generator again by double-clicking the executable file.

If you’re using PDF Index Generator version 2.1 or earlier with Java 8, you’ll likely see an error. This is because Java 8 was released after version 2.1, and older versions of the program weren’t built to support it. This was fixed in version 2.2.

How to resolve it:

• Upgrade to the latest version of PDF Index Generator (recommended).
• Or, if you prefer to keep the older version of the program, downgrade to Java 7 or Java 6.

The easiest way to speed things up is to give the program more memory. Here’s how:

• In the program, go to Tools → Settings → General.
• Find the Memory field (it defaults to 1200 MB).
• Increase it to 1500 or 1800 MB — but keep it under 60% of your total system RAM.
• Save the settings, close the program, and reopen it for the change to take effect.

To write the index to a DOCX or DOC file, the “Times” font needs to be installed on your computer. Here’s how to add it:

1. Download the Times font:
   Download Times font
2. Install it on your system:
   • Windows: Right-click the downloaded TTF file and choose Install.
   • Mac: Double-click the TTF file — Font Book will open and walk you through the installation.
   • Linux: Copy the TTF file to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/, then run fc-cache -f -v to refresh your font cache.
3. Restart PDF Index Generator.
4. Try writing the index again — it should work now.

Since version 2.6, PDF Index Generator can read and write in any language. Here’s a breakdown of supported language groups:

• Latin-script languages: Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Non-Latin languages: Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish
• Right-to-left languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian

Yes! By default, the program indexes individual words, but you can tell it to look for specific phrases too. Here’s how:

1. Go to Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Include words.
2. Click Add Category, give it a name, and type each phrase on its own line. Then click Save and OK.
3. In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book, then click the Include words link.
4. Enable your newly created category. If you only want those phrases indexed, check Index those words only.
5. Click OK and generate your index.

Your phrases will show up in the Step 3 results.

Method 1 — Using Include Words (best when you have a list of names)

1. Go to Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Include words, click Add Category, and add your names.
2. In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book and enable your category.
3. After generating the index, go to Step 3 and filter by your category.
4. Select all entries (Ctrl+A), then click Format words → Deal as a name – Format 2.

Method 2 — Using Include Queries (automatic name detection)

1. Go to Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Include words and click Add Query.
2. Choose the Names 2 template and click Save.
3. In Step 2, enable the query and generate the index.
4. Names will automatically appear in reversed format in Step 3.

Heads up: The “Names 2” query might occasionally pick up non-name phrases like “United States” and format them incorrectly, so review the results carefully.

By default, the program skips words with apostrophes. Here are two ways to include them:

Method 1 — Include Category

• Add the word to an Include Category (Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Include words).
• In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book and enable your category.

Method 2 — Include Query

• Create a new query using the Query Generator.
• Use a template that matches words with apostrophes, or write your own expression.

For more on building queries, check out this guide.

Digits are skipped by default, but you can include them in two ways:

Method 1 — Include Category

• Add the specific term to an Include Category, then generate your index.

Method 2 — Include Query

• Go to Include words → Add Query.
• Select the Alphanumeric words template and click Save.
• In Step 2, enable the query and generate the index.

All terms that mix letters and digits will appear in your Step 3 results.

1. Prepare an XML or TXT file with your list of words (check the program Help for the required format).
2. Open PDF Index Generator and go to Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Include words.
3. Click Import Categories and select your file.
4. Click Save, then OK.
5. In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book, enable your imported category, and generate the index.

Tip: If the import format feels a bit complicated, you can just type your words directly into a new category instead — it’s often quicker.

1. Go to Tools → Settings → Include/Exclude Words → Exclude words.
2. Click Add Category, give it a name, and enter the words or phrases you want to exclude — one per line. Then click Save and OK.
3. In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book, then click the Exclude words link.
4. Enable your exclusion category, click OK, and generate the index.

Those terms will no longer appear in your Step 3 results.

1. Generate your index and go to Step 3.
2. Double-click a word (for example, “Transportation”) to open the Edit word dialog.
3. Set Word type to Header word, then click Sub-Headers.
4. Select the words you want to appear as sub-entries under this header, then click Apply.
5. Repeat for any other headers you’d like to create.

When you write the final index, sub-entries will appear neatly indented under their parent header.

1. Open the program and go to Tools → Settings → Writing index → Index content.
2. Enable the option Write the page numbers of Header words.
3. Save your settings and write the index in Step 4.

Header words will now include their page numbers in the final output.

By default, the program treats each PDF page as one book page. That said, we do have a tested workaround for this scenario. If you need it, please contact us and we’ll walk you through the process.

Absolutely. PDF Index Generator has been tested on books with over 3,000 pages. It may take a few minutes to process, but it will complete successfully.

• Did you use the Advanced page numbers link in Step 1? Make sure the custom page numbers match exactly how they appear in your book. (Watch the video tutorial)
• If the numbers are still off after generating, you can use the Increment/Decrement page numbers button in the Step 3 toolbar to adjust them manually.

The program is case-sensitive by default, so it treats “car” and “Car” as different words. Here’s how to merge them:

• Go to Tools → Settings → Generating Index and turn on Ignore case sensitivity before generating.
• Or, if you’ve already generated the index, go to Step 3, click Merge duplicates, and then Merge Now to combine entries that differ only in capitalization.

1. Go to Tools → Settings → Generating Index and set Ignore words containing less than to 4 letters. This filters out short, common words like “the” or “run”.
2. In Step 2, select Index specific words in the book and exclude word categories like Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Pronouns, and Verbs. Also enable Exclude word plurals.
3. In Step 3, use Merge duplicates and Merge plurals to combine similar entries.
4. Right-click any word you don’t want in the index and choose Ignore words to permanently exclude it.

Following these steps will significantly cut down the number of results.

Not directly — .doc files aren’t supported yet. But here’s a simple workaround:

• In Microsoft Word, go to File → Save As and save your document as a PDF.
• Then use PDF Index Generator to index that PDF as normal.

We’re considering adding native Word document support in a future version.

Yes! Since version 1.8, you can run the program entirely from the command line (Terminal) on any operating system. You can write commands or script files to index books without touching the GUI at all.

For full details, visit the Command Line help page.

1. Download the Mac edition, run it, and drag the app to your Applications folder.
2. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal).
3. Run these commands (adjust the path if you installed it elsewhere):
   • cd "/Applications/PDF Index Generator.app/Contents/Plugins/jre/bin"
   • java -jar "../../../Java/PDF Index Generator.jar" cmd input_pdf_path=...
4. See the help page for all available parameters.

1. Index your first book. In Step 3, click Export words and save the file in *.pdfig format.
2. Start a new project for the second book. Once you reach Step 3, click Import words and select the file you exported.
3. The entries from the first book will be merged into the second.
4. If there are any duplicate entries, use Merge duplicates to combine them.

1. Each person indexes their portion of the book or their assigned letter range.
2. When done, each person clicks Export words in Step 3 and saves a *.pdfig file.
3. One person then creates a new project, reaches Step 3, and imports the other files one by one.
4. You can control how duplicates are handled under Tools → Settings → Editing Index → When importing a word that already exists…

This works with any number of collaborators.

1. Merge all 20 PDFs into one large PDF using any PDF merger tool.
2. In Step 1, load the merged PDF.
3. Click Advanced page numbers and define custom page labels — for example, Vol1_Page1, Vol1_Page2, Vol2_Page1, and so on.
4. Index as normal. In Step 3 you’ll see entries like Franklin, Benjamin — Vol1_Page120, Vol4_Page23.
5. Write the final index in Step 4.

If you need help setting up the custom page list, contact us — we can provide a template quickly.

Yes, using Command Line mode. You can write a simple script that tells PDF Index Generator to process every PDF in a folder, automatically appending the generated index to each book.

See the Command Line help page for full details.

No. When you upload a PDF to KDP, it renders exactly as laid out — unlike reflowable eBook formats. Hyperlinked indexes work correctly. You can test it yourself with this sample book:

• Adobe Reader: Right-click the toolbar, select “Show Page Navigation Tools”, and enable “Previous View”. The keyboard shortcut is Alt + ←.
• Mac Preview: Press Command + [.
• Foxit Reader: Go to the View tab and click the “Previous view” button.

Watch a short tutorial for Adobe Reader.

1. Open the program’s installation folder.
2. Find PDF Index Generator – Admin.exe, right-click it, and choose Properties. Go to the Compatibility tab.
3. Check Run this program as an administrator, then click OK.
4. Double-click PDF Index Generator – Admin.exe to launch it.
5. Try importing the font again — it should work now.

You only need to do this once. Future imports will work normally without these extra steps.

The interface is currently available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. If you need a different language, please get in touch — we can usually have it ready within 2 days.

Yes! Our order page supports multiple payment options, including PayPal and all major credit cards.

Yes, refunds are available. Please read our refund policy first, then contact us with your request and the reason. We’ll process it within 24 hours.

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