Records
Imagine a large sheet of lined paper (and I mean LARGE!). Our format uses each line as a set of information. We have a line for the indexer, a line for the series, then multiple lines for each issue that represent each story in the book. On your paper you would just write each piece of information needed on the proper line. In an index you will be doing the same thing, except on a computer.

The technical term for a line in a database (like the GCD) is "record" and that's how I'll refer to them throughout this document. Just remember that a record is a line of information.

At its most basic, the format of an index looks something like this:

Indexer
Series

Cover Issue #1
Story #1
Cover Issue #2
Story #1

Notice that I used a blank line to separate the first two records from the remaining records that deal with individual issues. Also note that there is no blank line between issue or story records.

The first two lines are special lines. The first line contains information about the indexer (that's you), and the second line contains general information about the whole series. All the rest of the lines on your sheet of paper contain specific information about the individual issues of the series. Each issue will get at least two lines (one for the cover, one for the story); some issues will get multiple lines (if there are multiple stories, or special features such as pin-ups).

A slightly more complicated index might look something like this:

Indexer
Series

Cover Issue #1
Story #1
Pin-Up
Story #2
Letter Column
Cover Issue #2
Story #1
Story #2
Letter Column
Cover Issue #3
Story
Cover Issue #4
Story
Pin-Up #1
Pin-Up #2

After you complete a record, you go to the next line to start a new one. In a text editor, you would just hit the return or enter key.

While text editors and word processors work well, a majority of indexers highly recommend spreadsheet applications (Excel, Works, for example) as the best tool for indexing (databases also appear to be significantly easier to use than text/word processors). Spreadsheet or database applications are the recommended tools for those with access to such programs. Also, when using major word processors (such as Word), creating a table can be very helpful (it's the only way to get the fields to line up). Another bonus of using these tools is that the data coordinator can accept these files without you (the indexer) needing to convert them to a plain text file first.