INDEXIA BLOG
AI-Powered Trim: Intelligently Reduce Your Index to the Perfect Size
A professional book index typically comprises 3-5% of the book's total page count. For a 300-page book, that means an index of 9-15 pages—or roughly 500-800 entries. But what happens when your AI-generated index contains 2,000+ terms?
Meet Trim: Indexia's new AI-powered feature that intelligently identifies which terms to cut, helping you reach your target size without sacrificing quality.
The Challenge of Index Sizing
When AI extracts terms from your book, it casts a wide net. This is intentional—it's better to have more options to curate than to miss important concepts. But it creates a new challenge: deciding what to keep and what to remove.
Manually reviewing thousands of terms is time-consuming. And simple approaches like "remove terms with fewer than X mentions" often cut valuable entries while keeping less relevant ones.
How Trim Works
Trim takes a smarter approach. When you specify your target term count, the AI analyzes your entire index considering:
- Mention frequency: How often does this term appear?
- Relationship density: Is this term connected to others via cross-references or parent-child relationships?
- Semantic centrality: Is this a core concept or a peripheral detail?
- Contextual importance: Does this term appear in significant passages?
Based on this analysis, Trim suggests specific terms to remove, ranked by confidence.
Using Trim in Your Workflow
- Open the Trim panel from the toolbar (scissors icon)
- Set your target: Enter the number of terms you want to end with
- Review suggestions: Trim presents candidates for removal with explanations
- Select or deselect: Keep full control over what gets cut
- Execute: Remove selected terms in one action
Smart Suggestions
Each suggestion shows you:
- The term name and current page references
- Why it was suggested for removal (e.g., "Low mention count, no relationships")
- A confidence score to help prioritize your review
You're never forced to accept a suggestion. Uncheck any term you want to keep, or add terms the AI didn't suggest.
Best Practices for Trimming
Start Conservative
If your book has 1,500 terms and you want 800, don't jump straight to 800. Try trimming to 1,200 first, review the results, then trim again. Iterative trimming gives you more control.
Review Before Executing
Take a moment to scan the suggested deletions. You might spot terms that look unimportant but are actually crucial for your specific audience.
Consider Your Audience
A technical manual might need more terms than a general-interest book. Adjust your target based on reader expectations, not just page count formulas.
Preserve Relationships
Trim automatically considers cross-references. If Term A has a "see also" reference to Term B, removing B would leave a broken reference. The AI accounts for this, but double-check relationship-heavy terms.
Recovering from Over-Trimming
Made a mistake? Used Indexia's Restore feature to bring back any deleted term. Your deletion history is preserved, complete with context about when and why each term was removed.
When to Use Trim
Trim is most valuable when:
- Your index exceeds publishing constraints
- You need to meet a specific page budget
- You want AI assistance identifying less important terms
- You're preparing multiple index versions (detailed vs. concise)
See It in Action
Watch the Trim tutorial video for a complete walkthrough. In just a few minutes, you'll see how to reduce a 2,000-term index to a focused 600-entry professional result.
Trim is one of several new features in our January 2026 release. See the full feature announcement for everything new in Indexia.