General Notes on Index Generation

The process of creating an index definition is modular. You can create as many sub-definitions of each of the four major categories -- index type, overall format, entry format, and alphabetization rules -- as you desire, and then build distinct index structures and definitions by combining these component parts in various ways. These modular building blocks are not document specific, but are available for use in building index definitions for subsequent documents.

On the other hand, index definitions (the combination of these various building blocks) are document specific. If you want to create a customized index for a particular document, you give it a name, select one sub-definition from each of the four major categories, and then specify the name of the auto-mark file to use, if any.

You can create multiple index definitions for a single manuscript in advance, and simply select the one you want to use at a particular time.

When creating an index definition for a manuscript file, you should do so only for the first file in the manuscript (except in the unlikely event that you want to generate sub indexes for each chapter within a manuscript).

If you create multiple index definitions with the same name in a manuscript file, only the first definition will be used -- and applied to the entire manuscript -- when you generate the index.