(eplain.info)Customizing indexing

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4.12.3 Customizing indexing
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By default, MakeIndex outputs ', ' after each term in the index. To
change this, you can add the following to your MakeIndex style ('.ist')
file:

     delim_0 "\\afterindexterm "
     delim_1 "\\afterindexterm "
     delim_2 "\\afterindexterm "

Eplain makes '\afterindexterm' equivalent to '\quad'.

   You can also change the keywords Eplain recognizes (Note: Modifying
index entries):

'\idxrangebeginword'
     'begin'

'\idxrangeendword'
     'end'

'\idxseecmdword'
     'see'

'\idxseealsocmdword'
     'seealso'

   You can also change the magic characters Eplain puts into the '.idx'
file, in case you've changed them in the '.ist' file:

'\idxsubentryseparator'
     '!'

'\idxencapoperator'
     '|'

'\idxbeginrangemark'
     '('

'\idxendrangemark'
     ')'

   There is no macro for the 'actual' ('@' by default) character,
because it's impossible to make it expand properly.

   You can change the (imaginary) page number that "see also" entries
sort as by redefining '\idxmaxpagenum'. This is 99999 by default, which
is one digit too many for old versions of MakeIndex.

   The words output by Eplain for "see" and "see also" index entries are
defined by '\indexseeword' and '\indexseealsowords' respectively. You
can change the typeface used for these words by redefining
'\seevariant'. And finally, the macros '\indexsee' and '\indexseealso'
actually produce the "see ..." entries, so you can redefine them if you
want something entirely different. If you do redefine them, make them
take two parameters, the term being referenced and the '\idxmaxpagenum'
(the latter should normally be ignored). See the example below.

   Unfortunately, it is impossible to reliably control the commas
produced by MakeIndex in front of "see ..." entries in the '.ind' file,
either at MakeIndex level or at Eplain level. However, the 'sed' script
contained in 'trimsee' distributed with Eplain in the 'util' directory
can be used to filter out these commas from the output of MakeIndex. For
example, suppose you want the following style for your "see ..."
entries:

     analysis,
       archetypal (see archetypal criticism)
     archetypal criticism,
       elements of, 75, 97, 114 (see also dichotomies)

You would need to redefine these macros in your TeX file:

     \def\indexsee#1#2{({\seevariant \indexseeword\/ }#1)}
     \def\indexseealso#1#2{({\seevariant \indexseealsowords\/ }#1)}

and then filter out the commas in front of the "see ..." entries by
running the following command to produce the '.ind' file (assuming the
name of the '.idx' file is 'myfile.idx' and the 'trimsee' script is
placed in the current directory):

     prompt$ cat myfile.idx | makeindex | ./trimsee > myfile.ind

   By default, 'trimsee' uses default page list separators and default
"see ..." command names. If you set up MakeIndex to use different page
list separator or change the names of '\indexsee' and '\indexseealso'
commands, it is possible to adjust the 'trimsee' script through its
command line options, which are the following:

'-i IS'
     Use IS as a regular expression matching separator before "see ..."
     commands in the input (default: ', \+').

'-o OS'
     Use OS as a separator to replace IS before "see ..." commands
     (default: ' ').

'-s SEE'
     Use SEE as a regular expression matching "see ..." commands
     (default: '\\indexsee').

'-h'
'--help'
     Print a usage message.

'-v'
'--version'
     Print version.

   'trimsee' reads input from the standard input, and directs its output
to the standard output.