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<span id="New-Indices"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Previous: <a href="Combining-Indices.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Combining Indices</a>, Up: <a href="Indices.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Indices</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<hr>
<span id="Defining-New-Indices"></span><h3 class="section">11.7 Defining New Indices</h3>
<span id="index-Defining-new-indices"></span>
<span id="index-Indices_002c-defining-new"></span>
<span id="index-New-index-defining"></span>
<span id="index-defindex"></span>
<span id="index-defcodeindex"></span>
<p>In addition to the predefined indices (see <a href="Predefined-Indices.html">Predefined Indices</a>),
you may use the <code>@defindex</code> and <code>@defcodeindex</code> commands
to define new indices. These commands create new indexing @-commands
with which you mark index entries. The <code>@defindex</code> command is
used like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@defindex <var>name</var>
</pre></div>
<p>New index names are usually two-letter words, such as ‘<samp>au</samp>’.
For example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@defindex au
</pre></div>
<p>This defines a new index, called the ‘<samp>au</samp>’ index. At the same
time, it creates a new indexing command, <code>@auindex</code>, that you
can use to make index entries. Use this new indexing command just as
you would use a predefined indexing command.
</p>
<p>For example, here is a section heading followed by a concept index
entry and two ‘<samp>au</samp>’ index entries.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@section Cognitive Semantics
@cindex kinesthetic image schemas
@auindex Johnson, Mark
@auindex Lakoff, George
</pre></div>
<p>(Evidently, ‘<samp>au</samp>’ serves here as an abbreviation for “author”.)
</p>
<p>Texinfo constructs the new indexing command by concatenating the name
of the index with ‘<samp>index</samp>’; thus, defining an ‘<samp>xy</samp>’ index
leads to the automatic creation of an <code>@xyindex</code> command.
</p>
<p>Use the <code>@printindex</code> command to print the index, as you do with
the predefined indices. For example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@node Author Index
@unnumbered Author Index
@printindex au
</pre></div>
<p>The <code>@defcodeindex</code> command is like the <code>@defindex</code> command,
except that, in the printed output, it prints entries in an
<code>@code</code> font by default instead of in a roman font.
</p>
<p>You should define new indices before the end-of-header line of a
Texinfo file, and (of course) before any <code>@synindex</code> or
<code>@syncodeindex</code> commands (see <a href="Texinfo-File-Header.html">Texinfo File Header</a>).
</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier (see <a href="Predefined-Indices.html">Predefined Indices</a>), we recommend having
a single index in the final document whenever possible (no matter however many
source indices you use), since then readers have only one place to
look.
</p>
<p>When creating an index, TeX creates a file whose extension is the
name of the index (see <a href="Format-with-tex_002ftexindex.html#Names-of-index-files">Names of index files</a>). Therefore you
should avoid using index names that collide with extensions used for
other purposes, such as ‘<samp>.aux</samp>’ or ‘<samp>.xml</samp>’.
<code>makeinfo</code> already reports an error if a new index conflicts
well-known extension name.
</p>
<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Previous: <a href="Combining-Indices.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Combining Indices</a>, Up: <a href="Indices.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Indices</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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