DocBook Publishers: The Definitive Guide  (Version 1.2.1 for DocBook 5.1)

index

index — An index to a book or part of a book.

Synopsis

index ::= [-]

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

Additional attributes:

  • label
  • status
  • type

Additional Constraints

  • If this element is the root element, it must have a version attribute.

Description

An index contains the formatted index of a document.

Processing expectations

Formatted as a displayed block. An index in a book frequently causes a forced page break in print media.

In many processing systems, indexes are generated automatically or semiautomatically and never appear instantiated as DocBook markup.

Often an empty index is used to indicate where the automatically generated index should be rendered.

Authors can choose to have several types of indexes: for example, function, command, and concept indexes. This can be achieved in DocBook with the type attribute. All of the indexterms with a particular type will be collected together in the index with the same type.

All indexterms, irrespective of their type, appear in an index that has no type attribute.

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

label

Specifies an identifying string for presentation purposes

status

Identifies the editorial or publication status of the element on which it occurs

type

Specifies the target index for this term

Parents

These elements contain index: appendix, article, book, chapter, part, preface, section.

Children

Examples

An index without a title.

<index xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
<indexentry>
  <primaryie>Example</primaryie>
  <secondaryie>Chapter</secondaryie>
  <seeie>Example Chapter</seeie>
</indexentry>

<indexentry>
  <primaryie>Example Chapter, 35-48</primaryie>
  <seealsoie>Examples</seealsoie>
</indexentry>

<indexentry>
  <primaryie>Examples, 18, 36, 72-133</primaryie>
</indexentry>

</index>