[texhax] Q: how to add introductary text to Index page one

[Barbara Beeton]

i can address only how the ams-latex
document classes handle the index.

the style of the index is built into
the document classes, and the mechanism
for inserting the index into the document
is to specify
   \printindex
at the appropriate place in the input.
two column output is built in, and it
takes an act of congress and much macro
hackery to change it.

the "heading" style will be that of a
chapter for a book, or of a section
for an article; it will always start
on a new page, since it uses the latex
twocol mechanism. it's plausible that
a multicolumn package could be
substituted to get around that -- but
that's not built into any document
class that i'm familiar with.

ams document classes already have the
index features built in, so no additional
packages are needed, but other document
classes may require
   \usepackage{makeidx}

you already know the following:  if the
command
   \makeindex
is in the input file, an .idx file is
generated from \index entries.  this
is processed with the makeindex program
to produce the .ind file with
   \begin{theindex} ... \end{theindex}
unless you want some special ordering
or presentation that can't be achieved
by using the sort field mechanism
described in the latex manual, you
don't need any makeindex style file.

the ams document classes have the ability
to accept introductory text to be set in
a block between the index chapter title
and the two-column index terms using the
command
   \def\indexintro{...}
but i'm not aware of how other classes
may do this, if at all.

you're welcome to steal any useful code
from (say) amsbook.cls.  the documentation
for this isn't great, but what there is
is in amsclass.dtx for the code, and
instr-l.pdf for the user doc.  both of
these are on ctan.
 						-- bb

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:03:56 -0500
From: "Fehd, Ronald J. (CDC/CCHIS/NCPHI)" <rjf2 at CDC.GOV>
To: texhax at tug.org
Subject: [texhax] Q: how to add introductary text to Index page one

I have seen several documents and books
with an introduction to the index:

apparently:

\newpage
\section{Index}

\onecolumn

Some test describing the index,
in particular sorting order used,
what bold entries means, etc.

\twocolumn %or \threecolumn, whichever the doc-class supports

\begin{theindex}
%index items ...
\end{theindex}

Q: How do we do this?

Based on my trial(s) and error(s)
environment theindex generates a \newpage

There is no mention of how to do this easily
in either TLC,2e or Guide/LaTeX,4e.

Do we have to write a MakeIndex style file
in order to do this?

The LaTeX Companion, 2e, pg 660:

%MakiIndex style file mybook.ist
preamble
"%??? introductory text goes here
  \\begin{inindex}\n"


Here are examples seen in
* books:
Guide to LaTeX, 4e, pg 559

* doc in the installation:

C:\Programs\TeXlive\2008\texmf-dist\doc\latex\index\index.pdf  pg 19

thanks for any commentary on this q

Ron Fehd  the {SAS} macro maven  CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2 at cdc dot gov