How can I have two or more distinct indexes?

Question

I often want to have more than one index in a longer LaTeX document. For instance, I might want a general concept index, an index of named persons, and an index of symbolism. How can I have two or more distinct indexes in LaTeX?

Answer 1

The multind package provides simple and straightforward multiple indexing.

You tag each \makeindex, \index and \printindex command with a file name, and indexing commands are written to (or read from) the name with the appropriate (.idx or .ind) extension appended. To create a “general” and an “authors” index, one might write:

\usepackage{multind}
\makeindex{general}
\makeindex{authors}
...
\index{authors}{Another Idiot}
...
\index{general}{FAQs}
...
\printindex{general}{General index}
\printindex{authors}{Author index}

To complete the job, run LaTeX on your file enough times that labels, etc., are stable, and then execute the commands

makeindex general
makeindex authors

See also this FAQ: Multiple indexes

Answer 2

One problem with multind is that the index heading(s) will not be formatted corresponding to your other chapter (or section) headings but simply with \Large\bf.

If you want multiple indexes that respect the general formatting of your document class (and also work with other than the standard classes), use the splitidx package.