A simple HOWTO document is not (yet) available. If you use LaTeX, your best bet is the 2nd edition of the LaTeX Companion, there xindy usage is described in detail. In the future, we hope to get permission to use some of this material here as well.

Commands are documented in man pages, both for texindy and for xindy.

If your index is more complex, either with many markup tags in it or with unusual references, you might want to read the xindy Tutorial, since you will need to write your own index style.

As an introduction, you should start with the xindy Tutorial to learn about basic xindy concepts.

The FAQ is especially useful for the TeX community answering many common questions.

Eventually, you will have to look into the xindy Reference Manual, though. However, study some of the examples first.

xindy Reference Manual

is the definitive description of all xindy declarations, used to specify sorting, character classes, locations, markup, etc. Our feedback is that the used reference language uses too much Lisp jargon, without that knowledge you will have to spend a few additional hours to get aquainted to.

Before you read it, have a look at the xindy Tutorial. The xindy Technical Report (in Postscript) is also a good preparation to learn about the models behind xindy.

make-rules Documentation

details which languages are supported.

Please note that some of the reports contain outdated contact, Web Site, and download information.

xindy - A Flexible Indexing System (PDF)

Presented at EuroTeX 98, St. Malo, France; awarded best conference paper. Cahiers GUTenberg Vol. 28-29, March 1998, p. 223-230.

xindy: Definition of an Indexing Model and its Implementation (PDF)

Technical Report TI-11/1997, Technical University of Darmstadt

A Simple Context-Based Markup Algorithm and its Efficient Implementation in CLOS (PDF)

Technical Report TI-12/1997, Technical University of Darmstadt

Sorting Index Entries with xindy revisited (in Postscript, also as .ps.gz)

Describes the current implementation scheme with examples from German and French sorting.

Draft discussion paper on International Sorting (also in Postscript and in .ps.gz)

Musings that lead to the revisited index sorting scheme, as described in the previous report. Since these musings have some interesting guidelines and report about pitfalls, we have kept them online.

xindy - Ein Flexibles Indexierungssystem, Studienarbeit FB Informatik, TH Darmstadt, November 1995 (PDF, in German).

Roger's original report on his student project.

ISO/IEC 14651 International String Ordering (external link)

This ISO Standard was used in creation of the xindy sort mechanism. The Web site referred above still has the final draft online, in Wordperfect format. It also has some sorting rules online, in the documents section.