How do I write index entries in a book? (For Web & PDF output)

[cycomachead]

Description

I'm working on a book project, which actually began its life as as very large word document with hundreds of index entries which are get build using Word's index feature.

In LaTeX, I can write ... \index{Entry Text} and then later render the index where I wish. What's the appropriate way in Quarto to define these entries in a qmd file so they show up properly on the web it?

Should I be using crossrefs, or trying to start with latex and make that work with HTML output?

I think I've gathered:

• Quarto supports cross refs but I don't think has a way to enumerate all crossrefs in a document?
• A crossref links to a section (e.g. Chapter 1), but it doesn't have the title of the thing that I am referring to. (e.g. a person's name mentioned in the middle of the page, a specific term, etc.)
• If I use LaTeX like natively in a qmd file, it will show up in the web output.
• I can write a Lua Filter to remove the index entry text during the HTML compilation step.
• I would then need to write some Lua/JS/something to gather all the index definitions myself

Am I on the right track? If there's any examples of books I could see where there's an index, I think that'd be great.

[mcanouil]

Quarto supports cross refs but I don't think has a way to enumerate all crossrefs in a document?

No built-in feature for that beyong "list of figures", "list of tables", etc.

A crossref links to a section (e.g. Chapter 1), but it doesn't have the title of the thing that I am referring to. (e.g. a person's name mentioned in the middle of the page, a specific term, etc.)

Any small reproducible example?

• If I use LaTeX like natively in a qmd file, it will show up in the web output.

No, it won't, especially if you use the right markup.
https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/markdown-basics.html#raw-content

• I can write a Lua Filter to remove the index entry text during the HTML compilation step.

Use conditional content, it's there for this.

Am I on the right track? If there's any examples of books I could see where there's an index, I think that'd be great.

Did you check the gallery? https://quarto.org/docs/gallery/#books
I can't find it but i'm pretty sure I've seen someone asking or that did something similar.

[cycomachead]

Thanks for the guidance!

I understand there is conditional content, but that's not what quite I'm looking for. I do want the same content to appear in all output formats - but naturally don't want want have to write a separate index entry for an HTML and for LaTeX... The output of the index makes sense and what I was planning to do.

Any small reproducible example?

For crossrefs, I was simply referring to the docs in the books section. I can write usable links, but only manually I think.

I did look through a bunch of books but haven't been able to find something similar.

[mcanouil]

For crossrefs, I was simply referring to the docs in the books section. I can write usable links, but only manually I think.

Oh, you want more than just "Chapter X".

• Feature request: Ability to show the title of the cross-referenced chapter/section instead of just its number #4532

You can add a "thumb up" reaction on the first message to show your interest.

[cycomachead]

Thanks, thought that's actually not quite what I was looking -- the title isn't what I need in this case.

I'm looking to build an index - so the term itself (e.g. algorithm or Ball, Michael) is what should appear in the index, with a link back to the source. The section number / title would be useful, but since there could be (and in some cases are) many index entries that refer back to to the same section, the entry name is what's the distinguishing factor in this case.

I have been making some progress (in part by screwing around with Claude and co-pilot for fun...) to:

• use LaTeX style index definitions (since I think this is the shortest from to write, and latex makeindex works OK
• using a Lua filter when compiling the HTML to replace the latex w/ hidden anchors and to collect the index definitions in a temp file.
• use conditional formatting and a code block which grabs the output of a Python script which parses the index file list and outputs HTML.

JupyterBook has an index which is pretty similar to what I'm looking for: https://jupyterbook.org/en/stable/genindex.html
If I get some time, i'm going to look into how this parse and build that...

[cderv]

In LaTeX, I can write ... \index{Entry Text} and then later render the index where I wish. What's the appropriate way in Quarto to define these entries in a qmd file so they show up properly on the web it?

For reference, we have an open feature request for Glossay in Quarto

• Feature request: Glossary #1697