5.2 The Index Phrases File

RefTeX maintains a file in which phrases can be collected for later indexing. The file is located in the same directory as the master file of the document and has the extension .rip (Reftex Index Phrases). You can create or visit the file with C-c | (reftex-index-visit-phrases-buffer). If the file is empty it is initialized by inserting a file header which contains the definition of the available index macros. This list is initialized from reftex-index-macros (see Defining Index Macros). You can edit the header as needed, but if you define new LaTeX indexing macros, don’t forget to add them to reftex-index-macros as well. Here is a phrase file header example:

% -*- mode: reftex-index-phrases -*-
%                           Key   Macro Format       Repeat
%----------------------------------------------------------
>>>INDEX_MACRO_DEFINITION:   i    \index{%s}          t
>>>INDEX_MACRO_DEFINITION:   I    \index*{%s}         nil
>>>INDEX_MACRO_DEFINITION:   g    \glossary{%s}       t
>>>INDEX_MACRO_DEFINITION:   n    \index*[name]{%s}   nil
%----------------------------------------------------------

The macro definition lines consist of a unique letter identifying a macro, a format string and the repeat flag, all separated by TAB. The format string shows how the macro is to be applied, the ‘%s’ will be replaced with the index entry. The repeat flag indicates if word is indexed by the macro as ‘\index{word}’ (repeat = nil) or as ‘\index{word}word’ (repeat = t). In the above example it is assumed that the macro \index*{word} already typesets its argument in the text, so that it is unnecessary to repeat word outside the macro.