Publishing houses often have their own index style sheets.  If no style sheet is provided, following are some of the decisions that need to be made regarding index style prior to commencing work on a project.

• Format: indented or run-in style?
• Alphabetization:  word-by-word or letter-by-letter?
• Depth of indexing: how many levels of subheadings are allowed?
• Main heading format:  do you prefer initial capitals for main headings, all capitals, or capitals only for proper nouns and names?
• Cross-reference format: preferred capitalization and punctuation
• Page range format: full numbers (e.g., 121-128) or conflated (e.g., 121-8) references?
• Size limitations: any limits on number of index pages, lines, etc.?
• Should illustrations, footnotes and/or bibliographies be indexed?

Delivery options:

• Electronic file format:  .RTF, Microsoft Word, or CINDEX (.cdx or .arc) files are standard.  Other formats available on request.
• Delivery options:  indexes are normally delivered as an email attachment in the format you specify. Printouts provided on request for an additional fee.
• No charge for email delivery. Delivery charges for printouts will be billed to your FedEx account or added to the invoice.