##### 16.5.8.1 Listing characters to ignore in index sort order

To specify which characters DITA2Go should ignore when ordering index entries for HTML Help or OmniHelp, use one or both of the following settings:

[Index]
; IgnoreCharsIX = characters to exclude when sorting index entries
IgnoreCharsIX=-[]()<>_
; IgnoreLeadingCharsIX = characters to exclude if at the beginning of
; the entry when sorting index entries; multiples like $$ or .. are
; all excluded
IgnoreLeadingCharsIX=.$

By default, when sorting index entries DITA2Go ignores the following characters:

- anywhere in an entry:

  - hyphen

  [ ] left and right square brackets

  ( ) left and right parentheses

  < > left and right angle brackets

  _ underscore.

- as the leading character(s) in an indexed term:

  . period(s)

  $ dollar sign(s).

If you do not include any settings for IgnoreCharsIX or IgnoreLeadingCharsIX, DITA2Go uses these defaults. Characters specified for IgnoreCharsIX affect the sorting of sublevels; those specified for IgnoreLeadingCharsIX do not.

Suppose you provide no setting at all for IgnoreCharsIX, and just specify this setting:

[Index]
IgnoreLeadingCharsIX=?

In this case all of the following characters would be ignored for index sorting:

- any number of ? at the beginning of any indexed term
- any number of -, [, ], (, ), <, >, or _ anywhere in any entry.

To have only leading question marks ignored, you would specify:

[Index]
IgnoreCharsIX=
IgnoreLeadingCharsIX=?

To exclude all characters from the “ignore” sets, so all index entries that start with punctuation appear at the beginning of the Help index:

[Index]
IgnoreCharsIX=
IgnoreLeadingCharsIX=

Previous Topic: 16.5.8 Customizing index sort order

Next Topic: 16.5.8.2 Choosing case sensitivity of indexed terms

Parent Topic: 16.5.8 Customizing index sort order

Sibling Topics:

16.5.8.2 Choosing case sensitivity of indexed terms

16.5.8.3 Specifying index sort type and locale

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