Indexing

Depends on how detailed you want it to be, Jimmy. It has to be in proportion to the book and suited to the intended audience. A 1000-page book about the Hapsburgs, for instance, could not have every mention of the name in the index.

Similarly, such a book aimed at academic research would have a far more detailed index than a shorter one aimed at school curriculum usage.

An index isn't there to hit all instances of a word (and with an e-reader you could do a search for them anyway) but to highlight relevant research points. The level of detail you describe is fine for a heavyweight tome, but there are, as in all things, economies of scale.

The Oxford Style Manual has some 17 pages devoted to the art of indexing, which tells you something of the nature of the skills involved. Its own index is 28 pages long (and it doesn't use the bold/ordinary demarcation).

Horses for courses, I think.

I wish to stick my oar in here. While I agree with Lorraine (and applaud her thorough replies), as a reader, I'm often irritated by finding that an index DOESN'T list minor appearances of a word. For example, I want to look up that brilliant sentence that I was so stricken with but can't remember, but I know that it had the word "hope" in it, even if only in a supporting role. (e.g. Mr. Brown remarked "I hope that she wasn't wearing that awful, sticky face-mask of hers when she put her head in the oven." [Not illustrative of a brilliant sentence, but of the word "hope" in a minor role.])

For me, a perfect index would have page numbers of major uses of a word in boldface and those of minor ones in paleface.