Page Layout ⇒ Index Format Problem

[normanj]

I'm an inexperienced LaTeX user creating a document with the book class. I've included a \printindex command in the \backmatter and the index appears in the customary two-column format.

The problem arises with topics having multiple entries, resulting in the line being too long for the column. This results in some left-hand entries overlapping into the right-hand column and some right-hand entries disappearing off the page,

Is there a way I can prevent this? I'd prefer to keep the two-column format if possible as it works well in most cases.

My index entries are of the form:

Code: Select all

\index{Reeves!\small{\emph{Sims (1821-1900)}}}

This particular entry doesn't cause problems because its only on one page, but similar entries that occur in several pages result in the line overrun.

Thank you.

[cgnieder]

Could you make the following code into a minimal working example that shows the unwanted behavior, please?

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{makeidx}
\makeindex
\begin{document}
Reeves\index{Reeves!\small{\emph{Sims (1821--1900)}}}

\printindex
\end{document}

Regards