%% 
%%  Ein Beispiel der DANTE-Edition
%%  
%%  1. Auflage
%% 
%%  Beispiel 10-07-17 auf Seite 529.
%% 
%%  Copyright (C) 2012 Herbert Voss
%% 
%%  It may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions
%%  of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3
%%  of this license or (at your option) any later version.
%% 
%%  See http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt for details.
%% 
%% 
%% ==makeindex -s Letter== 
% Show page(s) 1
%% 
%% 
\documentclass[]{exaarticle}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setlength\textwidth{166.324pt}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\begin{filecontents*}{Letter.ist}
headings_flag       1
heading_prefix   "\\textbf{"
heading_suffix   "}\\nopagebreak\n"
symhead_positive "Symbole"
numhead_positive "Zahlen"
item_1 "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent10pt\\makebox[10pt][l]{--}"
item_01 "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent10pt\\makebox[10pt][l]{--}"
item_x1 "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent10pt\\makebox[10pt][l]{--}"
item_2  "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent20pt\\makebox[20pt][l]{-- -- }"
item_12 "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent20pt\\makebox[20pt][l]{-- -- }"
item_x2 "\\par\\leavevmode\\hangindent20pt\\makebox[20pt][l]{-- -- }"
\end{filecontents*}
\makeatletter
%\renewenvironment{theindex}
%  {\raggedright\small\let\item\@idxitem \parskip .0pt\@plus .3\p@\relax}{}
\makeatother
\usepackage[paper=a8,pagesize,DIV15]{typearea}
\setlength\parindent{0pt}
\StartShownPreambleCommands
\usepackage[makeidx]{hvindex}
% Aufruf mit makeindex -s Letter
\StopShownPreambleCommands
\begin{document}
\printindex  \newpage
\Index{Das} \Index{Ol@Öl} \Index{und}
\Index{der} \Index{Preis} \Index{sind}
eine \Index{diffizil}e \Index{Sache}.
\Index{Ein} \Index{$\alpha$}-Wesen
(\Index{Alphawesen}) \Index{lebt} im
\Index{Jahr} \Index{2010} in \Index{Oasis}.
\end{document}
