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I'd like to see the subject of indexing eggs looked at again and made much simpler than it is now.  It's ridiculously over-complex and actually put me off indexing a baking book I was in the middle of as it needs a flow chart to work out which blXXdy combination of eggs, whites and yolks gets indexed!  Surely this can be made simpler.   I would advocate taking the last two bullet point combinations from the egg paragraph of the indexing manual and putting a great big thick black line through them.

Anyway, now that I've got that off my chest I'll stand down from my soapbox (or should that be eggbox!) and give it another go.  But seriously, please, please revisit this.  I can't believe I'm the only one who struggles with this and it has really put me off indexing particularly baking books any more.

I understand the reluctance, because of the impact on already indexed books, to revisit the eggs-indexing guidelines. But I have to agree that it needs attention.  Not least because they're so complex that it's quite hard to be sure one is following them.  That makes me skeptical that EYB staff indexers are completely consistent.

At a minimum, without changing the current policy, there needs to be a chart that makes it possible for indexers to verify whether they are following the intentions of EYB rules or not.  For simplicity, it should take the form of a grid chart:

Across the top:

Whites (or yolks) ------------->

                             0         1          2         3           4

Down the left:

Eggs

0

1

2

3

4

The spaces in the grid would be filled with the correct indexing entry for that situation.  

It might be an interesting exercise for everyone who now does EYB professional indexing to fill in the chart on his/her own, and then compare notes.  I tried to make this chart for myself as an aid to indexing, but found myself unable to complete it (torn between apparently conflicting mandates). Was grateful that my indexing efforts so far had been mostly cookbooks without much baking/pastry/dessert emphasis or egg complexity.

Joining this call: an issue I've raised on more than one occasion. To me, it's the last dot point in the instructions that is truly quizzical! And almost discordant with the two prior instructions ;-)

I totally agree with all of the above.