helps index stuff for exams... if they don't give you an index, or the one they provide is bad. tweak as you see fit.

indexer.py

from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Column, Integer, String, func
from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
from reportlab.lib.units import cm
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.pdfbase.pdfmetrics import stringWidth
import sys

try:
    raw_input = input
except: pass

Base = declarative_base()

class IndexEntry(Base):
    __tablename__ = "entries"
    id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
    name = Column(String, index=True)
    page = Column(Integer)
    book = Column(Integer)


def createAndGetSession(dbpath):
    engine = create_engine("sqlite:///" + dbpath)
    Base.metadata.bind = engine
    Base.metadata.create_all()
    return sessionmaker(bind=engine)()


def get_entry(session, book):
    topic = raw_input("Topic: ")
    if not book:
        book = raw_input("Book: ")
    page = raw_input("Page: ")
    i = IndexEntry(name=topic, page=int(page), book=int(book))
    session.add(i)
    session.commit()
    print("Added " + topic)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    if len(sys.argv) < 3:
        print("Usage: {} [add|show|export] database [outputname.pdf|bookno]".format(sys.argv[0]))
        sys.exit(1)
    session = createAndGetSession(sys.argv[2])

    if sys.argv[1] == "add":
        if len(sys.argv) < 4:
            book = None
        else:
            book = sys.argv[3]
        while True:
            try:
                get_entry(session, book)
            except KeyboardInterrupt:
                break
    elif sys.argv[1] == "show":
        entries = session.query(IndexEntry).order_by(func.lower(IndexEntry.name)).all()
        for i in entries:
            print("{}\t\t\t{}-{}".format(i.name, i.book, i.page))
    elif sys.argv[1] == "export":
        if len(sys.argv) < 4:
            print("No output file name... using index.pdf")
            output = "index.pdf"
        else:
            output = sys.argv[3]
        cv = canvas.Canvas(output, pagesize=letter)
        title = sys.argv[2]
        width, height = letter
        cv.setFont("Helvetica-Bold", 20)
        cv.drawString((width-stringWidth(title, "Helvetica-Bold", 20))/2.0, height-30, title)
        entries = list(session.query(IndexEntry).order_by(func.lower(IndexEntry.name)).all())
        current_letter = "\0"
        additive = 0
        prev = ""
        line = []
        row = 0
        cv.setLineWidth(.1)
        cv.setFont("Helvetica", 10)
        cv.setStrokeColorRGB(.85,.85,.85)
        for i,entry in enumerate(entries):
            ypos = height-15*row-additive-25
            if (prev != entry.name or i == len(entries)-1) and i != 0:
                if i == len(entries)-1 and prev == entry.name:
                    # edge case on last entry name being the same as the second
                    # to last
                    line.append("{}:{}".format(entry.book, entry.page))
                cv.drawString(25, ypos, prev)
                cv.drawRightString(width-25, ypos, ",".join(line))
                cv.line(width-25, ypos-2, 25, ypos-2)
                row += 1
                del line[:]
            if height-15*row-additive-25 <= 75:
                cv.showPage()
                cv.setStrokeColorRGB(.85,.85,.85)
                cv.setFont("Helvetica", 10)
                cv.setLineWidth(.1)
                row = 0
                additive = 5
            line.append("{}:{}".format(entry.book, entry.page))
            if ord(entry.name[0].upper()) > ord(current_letter):
                # if this is a new first letter, print the letter
                cv.setFont("Helvetica-Bold", 12)
                cv.setLineWidth(.5)
                cv.setStrokeColorRGB(0,0,0)
                cv.drawString(25, ypos-20, entry.name[0].upper())
                cv.line(width-25, ypos-22, 25, ypos-22)
                if additive == 0:
                    # edge case for first entry
                    additive = 15
                additive += 25
                current_letter = entry.name[0].upper()
                cv.setFont("Helvetica", 10)
                cv.setStrokeColorRGB(.85,.85,.85)
                cv.setLineWidth(.1)
                ypos = height-15*row-additive-25
                if i == len(entries)-1:
                    # edge case on last entry being a new letter
                    cv.drawString(25, ypos, entry.name)
                    cv.drawRightString(width-25, ypos, ",".join(line))
                    cv.line(width-25, ypos-2, 25, ypos-2)
            prev = entry.name
        cv.showPage()
        cv.save()
    else:
        print("Usage: {} [add|show|export] database [outputname.pdf|bookno]".format(sys.argv[0]))
        sys.exit(1)