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<title>Writing a Node (GNU Texinfo 6.7)</title>

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<span id="Writing-a-Node"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Node-Line-Requirements.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Node Line Requirements</a>, Previous: <a href="Node-Names.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Node Names</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Nodes</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<span id="Writing-an-_0040node-Line"></span><h3 class="section">4.3 Writing an <code>@node</code> Line</h3>
<span id="index-Writing-an-_0040node-line"></span>
<span id="index-_0040node-line-writing"></span>
<span id="index-Node-line-writing"></span>

<span id="index-node"></span>
<p>The easiest way to write an <code>@node</code> line is to write <code>@node</code>
at the beginning of a line and then the name of the node, like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@node <var>node-name</var>
</pre></div>

<p>After you have inserted an <code>@node</code> line, you should immediately
write an @-command for the chapter or section and insert its name.
Next (and this is important!), put in several index entries.  Usually,
you will find at least two and often as many as four or five ways of
referring to the node in the index.  Use them all.  This will make it
much easier for people to find the node.
</p>
<p>If you wish, you can ignore <code>@node</code> lines altogether in your
first draft and then use the <code>texinfo-insert-node-lines</code> command
to create <code>@node</code> lines for you.  However, we do not recommend
this practice.  It is better to name the node itself at the same time
that you write a segment so you can easily make cross-references.
Useful cross-references are an especially important feature of a good
Texinfo manual.
</p>
<p>Even when you explicitly specify all pointers, you cannot write the
nodes in the Texinfo source file in an arbitrary order!  Because
formatters must process the file sequentially, irrespective of node
pointers, you must write the nodes in the order you wish them to
appear in the output.  For Info format one can imagine that the order
may not matter, but it matters for the other formats.
</p>
<p>You may optionally follow the node name argument to <code>@node</code>
with up to three optional arguments on the rest of the same line,
separating the arguments with commas.  These are the names of the
&lsquo;Next&rsquo;, &lsquo;Previous&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Up&rsquo; pointers, in that order.  We recommend
omitting them if your Texinfo document is hierarchically organized,
as virtually all are (see <a href="makeinfo-Pointer-Creation.html"><code>makeinfo</code> Pointer Creation</a>).
</p>
<p>Any spaces before or after each name on the <code>@node</code> line are
ignored.
</p>
<p>The template for a fully-written-out node line with &lsquo;Next&rsquo;, &lsquo;Previous&rsquo;,
and &lsquo;Up&rsquo; pointers looks like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@node <var>node-name</var>, <var>next</var>, <var>previous</var>, <var>up</var>
</pre></div>

<p>The <var>node-name</var> argument must be present, but the others are
optional.  If you wish to specify some but not others, just insert
commas as needed, as in: &lsquo;<samp>@node mynode,,,uppernode</samp>&rsquo;.  However,
we recommend leaving off all the pointers and letting <code>makeinfo</code>
determine them.
</p>
<p>If you are using GNU Emacs, you can use the update node commands
provided by Texinfo mode to insert the names of the pointers; or
(recommended), you can leave the pointers out of the Texinfo file and
let <code>makeinfo</code> insert node pointers into the Info file it
creates.  (See <a href="Texinfo-Mode.html">Texinfo Mode</a>, and <a href="makeinfo-Pointer-Creation.html"><code>makeinfo</code> Pointer Creation</a>.)
</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can insert the &lsquo;Next&rsquo;, &lsquo;Previous&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Up&rsquo;
pointers yourself.  If you do this, you may find it helpful to use the
Texinfo mode keyboard command <kbd>C-c C-c n</kbd>.  This command inserts
&lsquo;<samp>@node</samp>&rsquo; and a comment line listing the names of the pointers in
their proper order.  The comment line helps you keep track of which
arguments are for which pointers.  This comment line is especially useful
if you are not familiar with Texinfo.
</p>

<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Node-Line-Requirements.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Node Line Requirements</a>, Previous: <a href="Node-Names.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Node Names</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Nodes</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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