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<span id="Three-Arguments"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Four-and-Five-Arguments.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Four and Five Arguments</a>, Previous: <a href="Two-Arguments.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Two Arguments</a>, Up: <a href="_0040xref.html" accesskey="u" rel="up"><code>@xref</code></a> [<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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<hr>
<span id="g_t_0040xref-with-Three-Arguments"></span><h4 class="subsection">6.4.3 <code>@xref</code> with Three Arguments</h4>
<span id="index-Three_002dargument-form-of-cross_002dreferences"></span>
<p>A third argument replaces the node name in the TeX output. The third
argument should be the name of the section in the printed output, or
else state the topic discussed by that section.
</p>
<p>The template is like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{<var>node-name</var>, <var>online-label</var>, <var>printed-label</var>}.
</pre></div>
<p>For example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{Electrical Effects, Lightning, Thunder and Lightning},
for details.
</pre></div>
<p>produces
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">*Note Lightning: Electrical Effects, for details.
</pre></div>
<p>in Info and
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See Section 5.2 [Thunder and Lightning], page 57, for details.
</p></blockquote>
<p>in a printed manual.
</p>
<p>If a third argument is given and the second one is empty, then the
third argument serves for both. (Note how two commas, side by side, mark
the empty second argument.)
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{Electrical Effects, , Thunder and Lightning},
for details.
</pre></div>
<p>produces
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">*Note Thunder and Lightning: Electrical Effects, for details.
</pre></div>
<p>in Info and
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See Section 5.2 [Thunder and Lightning], page 57, for details.
</p></blockquote>
<p>in a printed manual.
</p>
<p>The third argument to cross-references must observe some of the
restrictions for node names (see <a href="Node-Line-Requirements.html">Node Line Requirements</a>). The
most common issue is that colons cannot be used, since that interferes
with the parsing of the Info file.
</p>
<p>As a practical matter, it is often best to write cross-references with
just the first argument if the node name and the section title are the
same (or nearly so), and with the first and third arguments only if the
node name and title are different.
</p>
<span id="index-xrefautomaticsectiontitle"></span>
<p>Texinfo offers a setting to use the section title instead of node
names by default in cross-references (an explicitly specified third
argument still takes precedence):
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xrefautomaticsectiontitle on
</pre></div>
<p>Typically this line would be given near the beginning of the document
and used for the whole manual. But you can turn it off if you want
(<code>@xrefautomaticsectiontitle off</code>), for example, if you’re
including some other sub-document that doesn’t have suitable section
names.
</p>
<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Four-and-Five-Arguments.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Four and Five Arguments</a>, Previous: <a href="Two-Arguments.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Two Arguments</a>, Up: <a href="_0040xref.html" accesskey="u" rel="up"><code>@xref</code></a> [<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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