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(texinfo)Node Menu Illustration

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Node and Menu Illustration
==========================

  Here is a copy of the diagram shown earlier that illustrates a Texinfo
file with three chapters, each of which contains two sections.

  The "root" is at the top of the diagram and the "leaves" are at the
bottom.  This is how such a diagram is drawn conventionally; it
illustrates an upside-down tree.  For this reason, the root node is
called the `Top' node, and `Up' node pointers carry you closer to the
root.

                               Top
                                |
              -------------------------------------
             |                  |                  |
          Chapter 1          Chapter 2          Chapter 3
             |                  |                  |
          --------           --------           --------
         |        |         |        |         |        |
      Section  Section   Section  Section   Section  Section
        1.1      1.2       2.1      2.2       3.1      3.2

  The fully-written command to start Chapter 2 would be this:

     @node     Chapter 2,  Chapter 3, Chapter 1, Top
     @comment  node-name,  next,      previous,  up

This `@node' line says that the name of this node is "Chapter 2", the
name of the `Next' node is "Chapter 3", the name of the `Previous' node
is "Chapter 1", and the name of the `Up' node is "Top".  You can omit
writing out these node names if your document is hierarchically
organized (Note: makeinfo Pointer Creation), but the pointer
relationships still obtain.

     *Please Note:* `Next' refers to the next node at the same
     hierarchical level in the manual, not necessarily to the next node
     within the Texinfo file.  In the Texinfo file, the subsequent node
     may be at a lower level--a section-level node most often follows a
     chapter-level node, for example.  `Next' and `Previous' refer to
     nodes at the _same_ hierarchical level.  (The `Top' node contains
     the exception to this rule.  Since the `Top' node is the only node
     at that level, `Next' refers to the first following node, which is
     almost always a chapter or chapter-level node.)

  To go to Sections 2.1 and 2.2 using Info, you need a menu inside
Chapter 2.  (Note: Menus.)  You would write the menu just before the
beginning of Section 2.1, like this:

         @menu
         * Sect. 2.1::    Description of this section.
         * Sect. 2.2::
         @end menu

  Write the node for Sect. 2.1 like this:

         @node     Sect. 2.1, Sect. 2.2, Chapter 2, Chapter 2
         @comment  node-name, next,      previous,  up

  In Info format, the `Next' and `Previous' pointers of a node usually
lead to other nodes at the same level--from chapter to chapter or from
section to section (sometimes, as shown, the `Previous' pointer points
up); an `Up' pointer usually leads to a node at the level above (closer
to the `Top' node); and a `Menu' leads to nodes at a level below (closer
to `leaves').  (A cross reference can point to a node at any level; see
Note: Cross References.)

  Usually, an `@node' command and a chapter structuring command are
used in sequence, along with indexing commands.  (You may follow the
`@node' line with a comment line that reminds you which pointer is
which.)

  Here is the beginning of the chapter in this manual called "Ending a
Texinfo File".  This shows an `@node' line followed by a comment line,
an `@chapter' line, and then by indexing lines.

     @node    Ending a File, Structuring, Beginning a File, Top
     @comment node-name,     next,        previous,         up
     @chapter Ending a Texinfo File
     @cindex Ending a Texinfo file
     @cindex Texinfo file ending
     @cindex File ending