7. Menus

Menus contain pointers to subordinate nodes. In online output, you use menus to go to such nodes. Menus have no effect in printed manuals and do not appear in them.

A node with a menu should not contain much text. If you find yourself writing a lot of text before a menu, we generally recommend moving most of the text into a new subnode—all but a paragraph or two. Otherwise, a reader with a terminal that displays only a few lines may miss the menu and its associated text. As a practical matter, it is best to locate a menu within 20 or so lines of the beginning of the node.