4.11 @part: Groups of Chapters

The final sectioning command is @part, to mark a part of a manual, that is, a group of chapters or (rarely) appendices. This behaves quite differently from the other sectioning commands, to fit with the way such “parts” are conventionally used in books.

No @node command is associated with @part. Just write the command on a line by itself, including the part title, at the place in the document you want to mark off as starting that part. For example:

@part Part I:@* The beginning

As can be inferred from this example, no automatic numbering or labeling of the @part text is done. The text is taken as-is.

Because parts are not associated with nodes, no general text can follow the @part line. To produce the intended output, it must be followed by a chapter-level command (including its node). Thus, to continue the example:

@part Part I:@* The beginning

@node Introduction
@chapter Introduction
...

In the TeX output, the @part text is included in both the normal and short tables of contents (see Generating a Table of Contents), without a page number (since that is the normal convention). In addition, a “part page” is output in the body of the document, with just the @part text. In the example above, the @* causes a line break on the part page (but is replaced with a space in the tables of contents). This part page is always forced to be on an odd (right-hand) page, regardless of the chapter pagination (see @setchapternewpage: Blank Pages Before Chapters).

In the HTML output, the @part text is similarly included in the tables of contents, and a heading is included in the main document text, as part of the following chapter or appendix node.

In the XML and DocBook output, the <part> element includes all the following chapters, up to the next <part>. A <part> containing chapters is also closed at an appendix.

In the Info and plain text output, @part has no effect.

@part is ignored when raising or lowering sections (see next section). That is, it is never lowered and nothing can be raised to it.