8.7 @pxref

The parenthetical reference command, @pxref, is nearly the same as @xref, but you use it only inside parentheses and you do not type a comma or period (or anything else) after the command's closing brace. The command differs from @xref in two ways:

1. TeX typesets the reference for the printed manual with a lower case `see' rather than an upper case `See'.
2. The Info formatting commands automatically end the reference with a closing colon or period.

Because one type of formatting automatically inserts closing punctuation and the other does not, you should use @pxref only inside parentheses as part of another sentence. Also, you yourself should not insert punctuation after the reference (or any other text), as you do with @xref. In the Info output, such text would follow a period, which is grammatically wrong.

@pxref is designed so that the output looks right and works right between parentheses both in printed output and in an Info file. In a printed manual, a closing comma or period should not follow a cross reference within parentheses; such punctuation is wrong. But in an Info file, suitable closing punctuation must follow the cross reference so Info can recognize its end. @pxref spares you the need to use complicated methods to put a terminator into one form of the output and not the other.

With one argument, a parenthetical cross reference looks like this:

     ... storms cause flooding (@pxref{Hurricanes}) ...

which produces

     ... storms cause flooding (*Note Hurricanes::) ...

and

... storms cause flooding (see Section 6.7 [Hurricanes], page 72) ...

With two arguments, a parenthetical cross reference has this template:

     ... (@pxref{node-name, cross-reference-name}) ...

which produces

     ... (*Note cross-reference-name: node-name.) ...

and

... (see Section nnn [node-name], page ppp) ...

@pxref can be used with up to five arguments just like @xref (see @xref).

Caution: Use @pxref only as a parenthetical reference. Do not try to use @pxref as a clause in a sentence. It will look bad in either the Info file, the printed output, or both.

Parenthetical cross references look best at the ends of sentences. Although they technically work in the middle of a sentence, that location breaks up the flow of reading.