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when I launch info documentation for general Emacs or the specific one for Org-mode, there are some nodes which show up with white color stars (asterisks) and others with red stars. What does this mean? What is the difference?

Mauricio Calvao
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Simplest way to learn about this specific face is to navigate to it and run M-x customize-face. If you do it, it will say that this face has name info-menu-star and in description you'll see:

Face for every third * in an Info menu.

The other menu items just use normal face. So it's just simplifying perception of the long menus.

Alex Ott
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  • Sorry: it did not seem to correspond exactly to this. For instance, when i issue C-h i (for the top of the Info tree), there appears a list of nodes the first 3 every third of which are preceded by red asterisks, but then all remaining ones ((a large number of them) all show up as white asterisks, no longer obeying the rule of "every third one"... – Mauricio Calvao Mar 04 '23 at 20:42
  • Mostly works for me, although sometimes it's stopped in the long lists – Alex Ott Mar 05 '23 at 09:06
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    The current doc (Emacs version 30.0.50 built from git sources) describes it more accurately: `Face used to emphasize ‘*’ in an Info menu. The face is assigned to the third, sixth, and ninth ‘*’ for easier orientation. See ‘Info-nth-menu-item’. ` Basically, you can go to one of the first nine items by typing a digit 1-9, so the red stars make it easier to know which one you want. But there is no such shortcut for the tenth or later items, so you need to use `m` or some such to get to them: it wouldn't help much if you knew it's the 37th item. – NickD Mar 08 '23 at 22:11