The two attributes that have the most impact on how notebook pages are organized are BKA_MAJOR and BKA_MINOR, which specify major and minor tabs, respectively. Major tab pages define the beginning of major sections in the notebook, while minor tab pages define the beginning of subsections within a major section. Major sections should begin with a page that has a BKA_MAJOR attribute. Within major sections, information can be organized into minor sections, each of which should begin with a page that has a BKA_MINOR attribute.

For an existing notebook, the underlying hierarchy, if one exists, must be observed when inserting new pages, to provide efficient organization and navigation of the information in the notebook. For example, if the notebook has minor sections but no major sections, you could confuse the user if you inserted a page with a major tab attribute between related minor sections or at the end of the notebook.

If you insert pages without specifying tab attributes, those pages become part of the section in which they are inserted. For example, if page 7 of your notebook has a minor tab and you insert a new page 8 without specifying a tab attribute, page 8 becomes part of the section that begins with the minor tab on page 7.

Because tab pages are not mandatory, the application can create a notebook that contains no major or minor tab pages. That style would be similar to that of a composition notebook.

Another group of attributes that can affect the organization of pages being inserted into a notebook consists of BKA_FIRST, BKA_LAST, BKA_NEXT, and BKA_PREV. These attributes cause pages to be inserted at the end, at the beginning, after a specified page, and before a specified page of a notebook, respectively.