CarLaTeX
Why doesn't `anchor=north west` work here?
What am I doing wrong?
```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw] (first) {First node};
\node[draw, anchor=north west,
below= of first.south east] {Why not correctly anchored?};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
```
Top Answer
Skillmon
The reason is that the `below=of` syntax of the `positioning` library implicitly uses `anchor` for the positioning.
If you want to use `anchor` you have to use it after the `positioning` syntax, but generally you can reach the same result by using the correct positioning. For instance `[below=of <node>.south east, anchor=north west]` is the same as `[below right=of <node]`:
```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw] (first) {First node};
\node[draw,
below right= of first.south east] {Why not correctly anchored?};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
```
If you want to move the node to start exactly below the east-edge of the first node you can either change the `node distance` (has to be used before the `positioning` keys):
```
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw] (first) {First node};
\node[draw, node distance=1cm and 0pt
,below right= of first.south east] {Why not correctly anchored?};
\end{tikzpicture}
```
Or you position the nodes manually (could as well use the `calc` library and the `\node at (<coordinate>)` syntax):
```
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw] (first) {First node};
\path (first.east) ++(0,-1cm)
node[draw, anchor=north west] {Why not correctly anchored?};
\end{tikzpicture}
```
