Definition of "Web Document" We use a very general definition for Web Documents: Basically, hypertext like the World Wide Web or on-line Help files, but not any specific style.
Last modified: 4/8/98
Multiple linked pages
It is important to understand the meaning of Web Documents used on this site: Web Documents are a collection of linked individual pages, each with optional scrolling and non-scrolling areas, text, and perhaps images and other media embedded.
Examples of Web Documents would be:
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Normal Windows Help files
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Many educational CD-ROM's
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Much of the World Wide Web
Another term used for these documents is "hypertext documents", though hypertext, in the academic world, also includes other features, such as conditional links, that we are not assuming in Web Documents, and has focused more on fiction and commentary.
No need to be cool
Some people think of Web Documents as including the "cool" style of some of the popular Web sites. We are not restricting ourselves to that style. In fact, most business documents would be made less useful if they were written in that "cool" style. Just as not all radio transmission is commercial radio with its deep voices or exciting banter (there is cellular radio, wireless phones, police radio, etc.), not all linked pages are Disney.com or Wired.com.
Not single page, linear documents in HTML
Some people think of Web Documents as normal word processor output converted to HTML (or left in native format) and accessible on the Web. These are linear documents on the Web, not Web Documents in this definition. They are single pages from a Web viewpoint, even if, when printed, they take up more than one printed piece of paper. Web Documents are themselves a web of pages (pages in the HTML sense). Some people call Web Documents "Web Site Views", or "Site-lets", or just "Web Sites".
