Elements of Hypertext

The elements of Hypertext consist of nodes, links, buttons, trails, navigational tools, browsers, and editors.

Nodes

Hypertext sometimes called a network of nodes. A node is a collection of data organized around a specific topic. This node is linked to another node, forming a network. Node is a fundamental unit of hypertext, although there is no agreement as to what really constitutes a node.

Links

Links are also fundamentals unit to form hypertext. Links are almost always anchored in at their departure point to provide users with some explicit object to activate in order to follow the link. The destination point is reached by activating the anchor.

Buttons

Button is a visual cue in a node that alerts a user that a link is exists. In other words, button is a visual representative of a link in a node. By clicking or pressing button, the user is activating the link.

Editor

Editor is used in order to create a hypertext page/node. Editor is part of the hypertext system that enables user to create a node and link it into the network. Sometimes editor is not included in the hypertext systems, because the system is merely a presentation-only system.

Navigational tools

Browser

Basically, a browser is a program or sub-program that can display a diagram of a network of nodes.

Maps

Maps serve to improve spatial context in a hypertext network. Map is tracking all of the documents or nodes linked to the current document which is dynamically updated.

Overview diagrams

Overview diagrams serve as navigational aids. It can provide an overall view and serve as anchors for local overview diagrams.

Trails

A trail is a record of the nodes that a user has accessed in viewing a hypertext network.

Attributes

Attributes are any information related to the component. E.g.: ownership and content type of the component.

Presentation specifications

Contain information on how the component is displayed. It may include things like the preferred number of colors to display a gif file, the size of the window to be displayed, the location of the window, etc.

Anchor

There are two properties of an anchor; they are anchor id and an anchor value. The anchor value is used to locate a part of the content of the component. It depends on the structure of particular applications, documents, or data types on how to interpret an anchor.