Advanced modeling and browsing of technical documents

This article proposes three techniques for improving the modeling and browsing of electronic books for technical documents specified in XML. Technical documents are for two reasons prime applications for electronic books. First, electronic devices are nowadays widely used for the distribution, storage, and updating of such documents. Second, since most technical documents have rather complex semantics and structure, they might be easier to consult as electronic books with their advanced functionalities than as paper prints.The techniques proposed in this article are as follows. First, author's views are proposed as a means for grouping semantically related, yet different contents. Second, browsing style sheets are proposed for distinguishing between the semantics of hypertext links and their traversal behavior more drastically than it is the case with current XML hypertext links. Third, a tool called Reader's View is described with which a reader can annotate and restructure an electronic book while exploring it. These techniques remind of former proposals made in the hypertext community. The focus of the present proposal is the smooth integration of the proposed techniques within the existing XML/HTML world so as to exploit existing standards and tools as far as possible.