WHAT IS HYPERTEXT?

Hypertext allows nonlinear acquiring of information. Reading a book is the
linear acquiring of information. In reading a book you get one piece of
information after another. This is linear. In using a hypertext document
you can move quickly from a piece of information to related pieces of
information that branch from it. This is nonlinear.

An example may help clarify this. Let's say you are reading a book
about the life of George Washington and you come to a passage about the
popular music of his time. If you want to know more about that music, then
what do you do? You search elsewhere in the book. You go to other books
and other sources. You spend a lot of time which is disruptive to your
acquiring of knowledge. But if you are using a complete hypertext document
about our first president and you come to the passage on popular music,
then you are able to immediately move to information on that topic.
You may then move from the music information to information related
to it. And then perhaps move back to where you originally took off on an
informational branch.

Hypertext allows you to move along information branches and paths and lets
you customize your learning experience. Hypertext documents have been very
successful as training manuals and other teaching aids. It is claimed that
learning is faster and more efficient with hypertext than with books.