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2.2 - Large Documents
Keeping a large document such as a book in one node will increase the time it takes to retrieve the node over the network. It is generally better to split large documents into a number of smaller nodes. Many documents are written with the expectation that the reader will start at the beginning and read through until the end. If the document is split into a number of nodes, the intended sequence is known as a path. HTML+ provides a means for authors to specify such paths either explicitly via declarations at the beginning of the node or implicitly according to the context in which a given node is reached. Another possibility is for servers to send such information independently, e.g. as MIME message headers.
You can provide navigation links for readers which appear as buttons on a toolbar or as entries in a navigation menu. For works using a lot of technical terms or perhaps in an unfamiliar language, you can provide glossaries offering further explanation. Readers can invoke this by double clicking on words, or by drag selection and clicking the Glossary menu item. You can also provide a search field that is always present (and can't be scrolled away), in which readers can enter one or more keywords to search an index. These facilities can be specified explicitly using the LINK element. Implicit links allow you to define the table of contents (toc) as an HTML+ document without needing to place links to the toc in every subdocument. The link back to the toc is implied when you follow hypertext link from the toc to its subdocuments.
HTML+ Discussion Document - November 8, 1993
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