The prefix hyper- (comes from the Greek ) and means "over" or "beyond" _ it signifies the overcoming of the old linear constraints of written text.
By "hypertext" I mean non-sequential writing, a text that branches and allows choice to the reader, best read at an interactive screen. As popularly conceived, this is a series of text chunks connected by links which offers the reader different pathways.
Hypertext such can be defined as a technique for organizing computer databases or documents to facilitate the non-sequential retrieval of information. Related pieces of information are connected by pre-established or user-created links, hyperlinks, that allow a user to follow associative trails across the database Rather than remaining static like traditional text, hypertext makes possible a dynamic organization of information through links and connections. Hypertext can be designed to perform various tasks; for instance when a user "clicks" on it or "hovers" over it, a bubble with a word definition may appear, a web page on a related subject may load, a video clip may run, or an application may open.
. The linked data may be in a text, graphic, audio, or video format, allowing for multimedia presentations; when more formats than text are linked together, the technique is often referred to as hypermedia. Hypertext applications offer a variety of tools for very rapid searches for specific information; they are particularly useful for working with voluminous amounts of text, as are found in an encyclopedia or a repair and maintenance manual. Hypertext, a term used in the discussion of computerized text, referring to the realm of electronically interlinked texts and multimedia resources now commonly found on the World Wide Web (from 1990) and on CD-ROM reference sources.
Conceptualized by Vannevar Bush (1945) and invented by Douglas Engelbart in the 1960s, hypertext is a feature of some computer programs that allows the user to select a word and receive additional information, such as a definition or related material. In Internet browsers, hypertext links (hotlinks) are usually denoted by highlighting a word or phrase with a different font or colour. Hypertext links create a branching or network structure that permits direct, unmediated jumps to related information. Hypertext has been used most successfully as an essential feature of the World Wide Web (see HTML; HTTP).