This paper describes CONTEXT, an online documentation system that runs on CDC CYBER mainframes. A tree-structured database is used to store screens of information. In addition to vertical links between the screens, horizontal links are also permitted. This gives the HELP screen authors the ability to reduce the search time needed to find topics. Screens can be accessed by traversing menus, or by keyword. The HELP screens can be created with any standard editor or word processor, so authors do not have to learn a new system of text generation. Six simple commands are all that are needed to link screens and put them in the database. Screens can also be indexed, and the index is available to users for browsing purposes. The user can enter index terms, and several algorithms are used to try to match the user pattern with stored index patterns. User commands are simple, and screen output is terminal independent.

CONTEXT offers several innovative features that should improve the quality of online HELP. For some reason, the designers found that document authors indexed online CONTEXT documents better than the hard-copy counterparts, making it easier to find things online than in the paper manuals.