QUOTATIONS IN SCHOLARLY TEXT - CONVERTING EXISTING DOCUMENTS TO HYPERTEXT

A crucial issue in hypertext design is how to give the reader new capa bilities without taking any existing ones away. This paper discusses t he conversion of traditional, printed scholarly text to hypertext, foc using on the presentation of the explicit links between texts that are represented by direct quotations. It first examines how quotations ar e used by the author and the reader in traditional text. It then consi ders the conversion of scholarly text to hypertext, concentrating on h ow direct quotations should be handled. Three specific areas are exami ned: (i) what kinds of links are necessary, and what they should link together, (ii) how the linked texts should be divided into sections or nodes, and (iii) how the links and nodes should be displayed to the r eader. The paper concludes by listing some recommendations for the con version of scholarly text to hypertext.