What Makes Hypertext Effective?
Linking ability
Hypertext allows the ability to link to remote resources (text,images,etc.). Documents can reference other material from diverse sources in the addition to link to optional information. Documents can also be linked to supplemental information which may assist the user, but without cluttering up the page with content that a user might not wish to view.
Allows nonlinear format
Some topics and resources may not easily fit into a linear format of chapters. Webpage information can be accessed from a host of nonlinear access points that normally would not share association with the topic. Pages can be created on demand by computers, allowing changes to be made efficiently and quickly. Webpages are accessed remotely by users. This means that the author only needs to change the information on the server in order to have the change affect all viewers. With print media, this would be impossible.
Interactivity
Pages can provide feedback to user actions, such as changing the color of a visited link, or with other formatting languages providing drop-down menus and other embedded content. Images, sound, or interactive plug-ins are examples of non-textual based content that can be viewed on webpages through hypertext. Also, it is easier to process them into an information retrieval system or search engine.