Methods, systems, and user interfaces for navigating hierarchical database views are provided, that support the efficient entry, review, and updating of data using a navigation display. At any point in the navigation process, the navigation display consists of buttons corresponding to nodes of hierarchical database data. Buttons form series of menu items representing nodes that lie along the path to the last node visited (the set of previously made choices) and the children of this node (the set of current choices). Other buttons act as placeholders to facilitate global movement within the database and when selected, initiate new series of menu items. Reports are generated by creating and formatting text based on data entered into the database. Other features are provided for increasing the efficiency of entering data and created reports from data in a hierarchical database views. Information is separated regarding the organization of the knowledge base and user interface from information from the data-entering step and associating the entered data items with sections used to organize information in the report.