An index for a retrieval of data provided is generated by at least one document is disclosed. Data is selected within the at least one document, assigning a category to the selected data, and assigning a timestamp to the selected data. The selected data, the category, the timestamp and a location indication of the selected data are stored as an entry of the index. The present invention therefore provides an effective and universally adaptive tool for contextual structuring and retrieval of data distributed over a plurality of electronic documents.