A writing and reading assistant system helps a user to create a structured
document and read a document. A structured document contains not only
information as an ordinary document does but also properties and rules
for holding, organizing and processing corresponding portions of
information. The system helps the user as an author to search for
information, generate, organize, examine, and modify ideas, to supply
details, to examine one's writing from various aspects, to revise the
writing, to specify information and access methods suitable for different
audience, and to create a structured document. Further, the system helps
the user as a reader to create and modify structures, define and modify
properties and rules, and define and specify display forms, to associate
text blocks with corresponding properties and rules, to extract
information from an input document, to fill structures with corresponding
information, to build various links among structures and display forms,
and to display structures.