HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 2.10
Skip ahead or
back.
Combination of Linear and Hierarchical
A popular form of document organization on the Web is a combination of a linear struc-
ture and a hierarchical one, as shown in Figure 2.11. This structure occurs most often
when documents that are both linear and structured are published online. This approach
is often seen with reference manuals on the Web. Pages include links to the next and pre-
vious sections for readers who are moving linearly through the manual, and links up
through the document's hierarchy, represented by the table of contents, are included, too.
FIGURE 2.11
Combination of lin-
ear and hierarchi-
cal organization.
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The combination of linear and hierarchical documents works well as long as you have
appropriate clues regarding context. Because the visitors can either move up and down or
forward and backward, they can easily lose their mental positioning in the hierarchy
when crossing hierarchical boundaries by moving forward or backward.
Suppose that you're putting the Shakespeare play
Macbeth
online as a set of web pages.
In addition to the simple linear structure that the play provides, you can create a
