An Object-Based Taxonomy for Abstract Structure in Document Models

A document preparation system is characterised not only by the features included in its implementation but also by what is implemented. In this report, we focus on describing the document's representation, as visible to the author - the user of a document preparation system. The characterisation for paper-based documents subdivides the document's representation into a set of interacting structures — a primary structure that describes the composition of primitive objects into higher-level objects, secondary structures that describes the relationships among objects in the document, and auxiliary structures that represent sources or sinks of information outside of the document itself. Current document preparation systems are examined, from the viewpoint of their representation, and extension to hypertext is considered.