Hypertext: Another Step Toward the Paperless Ship

The original ideal of Paperless Ship is a clear, concise, strategy statement that mandates paper reduction and office automation on ships. Its intent is to alleviate combat units of the serious limitations imposed by paper. Nevertheless, paper eradication is not desirable per se. Rather, what is important is to develop a library of knowledge, electronically stored for shipboard use. This thesis shows how using Hypertext for information retrieval fills a gap between MIS and Decision Support for unstructured problem solving. By implementing the boiler Water Feedwater Test and Treatment Manual, Volume 1 in Hypertext using GUIDE and low-end Personal Computers, this thesis demonstrates that electronically stored documents capture efficiencies not possible in hardbound text. Whether or not Hypertext can successfully eliminate all paper is arguable, but irrelevant. This thesis demonstrates that for the user interface, Hypertext is a desirable retrieval system because it is simple, and friendly, and has a familiar look and feel.