2. The method of claim 1 wherein the templates describe interactive dialog boxes which can be displayed on the display screen of the second computer system, the dialog boxes having one or more icons which when selected with the pointer initiate a live action in the interactive reference.
1. A method by which a first computer system automatically converts a document to an interactive reference that can be interpreted by and displayed on a second computer system having a display screen sensitive to a pointer, a processor in communication with the display screen, and a memory in communication with the processor such that at least portions of the interactive reference residing in the memory can be retrieved by interaction of the pointer with the display screen, the method comprising the following steps: separating the document into content blocks delineated by content commands within the document, some content blocks containing templates for live interaction between the pointer and the display screen and other content blocks containing text or a picture; creating page descriptions in which the content blocks are arranged on pages whose boundaries are defined by the display screen of the second computer; preparing instructions for treating pointer actions on templates displayed on the display screen; and outputting commands describing the interactive reference, the commands having a format, at least when compiled, that can be stored in the memory of the second computer system and interpreted by the processor of the second computer system.