9. An online help system, comprising: a memory storing a hierarchy of folders and files, wherein the folders respectively correspond to different topics of information that can be viewed within the help system, and HTML files at the first level of hierarchy within said folders contain metatags associated with data relating to the display of a table of contents for the respective topics to which said folders correspond; means responsive to the selection of a topic of interest for searching the files in the folder corresponding to said topic to identify files of a predetermined type; means for examining the identified files to locate said metatags; means for retrieving a stored HTML template file; means for merging data associated with the metatags into said HTML template file to thereby generate an HTML file containing data associated with the located metatags; and means for displaying a table of contents for the topic of interest in accordance with said generated file.
9. An online help system, comprising: a memory storing a hierarchy of folders and files, wherein the folders respectively correspond to different topics of information that can be viewed within the help system, and HTML files at the first level of hierarchy within said folders contain metatags associated with data relating to the display of a table of contents for the respective topics to which said folders correspond; means responsive to the selection of a topic of interest for searching the files in the folder corresponding to said topic to identify files of a predetermined type; means for examining the identified files to locate said metatags; means for retrieving a stored HTML template file; means for merging data associated with the metatags into said HTML template file to thereby generate an HTML file containing data associated with the located metatags; and means for displaying a table of contents for the topic of interest in accordance with said generated file. 10. The system of claim 9 , further including means for filtering the identified files, to select files having a predetermined designation.