26. A textual document authoring system, comprising: means for storing in storage a library of textual components and a database of marks identifying each of the components that is part of a first textual document, means for displaying in a word processor window on a display responsive to the storage the first textual document including a first plurality of the textual components, and a user interface for responding to user input by a first user to an interface of the word processor to edit the first textual document while the document is displayed by the means for displaying in the word processor window; for responding to user input by a second user to the interface of the word processor to edit a second textual document including a second plurality of the textual components, the first plurality including one or more textual components from the second plurality; for detecting when one of the textual components that belongs to both the first plurality and the second plurality is updated in one of the first and second textual documents; for prompting the user of the other of the first and second textual documents to accept or reject changes made to the one of the textual components, in response to updating of the one of the textual components; for responding to user input to the interface of the word processor to generate a second version of the first textual document that includes updated textual components; and means for responding to user input to the interface of the word processor to generate a second version of the second textual document that includes updated textual components.
26. A textual document authoring system, comprising: means for storing in storage a library of textual components and a database of marks identifying each of the components that is part of a first textual document, means for displaying in a word processor window on a display responsive to the storage the first textual document including a first plurality of the textual components, and a user interface for responding to user input by a first user to an interface of the word processor to edit the first textual document while the document is displayed by the means for displaying in the word processor window; for responding to user input by a second user to the interface of the word processor to edit a second textual document including a second plurality of the textual components, the first plurality including one or more textual components from the second plurality; for detecting when one of the textual components that belongs to both the first plurality and the second plurality is updated in one of the first and second textual documents; for prompting the user of the other of the first and second textual documents to accept or reject changes made to the one of the textual components, in response to updating of the one of the textual components; for responding to user input to the interface of the word processor to generate a second version of the first textual document that includes updated textual components; and means for responding to user input to the interface of the word processor to generate a second version of the second textual document that includes updated textual components. 40. The apparatus of claim 26 further including means for maintaining an expiration date field, and further including means for preventing textual components associated with expired dates in their date fields from being included in the documents.