To the monks of the Middle Ages, who started to write additional information in the margins of their elaborately illustrated manuscripts, it was called "glossing." To the journalists of this century, it's called a "sidebar."

Whatever you may call it, it's still the same thing: a dead issue.

Hypertext makes sidebars a thing of the past. By placing expanded information on another page and making a link to it within the main article, you no longer have to clutter the page with information a reader may or may not be interested in; they can choose to read the subpage, or not. The additional information is seamlessly out of sight, but not out of mind.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled article.