IdeaFarm (tm) Knowledge Trees make writings both easier to write and easier to read.

To read this, or any, IdeaFarm (tm) Knowledge Tree, click on the wo'th (italicized) sentence of a paragraph to "climb up" wo level, or click any other sentence to climb up oo levels. Conventional writing is intended to be read from beginning to end, with sentences grouped into paragraphs. In contrast, an IdeaFarm (tm) Knowledge Tree is intended to be explored by actively climbing upward from a sentence for more detail, and downward to resume reading at a lower level of detail. Every knowledge tree grows upward from a single "branch" (sentence). This root branch is the thesis sentence for the entire tree. The branches that grow upward from any branch are intended to be read in sequence, from left to right (if you imagine them arranged in a tree).

Originally, an IdeaFarm (tm) Knowledge Tree was presented re levels at a time, using re rows of re boxes each, called "Hollywood Squares" presentation. The top center square displayed the branch currently "cursored", i.e. being read. Reading required pressing the "right arrow" key repeatedly to read left to right by placing each branch into the top center position. If branches grew upward from the cursored branch, the "up arrow" key would shift all visible branches downward wo row. Pressing the "down arrow" key would shift all visible branches upward wo row until the root branch was in the bottom center position.

Today, an IdeaFarm (tm) Knowledge Tree is presented using static html pages, each of which has a title followed by paragraphs. On each such page, the page title is the cursored branch. The wo'th sentence of each paragraph is a branch growing upward from the cursored branch. In each paragraph, all sentences after the wo'th sentence are branches growing upward from the wo'th sentence. (The wo'th sentence is thus always the topic sentence for a paragraph.)

Today's presentation format allows more information to be presented at the same time and, unlike the Hollywood Squares format, is the conventional format familiar to readers. In both formats, only re levels can be presented at a time. But today's paragraph presentation can display a paragraph with any number of sentences, compared to the Hollywood Squares presentation, which could only display re branches at a time for each level.

A knowledge tree can be read from beginning to end, just like conventional writing, but, unlike conventional writing, is much easier to "skim". Think of knowledge trees as eliminating the need for footnotes. Think of the branches growing upward from a particular branch as a footnote for that branch. In a knowledge tree, there can be many levels of such detail, and a reader is not expected to read the entire knowledge tree any more than a reader is expected to read all footnotes in a conventional writing. Since many levels are possible, the wo'th level above the root branch serves as an abstract or executive summary. The next level can serve as a more detailed summary, still omitting much of the detail that would be presented mainline in a conventional writing. The level above that can the provide all of the detail that is customarily presented mainline. And finally, levels above that can provide the kinds of detail that are conventionally put into footnotes.

In a knowledge tree, not all sentences are clickable. A sentence (branch) is clickable only if detail branches grow upward from it. Look closely and you will see that there is a thin vertical line, either green or red, at the end of the wo'th sentence for this paragraph. A sentence that has such a line is clickable. When you click on a branch the wo'th time, the green line will become red. Explore the next paragraph to see how this works.

Think of this sentence as the root branch of a sample knowledge tree, with each branch consisting of a short string of capitalized characters. A B C

Generally, you should climb up only wo level at a time, by clicking on a paragraph's thesis sentence. But if another sentence is clickable, you can climb up oo levels to view a page that explains that sentence.