Abstract: A videotex decoder apparatus which, in various aspects, displays a status line to indicate when connect charges are occurring; overlays menus over displayed videotex frames with portions of the displayed frames remaining visible; provides easily called log-on procedures; retrieves remote information frames by user-specified keywords names; prints information frames in selectable different overall sizes; provides selectable different character sets for display; is table-driven; is structured to include a device independent decoder and device dependent drivers; includes a controller which feeds bytes to the decoder for decoding without regard to the protocol-dependent information content of those bytes; and uses an added frame header on stored frames to indicate the videotex protocol for decoding the frames.