Abstract: In a computer system, a method is implemented for interactively presenting electronically encoded multi-media information. The information including marks to indicate a structure of the information. The method includes the steps of receiving the information, and converting the information to a common intermediate representation stored in a memory of a computer system in the form of a hierarchical attribute tree. The tree has a plurality of document objects, the document objects represent the information, the structure of the information, and procedures which can operate on the information. The common intermediate representation is presented using a plurality of user communication modalities according to the hierarchical attribute tree.