Abstract: A navigational tool is disclosed for traversing information units stored in a memory of a computer system. The computer system has a monitor and a control device and operates according to a computer application program. The navigational tool has three modules. The first module independently tracks a path traversed by the computer system under the control of the application program through the memory which generates and organizes a sequence of nodes into a hierarchical representation of the path followed by the computer system through the memory. The second module displays the sequence of nodes on the monitor simultaneously with the display generated by the application program. The sequence of nodes is continuously and automatically updated as the computer system traverses the memory. The control device is used to select any one of the sequence of nodes displayed on the monitor.