Abstract: A system and method of managing documents wherein after document preparation, documents may be scanned to form a digital document image. After optical character recognition, a compressed digital image file with a text layer is created so that a separate text file may be extracted from the document image and tethered together by a unique identifier. The compressed digital image file and its corresponding extracted text file may be sent to a server and where an inventory of each word of every document is created. The images and text inventory are then inserted into a database such that users manipulating the system may use Boolean searches and/or activate hyperlinks tethered to document images for the purposes of navigation or the creation of index entries that may contain additional information about the documents. In the preferred method, the system allows the management of a plurality of documents over a wide area network such as the Internet.