Abstract: A message originator is presented with a tree of phrase choices organized from broad to specific categories, with the selections in more specific categories directed by the originator's selections in the broader categories. In a specific embodiment, the selections relate to a patient's medical condition and observations of a health care provider, with broader categories indicating general body systems and narrower categories indicating specific items, including values for properties of an item described by other selections on the path. The text of the message is also presented to the originator, who can then edit the message as text. The text is derivable from the tree structure selections, or path, taken from the originator and the interspersed free form text. At any time in an editing process, or a viewing process after the message has been fixed, an editor or viewer can reselect the path on the tree which generated the text.