Abstract: A method for accessing and using stored electronic documents. The stored documents are presented to the user in a manner which visually simulates document types that most users are familiar with, such as books. Each page of the document is divided into frames. Both the individual pages and the frames comprising them are ranked based on locational, representational and logical attributes. These rankings are called herein semantic hints. The user determines the review speed of the document, and that review speed in turn determines which frames and pages will be moved from memory into cache at any particular time, as well as determining which of the pages and frames will be either fully or partially rendered on the display.