Abstract
To improve the structure of complex information when it is to be presented electronically, technical communicators may turn to ideas taken from object-oriented programming to clarify and revive the structure of the material in existing documents before mounting them on-line. When an organization starts moving information onto the Web, technical communicators may go through a phase transition: as the publishing system becomes much more complex, it exhibits emergent behaviors, and it demands new attitudes, concepts, and work from the technical communicator.