DESKTOP, STREAM-BASED, INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A steam-based document storage and retrieval system accepts documents that are in diverse formats and come from diverse application, automatically creates document model objects describing these documents in a consistent format and associating time stamps with the documents to automatically create a main stream in chronological order. The stream, or sub-streams meeting selected search criteria, are displayed in a variety of forms, including a receding, partly overlapping stack with aids that facilitate user interaction.