In the web-ified 1990s, we've gotten used to hyperlinking-the ability to click on a highlighted word to call up other information. But in most of the text that fills your screen-word processing files, e-mail messages and such-there's not a hyperlink in sight. Two new tools aim to let you click on any word in any document and get additional information.

Software introduced last fall by Palo Alto, Calif.-based GuruNet.com makes every piece of text on your screen "alive." As long as you're logged on to the Internet, you can click on a word and within three seconds a window pops up offering a dictionary definition, brief encyclopedia entry and a list of Web links on the topic. "We think that people should be able to point at a word and say, 'tell me more,' and within three seconds get an answer," explains GuruNet founder and president Robert Rosenschein.