The Functionality of Tinker & Bell Keys in "In Small & Large Pieces"
On the Web, links are commonly marked as underlined or colored portions of text. Before the Web such visual link labeling was not possible. Macintosh computers did not support color until Macintosh System Software 7.x in 1991. Only a specific key combination was able to trigger link highlighting. One of these methods, a combination of Cmd + Option keys, known in hypertext lore as Tinkle and Bell keys, was widely used in hypertext fiction. In Kathryn Cramer’s In Small and Large Piecesthe Tinkle and Bell keys method is extended to highlight (hot key) not only text but also images.
To proceed with the reading and discover more portions of the story, readers need to activate hotlink areas marked on illustrations. In line with events in the story, where the shattering of a mirror serves as a major event and organizing metaphor, the links on illustrations are marked along an organic, unordered pattern, just as small and large pieces of glass would scatter