This paper reports on a study that observed students creating structured hypertext documents, and how they try to convey structural information, in order to formulate tentative guidelines/principles for the design of concept mapping tools or hypertext systems with an emphasis on the representation of structural knowledge, and to formulated guidelines or principles for educational practice. Student use of hypertext and DarkStar, the hypertext authoring system used in the study, are described; concept mapping, structural information, and hypertext, and their effects on education, are discussed. A sample of 143 student-created documents were analyzed according to the structure of the whole document as it appeared on the Overview Map, as well as layout and screen design. Results indicated that: students predominantly used a hierarchical form of structuring information; students predominantly linked the same term occurring on two nodes of their document; students are acquainted with basic principles of screen design and use them to structure their documents; chunking and queuing information are popular with students; and pictures and graphics were rarely used. A figure illustrates the overview editor. Two tables present data on the distribution of hierarchical versus non-hierarchical links and organization of information on the screen. Contains 14 references. (DLS)