1. A system for automatically processing a textual document, comprising: means for identifying occurrences of a piece of text having a predetermined format in the textual document; means for determining a depth-of-treatment value for each piece of formatted text in the textual document, the depth-of-treatment value indicating a depth of treatment in the textual document afforded to the particular piece of formatted text; means for associating an abstract with each piece of formatted text in the textual document; and means for generating a data record containing each identified piece of formatted text from the textual document, the depth-of-treatment value and the abstract associated with each piece of formatted text in the textual document.