Hypertext-based support system and method for device setup

An HTML file corresponding to the current selected stop is displayed by a WWW browser as a display screen 160. A link title 168 represents the preceding step; the link titles are linked with the HTML files corresponding to the preceding steps separately. A link title 170 represents the step following the current step; it is linked with an HTML file 174 corresponding to the following step. Thus, the user can select any one only from among all steps corresponding to the link titles 168 and the following step 174 and cannot skip steps following the current step to select any one of the following steps.