A method for accessing a document at a client computer (102, 104), the method comprising: at the client computer, sending a first request to a server computer to open a first portion of the document, the document being stored at the server computer, the request including information that is used by the server computer to determine a size of the first portion of the document; at the client computer, receiving the first portion of the document from the server computer; at the client computer, after the first portion of the document is received from the server computer, rendering a second portion of the document on a display screen on the client computer, the second portion of the document being a subset of the first portion of the document; at the client computer, determining that more of the document is available at the server computer; at the client computer, determining that a user has scrolled to another portion of the document on a display screen at the client computer, said another portion of the document being a subset of the first portion of the document; and when the client computer determines that the user has scrolled to said another portion of the document and when the client computer determines that more of the document is available at the server computer, sending a second request to the server computer to open a third portion of the document, wherein determining at the client computer that more of the document is available at the server computer further comprises receiving a flag in a message from the server computer indicating that more of the document is available, wherein said message is the message used to send the first portion of the document from the server computer to the client computer. at the client computer, sending a first request to a server computer to open a first portion of the document, the document being stored at the server computer, the request including information that is used by the server computer to determine a size of the first portion of the document; at the client computer, receiving the first portion of the document from the server computer; at the client computer, after the first portion of the document is received from the server computer, rendering a second portion of the document on a display screen on the client computer, the second portion of the document being a subset of the first portion of the document; at the client computer, determining that more of the document is available at the server computer; at the client computer, determining that a user has scrolled to another portion of the document on a display screen at the client computer, said another portion of the document being a subset of the first portion of the document; and when the client computer determines that the user has scrolled to said another portion of the document and when the client computer determines that more of the document is available at the server computer, sending a second request to the server computer to open a third portion of the document, wherein determining at the client computer that more of the document is available at the server computer further comprises receiving a flag in a message from the server computer indicating that more of the document is available, wherein said message is the message used to send the first portion of the document from the server computer to the client computer.