a teletext system in which viewer function selection is accomplished by superposing a cursor on one of the displayed function words . the teletext / videotext receiver includes a rom for storing page selection control symbols and a ram for storing symbols and related addresses corresponding to all displayed page selection symbols . the ram contents are compared with a cursor address signal to identify displayed page selection symbols that are at or near the cursor location . a page selection symbol , thus identified , is transferred from the ram to the teletext / videotext system decoder as an information selection command in response to depression of a selection key whereby a minimum number of keys provide selection of a virtually unlimited number of system commands and a user may continuously monitor the displayed text while making selections thus reducing selection entry errors . provision is made for altering the cursor position , shape and / or brightness upon a predetermined condition of proximity of the cursor with respect to a displayed system command symbol to verify the validity of the command to the user and to avoid positional ambiguities of the cursor relative to the displayed symbol .