A method and a system for converting a document in a streamed manner, for more rapid transmission and display of each part of the document as that part is converted. The system and method are preferred for operation in environments with limited bandwidth and/or display capacity, such as for wireless handheld devices, for example. Such devices cannot easily receive large amounts of data, and also typically have relatively small display screens. Thus, the user is able to quickly receive and display each part of the document after being converted, rather than waiting for the entire document to be converted and then transmitted before any part is displayed. The system and method are particularly useful for modular file formats, such as word processing document file formats, in which each module of a file can only be fully interpreted with regard to at least one other module.