Apparatus for and method of fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing of an entire microscope sample using a computer controlled microscope slide scanner for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample into a single contiguous digital image. The method provides for statically displaying sub-regions of this large digital image at different magnifications, together with a reduced magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The method also provides for dynamically displaying portions of the contiguous digital image. In one preferred embodiment all elements of the scanner are in single-enclosure with a primary connection to the Internet or to a local intranet. In this embodiment, the preferred sample type is a microscope slide with illumination and imaging optics consistent with transmission mode optics for diffraction-limited digital imaging.