A system and method for displaying layered data, such as data with a hierarchical relationship is provided. A flat tree view control is provided that indicates the level corresponding to individual data items without indenting data items. Colors or grayscale shading is applied to each data item to indicate the item's level within the hierarchy. Items within the same level use the same color or shading. When an item is selected by the user it is expanded or collapsed depending on whether the layers below the selected item already appear on the display screen. Additional level indicator values and level indicator bars can be used to further indicate the level of data items. A data item can also be highlighted to indicate a particular attribute corresponding with an individual data item.