Hypermedia document authoring

• US 20020054058A1
• Filed: 10/11/2001
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION AND FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
• Original Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION AND FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
• Inventors: Smollar, Stephen, Shimizu, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 6,964,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/748 Hypervideo linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object in the context of video distribution systems H04N21/858
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A hypermedia authoring system enables an author to generate a document using a goals outline and a presentation outline. The goals outline is generated by instantiating document prototypes. A display of the goals outline permits the author to select a prototype document from a directory of prototype documents and instantiate the selected prototype document that corresponds to a node of the goals outline. The instantiated document prototype is linked to cards in a card database. The presentation outline is displayed as Bento-boxes. Each Bento-box includes spacer objects which are defined spatially and temporally. The spacer objects may be linked to cards. The goals outline is related to the presentation outline based on commonly linked cards. The Bento-boxes may be linked to each other in a stack or hyperlinked to other Bento-boxes via anchors. A display of all the Bento-boxes of a hypermedia document shows a linkage path established by the hyperlinks between Bento-boxes/Bento-box stacks. If both the presentation outline and the goals outline are displayed, selecting a Bento-box or a node of the goals outline causes related nodes or Bento-boxes, respectively, to be highlighted. If a complete goals/presentation outline is selected, the highlighting shows a measure of completeness between the presentation outline and the goals outline. A navigation facility is also provided such as a kitchen, an office or a studio.

Claims

1. A document authoring device for a document which contains a goals outline and a presentation outline, comprising:

a user interface;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the user interface and the memory, wherein the controller links the goals outline and the presentation outline of the document together based on an input received through the user interface and data stored in the memory to at least partially author the document, and further wherein the goals outline comprises information content of the document and the presentation outline comprises appearance characteristics of the document.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes a display device, the controller displaying a goals outline display on the display device and generating the goals outline based on the input that relates to the goals outline display.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the memory contains at least one document prototype, the controller generating a logical structure of the goals outline by instantiating the document prototype selected by the input.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the memory contains a card, the controller linking the instantiated document prototype to the card selected by the input.

5. The device of claim 3, wherein the controller generates a card and links the card to the goals outline based on the input.

6. A method of authoring a document which contains a document goals outline and a document presentation outline, comprising:

storing data in a memory;

receiving an input through a user interface; and

linking the goals outline to the document presentation outline based on the input and the data to at least partially author the document, wherein the document goals outline comprises information content and the document presentation outline comprises appearance characteristics.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

displaying a goals outline display on a display device; and

generating the goals outline based on the input that relates to the goals outline display.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating a logical structure of the goals outline by instantiating a document prototype selected by the input; and

linking the instantiated document prototype to a card selected by the input.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating a card; and

linking the card to the goals outline based on the input.

10. A method of authoring a document, comprising:

storing data in a memory;

receiving inputs through a user interface;

linking a goals outline to a presentation outline based on the and the data;

receiving external information by the controller;

generating a card based on the external information; and

storing the card as data in the memory.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the generating an imported card step accepts the external information already in a desired card structure as the imported card.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the generating an imported card step translates the external information into a desired card structure.

14. The document authoring method of claim 14, wherein the meta-level display is one of a kitchen image, an office image, and a studio image.

13. A method of authoring a document, comprising:

storing data in a memory;

receiving inputs through a user interface;

linking a goals outline to a presentation outline based on the inputs and the data; and

displaying on the display device a meta-level display of the goals outline and the presentation outline.