Method to reformat regions with cluttered hyperlinks

• US 20020116415A1
• Filed: 02/22/2001
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dutta, Rabindranath, Ramamoorthy, Karthikeyan
• Granted Patent: US 7,496,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/516
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A method for presenting a page, having a set of links, on a data processing system is provided. The page is preprocessed to form a processed page, wherein the processed page is unpresented within the data processing system. A determination is made as to whether or not the links within the page fall within a proximity policy. Responsive to a determination that the page falls outside of the proximity policy, the page is reformatted to fall within the proximity policy. The mechanism of the present invention includes a preprocessing process and a policy structure for reformatting an electronic document page. The policy structure of the present invention allows the user to specify the appearance of the electronic document page. The policy structure as defined by the user is stored such that when the user returns to the page, the page may be displayed according to the policy structure defined by the user.

Claims

1. A method in a data processing system for presenting a page, having a set of links, on a data processing system, the method comprising:

preprocessing the page to form a processed page, wherein the processed page is unpresented within the data processing system;

determining whether the links within the page falls within a proximity policy; and

responsive to a determination that the page falls outside of the policy, reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy includes at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) tag and a cascading style sheet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximity policy includes at least one of a number of links, a spacing of links within the set of links, a font setting for the set of links, and a number of links per unit area.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy includes changing tags used to present the links.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the page comprises web page content and cascading style sheet information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the proximity policy includes a set of rules to increase accessibility of the page to visually impaired users.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a reformatted page is formed and further comprising:

presenting the reformatted page within the data processing system.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the processed page falls within the proximity policy.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the proximity policy according to a user preference.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein reformatting the page using a proximity policy to form a reformatted page includes at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) tag and a cascading style sheet.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the proximity policy includes at least one of a spacing for the set of links, a font for the set of links, a color for the set of links, a font size for the set of links, and a number of links per unit area.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the page is a web page.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy includes at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) tag and a cascading style sheet.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the proximity policy includes at least one of a number of links, a spacing of links within the set of links, a font setting for the set of links, and a number of links per unit area.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy includes changing tags used to present the links.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the page is a markup language document.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the markup language document is one of a hypertext markup language document and a extensible markup language document.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the page comprises web page content and cascading style sheet information.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the proximity policy includes a set of rules to increase accessibility of the page to visually impaired users.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein a reformatted page is formed and further comprising:

presenting means for presenting the reformatted page within the data processing system.

26. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

determining means for determining whether the processed page falls within the proximity policy.

27. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

modifying means for modifying the proximity policy according to a user preference.

30. The computer program product of claim 29, wherein reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy includes at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) tag and a cascading style sheet.

5. The method of clam 1, wherein the page is a markup language document.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the markup language document is one of a hypertext markup language document and a extensible markup language document.

12. A method in a data processing system for presenting page including a set of links, the method comprising:

receiving the page;

presenting the page in the data processing system;

responsive to a selected user input, reformatting the page using a proximity policy to form a reformatted page; and

presenting the reformatted page in the data processing system based on reformatting the page.

16. A browser program comprising:

a processor;

an input device; and

a display, wherein the processor receives the page, the processor instructs the display to present the page in the data processing system, responsive to a selected user via the input device, the processor reformats the page using a proximity policy to form a reformatted page, and the processor instructs the display to present the reformatted page in the data processing system based on reformatting the page.

17. A system in a data processing system for presenting a page, having a set of links, on a data processing system, comprising:

preprocessing means for preprocessing the page to form a processed page, wherein the processed page is unpresented within the data processing system;

determining means for determining whether the links within the page falls within a proximity policy; and

reformatting means, responsive to a determination that the page falls outside of the proximity policy, for reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy.

28. A system in a data processing system for presenting page including a set of links, the method comprising:

receiving means for receiving the page;

presenting means for presenting the page in the data processing system;

reformatting means, responsive to a selected user input, for reformatting the page using a proximity policy to form a reformatted page; and

presenting means for presenting the reformatted page in the data processing system based on reformatting the page.

29. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for presenting a page, having a set of links, on a data processing system, comprising:

instructions for preprocessing the page to form a processed page, wherein the processed page is unpresented within the data processing system;

instructions for determining whether the links within the page falls within a proximity policy; and

instructions for, responsive to a determination that the page falls outside of the proximity policy, reformatting the page to fall within the proximity policy.

31. A computer program product in a computer readable medium for presenting page including a set of links, the method comprising:

instructions for receiving the page;

instructions for presenting the page in the data processing system;

instructions for, responsive to a selected user input, reformatting the page using a proximity policy to form a reformatted page; and

instructions for presenting the reformatted page in the data processing system based on reformatting the page.