Method and apparatus for visually emphasizing numerical data contained within an electronic document

• US 20050177789A1
• Filed: 02/11/2004
• Published: 08/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Arayasantiparb, Athapan, Abbar, Mohamed Anas, Wang-Aryattawanich, Thiti
• Granted Patent: US 7,231,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for visually emphasizing all of the numerical data contained in an electronic document. A determination is made as to whether a request to emphasize all of the numerical data in the electronic document has been received. If such a request is received, all of the numerical data within the electronic document is located and emphasized. Emphasizing may include adding a highlighting attribute to the located numerical data or adding other formatting to visually distinguish the numerical data from the remainder of the electronic document. A request may also be received to deemphasize the located numerical data. In response to receiving such a request, the emphasis is removed from the located numerical data.

Claims

1. A method for emphasizing numerical data contained in an electronic document, the method comprising:

determining whether a request to emphasize all of the numerical data in the electronic document has been received; and

in response to receiving the request, locating all of the numerical data contained within the electronic document and emphasizing the located numerical data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document comprises both text data and numerical data and wherein the request comprises a request to emphasize only the numerical data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the numerical data comprises numerals and numerals expressed as text data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the numerical data may be expressed in any of a plurality of natural languages.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the numerals expressed as text data may comprise string numbers, ordinal numbers, or roman numerals.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein emphasizing only the numerical data comprises adding a highlighting attribute to the located numerical data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the highlighting attribute comprises a color attribute.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a unique color attribute may be specified for each of the string numbers, the ordinal numbers, and the roman numerals.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a request to deemphasize the located numerical data; and

in response to receiving the request, removing the emphasis from the located numerical data.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, will cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

11. A computer-controlled apparatus capable of performing the method of claim 1.

12. A system for emphasizing numerical data contained in an electronic document containing both text data and numerical data, the system comprising:

a word processing application program operative to permit the editing of the text data and the numerical data within the electronic document; and

a dynamically linked library configured for use with the word processing application program, the dynamically linked library operative to receive a request to emphasize all of the numerical data in the electronic document and to locate all of the numerical data contained within the electronic document and emphasize only the located numerical data in response to receiving the request.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the numerical data comprises numerals and numerals expressed as text data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the text data and the numerical data may be expressed in any of a plurality of natural languages.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the numerals expressed as text data may comprise string numbers, ordinal numbers, or roman numerals.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein emphasizing only the numerical data comprises adding a highlighting attribute within the electronic document to the located numerical data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the highlighting attribute comprises a color attribute.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the dynamically linked library is further operative to allow a unique color attribute may to specified for each of the string numbers, the ordinal numbers, and the roman numerals.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the dynamically linked library is further operative to receive a request to deemphasize the located numerical data and, in response to receiving the request, to remove the emphasis from the located numerical data.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein removing the emphasis from the located numerical data comprises removing the highlighting attribute from the located numerical data.