Automated identification and marking of new and changed content in a structured document

• US 20060047682A1
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Black, Jason E., Burnard, Keith A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,190 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A method for indicating changes in a structured document includes identifying a new topic or a modified topic in an updated version of a structured document having one or more topics, generating a table of contents having one or more topic entries associated with the one or more topics, marking a topic entry associated with the new topic or the modified topic with a marker indicating that the associated topic is new or modified. A system includes an unmarked table of contents having an entry associated with a unit of updated topic content, and a marking module marking the entry if the unit of updated topic content has changed or the unit of updated topic content comprises a new topic.

Claims

1. A method for indicating changes in a structured document comprising:

identifying a new topic in an updated version of a structured document having one or more preexisting topics;

generating a table of contents having one topic entry associated with each topic; and

marking a topic entry indicating that the topic entry is new.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising combining the table of contents with the one or more topics to create the updated version of the structured document.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining whether a modification in a topic is a relevant modification.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising classifying one or more modifications in a topic by a modification type.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising generating a difference metric associated with a modified topic.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein identifying a new topic comprises comparing an updated topic identifier with one or more base topic identifiers, the updated topic identifier identifying a topic in the one or more topics, the one or more base topic identifiers identifying one or more topics in a previous version of the structured document.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

generating an unmarked table of contents including an unmarked topic entry associated with each topic;

generating a set of one or more updated topic identifiers, each updated topic identifier being uniquely associated with a topic in the updated version of the structured document;

associating each of the unmarked topic entries with each of the one or more updated topic identifiers.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein identifying a modified topic comprises:

identifying an updated topic that corresponds to a base topic in a previous version of the structured document, the updated topic being one of the topics in the updated version of the structured document;

comparing the updated topic with the base topic.

9. A method as recited in claim 8 further comprising:

identifying a modification in the updated topic;

counting the modification to generate a difference metric representing a degree of difference between the updated topic and the base topic.

10. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a process comprising:

generating a table of contents associated with an updated version of a structured document, the table of contents having one entry associated with each unit of content in the updated version of the structured document; and

marking a first entry in the table of contents if the unit of content associated with the first entry has been modified a predetermined degree from a previous version of the content.

11. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10 wherein the process further comprises:

determining that the unit of content in the updated version of the structured document and a related unit of content in a previous version of the structured documents are associated with the same entry;

comparing the unit of content in the updated version with the related unit of content in the previous version to determine whether the unit of content in the updated version has been modified with respect to the related unit of content.

12. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11 wherein the determining comprises:

accessing a base topic set having a topic identifier associated with each unit of content in the previous version of the structured document;

accessing an updated topic set having a topic identifier associated with each unit of content in the updated version of the structured document;

identifying a topic identifier in the updated topic set that corresponds to a topic identifier in the base topic set.

13. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10 wherein the generating comprises generating an unmarked table of contents associated with the updated version of the structured document.

14. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10 wherein the process further comprises combining the table of contents with the one or more units of content to generate the updated version of the structured document.

15. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10 further comprising marking a second entry in the table of contents if the unit of content associated with the second entry is a new unit of content with respect to a previous version of the structured document.

16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 10 wherein marking the first entry comprises displaying a symbol near the first entry, the symbol indicating that the associated unit of content has been modified.

17. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15 wherein marking the second entry comprises displaying a symbol near the second entry, the symbol indicating that the associated unit of content is new.

18. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15 wherein marking the first entry and the second entry comprises presenting a symbol near each of the first entry and the second entry, the symbol indicating that the units of content associated with the first entry and the second are either new or modified.

19. A system comprising:

one or more units of content included in an updated version of a structured document;

a table of contents having an entry associated with each unit of content;

means for identifying a unit of content not included in a previous version of the structured document; and

means for marking an entry in the table of contents indicating that the unit of topic content associated with the entry is updated content.

20. A system as recited in claim 19 wherein the means for identifying comprises a new topic identification module generating a list of new topics.

21. A system as recited in claim 20 wherein the means for marking comprises a table of contents marking module receiving the list of new topics and marking associated entries in the table of contents.