Method and apparatus for form automatic layout

• US 20060161836A1
• Filed: 01/14/2005
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Anthony, Davydok, Dmitri, Thomson, Nicholas James, Legler, Ian Carl
• Granted Patent: US 7,581,169 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for determining the layout of a form automatically to accommodate text in the form. Under the method and apparatus, a set of parameters define the sizing and alignment of elements of the form. Sizing and positioning instructions that are separate from the sizing and alignment parameters set the sizing and positioning of elements of the form based on the sizing and alignment parameters. The instructions determine the minimum size for the form, based in part on text in the form. The difference between the minimum size for the form and a desired size for the form is then distributed across the form to size and position the elements in the form.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for aligning and positioning elements to be displayed in a form, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

sizing and alignment parameters that describe the size and alignment of elements of the form, at least one sizing parameter indicating that the size of an element should change to accommodate text associated with the element; and

sizing and positioning instructions, separate from the sizing and alignment parameters such that the sizing and alignment parameters may be modified without having access to the sizing and positioning instructions, the sizing and positioning instructions setting the size and position of elements in the form based on the sizing and alignment parameters.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the sizing and positioning instructions set the size and position of an element in the form through steps comprising:

determining a minimum size for a dimension of the form;

determining an amount of extra space for the form, the extra space representing the difference between the minimum size for the dimension of the form and a desired size for the dimension of the form; and

distributing the extra space across the form by setting the size of the dimension of at least one element so that it is larger than a minimum size for the dimension of the element.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2 wherein determining the minimum size for the dimension of the form comprises determining the minimum size for the dimension for elements in the form.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3 wherein determining the minimum size for the dimension of an element comprises:

obtaining text associated with the element;

determining the size of the text; and

using the size of the text to determine the minimum size for the dimension of the element.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 wherein using the size of the text to determine the minimum size for the dimension of the element comprises:

computing a minimum size for the element based on the size of the text;

comparing the minimum size computed from the text to a minimum size for the element designated in the sizing and alignment parameters; and

using the larger of the two minimum sizes as the minimum size for the dimension of the element.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters comprises parameters that define a grid entity, the grid entity comprising at least one row and at least one column.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further comprise parameters that designate at least one row as growable and at least one row as not growable such that the vertical size of the grid entity is changed by changing the vertical size of the rows that are growable without changing the vertical size of the rows that are not growable.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further comprise parameters that designate at least one column as growable and at least one column as not growable such that the horizontal size of the grid entity is changed by changing the horizontal size of the rows that are growable without changing the horizontal size of the rows that are not growable.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further comprise parameters that group at least two rows together such that all of the rows in a group have a same vertical dimension size.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further comprise parameters that group at least two columns together such that all of the columns in a group have a same horizontal dimension size.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further designate the position of an element within a grid entity by designating a row and column in the grid entity occupied by at least a portion of the element.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the sizing and alignment parameters further designate rows and columns spanned by the element.

13. A method of automatically adjusting the layout of a form to accommodate text associated with elements in the form, the method comprising:

determining a minimum size of the form based in part on text to be displayed in the form;

determining the difference between the minimum size of the form and a requested size for the form;

setting the size and position of elements in the form based at least in part on the difference between the minimum size of the form and the requested size for the form.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein determining a minimum size of the form comprises accessing a set of parameters that describe the alignment and relative positioning of elements in the form and using the parameters to determine the minimum size of the form.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the set of parameters comprises parameters that describe a grid entity comprising rows and columns.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the set of parameters further comprise parameters that indicate the location of an element within a grid entity.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the set of parameters further comprises parameters that indicate the rows and columns of a grid entity spanned by an element.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein determining the minimum size of the form comprises determining the minimum size of a grid entity in the form.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein determining the minimum size of a grid entity comprises determining the minimum size of an element positioned in the grid entity.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein determining the minimum size of a grid entity comprises setting the minimum size of a row in the grid entity so that it is equal to the minimum size of the largest element that is positioned in the row and that does not span other rows.