SYSTEM, METHOD, AND SOFTWARE FOR INSERTING HYPERLINKS INTO DOCUMENTS

• US 20070016848A1
• Filed: 02/06/2006
• Published: 01/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: West Publishing Corporation (The Woodbridge Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Runde, Craig, Medina, Anthony, Rosenoff, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

On the Internet, millions of documents are electronically linked via embedded hyperlinks. The hyperlinks, which function as network addresses for specific documents, can be selected by a user to “jump” electronically from a document on one computer to a document on another computer. One problem with conventional hyperlinks is that they occasionally become out dated and ineffective, as documents are deleted, for example. Accordingly, the inventors devised software that automatically locates and marks specific portions of a document and defines hyperlinks including at least a portion of the marked text. An exemplary implementation, tailored for legal citations, processes the portion of the marked text as a search term, and allows completion of hyperlinks without the necessity of including complete file addresses. This implementation also defines a portion of the hyperlinks based on the cost or time of executing the hyperlink, to reduce the cost or time of executing the hyperlink.

Claims

1. A method of automatically inserting hyperlinks into a document, comprising:

searching one or more documents for content matching predefined forms;

marking one or more portions of one or more of the documents based on results of searching the one or more documents;

generating one or more hyperlinks, with each hyperlink including at least a portion of the content of the one or more marked portions of the documents.

2. (canceled)

3. A computer system comprising:

means for searching one or more documents for content matching predefined forms;

means for marking one or more portions of one or more of the documents based on results of searching the one or more documents;

means for generating one or more hyperlinks, with each hyperlink including at least a portion of the content of the one or more marked portions of the documents.

4. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, with the memory storing;

a first set of instructions for searching one or more documents for content matching predefined forms;

a second set of instructions for marking one or more portions of one or more of the documents based on results of searching the one or more documents;

a third set of instructions for generating one or more hyperlinks, with each hyperlink including at least a portion of the content of the one or more marked portions of the documents.

5. (canceled)

6. An automated method of defining hyperlinks for a document, comprising:

marking one or more portions of the document; and

defining one or more hyperlinks for one or more of the marked portions of the document, with each hyperlink including at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein each hyperlink includes a domain name common to all the hyperlinks and at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein each hyperlink includes a domain name common to all the hyperlinks and information based on a syntactic or semantic analysis of at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

7. (canceled)

10. An automated method of processing a document comprising one or more legal citations, comprising:

marking one or more portions of the document, with each portion including at least one of the legal citations;

defining one or more hyperlinks for one or more of the marked portions of the document, with each hyperlink including a domain name common to each of the hyperlinks and information based on form or content of the one legal citation in the marked portion of the document;

in response to a selection of one of the hyperlinks, connecting a first computer hosting the document to a second computer associated with the common domain name in each of the hyperlinks;

querying a user for commercial account information in response to connecting the first computer to the second computer;

verifiying the commercial account information;

in response to a positive verification of the commercial account information, searching a database associated with the second computer, based on the information based on form or content of the one legal citation in the marked portion of the document, for a document corresponding to the legal citation;

transferring at least a portion of the document corresponding to the legal citation to the first computer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each hyperlink includes at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each hyperlink includes a domain name common to all the hyperlinks and at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein each hyperlink includes a domain name common to all the hyperlinks and information based on a syntactic or semantic analysis of at least a portion of one of the marked portions of the document.

14. A method of defining a hyperlink in a computer system, comprising:

marking a portion of a first document;

identifying two or more destinations for the hyperlink; and

defining the hyperlink to point to one of the two or more destinations based on one or more predefined preferences.

15. The method claim 14 wherein retrieving one or more predefined user-preferences includes retrieving information related to one or more preferred hyperlink destinations, or information related to cost, or information related to access time;

and wherein defining the hyperlink includes defining the hyperlink to point to one of the two or more destinations includes selecting one of the destination based on the retrieved preferences.

16. A method of redirecting hyperlink that includes an error, the method comprising:

selecting an alternative domain name for the hyperlink; and

substituting the alternative domain name for that of the hyperlink.

17. A method of automatically inserting hyperlinks into a document, comprising:

searching one or more documents for specific content based on lexical, syntactical, formatting, synergetic, or heuristic combinations for specific content;

marking one or more portions of one or more of the documents based on results of searching the one or more documents;

generating one or more hyperlinks embedded within the text at the appropriate textual location, with each hyperlink having a format based on the content of the one or more marked portions of the documents;

18. A method of processing a hyperlink that includes an error (or warning indicating that content is unavailable because of errors in the URL syntax, incorrect authentication information, or the user'"'"'s content access agreement), comprising:

receiving the hyperlink;

associating a new domain name with one or more original portions of the original hyperlink; and

attempting to establish a connection rerouting the hyperlink to the other domain name.

19. A method comprising:

in response to user operation of a document-processing application having an active document in an active edit window associated with the document-processing application, automatically marking one or more citations to other legal documents that are in the active document; and

automatically inserting one or more hyperlinks into the active document, with each hyperlink having a URL that includes a domain name for an online legal research service and at least a portion of one of the marked legal citations.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the document-processing application includes at least one of a word-processing application, a spread-sheet application, and a presentation-development programs

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the document-processing application includes a version of Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein one or more of the hyperlinks further includes account information for a user.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein one or more of the hyperlinks further includes information identifying a third-party sponsor for facilitating access to a document in a database associated with the one hyperlink.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein one or more of the hyperlinks include at least one query connector.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein one or more of the hyperlinks further includes at least one search instruction.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the hyperlink identifies one of a natural-language search method and a boolean search method.