APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY HIGHLIGHTING TEXT IN AN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- at least one processor;
a memory coupled to the at least one processor;
an electronic document residing in the memory; and
an automatic document processing mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the automatic document processing mechanism processing the electronic document and automatically producing selective highlighting for at least a portion of the electronic document to enhance the comprehension of the electronic document by a human reader, the automatic document processing mechanism determining which portions of the electronic document to selectively highlight based on user preferences, the user preferences including a specification of at least one word in the electronic document that triggers highlighting of a corresponding portion of the electronic document that includes a plurality of words not listed in the user preferences.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method helps a user to determine parts of an electronic document that are of interest by allowing the user to define preferences for processing an electronic document, and by automatically highlighting one or more portions of the document according to the user preferences. Highlighting includes any way to enhance or alter the appearance of text, including bold, italics, underlining, change in font style, change in font size, change in color, change in background color, etc. The automatic highlighting of portions of the document attract the user'"'"'s eyes to that portion of the document, which helps the user to discern whether or not the highlighted portion is relevant or interesting. The preferred embodiments also include a document generator that takes an input document and generates therefrom an output document that has one or more highlighted portions that are hard-coded into the document according to the user preferences.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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at least one processor;
a memory coupled to the at least one processor;
an electronic document residing in the memory; and
an automatic document processing mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the automatic document processing mechanism processing the electronic document and automatically producing selective highlighting for at least a portion of the electronic document to enhance the comprehension of the electronic document by a human reader, the automatic document processing mechanism determining which portions of the electronic document to selectively highlight based on user preferences, the user preferences including a specification of at least one word in the electronic document that triggers highlighting of a corresponding portion of the electronic document that includes a plurality of words not listed in the user preferences. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for selectively highlighting an electronic document, the method comprising the steps of:
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(A) determining user preferences for selectively highlighting the electronic document, the user preferences including a specification of at least one word in the electronic document that triggers highlighting of a corresponding portion of the electronic document that includes a plurality of words not listed in the user preferences;
(B) reading the electronic document;
(C) processing the electronic document according to the user preferences; and
(D) selectively highlighting the corresponding portion of the electronic document according to the user preferences. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer-readable program product comprising:
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(A) an automatic document processing mechanism that processes an electronic document and automatically produces selective highlighting for at least a portion of the electronic document to enhance the comprehension of the electronic document by a human reader, the automatic document processing mechanism determining which portions of the electronic document to selectively highlight based on user preferences that include a specification of at least one word in the electronic document that triggers highlighting of a corresponding portion of the electronic document that includes a plurality of words not listed in the user preferences; and
(B) recordable media bearing the automatic document processing mechanism. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification