Multi-form design with harmonic composition for dynamically aggregated documents

• US 20070079236A1
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wade, Geraldine, Salesin, David, Jacobs, Charles, Schrier, Evan
• Application Number:
  US11/343,351
• Publication Number:
  US 20070079236A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/114 Pagination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

An architecture employed to create a high quality document, which is a document that looks good given the type(s) of content to be displayed in the document and the size/dimensions of the displayed document. The architecture can utilize high level templates that broadly define layout constraints to adapt the content to multiple sizes and dimensions with a wide variety of content in a wide variety of formats. Additionally, high level descriptions of high quality documents can be translated into low level constraints for use with an AGDBL system, dramatically reducing the number of templates required by that system while at the same time increasing the functionality of the templates and the ease with which the templates can be created and maintained.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates adapting a document layout that can be displayed at multiple sizes and dimensions with a wide variety of content, comprising:

an interface that receives a template, the template is a high level description of constraints for a document layout; and

a layout engine that interprets the template and determines where to place content in order to automatically produce a high quality layout.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface that facilitates design and/or modification of the template by way of high level constraint parameters and provides for storage of the template.

3. The system of claim 2, the user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI).

4. The system of claim 1, the layout engine produces the high quality layout based upon at least one of semantic flow, brand identity, image and text correlation, and advertising themes.

5. The system of claim 1, the layout engine produces the high quality layout based upon the template, type(s) of content to be employed in the high quality layout, and display dimensions of the high quality layout.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising an output device that displays the high quality layout, the display dimensions of the high quality layout are based upon the output device.

7. The system of claim 5, the display dimensions of the high quality layout are unknown when the template is created.

8. The system of claim 5, the type(s) of content to be employed in the high quality layout is unknown when the template is created.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a low level engine that applies the content to an adaptive grid-based layout based upon low level constraints, the layout engine determines where to position the content for the high quality layout and generates the low level constraints necessary for the low level engine to produce the high quality layout.

10. The system of claim 1, the layout engine determines where to place content based upon suitable locations for the content.

11. The system of claim 1, the document layout is a multi-level document layout with a top level and a bottom level, the layout engine determines where to place content in the bottom level based upon the position of content placed in the top level.

12. The system of claim 1, the content employed in the high quality layout is aggregated from multiple sources.

13. The system of claim 1, the layout engine employs an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) to translate the content from a source format the content is received.

14. A computer implemented methodology for arranging content to create a high quality layout, comprising:

choosing a template for a document layout, the template is defined in a high level language;

determining a display size for a document;

receiving content for the document;

employing the template and the display size for determining available locations for the content;

selecting from the available locations a high quality location for the content; and

creating a high quality layout for the document by arranging the content into the high quality location.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising defining a template for a document in a high level language.

16. The method of claim 15, the display size of the document and the type of the content are unknown when the template is defined.

17. The method of claim 14, the determining available locations for the content is based at least in part upon locations of other content previously placed within the document.

18. The method of claim 14, the selecting a high quality location is based upon an algorithm, the algorithm is at least one of a best fit algorithm, a first fit algorithm and a first good fit algorithm.

19. The method of claim 14, the selecting a high quality location is based upon at least one of semantic flow, brand identity, image and text correlation, and advertising themes.

20. A computer implemented system that arranges content to create a high quality layout that can be displayed at multiple sizes and dimensions with a wide variety of content, comprising:

means for describing the constraints of a template for a document layout in a high level language;

means for determining a document display size;

means for receiving content for the document;

means for determining available locations for the content based upon the template and the display size for;

means for selecting from the available locations a high quality location for the content; and

means for producing a high quality layout for the document by placing the content into the high quality location.