Closer Interface for Designing Electronic Forms and Hierarchical Schemas

• US 20070101280A1
• Filed: 12/05/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mollicone, Laurent, Lawrence, Thomas, Kotler, Matthew, Friend, Ned, Lai, Shuk-Yan, Hendel, Sharma, Paoli, Jean, Whitmarsh, Jason
• Application Number:
  US11/567,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20070101280A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/762
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A system and method that enables a designer to build electronic forms and corresponding hierarchical schemas are described. Displays of hierarchical schemas, electronic forms, and components used to build the hierarchical schemas and electronic forms are provided to the designer. The designer selects components and arranges them on a display to visually build an electronic form. As the form is built, the corresponding hierarchical schema is incrementally updated to reflect changes made to the electronic form.

Claims

1. A user interface comprising:

a component display area;

an interface to enable a designer to select a component from the component display area;

a form-design area to display the selected component on the form-design area;

a hierarchical schema display area to display a schema part corresponding to the selected component; and

a structure submenu to display options to select structural changes to the schema part.

2. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising:

a word-processing menu to display options to select stylistic changes to a label for the component.

3. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the structure submenu displays options to select structural changes to the component.

4. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising:

a component context menu to display options to select stylistic changes to the component.

5. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the designer to alter a structure of the component in the form-design area by selecting a schema part corresponding to the component.

6. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the designer to alter an appearance of the component in the form-design area.

7. The user interface of claim 1, wherein the interface enables the designer to alter a font, size, and color of the component in the form-design area.

8. The user interface of claim 1, further comprising:

a word-processing icon display to display options to select stylistic changes to the electronic form.