System and method for dynamic organization of information sets

• US 20070277101A1
• Filed: 05/24/2006
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jenkins, Jana H., Barber, Lorrie M., Moulton, Julia
• Granted Patent: US 10,380,231 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/272
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/353 into predefined classes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/38 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

An electronic pasteboard allows users to organize multiple documents in a single visual interface. After placing documents on the pasteboard, users can drag and drop portions (paragraphs, words, figures, images, graphs) from one document to another document, or create a new document combining elements from several source documents. Users can create tables or an index for grouping together individual documents, or elements of documents. Each original source document can be saved individually, with tags added related to the user defined groupings. The entire pasteboard with content from all the source documents can be saved or printed out. Likewise, selected groupings on the pasteboard can also be saved or printed out.

Claims

1. A computer implemented process for authoring documents, the computer implemented process comprising:

opening a graphical user interface for authoring documents;

opening at least one source document inside the graphical user interface;

arranging the source documents on the graphical user interface;

selecting content from a source document;

categorizing selected content into groups;

displaying the categorized content by categories on the graphical user interface; and

saving the categorized content from the source document to a target document.

2. The computer implemented process of claim 1 wherein each of the at least one source document is created by different computer applications.

3. The computer implemented process of claim 1 further comprising appending the source document with a meta tag indicating the category of the selected content.

4. The computer implemented process of claim 1 further comprising defining the status of the selected content.

5. The computer implemented process of claim 4 further comprising displaying a table with the category and status of the selected content.

6. The computer implemented process of claim 1 further comprising modifying content in a source document.

7. The computer implemented process of claim 1 further comprising modifying content in a target document.

8. The computer implemented process of claim 1 further comprising analyzing content using a set of design principles to organize and categorize information.

9. The computer implemented process of claim 8 using Darwin Information Typing Architecture for analyzing content.

10. An apparatus for authoring documents, the apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory connected to the processor;

at least one source document in the computer memory;

a graphical user interface program in the memory operable to open the source documents, arrange the source documents visually on the graphical user interface, allow users to select content from a source document, categorize the selected content, display content by category and save the categorized content to a target document.

11. A computer readable memory containing a plurality of instructions to cause a computer to open a graphical user interface for authoring documents, the plurality of instructions comprising:

a first instruction to open a graphical user interface for authoring documents;

a second instruction to open at least one source document inside the graphical user interface;

a third instruction to arrange the source documents visually on the graphical user interface;

a fourth instruction to select content from a source document;

a fifth instruction to categorize selected content into groups;

a sixth instruction to display the categorized content by categories on the graphical user interface; and

a seventh instruction to save the categorized content from the source document to a target document.