ONLINE PUBLISHING TOOLS

• US 20070291297A1
• Filed: 06/14/2006
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Familylearn LLC
• Original Assignee: Familylearn LLC
• Inventors: Oster, Joseph N., Harmon, Neal S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: B42P 2261/04 Producing books by printing sheets in following order, e.g. for ordering via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Online publishing tools, which provide browser-based publishing services available through the Internet for preparing content for publication, include a preview interface which generates and displays an accurate representation of the client'"'"'s work, with proportionately correct size, font, format and positioning, as well as an edit interface which generates a less precise but editable version of the client'"'"'s work. Preview files used for displaying previews on the preview interface, and which can incorporate edits made on the edit interface, include typesetting information, positioning information, hot zones information, images of text and links to omitted content. Some preview files provide preview information for less than the client'"'"'s entire document that is being worked on. Interfaces are also used to move and modify sections of content contained in the body of the client'"'"'s work, of any size, through simple drag and drop processes implemented on elements of a corresponding table of contents.

Claims

1. In a server computing system that is in communication with at least one client system, a method for facilitating publishing services by the client system through a browser, comprising:

receiving content to be published from at least one client system;

generating a preview file of a portion of the content to be published, wherein generating the preview file includes;

typesetting a portion of the content;

generating images of text contained in said portion of the content;

identifying content data to be omitted from the portion of the content when the preview file is compiled and transmitted to said at least one client system;

generating identifiers corresponding to the content data; and

replacing the identified content data to be omitted from the preview file with the generated identifiers.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating a preview file of the portion of content further includes generating positioning information for defining proportionally accurate and respective positioning of at least the text contained in the portion of content.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein generating a preview file of the portion of content further includes generating hot zone information defining zone boundaries of hot zones to be rendered with the portion of content.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, further including an act of transmitting the preview file to said at least one client system and wherein the preview file includes at least one image of text and at least one reference to the omitted content, the positioning information and the hot zone information.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said at least one client system is in remote communication with the server through the Internet.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one client system includes at least two client systems and such that the content to be published is received from the at least two client systems.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving modifications to make to the portion of content;

modifying the portion of content; and

generating a new preview file incorporating the modifications.

8. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing the method recited in claim 1.

9. In a client computing system that is in communication with at least a server computing system, a method for facilitating publishing services by the client system through a browser, comprising:

receiving a preview file corresponding to only a limited portion of a document which has been typeset by a publishing service, wherein the preview file includes;

positioning information that defines proportionally accurate and respective positioning of at least the text contained in the preview file with respect to other document content that is accessible through the preview file, and such that when the positioning information is used to render the text and other document content the positioning of the text and other document content is displayed with a proportionately accurate representation of the document as it was typeset by a publishing service; and

rendering a display preview of the text and document content using the positioning information and with a proportionately accurate representation of the document as it was typeset by a publishing service.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting the document to the publishing service and receiving the preview file through the Internet.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the preview file further includes:

at least one image of text in a format that is uneditable by a word processor.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the preview file further includes at least one reference to content omitted from the preview file, and wherein the method further includes accessing the omitted content through the at least one reference and merging the omitted content with the at least one image of text in a proportionately accurate position with respect to the at least one image as defined by the positioning information.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the preview file further includes hot zone information for defining zone boundaries of hot zones that are associated with specific regions of content rendered in the display preview and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving user input identifying a portion of the display preview corresponding to at least some of the content rendered in the display preview;

identifying a hot zone corresponding to the identified portion of the display and said at least some content;

accessing said at least some content corresponding to the selected hot zone; and

displaying an editable version of said at least some content.

17. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing the method recited in claim 9.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the editable version of said at least some content includes text that is presented with at least a different formatting, font or relative positioning with regard to other displayed text than said at least some content is displayed by the display preview.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

submitting modifications to said at least some content to the publishing service and wherein submission of said modifications results in a new preview file being generated and made available to the client system; and

rendering a new display preview corresponding to the new preview file.

18. A method for automatically modifying content contained in a document responsive to changes made to a corresponding table of contents, comprising:

identify elements of a table of contents corresponding to content in a document;

display the table of contents;

receiving input selecting at least one element;

identify the content of the document corresponding to the selected at least one element;

receive drag and drop input moving the selected element of the table of contents from a first table of contents'"'"' location to a second table of contents'"'"' location;

move the identified corresponding document content within the document from a first document location to a second document location that corresponds to the movement of the selected element of the table of contents from a first table of contents'"'"' location to a second table of contents'"'"' location.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the method further includes modifying the formatting of the selected element after it is moved so that it has consistent formatting with other elements in the table of contents having a similar hierarchal level in the table of contents.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein movement of the selected element also causes any other elements in the table of contents that are heirarchally dependant upon the selected element to also move from the first table of contents'"'"' location to the second table of contents'"'"' location.