METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING THE EXAMINATION OF DOCUMENTS

• US 20080148147A1
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pado Deployment AB
• Original Assignee: Nordic River Software AB
• Inventors: POSTON, Timothy, DIXON, Mark, SHALIT, Tomer
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/34 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

The user is enabled to move smoothly between viewing an entire document in a word by word display, through views that display only elements of increasing landmark value, to an overview of the document in a single display window. A document is parsed into a hierarchy, of which each node at every level (from chapter to sentence, clause or long word) has a display state (invisible, tokenized or open) for the way it is shown as part of an expandable view of the document. The contents opted for display within a tokenized view may be prioiritized according to a system of landmark values. The view is modified by user input using an explicit data structure of nodes and states within the device controlling the display, or by structuring in another system the underlying logic of the arrangement of code that is acted upon by a web browser. The section hierarchy may be explicitly coded in the document format, or reconstructed from typographical evidence. The user may grasp the overall structure of a document, and move quickly to examine details. The display can provide a structured contextual response to a search, or a unified view of non-local changes in editing. It can be provided by the user'"'"'s local machine, by a web site maintaining the document, or by a portal via which the user accesses the document, allowing incremental download to begin with a usable overview and to avoid un-needed material. Hyperlinks can be used to embed all or part of another document, opening in a tokenized view, within a document currently displayed. Fullness of the view with which the document opens can adapt to the user'"'"'s choices, to available display space, to a search term, or to detailed specifications contained in a hyperlink.

Claims

1. A computerized method for unitary display of content of a document at user-selectable levels of detail that may vary within said document, that when run on a processor comprises the steps of

a) Identifying the content according to a hierarchy containing nodes;

b) Defining a number of visualization forms for each node;

c) Attaching a value indicating a display state to each node of said hierarchy;

d) Displaying the content of each of the nodes in a visualization form according to the value of said display state;

e) Enabling user modification of the display states, and hence of said display of content.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the visualization forms comprise an open form, a tokenized form and an invisible form.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the hierarchy is stored by mark-up within sequential storage of the document contents.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein the tokenized form is provided by mark-up within the document.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of enabling modification further comprises

a user action having a pointer cross the display of a node, in one direction changes the display state of the node in one direction, while motion in another direction changes the display state in the opposite direction.

6. A method according to claim 1, where each word and/or node is assigned a landmark value and the tokenized display state is based on the assigned landmark value of the words and/or nodes.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of enabling modification comprises arranging interactive areas on the display to be activated to control the depth of display at a currently chosen point.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of enabling a modification further comprises a user inputting a search term and the content of the document is displayed using invisible or tokenized display states for a node that does not contain a search term.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the search term is highlighted within the tokenized or open form of the deepest visible nodes that contain them.

10. A method according to claim 1, where an opening view of the document uses display states invisible or tokenized those nodes not containing a change relative to another document that has been compared to said document.

11. A method according to claim 10, where the change or changes relative to the other document are highlighted within the tokenized or open form of the deepest visible nodes that contain them.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the node comprises sections, paragraphs, sentences, and optionally some or all among lists, substructures of sentences, words, included images, animations, videos, applets, sound files and hypertext links

13. A computer program product on a digital medium that is configured to perform, when executed on a computer, the steps of:

a) Identifying the content according to a hierarchy containing nodes

b) Defining a number of visualization forms for each node;

c) Attaching a value indicating a display state to each node of said hierarchy;

d) Displaying the content of each of the nodes in a visualization form according to the value of said display state;

e) Enabling user modification of the display states, and hence of said display of content.

14. A computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the visualization forms comprise an open form, a tokenized form and an invisible form.

15. A computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the hierarchy is stored by mark-up within sequential storage of the document contents.

16. :

A computer program product according to claim 14, wherein the open form for a leaf node comprises the normal uncompressed display of the content associated with that node.

17. A computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the step of enabling modification further comprises a user action having a pointer cross the display of a node, in one direction changes the display state of the node in one direction, while motion in another direction changes the display state in the opposite direction.

18. A computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the step of enabling modification comprises arranging interactive areas on the display to be activated to control the depth of display at a currently chosen point.

19. An electronic document containing content displayed according to a hierarchy containing nodes, wherein each node has a number of defined visualization forms and a value attached to it configured to indicate a display state for each node of said hierarchy;

the content of each of said nodes is displayed in a visualization form according to the value of the display state; and

the display state of each node is arranged to be to be modified by a user.

20. An electronic document according to claim 19, wherein the visualization forms comprise an open form, a tokenized form and an invisible form.

21. An electronic document according to claim 19, wherein the display of the electronic document comprises areas arranged to change the display state when indicated by a user.

22. An electronic document according to claim 19, wherein the electronic document is displayed on a standard computer interface.

23. An electronic document according to claim 19, wherein the electronic document is displayed on a hand-held device.

24. A method for hierarchically structuring content of a document, when performed on a processor, comprising the steps of:

structuring the content as nodes in a hierarchy,

defining a display state for the nodes in the hierarchy, and

displaying the content according to the display state on a display.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein the display states comprise an open state, a tokenized state and an invisible state.