METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING THE EXAMINATION OF DOCUMENTS
First Claim
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 ofa) 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.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
123 Citations
25 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
- the content of each of said nodes is displayed in a visualization form according to the value of the display state; and
-
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. - View Dependent Claims (25)
-
Specification