EDITING A DOCUMENT USING A TRANSITORY EDITING SURFACE

• US 20090217158A1
• Filed: 02/25/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bailey, Eric Dana
• Granted Patent: US 8,266,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for editing a document using a transitory editing surface. A word processing program displays a document in a window. Upon detection of the placement of an insertion pointer within a paragraph of text in the document, an editing surface is created overlaying the paragraph in the window and containing the contents of the underlying paragraph. User input is monitored by the word processing program while the editing of the contents is processed by the editing surface. When editing is complete, the modified contents of the editing surface are copied into the document and the editing surface is destroyed.

Claims

1. A method for editing a document, the method comprising:

presenting the document in a window;

receiving a request to edit a portion of the document;

in response to the request, creating an editing surface overlaying the portion of the document as displayed in the window and copying the portion of the document to the editing surface;

receiving one or more changes to the portion of the document within the editing surface;

receiving a request to stop editing the portion of the document; and

in response to receiving the request, applying the one or more changes to the document and destroying the editing surface.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving a request to edit a portion of the document comprises:

detecting a placement of an insertion pointer at a position in the window and

determining the portion of the document displayed within the window at the position of the insertion pointer.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

upon determining the portion of the document displayed within the window, determining a character position within text located in the portion of the document corresponding to the position of the insertion pointer; and

upon creating the editing surface overlaying the portion of the document as displayed in the window, positioning a cursor at the character position in the text of the portion of the document within the editing surface.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the document comprises elements in a markup language rendered by a web browser in the window.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein placing the editing surface overlaying the portion of the document as displayed in the window further comprises:

determining a position and a size of the portion of the document as displayed in the window;

making the portion of the document as displayed in the window invisible; and

creating an editing surface element in the document, which, when rendered by the web browser, causes the editing surface to be displayed in the window at the position and of the size of the portion of the document.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the markup language rendered by the web browser comprises Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and the editing surface element created in the document is one of an HTML IFRAME element, an HTML DIV element, and an HTML TEXTAREA element.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving one or more changes to the portion of the document within the editing surface comprises:

receiving input within the window;

upon receiving the input, determining whether the editing surface element will process the input;

upon determining that the editing surface element will process the input,

passing the input to the editing surface element for processing, and

performing a reflow operation on the editing surface element; and

upon determining that editing surface element will not process the input,

applying the one or more changes to the document,

removing the editing surface element from the document, and

making the portion of the document as displayed in the window visible.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing a reflow operation on the editing surface element comprises:

determining whether it is necessary to reflow the editing surface element in the window; and

upon determining that it is necessary to reflow the editing surface element,

applying the one or more changes to the document,

causing the web browser to re-render the document in the window,

determining a new position and a new size of the portion of the document as displayed in the window, and

modifying the editing surface element in the document causing it to be rendered by the web browser in the window at the new position and of the new size of the portion of the document.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining whether the editing surface element will process the input comprises determining whether the input was the result of one of a letter key, a punctuation key, and a number key being pressed on a keyboard.

10. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

display a markup language document in a window generated by a web browser;

detect a placement of an insertion pointer at a position in the window;

upon detecting the placement of an insertion pointer, determine a portion of the document displayed in the window at the position of the insertion pointer;

create an editing surface overlaying the portion of the document in the window and copy the portion of the document to the editing surface;

detect input in the window;

upon detecting input in the window, determine whether the editing surface will process the input;

upon determining that the editing surface will process the input,

pass the user input to the editing surface to allow the editing surface to accept changes to the portion of the document and

perform a reflow operation of the editing surface; and

upon determining that the editing surface will not process the input,

update the portion of the document with the changes from the editing surface and

destroy the editing surface.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 10, wherein creating an editing surface overlaying the portion of the document in the window comprises:

determining a current position and size of the portion of the document as displayed in the window;

determining a character position within any text of the portion of the document corresponding to the position of the insertion pointer;

causing the portion of the document to be rendered by the web browser as invisible in the window;

adding markup language to the document to cause the web browser to render an editing surface in the window at the current position and of the current size of the portion of the document;

copying the text of the portion of the document into the editing surface; and

positioning a cursor at the character position in the text of the portion of the document within the editing surface;

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the markup language rendered by the web browser is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and the markup language added to the document to cause the web browser to render an editing surface creates one of an HTML IFRAME element, an HTML DIV element, and an HTML TEXTAREA element.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 10, wherein performing a reflow operation of the editing surface comprises:

determining if a reflow of the editing surface in the window is required; and

upon determining that a reflow is required,

updating the portion of the document in the window with the changes from the editing surface,

causing the web browser to re-render the document in the window, and

repositioning the editing surface to overlay the portion of the document in the window.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 10, wherein determining whether the editing surface will process the input comprises determining whether the input was the result of one of a letter key, a punctuation key, and a number key being pressed on a keyboard.

15. A method for providing a transitory editing surface in a word processing program executing within a web browser, the method comprising:

detecting a placement of an insertion pointer by a user within a paragraph of text of a document being edited in the word processing program;

upon detecting the placement of the insertion pointer, determining a character position of the placement of the insertion pointer within the text;

determining a current position and size of the paragraph as displayed within a page in a window generated by the web browser;

creating an editing surface on the page at the position and of the size of the paragraph as displayed within the page;

copying the text to the editing surface;

making the paragraph as displayed within the page invisible;

positioning a cursor in the editing surface at the character position of the insertion pointer;

detecting user input within the window;

upon detecting the user input, determining whether the editing surface will process the user input;

upon determining that the editing surface will process the user input,

passing the user input to the editing surface for processing,

determining whether it is necessary to reflow the editing surface, and

upon determining that it is necessary to reflow the editing surface, performing a reflow operation of the editing surface; and

upon determining that the editing surface will not process the user input,

updating the paragraph in the page with the text from the editing surface,

making the paragraph as displayed within the page visible,

destroying the editing surface, and

passing the user input to the word processing program for processing.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing a reflow operation of the editing surface comprises:

updating the paragraph in the page with the text from the editing surface;

causing the web browser to render the page in the window;

determining a new position and a new size of the paragraph as displayed within the page; and

modifying the position and the size of the editing surface in the page to be the new position and the new size of the paragraph as displayed within the page.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein creating an editing surface on the page comprises adding a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) IFRAME element to the page in the web browser.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein detecting user input within the window comprises intercepting keyboard and mouse events from the web browser.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the editing surface will process the user input comprises determining whether the user pressed one of a letter key, a punctuation key, or a number key of a keyboard.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether it is necessary to reflow the editing surface comprises determining whether the processing of the user input by the editing surface caused the text within the editing surface as rendered by the web browser on the page to exceed the size of the editing surface.