JOINT EDITING OF AN ON-LINE DOCUMENT

• US 20100083136A1
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: SATO, ATSUSHI, KOMINE, HIROAKI, ONO, ATSUSHI, SOBUE, TATSUYA
• Granted Patent: US 8,566,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An editing apparatus efficiently performs cooperative editing of a document. Multiple users can edit a document in parallel using the editing apparatus which includes a screen output section, an editing screen, a section for receiving, a selection input section for inputting, and an update section for reflecting the edited content selected by a selection instruction, and updating the document.

Claims

1. An editing apparatus for allowing a plurality of users to edit a document in parallel, comprising:

a screen output section for outputting to each of a plurality of terminals used by the users, an editing screen to edit the document in parallel with other said terminals;

an operation input section for receiving, from said terminals, edited content from the users input by operating said editing screen on said terminals;

a selection input section for inputting from an administrator of the document, an instruction for selecting from among said edited content from the users, edited content to be reflected in the document; and

an update section for reflecting in the document said edited content to be reflected in the document, and for updating the document.

2. The editing apparatus of claim 1, wherein said screen output section further outputs to said administrator said edited content from the users

3. The editing apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

said screen output section sends a copy of at least part of the document to said plurality of terminals to output said editing screen including said copy of at least part of the document onto said terminals; and

said operation input section receives from said terminals said edited content of editing said copy of at least part of the document by the users operating said editing screen on said terminals.

4. The editing apparatus of claim 1, wherein said screen output section outputs to said plurality of terminals, said editing screen in which edited content of a master of the document input through a selected terminal is reflected and edited content input through others of said terminals is not reflected.

5. The editing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an edited content recording section for recording a plurality of edited content received from said plurality of terminals together with timestamps, respectively;

a conference recording section for recording conference content comprising video, conversation, or chat content of a conference among the users and said administrator; and

a conference content playback section for playing back a portion of said conference content including a time of said timestamps corresponding to one of said plurality of edited contents specified by any one of the users or said administrator.

6. The editing apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the document includes a plurality of parts, and

the operation input section further receives, respectively from said plurality of terminals, identification information indicative of which of said document parts is being edited on each of said plurality of terminals; and

the editing apparatus further comprises a warning sending section for sending two or more of said plurality of terminals a warning message when determining that a same document part is being edited on said two or more of said plurality of terminals.

7. The editing apparatus of claim 6, wherein when it is determined that a same document part is being edited on said two or more of said plurality of terminals, said update section reflects a first edited content in the document in response to input of an instruction for selecting by said administrator, and a second edited content should be discarded.

8. The editing apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the document includes a plurality of document parts,

said update section reflects an edited content when said selection input section inputs said instruction for selecting an edited content of at least one of said plurality of document parts edited by one of the users; and

said screen output section updates said edited content of at least one of said plurality of document parts edited by one of the users updated by said update section, said updated content corresponding to said at least one document part on the editing screen sent to said plurality of terminals.

9. The editing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the screen output section further outputs to a terminal used by one of the users a reference screen received from a terminal used by another of the users and displays content being edited by said other of the users.

10. The editing apparatus of claim 9, wherein said screen output section outputs to said one of the users said reference screen in order to allow said one of the users to copy said content being edited by said other of the users onto said editing screen so that said one of the users can edit said content being edited by said other of the users.

11. A computer program product for causing a computer to function as an editing apparatus for allowing a plurality of users to edit a document in parallel, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, comprising:

computer usable program code configured to create a screen output section for outputting to each of a plurality of terminals used by the users, an editing screen to edit the document in parallel with other said terminals;

computer usable program code configured to create an operation input section for receiving, from said terminals, edited content from the users input by operating said editing screen on said terminals;

computer usable program code configured to create a selection input section for inputting from an administrator of the document, an instruction for selecting from among said edited content from the users, edited content to be reflected in the document; and

computer usable program code configured to create an update section for reflecting in the document said edited content to be reflected in the document, and for updating the document.

12. An editing method for causing a computer to allow a plurality of users to edit a document in parallel, the method comprising the steps of:

outputting with a screen output section to each of a plurality of terminals used by the users, an editing screen to edit the document in parallel with other said terminals;

receiving from said terminals with an operation input section edited content from the users input by operating said editing screen on said terminals;

inputting from an administrator of the document with a selection input section an instruction for selecting from among said edited content from the users, edited content to be reflected in the document; and

reflecting with an update section said edited content to be reflected in the document, and for updating the document.

13. An editing apparatus for allowing a plurality of users to edit a document in parallel, comprising:

a screen output section for sending a copy of at least part of the document to a plurality of terminals used by the plurality of users to output an editing screen including said copy in order to allow each of said plurality of terminals to edit the document in parallel with others of said terminals, and outputting, to an administrator of the document, edited content received from the plurality of users;

an operation input section for receiving from said terminals edited content input by the plurality of users operating said editing screen to edit said copy, and receiving from said terminals identification information indicative of which of said at least part of the document is being edited on each of said terminals;

a warning sending section for sending two or more of said plurality of terminals a warning message when determining that a same document part is being edited on said two or more of said plurality of terminals;

an edited content recording section for recording a plurality of edited content received from said plurality of terminals together with timestamps, respectively;

a selection input section for inputting from said administrator of the document, an instruction for selecting from among said edited content from the users, edited content to be reflected in the document;

an update section for reflecting in the document said edited content to be reflected in the document, and for updating the document;

a conference recording section for recording conference content comprising video, conversation, or chat content of a conference among the users and said administrator; and

a conference content playback section for playing back a portion of said conference content including a time of said timestamps corresponding to one of said plurality of edited contents specified by any one of the users or said administrator, wherein when it is determined that a same document part is being edited on said two or more of said plurality of terminals, said update section reflects a first edited content in the document in response to input of an instruction for selecting by said administrator, and a second edited content should be discarded.