Selection of Text in an Unstructured Document

• US 20100174983A1
• Filed: 06/07/2009
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Levy, Michael Robert, Mansfield, Philip Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,855 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/126 Character encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/163 Handling of whitespace
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/413 Classification of content, e.g. text, photographs or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/414 Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a method for defining a selection of text in an unstructured document that includes a number of glyphs. The method identifies associated sets of glyphs and a reading order that specifies a flow of reading through the glyphs. The method displays the document. The method receives a start point and end point for a selection of text within the displayed document. The method defines a selection of text from the start point to the end point by using the identified sets of glyphs and intended flow of reading.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing a computer program which when executed by at least one processor defines a selection of text in a document, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving an unstructured document comprising a plurality of unassociated glyphs;

associating sets of glyphs;

identifying a reading order that specifies a flow of reading through the glyphs;

displaying the document;

receiving a start point and end point for a selection of text within the displayed document; and

defining a selection of text from the start point to the end point by using the identified sets of glyphs and intended flow of reading.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the associated sets of glyphs comprise a plurality of paragraphs and the reading order specifies a flow of reading from a first paragraph to a second paragraph that is not contiguous.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the associated sets of glyphs comprise a plurality of columns, and the start point and end point are in different columns.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the reading order specifies an order value for each column, wherein the selection of text includes all columns with order values in between the order value of the column including the start point and the order value of the column including the end point.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computer program further comprises sets of instructions for:

determining whether the start point is after the end point in the reading order;

when the start point is after the end point, switching the start point and end point for the selection so that the start point is before the end point in the reading order.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the start point and end point for the text selection are received through a click and drag selection with a cursor controller.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the start point is a location of a cursor when a cursor controller button is pressed and the end point is a location of the cursor after the cursor is moved from the start point.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the start point and end point for the text selection are received through a touchscreen gesture.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the start point is a location at which a user initially touches the touchscreen with an object and the end point is a location to which the user has dragged the object.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the object is the user'"'"'s finger.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set of instructions for identifying associated sets of glyphs and a reading order comprises a set of instructions for defining a structured document from the unstructured document, wherein the associated sets of glyphs are structural elements in the structured document.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the structured document includes a plurality of layouts, each layout comprising one or more associated sets of glyphs.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the computer program further comprises sets of instructions for:

determining whether the start point and end point are within a same layout; and

when the start point and end point are not in the same layout, defining a new end point that is in the same layout as the start point.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the set of instructions for defining a new end point comprises;

identifying a straight line from the start point to the end point; and

defining a point at which the line leaves the layout of the start point as the new end point.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for defining a selection of text comprises sets of instructions for:

determining whether the start point and end point are in the same layout; and

when the start point and end point are in different layouts, defining the selection to include all text in the layout of the start point that is after the start point in the layout.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the set of instructions for defining a selection of text further comprises a set of instructions for defining the selection to include all text in any layouts between the layout of the start point and the layout of the end point.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the unstructured document is a vector graphics document.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the unstructured document is a portable document format (PDF) document.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the selection of text is for copying and pasting into a second document, wherein the text is pasted into the second document with the reading order maintained.

20. A computer readable medium storing a computer program for execution by at least one processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

analyzing an unstructured document that comprises a plurality of primitive elements to define a structured document as a hierarchical model of the unstructured document, the structured document comprising a plurality of structural elements and a reading order through the structural elements;

displaying the document;

receiving a start point and end point for a selection of text in the document; and

selecting text in the document from the start point to the end point by using the structural elements and reading order through the structural elements.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the document is displayed on a handheld display device.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the start point is in a column of text within an article and the end point is within a call-out for the article.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for moving the end point to a column of text in the article.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the set of instructions for selecting text comprises a set of instructions for selecting all text in the columns of the article.

25. A method for defining a program for defining a selection of text in a document, the method comprising:

defining a module for receiving an unstructured document comprising a plurality of unassociated glyphs;

defining a module for associating sets of glyphs;

defining a module for identifying a reading order that specifies a flow of reading through the glyphs;

defining a module for displaying the document;

defining a module for receiving a start point and end point for a selection of text within the displayed document; and

defining a module for defining a selection of text from the start point to the end point by using the identified sets of glyphs and intended flow of reading.