Help Document Animated Visualization

• US 20120110444A1
• Filed: 10/28/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Fan, Lin, Qingwei, Li, Jiang
• Granted Patent: US 9,524,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/256
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/157 using dictionaries or tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars

Abstract

Data for performing help document animated visualization is obtained by generating operation records from a text-based help document of an application. Each of the operation records may include data for animating an operation action that is performed on a user interface (UI) element of the application. The help document is further enhanced to include controls that load the operation records. The enhanced help documents and the operation records are distributed for use.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

generating operation records from a text-based help document of an application, each operation record including data for animating an operation action that is performed on one of a plurality of user interface (UI) elements of the application;

generating an enhanced help document based at least in part on the text-based help document by adding controls that load the operation records; and

distributing the enhanced help document and the operation records to one or more client devices.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform an act of compiling an editable text document into the text-based help document prior to the generating of the operation records.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform acts that including:

decompiling the text-based help document into an editable text document;

performing at least one of inserting, modifying, or deleting one or more text instructions in the editable text document; and

re-compiling the editable text document into a text-based help document.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform an act of integrating the operation records into the enhanced help document prior to the distributing of the enhanced help document.

5. The computer readable medium of claim of 1, wherein the generating includes parsing a text instruction in the text-based help document for a noun that corresponds to a UI element of the application and a related verb that corresponding to an operation action performed on the UI element.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, further comprising assigning an operation action to the verb using an operation mapping table that links the operation action to the verb.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the generating the operation records includes interspersing one or more cursor move action instructions with data representing the operation actions in an operation record.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the generating the operation records includes storing operation records for completing a task into a corresponding file.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the generating the operation records includes:

traversing a UI element tree of the application to obtain a hierarchic path from a main window to an UI element of the application; and

representing the UI element of the application in the operation record via a corresponding hierarchic structure that includes hierarchical strings that lead from the main window of the application to the UI element.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving an enhanced help document and at least one operation record at a client device, the at least one operation record, when activated by a control, to provide an animation of a text instruction in the enhanced help document, the at least one operation record at least including;

data that denotes a hierarchic path from a main window of an application to a user interface (UI) element of the application, and

an operation action to be performed on the UI element;

locating the UI element of the application based at least on the hierarchic path upon activation of the control in the enhanced help document;

determine the operation action to be performed on the UI element from the at least one operation record; and

performing the operation action specified in the at least one operation record on the UI element to provide the animation of the text instruction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the enhanced help document is constructed from a text-based help document by inserting the control into the text-based help document.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving includes receiving the enhanced help document and the at least one operation record during an installation of the application or a help document upgrade for the application.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the locating further includes locating two-dimensional pixel coordinates of the UI element via an application interface (API) of an operating system that is running the application.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving includes receiving a plurality of operation records that are related to the completion of a task described in the enhanced help document using a UI of the application.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one operation record further include cursor movement instructions, further comprising moving a cursor according to the cursor movement instructions before or subsequent to the performing the operation action.

16. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory that includes components that are executable by the one or more processors, the components comprising;

a parsing component to generate operation records from a text-based help document of an application, each operation record including data for animating an operation action that is performed on a user interface (UI) element of the application as described in the text-based help document;

a publishing component to modify the help document to generate an enhanced help document including a control that load the operation records; and

a replay component to play an animation of the operation actions performed on the UI element upon activation of the control in the enhanced help document.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the replay component is to play the animation by:

locating the UI element of the application based at least on a hierarchic path denoted in an operation record, the hierarchic path represented by a hierarchic structure that includes hierarchical strings that lead from a main window of the application to the UI element;

obtaining the operation action to be performed on the UI element from data in the operation record; and

performing the operation action specified in the operation record on the UI element.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a compiler component to decompile the help document into an editable text document and re-compile the editable text document into a text-based help document; and

an edit component to perform at least one of inserting, modifying, or deleting one or more text instructions in the editable text document.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the parsing component generates an operation record at least by parsing a text instruction in the text-based help document for a noun that corresponds to the UI element and a related verb that corresponding to an operation action performed on the UI element.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the parsing component generates an operation record at least by:

traversing a UI element tree of the application to obtain a hierarchic path from a main window to an UI element of the application; and

representing the UI element of the application in the operation record via a corresponding hierarchic structure that includes hierarchical strings that lead from the main window of the application to the UI element.