AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED STYLE RULES FOR PAGE DESIGN

• US 20130067322A1
• Filed: 09/08/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Saltwell, Erik A., Schormann, Christian, Gould, Sayuri Wijaya, Salva, Ryan J., Brown, Heather T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

The automated derivation of style rules based on authored style rules. Style rules are used to apply styles to certain elements of a markup language document. Authored style rules are style rules that are created by a designer. However, the derived style rules are automatically created by evaluating an authored style rule set. Then authored style rules are displayed with derived style rules. The user interface in which the combined style rules appear may also provide interactivity such that at least one of the properties of a derived style rule is bound to a property of an authored style rule from which the property of the derived style rule was derived. In some embodiments, the derived style rules may be style rules that are helpful to the design of a document, but are not interpreted after the document is deployed.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform the following:

an act of evaluating an authored style rule set of one or more authored style rules that apply to a set of one or more markup language element types;

an act of deriving a derived style rule set of one or more style rules based on the act of evaluating the authored style rule set; and

an act of displaying at least one of the authored style rules of the authored style rule set along with at least one of the derived style rules of the derived style rule set.

2. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set is not interpretable, are ignored, or are not present to be interpreted by a browser.

3. The computer program product in accordance with claim 2, wherein the authored style rule set is interpretable by a browser.

4. The computer program product in accordance with claim 2, where the act of displaying is performed during design of a markup language document that includes at least one element of the set of one or more markup language element types.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the derived style rule set is invalidated prior to deploying the markup language document.

6. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set includes an inherited style rule set of one or my inherited style rules inherited by the set of one or more markup language element types.

7. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set includes a winning style rule set of one or my winning style rules that are each to be applied to set of one or more markup language element types after the application of style rule conflict resolution rules.

8. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set includes a code style rule set of one or my coded style rules that are set by executing code.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 8, wherein the code is script.

10. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set includes an incompatible style rule set of one or my style rules that are incompatible with a particular product.

11. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the derived style rule set includes a calculated style rule set of one or more calculated style rules that have property values that are related to an authored style rule property value through a function.

12. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions are further structured such that, when executed by the one or more processors, the computing system is further configured to perform the following:

an act of providing interactivity with the displayed style rules that include at least one of the authored style rules of the authored style rule set along with at least one of the derived style rules of the derived style rule set.

13. The computer program product in accordance with claim 12, wherein the act of providing interactivity comprises:

an act of providing a same set of style rule level interactivity functions to each of the displayed style rules.

14. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein at least one of the style rule level interactivity functions includes a style rule copy function.

15. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein at least one of the style rule level interactivity functions includes a style rule paste function.

16. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein at least one of the style rule level interactivity functions includes a style rule clear function.

17. The computer program product in accordance with claim 12, wherein at least one of the properties of the displayed one or more derived style rules are bound with at least one of the properties of the displayed one or more authored style rules, where the act of providing interactivity comprises:

an act of allowing a user to edit the bound property of the displayed derived style rule to assign the property a value; and

an act of causing a value of the corresponding bound property of the displayed authored style rule to be assigned the value or a value that a derived value that is derived from the value.

18. The computer program product in accordance with claim 12, wherein at least one of the properties of the displayed one or more derived style rules are bound with at least one of the properties of the displayed one or more authored style rules, where the act of providing interactivity comprises:

an act of allowing a user to edit the bound property of the displayed authored style rule to assign the bound property a value; and

an act of causing a value of the corresponding bound property of the displayed derived style rule to be assigned the value or a value that is a derived value that is derived from the value.

19. A computer-implemented method for displaying a hybrid set of one or more authored style rules as well as one or more derived style rules on a display, the method comprising:

an act of executing computer-executable instructions on one or more processors of a computing system, and in response thereto, the computing system performing the following;

an act of deriving a derived style rule set of one or more style rules based on an evaluating of an authored style rule set of one or more authored style rules; and

an act of concurrently displaying on a display of the computing system at least one of the authored style rules of the authored style rule set along with at least one of the derived style rules of the derived style rule set.

20. A computer program product comprising one or more computer storage media having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to instantiate in memory the following:

a derivation component configured to

     1) evaluate an authored style rule set of one or more authored style rules that apply to a set of one or more markup language element types, and

     2) deriving a derived style rule set of one or more style rules based on the act of evaluating the authored style rule set; and

a user interface component configured to

     1) displaying at least one of the authored style rules of the authored style rule set along with at least one of the derived style rules of the derived style rule set, and

     2) providing interactivity with the displayed style rules such that at least one of the properties of a derived style rule is bound to a property of an authored style rule from which the property of the derived style rule was derived.