GUI Document Management System

• US 20130205246A1
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Donald Richard Schmidt
• Original Assignee: Donald Richard Schmidt
• Inventors: Schmidt, Donald Richard
• Granted Patent: US 9,588,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/781
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces

Abstract

This invention, a system for managing GUI documents, uses a set of graphical elements provided with computers having a graphical user interface operating system as presentation elements out of which can be made in a truly wysiwyg (what-you-wee-is-what-you-get) interface, multiple single page multimedia documents for presenting digital images, video, animations, graphics, audio, and text in different font faces, styles, and colors and implements functional equivalents of the HTML href (hyperlink) elements. A GUI document management system can be the centerpiece around which a wide variety of computer software applications can be made including collaborative document development systems, training and learning management systems, and document webs comparable to the World Wide Web. When used to develop document webs on the internet, the webs developed are fully read-write, a long sought but never achieved goal of the World Wide Web. GUI documents are also easier and faster to develop than HTML documents.

Claims

1. In a computer or computing device having a graphical user interface operating system, filing system access, display monitor, keyboard and interface selection device, such as a mouse or touchpad, a graphical user interface comprising a GUI element container called a page window, a set of GUI elements called presentation elements, said page window and presentation elements for displaying GUI documents (also called pages), a variable for storing the GUI document address of a currently displayed GUI document, and a method for managing displayed GUI documents comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying an empty page window for creating a new GUI document, (b) changing properties of the page window, (c) placing one or more presentation elements in the page window, (d) changing properties of presentation elements placed in the page window, (e) saving a currently displayed GUI document to a GUI document address, (f) overwriting or replacing an existing GUI document at a GUI document address with the currently displayed GUI document, (g) deleting a currently displayed GUI document from a GUI document address, and (h) retrieving for display a GUI document created using step (e) or step (f) from a GUI document address, and (i) managing links in GUI documents.

2. The GUI documents of claim 1 comprising computer documents having two formats, a display format comprising a page window containing presentation elements, and a stored format for persisting or saving the data in a suitable storage format necessary and sufficient to recreate the GUI document in display format to a GUI document address.

3. The GUI document address as recited in claim 1 being a specification of the location of a file in an accessible filing system in which the GUI document in stored format is saved and if said file contains the stored formats of more than one GUI document, an additional identifier for uniquely distinguishing for extraction the stored format data of one GUI document from the stored format data of other GUI documents in the same file.

4. An accessible filing system as recited in claim 3 comprises the filing system of the computer or computing device as recited in claim 1, or the filing system of a computer or computing device on a Local Area Network to which the computer or computing device of claim 1 is connected, or the filing systems of server computers in a Wide Area Network, such as the internet or an intranet, to which the computer or computing device of claim 1 is connected.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (a) of displaying an empty page window comprises the steps of (a) clearing the page window of all GUI elements it contains, (b) setting the properties of the page window to a predefined set of default values, and (c) setting the variable of claim 1 to nothing to indicate that the current display in the page window does not correspond to a GUI document address.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (b) of changing the properties of the page window comprises the steps of (a) presenting the user a dialog for selecting a property to change, (b) presenting a dialog for changing the property selected in (a), and (c) setting the page window property to the value selected.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (c) of placing presentation elements in the page window comprises the steps of (a) user selection of a presentation element, (b) instantiation and placement of the element selected in (a) in the page window, (c) setting the properties of the element instantiated in (b) to predefined default values.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (d) of changing properties of presentation elements placed in the page window comprises the steps of (a) presenting the user a dialog for selecting a property to change, (b) presenting a dialog for changing the property selected in step (a), and (c) setting the property to the value selected in step (b).

9. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (e) of saving a currently displayed GUI document to a GUI document address comprises the steps of (a) providing a user interface for a user to select or input the GUI document address, (b) converting the currently displayed GUI document to the suitable stored format the data needed to recreate it, (c) saving the stored format of the GUI document to the GUI document address of step (a), and (d) storing the user input of step (a) to the variable of claim 1.

10. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (f) of overwriting or replacing an existing stored format at a GUI document address with the stored format of the currently displayed GUI document comprises the steps of (a) deleting the stored format from the GUI document address contained in the variable of claim 1, (b) converting the currently displayed GUI document to the stored format the data needed to recreate the current display, (c) saving the stored format of step (b) to the GUI document address in the variable of claim 1.

11. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (g) of deleting the stored format of the currently displayed GUI document comprises the steps of (a) deleting the stored format from the GUI document address in the variable of claim 1, (b) setting the variable of claim 1 to nothing, and (c) clearing the page window of all presentation elements and setting the page window properties to desired default values.

12. The suitable storage format as recited in claim 2 comprises all the data needed to accurately recreate a GUI document in its display format as it was designed, and said data organized or structured in compliance with the rules that each element (page window or presentation element) must be grouped with the values of each of the element'"'"'s properties that are allowed to be changed, and the page window element must be grouped with all presentation elements included in the page window, and each presentation element which can contain other presentations elements is grouped with the contained elements.

13. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (h) of retrieving for display the stored format of a GUI document created using step (e) or step (f) comprises the steps of (a) providing an interface for a user to input or select the GUI document address, (b) opening the file specified in (a), (c) retrieving the stored format, (d) converting the stored format to its corresponding display format, and (e) storing the input of step (a) to the variable of claim 1.

14. The links as recited in claim 1 each comprising all or part of a displayed presentation element or a portion of a property of a displayed presentation element visually distinguishable from other parts or portions of said presentation element or property thereof which is associated with a reference to the GUI document address of the stored format of a different page and which is also associated with a user invokable event which causes the retrieval and conversion of the stored format to the display format it represents.

15. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the step (i) of managing links comprises the steps of (a) creating a new link, (b) editing an existing link, (c) deleting an existing 110 link, and (d) invoking a link.