COMMENT PRESENTATION IN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20140033015A1
• Filed: 05/12/2008
• Published: 01/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaver, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,943 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/233
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to present a comment object in an electronic document, receive an indication that the comment object is selected, determine content in the electronic document that corresponds with the selected comment object, and apply a mask to obscure portions of the content that do not correspond to the comment object. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting a comment object in an electronic document;

receiving an indication that the comment object is being edited;

determining content in the electronic document that corresponds with the comment object being edited based on information contained by a reference specification field of the comment object that refers to the content that corresponds with the comment object; and

when the comment object is being edited, applying a mask to the electronic document that obscures content that does not correspond to the comment object being edited.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein applying the mask comprises:

shading content in the electronic document that does not correspond to the comment object being edited.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an author associated with the comment object being edited; and

highlighting a graphical user interface element representing the author'"'"'s identity.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the mask comprises a translucent mask.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the electronic document using an online web application.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication that the comment object is being edited includes receiving an indication that a new comment is being created.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication that the comment object is being edited includes receiving an indication that an existing comment is being revised.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the information contained by the reference specification field includes numeric identification information that identifies discrete portions of the electronic document associated with the content that corresponds with the comment object.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the information contained by the reference specification field includes numeric identification information that identifies discrete portions of the electronic document associated with the content that corresponds with the comment object and context information that identifies text within the content that corresponds with the comment object.

2-3. -3. (canceled)

5. (canceled)

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

presenting, in an online web application, a first user comment in an electronic document;

receiving an indication that the first user comment is being edited; and

determining content in the electronic document that corresponds with the first user comment being edited based on information contained by a reference specification field of the comment object that refers to the content that corresponds with the comment object; and

applying a mask to the electronic document that obscures content that does not correspond to first user comment being edited.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions, which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving an indication that a second user comment is being edited;

determining content in the electronic document that corresponds with the second user comment being edited;

unmasking the content that does not correspond to the first user comment being edited; and

applying a mask to the electronic document that obscures content that does not correspond to the second user comment being edited.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first user comment is associated with a first color scheme and the second user comment is associated with a second color scheme.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions, which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

determining an author associated with the first user comment; and

presenting an avatar of an author associated with the first user comment.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein presenting the avatar of the author associated with the first user comment comprises using a selected one of several available color schemes to highlight the avatar of the author and the first user comment.

12. (canceled)

15. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a graphical user interface module, coupled to the processor, and configured to;

present a comment object in an electronic document;

receive an indication that the comment object is being edited;

determine content in the electronic document that corresponds with the comment object being edited based on information contained by a reference specification field of the comment object that refers to the content that corresponds with the comment object; and

when the comment object is being edited, apply a mask to the electronic document that obscures content that does not correspond to the comment object being edited.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface module is further configured to determine a color scheme that corresponds to the comment, wherein the color scheme is based on at least one of a user or a user type.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the graphical user interface module is further configured to use the color scheme to emphasize the content associated with the comment.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the graphical user interface module is further configured to use the color scheme to emphasize a user interface element depicting the author of the comment.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the electronic document is presented in an online web application.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface module is further configured to mask the content using a translucent mask.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the translucent mask has a configurable level of translucency.