Electronic magazine which is distributed electronically from a publisher to multiple subscribers

• US 5,819,032 A
• Filed: 05/15/1996
• Issued: 10/06/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kronby, Miles, de Vries, Pierre, Woolf, Suze
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Assovad, Patrick
• Application Number:
  US08/644,967
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• Field of Search: 395/200.8, 395/200.3, 395/200.47, 345/326, 345/329, 345/333, 345/334, 345/347, 345/348, 345/349, 345/350, 345/351, 345/352
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An electronic magazine is distributed electronically over a network (e.g., Internet) from a publisher to multiple subscribers. In an initial timeline navigation screen depicted on the subscriber'"'"'s computer display, articles are graphically represented in a graphical user interface as article boxes overlaid on a background. A marker is added to the article boxes to indicate that comments to the underlying article have been published as part of the magazine. To view the various comments for a particular article, the subscriber activates the article box to launch a second screen which includes the selected article box positioned prominently, and one or more graphical comment boxes indicative of the commentaries surrounding the article box. This second screen thereby provides a message thread of articles and related commentaries. An alternative approach to building a message thread is to launch a pop-up graphical list window from activation of the selected article which lists related commentaries. To submit a commentary on an article, the subscriber locates a file containing a previously drafted comment and drags a file icon representing the comment file to a submission target on the magazine'"'"'s graphical user interface. The subscriber drops the file icon on the submission target which causes the computer to automatically send the comment file, along with identification of the article to which the comment relates, over the network to the publisher. The publisher can then review the commentary and at their discretion, add the commentary to the magazine or discard it. A time line showing the temporal relationship of when articles and commentaries are published within a publishing period is also provided as part of the graphical user interface. As an indicator is moved along the time line, the graphical article boxes are added to or removed from the screen to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

Claims

1. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for submitting a comment relating to an article which appears in the electronic magazine, the article being represented as part of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the method comprising the following steps:

locating a file containing the comment, the file having an associated file icon;

dragging the file icon to a submission target on the graphical user interface, the submission target being associated with the article;

dropping the file icon on the submission target;

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher without user intervention; and

sending identification of the article to which the comment in the file relates along with the file to the publisher.

2. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for submitting a comment relating to an article which appears in the electronic magazine, the article being presented as a graphical article box in the graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the method comprising the following steps:

locating a file containing the comment, the file having an associated file icon;

dragging the file icon to the article box;

dropping the file icon on the article box; and

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher without user intervention.

3. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for submitting a comment relating to an article which appears in the electronic magazine, the article being presented as a graphical article box in the graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the method the following steps:

locating a file containing the comment, the file having an associated file icon;

activating a portion of the article box to launch a pop-up list window listing any comment files that contain comments related to the article, the pop-up list window containing a submission target;

dragging the file icon to the submission target on the list window;

dropping the file icon on the submission target; and

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher without user intervention.

4. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for submitting a comment relating to an article which appears in the electronic magazine, the article being represented as part of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the graphical user interface being supplied as part of an application supporting the electronic magazine, the method comprising the following steps:

preparing a file containing the comment using an authoring tool unrelated to and separate from the electronic magazine application, the file having an associated file icon;

dragging the file icon to a submission target on the graphical user interface, the submission target being associated with the article;

dropping the file icon on the submission target; and

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher without user intervention.

5. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for presenting a message thread of articles which appear in the electronic magazine and comments related to the articles, the method comprising the following steps:

graphically presenting an article box indicative of a magazine article as part of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display; and

activating the article box to launch a pop-up graphical list window containing a list of comments related to the magazine article.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising the step of depicting a marker on the article box to indicate that the magazine article represented by the article box has at least one related comment.

7. A method as recited in claim 5 wherein the magazine is distributed electronically from the publisher to the subscriber, and further comprising the step of submitting an additional comment to the article by performing the following steps:

locating a file icon representing a file containing the comment;

dragging the file icon to a submission target on the list window;

dropping the file icon on the submission target; and

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher.

8. A computer having a display and being programmed to execute an electronic magazine program in which an electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by the electronic magazine program to perform the following steps:

graphically presenting on the display an article box indicative of a magazine article as part of a graphical user interface; and

activating the article box to launch a pop-up graphical list window containing a list of comments related to the magazine article.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for supporting an electronic magazine and enabling submission of a comment relating to an article that appears in the electronic magazine, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

computer-executable instructions for graphically presenting on a display an article box indicative of the magazine article as part of a graphical user interface; and

computer-executable instructions for activating the article box to launch a pop-up graphical list window containing a list of comments related to the magazine article.

10. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method for presenting a message thread of articles which appear in the electronic magazine and comments related to the articles, the method comprising the following steps:

graphically presenting an article box indicative of a magazine article as part of a first screen to a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display;

activating the article box to launch a second screen in the graphical user interface; and

graphically presenting the article box and at least one comment box indicative of a comment related to the magazine article in the second screen.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising the step of locating the article box prominently in the second screen and the comment box about the article box.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising the step of depicting a marker on the article box in the first screen to indicate that the magazine article represented by the article box has at least one related comment.

13. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein the magazine is distributed electronically from the publisher to the subscriber, and further comprising the step of submitting an additional comment to the article by performing the following steps:

locating a file icon representing a file containing the comment;

dragging the file icon to a submission target on the article box;

dropping the file icon on the submission target; and

sending the file corresponding to the dropped file icon over a back channel from the subscriber to the publisher.

14. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein multiple comment boxes are presented with the article box, and further comprising the following steps:

presenting a time line on the second screen, the time line representing a publishing period for the magazine; and

sliding an indicator along the time line to add and remove ones of the comment boxes from the screen to demonstrate which comments were published at which times within the publishing period.

15. A computer having a display and being programmed to execute an electronic magazine program in which an electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by the electronic magazine program to perform the following steps:

graphically presenting an article box indicative of a magazine article as part of a first screen to a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display;

activating the article box to launch a second screen in the graphical user interface; and

graphically presenting the article box and at least one comment box indicative of a comment related to the magazine article in the second screen.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for supporting an electronic magazine and enabling submission of a comment relating to an article that appears in the electronic magazine, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

computer-executable instructions for graphically presenting an article box indicative of a magazine article as part of a first screen to a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display;

computer-executable instructions for activating the article box to launch a second screen in the graphical user interface; and

computer-executable instructions for graphically presenting the article box and at least one comment box indicative of a comment related to the magazine article in the second screen.

17. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method comprising the following steps:

graphically presenting one or more article boxes indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the magazine articles being published at different times throughout a publishing period; and

relating time within the publishing period to the article boxes so that when the user manipulates the graphical user interface to selectively identify different times within the publishing period, ones of the article boxes are added and removed from the screen to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

18. In an electronic magazine that is distributed electronically from a publisher to a subscriber, a method comprising the following steps:

graphically presenting one or more article boxes indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on a display, the magazine articles being published at different times throughout a publishing period;

presenting a time line as part of the screen of the graphical user interface, the time line encompassing the publishing period;

presenting an indicator which the subscriber can slide along the time line to identify different times within the publishing period; and

adding and removing ones of the article boxes from the screen as the indicator is slid along the time line to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising the following steps:

sliding the indicator in a direction which corresponds to moving from a beginning of the publishing period toward an end of the publishing period; and

adding article boxes to the screen as the indicator is slid.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising the following steps:

sliding the indicator in a direction which corresponds to moving from an end of the publishing period toward a beginning of the publishing period; and

removing article boxes from the screen as the indicator is slid.

21. A computer having a display and being programmed to execute an electronic magazine program in which an electronic magazine is distributed electronically from a publisher to the computer, the computer being directed by the electronic magazine program to perform the following steps:

graphically presenting one or more article boxes indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on the display, the magazine articles being published at different times throughout a publishing period;

presenting a time line as part of the screen of the graphical user interface, the time line encompassing the publishing period;

presenting an indicator which the subscriber can slide along the time line to identify different times within the publishing period; and

adding and removing ones of the article boxes from the screen as the indicator is slid along the time line to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

22. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for supporting an electronic magazine, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

computer-executable instructions for graphically presenting one or more article boxes indicative of magazine articles in a screen of a graphical user interface that is presented to the subscriber on the display, the magazine articles being published at different times throughout a publishing period;

computer-executable instructions for presenting a time line as part of the screen of the graphical user interface, the time line encompassing the publishing period;

computer-executable instructions for presenting an indicator which the subscriber can slide along the time line to identify different times within the publishing period; and

computer-executable instructions for adding and removing ones of the article boxes from the screen as the indicator is slid along the time line to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

23. A subscriber system for use with an electronic magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:

a computer having a communications port coupled to a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;

a graphical user interface executing on the processor to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine screen containing at least one article box indicative of a magazine article; and

the graphical user interface being configured to enable the subscriber to submit a comment file relating to the magazine article by dragging and dropping a file icon representing the comment file onto a submission target associated with the article to initiate sending both the comment file and identification of the article to which the comment file relates over the back channel to the publisher.

24. A subscriber system for use with an electronic magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:

a computer having a communications port coupled to a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;

a graphical user interface executing on the processor to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine screen containing at least one article box indicative of a magazine article; and

the graphical user interface being configured to depict a time line on the display which corresponds to a publishing period for the magazine and a slidable indicator which the subscriber can move along the time line to identify different times within publishing period so that movement of the indicator along the time line causes addition and removal of ones of the article boxes from the display to thereby visually demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.

25. A subscriber system for use with an electronic magazine that is distributed from a publisher to a subscriber, the subscriber system comprising:

a computer having a communications port coupled to a back channel to the publisher, a processor, and a display;

a graphical user interface executing on the processor to present a magazine screen on the display, the magazine screen containing at least one article box indicative of a magazine article; and

the graphical user interface being configured to relate time within a publishing period for the magazine to the article boxes so that when a user manipulates the graphical user interface to selectively identify different times within the publishing period, ones of the article boxes are added and removed from the screen to demonstrate which articles were published at which times within the publishing period.