Computerized document management system

• US 6,266,683 B1
• Filed: 07/24/1997
• Issued: 07/24/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: The Chase Manhattan Bank (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Inventors: Chernov, Leonid, Anderson, Melissa E., Desai, Gautam B., Gusick, David L., Graham, William J., Yehuda, Issac, Gimprich, Jeffery D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford W.
• Application Number:
  US08/900,075
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: 707/500, 707/509-513, 707/530, 707/100-104, 709/200-207, 709/217, 709/9, 709/10
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/10 Text processing natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30; processing or translation of natural language G06F40/40

Abstract

A computerized document management system for managing a document acted upon by at least one participant in creating, evaluating or revising the document is provided. The system includes a segmenter which divides the document into a plurality of segments based on the content of the document. The system also includes a comment receiver which receives comments from at least one participant, at least a portion of the comments pertaining to at least one of the plurality of segments of the document. The system further includes a comment associator which associates each comment of the portion of comments to the segment to which the each comment pertains.

Claims

1. A computerized method for managing the revision and/or evaluation of a document by a plurality of participants, the method comprising:

dividing an electronically stored document into a plurality of segments based upon the contents of the document and in accordance with a prescribed set of parsing rules;

sending notification to the plurality of participants that the document is available for review and revision;

receiving comments sent by one or more of the participants, each of the comments being associated with but not part of the document and relating to one or more of the segments, at least one of the comments relating to less than all of the segments; and

associating each comment with the segment or segments to which it relates.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

permitting the comments made by a first participant to be viewed by other participants.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first participant identifies which of the other participants can view his or her comments.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comments received from the participants identify the particular segment or segments to which it relates.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a participant initiates the comment sending process while viewing a segment of the document and the comment he or she sends is automatically identified as being related to the segment of the document he or she was viewing.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the comments relates to more than one of the segments.

7. The method of claim 1, further including receiving requests from participants to review comments relating to a designated set of segments of the document.

8. The method of claim 7, further including permitting the participant to review comments relating to the designated set of segments only if the participant has authority to review such comments.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the participant making the comment designates which of the other participants has authority to view the comment.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the participant indicates that he or she only wants to see comments that he or she has not already viewed and wherein he or she is presented only those comments.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the participant is shown a list of comments made by others and the participant selects the comments he or she w ants to view from that list.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the participant is presented with categories of comments which he or she can view and he or she selects from that category.

13. The method of claim 1, further including uploading a version of a document onto a computer system for storage on the computer system before it is automatically divided.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the dividing step is carried out by a microprocessor.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescribed set of parsing rules is determined as a function of the type of document being divided.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescribed set of parsing rules determines the beginning and end of a segment as a function of the structural hierarchy of the document.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescribed set of parsing rules determines the beginning and end of a segment as a function of human readable headings in the document.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the human readable headings are alphabetical letters.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the comments relates to more than one of the segments.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the entire document is stored as a single document and each section is stored as a separate document.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein each section is stored as a separate document.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein each section is stored as part of a respective related group of sections.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the entire document is stored as a single document, each of the groups of sections are stored as respective documents and each of the individual sections are stored as a respective document so as to simplify downloading and processing thereof.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein each comment includes information designating which section and/or group of sections it relates to.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the document includes a plurality of definitions of words and/or phrases contained in the document and wherein the method further includes automatically creating hyperlinks for each occurrence of a defined word and/or phrase to its associated definition.

26. The method of claim 25, further including the act of parsing the definitions from the document before the hyperlinks are created.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the dividing, informing and receiving acts are carried out with respect to a plurality of versions of the document and the participants designate which of the versions he or she would like to view.

28. The method of claim 27, further including displaying the requested version of the document to the participants who requested such version.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the dividing, informing and receiving acts are carried out with respect to a plurality of versions and the participants designate specific sections of multiple versions of the document to be viewed.

30. The method of claim 29, further including the act of displaying the requested specific sections of the multiple versions of the document to the requesting participant.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein when a participant makes a request to view comments relating to one or more segments, he or she is shown the comments relating to those segments for each of the versions of the document.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein when a participant makes a request to view comments relating to one or more segments, he or she is shown only the comments for those segments he or she has not previously reviewed.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of projects are electronically stored and each of the projects includes a plurality of related documents.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein different participants have access to different projects.

35. The method of claim 34, further including creating a table of contents which identifies the various segments and that can be viewed by the participants.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the table of contents includes hyperlinks to the various segments identified by the table of contents.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein revisions are made to the document based upon the comments and the revised document is stored as a new version.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the document is stored in a central location and the comments are uploaded to the central location from participants who are remotely located from the central location.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the comments are sent to the central location over a global computing network.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein revisions are made to the document based upon the comments and the revised document is stored at the central location as a new version.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the revisions are made by a revisionist remotely located from the central location and are uploaded to the central location for storage.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the participants are notified of the new version after it is uploaded to the central location.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the notification takes place without human intervention.

44. Computerized method for managing the revision and/or evaluation of a document by a plurality of participants, the method comprising:

dividing an electronically stored document into a plurality of segments based upon the contents of the document and in accordance with a prescribed set of parsing rules;

sending notification to the plurality of participants that the document is available for review and revision;

receiving comments sent by one or more participants, each of the comments relating to one or more of the segments, at least one of the comments relating to less than all of the segments;

associating each comment with a segment or segments to which it relates;

receiving a request for a participant to review comments relating to a designated set of segments of the document; and

permitting the participant to review comments relating to the designated set of segments only if the participant has authority to review such comments.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the participant making the comment designates which of the other participants has authority to view the comment.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the participant indicates that he or she only wants to see comments that he or she has not already viewed and wherein he or she is presented only those comments.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein the participant is shown a list of comments made by others and the participant selects the comments he or she wants to view from that list.

48. The method of claim 44, wherein the participant is presented with categories of comments which he or she can view and he or she selects from that category.