Method and system for generating and displaying a slide show with animations and transitions in a browser

• US 6,396,500 B1
• Filed: 03/18/1999
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Parker, Robert L. C., Qureshi, Imran I., Sandoval, Gustavo, Gasser, Ralph U.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Cliff N.
• Application Number:
  US09/271,731
• Time in Patent Office: 1,167 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418,473,474,619,434,435,436,437,438,439
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation

Abstract

A method and system for automatically translating slides in a slide presentation file into a series of corresponding slide HTML pages for displaying a slide show with a viewing facility such as a browser. An animated object is generated for each object in the HTML page that is related to an animation of the object in the corresponding slide created for presentation by the other facility. A queue is generated for defining the order and time line for the graphical display of each animated and non-animated object of each HTML page. The browser graphically displays the contents of each HTML page in accord with the order and time line defined by the queue so that a graphical display of the generated slide show is presented to the user in a manner that is related to the intended presentation by the other facility of the originally created slide show. Divisions in the HTML page are created with nested DIV tags so that percentages related to default dimensions in the HTML page may be used to define the dimensions of a display space for objects included in the HTML page. The objects may include text, movies, audio clips, animations, transitions, images, and image maps associated with hyperlinks. User interface controls are provided to select options for animating objects and transitions and automatically fitting the objects in the page to the size of the display.

Claims

1. A method for generating a slide show for presentation by a viewing facility, the slide show being generated from a plurality of slides that were originally created for a slide show to be presented by another facility, comprising:

(a) saving each object in the plurality of slides created for presentation by the other facility in a corresponding series of pages, a page including each object associated with a corresponding slide;

(b) generating a size for a display space of each page, the size of the display space being related to a size of a container for a page, the container including each object in the page and each object in the container being displayable in the display space of the page;

(c) generating an animated object for each object in the page that is related to an animation of the object in the corresponding slide created for presentation by the other facility, the animated object being included in the container for the page;

(d) generating a queue for defining an order for the display of each object and each animated object in each container of each page and defining a time line for presenting the generated slide show; and

(e) employing the viewing facility to display the contents of each container for each page in accord with the order and the time line defined by the queue, so that the generated slide show is presented to a user in a graphical display related to the presentation by the other facility of the originally created slide show.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) generating an animated transition for each page that is related to an animation of the transition between the corresponding slide and the next slide in the slide show created for presentation by the other facility; and

(b) adding the animated transition to the time line of the queue, so that the animated transition is displayed between an end of presenting the page and starting the presentation of a next page for the generated slide show.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the animated object and the animated transition further comprises:

(a) generating an object animation tag that is stored in the container for the page; and

(b) generating a transition animation tag that is stored in the container for the page.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the object animation tag and the transition animation tag identify respective parameters including type, duration and order.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective parameters for the object animation tag and the transition animation tag are employed to generate the queue that defines the order and time line for presenting the generated slide show.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a mode for displaying the generated slide show, the mode including window and full screen, the size of the full screen mode being equivalent to the dimensions of a display displaying the generated slide show to the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) selecting an entry animation for each animated object; and

(b) selecting an exit animation for each animated object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) selecting an entry sound for each animated object; and

(b) selecting of an exit sound for each animated object.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a shape to be animated that is attached to the object, the object not being animated.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectively ordering the presentation of each object and each animated object in each container of each page so that the queue defining the order for presenting the generated slide show is changed.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising previewing the presentation of the generated slide show in a thumbnail display.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the object in the page to not be animated.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) when the object in the page is selected, generating an animated object in the page; and

(b) enabling the selection of a trigger for a start of the animation for the animated object, the trigger including a time interval and selection of the animated object by a pointing device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the animation is an in-place animation, comprising:

box in, box out, circle in, circle out, wipe up, wipe down, wipe right, wipe left, vertical blinds, horizontal blinds, checkerboard across, checkerboard down, random dissolve, split vertical in, split vertical out, strips left down, strips left up, strips right down, strips right up, random bars horizontal, random bars vertical, and random in-place animation.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the animation is a nonscaled effect, comprising peek, crawl, and fly.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the animation is a scaled effect, comprising spiral, zoom, stretch, and swivel.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising playing a clip associated with the presentation of the generated slide show by the viewing facility, the clip including movie, sound and video.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting a start index and an end index for the sound clip associated with the presentation of the generated slide show.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting a continuously looped display of the movie clip associated with the presentation of the generated slide show.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting the movie clip to rewind after the movie clip is displayed.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising pausing the presentation of the slide show when the clip is playing.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising automatically ending the playing of the clip.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising ending the playing of the clip after the presentation of a selected number of slides in the generated slide show by the viewing facility.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

(a) generating a chart element animation tag for each chart element in the page that is related to the animation of the chart element in the corresponding slide created for presentation by the other facility, the chart element including legend, grid, text and graphics;

(b) generating an animated chart element for each chart element animation tag, the animated chart element being included in the container for the page; and

(c) adding the animated chart element to the queue, so that the animated chart element is presented in the generated slide show by the viewing facility.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

(a) selecting an entry animation for each animated chart element; and

(b) selecting an exit animation for each animated chart element.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

(a) selecting an entry sound for each animated chart element; and

(b) selecting an exit sound for each animated chart element.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising selecting the order for displaying the animated chart element in the presentation of the generated slide show.

28. The method of claim 1, further comprising

(a) generating a size and a position for each object included in each page, the size and the position of each object being related to the size of the display space and being stored in the container of the page associated with the object;

and

(b) determining if a dimension of a display is different than a corresponding dimension of the display space of the page and, if so,

(i) generating a scalar that is related to the difference in the dimension of the display and the corresponding dimension of the display space of the page, the scalar being employed to calculate another size for the display space of the page that is related to the size of a display and a default size of the page, the calculation of the other size of the display space causing the related size and position of the object to be changed in proportion to the other size of the display space; and

(ii) automatically relocating the graphical display of the display space of the page and the changed size and position of the object in the display, so that the user can view the object in the display space without having to scroll in the graphical display of the display space.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the page, the display space and the object are encoded with a computer language selected from a group comprising HTML, DHTML, CGI, JavaScript, VBScript, and VRHTML.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising employing a DIV tag to create sizes and positions for the page, the display space and the object that are percent based.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the dimensions of the display space, page, and the dimensions and position of the object are measured in lines of resolution, so that the graphical display of the display space and the object automatically adjusts to the dimensions of a display.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical display of the object in the display space is automatically fitted to the size of the display when at least one of the dimensions of the display is dynamically changed.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing facility is a browser program.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing facility is a program module associated with another program including operating system, presentation, editor, spread sheet, desktop publisher, word processor, and database.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing facility presents the slide show to the user, further comprising a control for controlling the presentation of the slide show, the control performing functions that include advancing, reversing, pausing, and exiting when the control is selected.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the page is scaleable to the size of the graphical display.

37. A computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in any one of claims 1, 2, 3, 6, 14, 15, and 16.

38. A method for generating a slide show for presentation by a viewing facility, the slide show being generated from a plurality of slides that were originally created for a slide show to be presented by another facility, comprising:

(a) employing a first facility for generating a scaleable page, the first facility implementing actions, including;

(i) saving each object in the plurality of slides created for presentation by the other facility in a corresponding series of scaleable pages, a scaleable page including each object associated with a corresponding slide;

(ii) generating a size for a display space of each scaleable page, the size of the display space being related to a size of a container for a scaleable page, the container including each object in the scaleable page and each object in the container being displayable in the display space of the scaleable page; and

(iii) generating a tag that is related to an animation in the corresponding slide created for presentation by the other facility, the tag being included in the container of the scaled page; and

(b) employing a second facility to determine when the viewing facility is selected to display the generated slide show, if true, the second facility implementing actions, including;

(i) generating an animated object for each tag, the animated object being included in the container for the scaleable page;

(ii) generating a queue for defining an order for the display of each object and each animated object in each container of each scaleable page and defining a time line for presenting the generated slide show; and

(iii) employing the viewing facility to graphically display the contents of each container for each scaleable page in accord with the time line defined by the queue, so that the viewing facility presents the generated slide show to a user in a graphical display related to the presentation by the other facility of the originally created slide show.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the first facility is a module that is executed within the other facility that created the slide show for presentation by the other facility.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the second facility is a module that is executed by the viewing facility.

41. A computer system for generating a slide show for presentation by a viewing facility, the slide show being generated from a plurality of slides that were originally created for a slide show to be presented by another facility, comprising:

(a) a memory that stores a plurality of logical instructions;

(b) a display for graphically displaying the object to a user; and

(c) a processor coupled to the memory, the processor implementing the logical instructions, including;

(i) saving each object in the plurality of slides created for presentation by the other facility in a corresponding series of scaleable pages, a scaleable page including each object associated with a corresponding slide;

(ii) generating a size for a display space of each scaleable page, the size of the display space being related to a size of a container for a scaleable page, the container including each object in the scaleable page and each object in the container being displayable in the display space of the scaleable page;

(iii) generating an animated object for each object in the scaleable page that is related to an animation of the object in the corresponding slide created for presentation by the other facility, the animated object being included in the container for the scaleable page;

(iv) generating a queue for defining an order for the display of each object and each animated object in each container of each scaleable page and defining a time line for presenting the generated slide show; and

(v) employing the viewing facility to graphically display the contents of each container for each scaleable page in accord with the time line defined by the queue, so that the viewing facility presents the generated slide show to a user in a graphical display related to the presentation by the other facility of the originally created slide show.