Display system for displaying lists of linked documents

• US 6,486,895 B1
• Filed: 09/08/1995
• Issued: 11/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Robertson, George G., Card, Stuart K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Ba
• Application Number:
  US08/525,936
• Time in Patent Office: 2,636 Days
• Field of Search: 395/339, 395/340, 395/341, 395/342, 395/346, 395/350, 345/776, 345/738, 345/739
• US Class Current: 715/776
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

A display system for displaying lists of linked documents. The present invention is implemented for displaying lists of related pages downloaded from the World Wide Web. The list of pages is displayed in a book metaphor termed a WebBook. The book metaphor is desirable since it inherently conveys the notion of the pages being related. When displayed, two active pages are displayed at one time. For the WebBook, each page in the list is converted into a page object and will represent a left or right page. Page objects representing a left page will have an axis of rotation along a right edge (as viewed orthogonally) while page objects representing a right page will have an axis of rotation along a left edge (as viewed orthogonally). The changing of pages is animated. Various user interface controls are provided for traversing the pages of the book, creating book marks, scanning pages, scaling the contents of a page, scrolling through pages, etc.

Claims

1. A computer controlled display system having a display, processor and a cursor control device, said computer controlled display system for controlling the display of a list of linked documents comprising:

document list generation circuitry coupled to access a collection of linked documents, wherein a plurality of said collection of linked documents reside on a common server, said documents residing on said common server having relative links to other documents residing on said common server, said document list circuitry for generating and obtaining an ordered list of linked documents residing on said common server using said relative links;

a storage device coupled to said document list generation circuitry, said storage device for storing said ordered list of linked documents;

page object generation circuitry coupled to said storage device, said page object generation circuitry for generating page objects for each document in said list of linked documents, each of said page objects comprising a content portion and a page control portion;

book generation circuitry coupled to said page object generation circuitry, said book generation circuitry for generating a representation of said ordered list of linked documents as a book for displaying on said display based on the order of said list of linked documents, said book on said display comprising;

a first area for displaying a first page object as a first left page of a book displayed on said display, said first left page having active contents when displayed;

a second area for displaying a second page object as a second right page of said book displayed on said display, said second right page having active contents when displayed; and

a control area for displaying control buttons, said control buttons for enabling a user to generate input to said book generation circuitry for generating subsequent representations of said list of linked documents.

2. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein each of said first area and said second area is further comprised of a scale control area for scaling the display of the content of a page object.

3. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein each of said first area and said second area is further comprised of a vertical scrolling area for enabling vertical scrolling of the display of the content of a page object and a horizontal scrolling area for enabling horizontal scrolling of the display of the content of a page object.

4. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 3 wherein said book on said display further comprises page edge overlap areas for indicating a relative page order of pages displayed in said first area and said second area.

5. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 4 wherein said book generation circuitry further comprises page turning circuitry for causing new page objects to be displayed in said book responsive to a user interaction with said cursor control device in said first area, said second area or said page edge overlap areas.

6. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 5 wherein said control area includes a first scan button for causing pages to be turned in a first direction and a second scan button for causing pages to be turned in a second direction.

7. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein said control area includes a mark button for marking a page object currently being displayed and causing a corresponding bookmark to be displayed.

8. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 further comprising means for opening said book to the page displayed when the book was closed.

9. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein said book in said display further comprises re-sizing areas for changing the size of said book.

10. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein said book generation circuitry further comprises highlighting circuitry for causing links within said list of linked documents to be displayed in a first visually distinct manner and links outside of said list of linked documents to be displayed in a second visually distinct manner.

17. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 1 wherein said document list generation circuitry is further comprised of circuitry for creating an ordered list of linked documents based on said relative links.

18. The computer controlled display system as recited in claim 17 wherein said book generation circuitry is further comprised of circuitry for ordering pages in said book based on said ordered list of linked documents.

11. On a computer controlled display system having a display and a cursor control device, a method for presenting lists of linked documents for viewing which are part of a collection of linked documents, wherein a plurality of said collection of linked documents reside on a common server, said documents residing on said common server having relative links to other documents residing on said common server, said method comprising the steps of:

a) obtaining an ordered list of linked documents and the content of said linked documents residing on said common server using said relative links;

b) generating page objects for each linked document, said page objects containing the content of an associated linked document and page control information;

c) organizing said generated page objects in a computer displayable representation of a book according to the ordered list, wherein each page object corresponds to a document in said ordered list of linked documents, each of said page objects being active when displayed, said representation of a book further containing a plurality of control areas for turning pages of said book, each of said plurality of control areas causing pages to turn in a predetermined action;

d) a user opening said book;

e) rendering and displaying said active page objects of said book on said display; and

f) said user viewing and traversing said book by invoking a page turning operation in said plurality of control areas or by selecting links to other documents in said ordered list of linked documents until finished with viewing said book.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 comprising the steps of:

i) said user re-opening said book; and

j) displaying said book at said marked last open page.

13. The method as recited in claim 11 said step of said user traversing said book by invoking page turning operation in said plurality of control areas until finished with viewing said book is comprised of the steps of:

said user operating a cursor control device to position a cursor into a desired control area;

said user invoking a desired turning operation using a predetermined interaction; and

turning pages of said book in the direction associated with said desired control area and in the manner associated with said desired page turning operation.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein said predetermined interaction is a single click on said cursor control device and said desired page turning operation is a single page turn.

15. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein said predetermined interaction is a click and hold on said cursor control device and said desired page turning operation is a page ruffle.

16. The method as recited in claim 11 wherein concurrent with said step of said user traversing said book by invoking page turning operation in said plurality of control areas until finished with viewing said book, performing the steps of:

said user indicating a page to be marked;

displaying page marks on said marked page; and

updating said book representation to include the marked pages so that when the book is re-opened the page marks are displayed.

19. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein said step of obtaining an ordered list of linked documents and the content of said linked documents is further comprised of the steps of:

a1) selecting a first document at said common server and ordering as a first document in said list of linked documents;

a2) finding relative links in said first document and retrieving the linked documents;

a3) finding relative links in subsequently retrieved linked documents and retrieving the linked documents until all relative links have been found and corresponding documents retrieved; and

a4) ordering said linked documents in the order that they are retrieved.

20. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for enabling a computer to present viewable lists of linked documents, the computer readable program codes means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code for causing a computer to access a collection of linked documents, said collection of linked documents having a plurality of documents at a common server, said documents at said common server linked by relative links;

computer readable program code for causing said computer to generate an ordered list of linked documents residing on said common server using said relative links;

computer readable program code instructions for causing said computer to generate page objects for each document in said list of linked documents, each of said page objects comprising a content portion and a page control portion, said content portion including links to other documents in said ordered list of linked documents;

computer readable program code for causing said computer to generate a representation of said list of linked documents as a book for displaying on a display coupled to said computer, said representation based on the order of said list of linked documents said book on said display comprising;

a first area for displaying a first page object as a first left page of a book displayed on said display, said first left page having active contents when displayed;

a second area for displaying a second page object as a second right page of said book displayed on said display said second right page having active contents when displayed; and

a control area for displaying control buttons, said control buttons for enabling a user to generate input to said book generation circuitry for generating subsequent representations of said list of linked documents; and

computer readable program code for enabling a user to traverse through said list of linked documents as if they were turning pages in a book by selecting links in said content portion of a page object.

21. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for enabling a computer to present viewable lists of linked documents, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code for causing a computer to access a collection of linked documents to create a list of linked documents;

computer readable program code instructions for causing said computer to generate page objects for each document in said list of linked documents, each of said page objects comprising a content portion and a page control portion, said content portion capable of including links to other documents in said list of linked documents;

computer readable program code for creating a representation of said list of documents using said page objects created for each document in said list of documents, said representation displaying a plurality of page objects simultaneously, and wherein each page object is active when displayed.

22. The article of manufacture as recited in claim 21 wherein said computer readable program code means is further comprised of:

computer readable program code for circuitry for ordering said list of documents; and

said computer readable program code for creating a representation of said list of documents, creates said representation according to said order of said list of documents.

23. The article of manufacture as recited in claim 22 wherein said computer readable program code for creating a representation of said list of documents, creates said representation using a book metaphor.