Single column layout for content pages

• US 7,362,311 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2004
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Filner, Aaron, McLain, Jay, Dadi, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, NITIN
• Application Number:
  US10/787,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20040255244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,518 Days
• Field of Search: 345/204, 345690-695, 345/214, 345156-173, 715/513, 715/517, 715/518, 715/519, 715/788
• US Class Current: 345/169
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

A system and method for small computing devices that present a single column of content such as a web page such that a user need only scroll vertically to see the content. A parser converts HTML to CSS as necessary, and a single column style sheet modifies content for a more-optimized viewing experience. To this end, tables and tables cells are rendered as blocks, with no padding/border/margins and any explicit widths and heights changed to automatic. Other table elements are rendered as block level elements, and horizontal margins are eliminated or re-enabled on some elements in a reduced manner. Spacer images are removed, as well as cell background images and small images. Content such as text is wrapped, and images are resized as necessary based on the screen display width. The result is a single content column that facilitates viewing and scrolling in only one direction.

Claims

1. In a computing device, a method comprising:

arranging content to appear in a single column when rendered for display on a device, including vertically-stacking at least two blocks of content that were originally designed for appearing horizontally relative to one another; and

rendering the single column for display on a device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein arranging the content to appear in the single column comprises converting HTML to CSS.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a set of style sheets is processed to render the content, and wherein arranging the content to appear in the single column comprises including a style sheet in the set of style sheets.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes tables and table cells to be rendered as blocks.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes the blocks to have no padding.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes the blocks to have no border.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes the blocks to have no margins.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes any block having an explicitly-specified height value to instead have an automatically scaled height.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes any block having an explicitly-specified width value instead to have an automatically scaled width.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed causes at least one table element to be rendered as a block level element.

11. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed reduces a horizontal margin value specified in the content.

12. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed provides a predetermined horizontal margin value for at least part of the content.

13. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed eliminates a horizontal margin value for at least part of the content.

14. The method of claim 4 wherein the style sheet includes information that when processed reduces a horizontal indentation value specified in the content.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising, detecting a particular image in the content, and removing the particular image from the content arranged to appear in the single column.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein detecting a particular image in the content comprises analyzing the content for an image having a dimension less than a certain size.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein detecting a particular image in the content comprises analyzing the content for a spacer image.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein analyzing the content for a spacer image comprises looking for an image title or file name.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing vertical scrolling to view the contents of the horizontal column.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising, resizing at least one block to correspond to a width of a display screen on the device.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 1.

22. In a computing device, a method comprising:

receiving content that is designed to have at least two horizontal columns when rendered; and

processing a style sheet to modify the content, the style sheet including information that when processed modifies the content into a plurality of stacked blocks such that when rendered the modified content appears in a single horizontal column.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising, scaling at least one of the stacked blocks to fit within the width of a display screen.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising, displaying the single horizontal column, and providing vertical scrolling to view the contents of the horizontal column.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the content is received as HTML, and further comprising converting HTML to CSS.

26. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises modifying tables and table cells to be rendered as the blocks.

27. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises removing or reducing data corresponding to at least one of the set containing:

padding data, border data and margin data.

28. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises modifying an explicitly-specified width or height value.

29. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises modifying a table element to be rendered as a block level element.

30. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises reducing a horizontal margin value.

31. The method of claim 22 wherein processing the style sheet to modify the content comprises reducing a horizontal indentation value.

32. The method of claim 22 further comprising, removing a spacer image from content such that the spacer image is not in the modified content.

33. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions which when executed perform the method of claim 22.