Method and system for automatic insertion of context information into an application program module

• US 7,392,475 B1
• Filed: 05/23/2003
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Matlock, Stephen, Parveen, Shaheeda, Leban, Roy, Sellers, Timothy D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Queler; Adam M
• Application Number:
  US10/444,585
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 715/523, 715/526, 715/229, 715/255, 715/272, 715/273, 715/776, 719/329
• US Class Current: 715/255
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

Context information surrounding an application program can be inserted into an electronic document in order to increase accuracy and efficiency in note taking. For example, in a meeting scenario where a slide presentation is being displayed, the present invention can automatically insert information relating to the slide presentation into an application program such as a document editing module. Specifically, in this example, the information relating to the slide information can be inserted into the document editing module in one of four different formats: (1) as editable text derived from each slide; (2) an editable image for each slide; (3) a thumbnail image for each slide; (4) a hypertext link to each slide; and (5) any combination thereof.

Claims

1. A method in a computing device for automatically inserting context information into a document being edited by a user, the method comprising:

opening the document to be edited by the user using an editing module;

receiving from the user a selection of an application program to monitor, the application program having associated data;

receiving from the user a selection of options for controlling insertion of data of the monitored application program into the document being edited;

after the monitoring of the application program indicates a change in data, receiving the changed data from the application program; and

inserting the changed data into the document being edited;

after inserting the changed data, editing the document including the inserted data based on instructions of the user; and

closing the document with the inserted data and with the user edits so that the document comprising user edits with data of the application program as context information.

2. The method of claim 1 including displaying of options for controlling insertion of data and receiving from the user a selected of one of the displayed options.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitored application program executes on a television, a telephone, a fax machine, or a medical device that provides the data to the monitored application program.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein an option specifies where to insert the data into the document.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein an option specifies when to retrieve the data of the application program.

6. The method of claim 1 including determining whether the inserted data should be displayed as a thumbnail-sized image.

7. The method of claim 1 including not allowing the editing of the certain inserted data.

8. The method of claim 1 including determining whether the inserted data should be displayed as a hyperlink.

9. A computing device for automatically inserting context information into a document being edited by a user using a handwriting tablet, comprising:

a component that receives from the user a selection of a currently executing application program to monitor for context information, the application program having associated data that is displayed via a user interface;

a component that receives from the user a selection of options for controlling insertion of data of the monitored application program into the document being edited via an editing module;

a component that monitors the application program in accordance with a selected option to receive data from the application program;

a component that inserts the received data into the document being edited; and

a component that allows a user to enter handwritten commands via the tablet to edit the document including the inserted data.

10. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the component that receives a selection of options displays options for controlling insertion of data.

11. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the application program is selected from a group consisting of a slide presentation program, a web browsing program, a spreadsheet program, a word processing program, an electronic mail program, a scheduling program, and a calendar program.

12. The computing device of claim 9 wherein an option specifies where to insert the data into the document.

13. The computing device of claim 9 wherein an option specifies when to retrieve the data of the application program.

14. The computing device of claim 9 wherein the component that monitors is separate from the editing module.