Writing guide for a free-form document editor

• US 7,409,089 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2006
• Issued: 08/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simmons, Alex J., Pratley, Christopher H., Urata, Kentaro, Braun, Owen C., Engrav, Peter Loren, Stuple, Stuart J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta; Bhavesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Strege; John B
• Application Number:
  US11/429,783
• Publication Number:
  US 20060257025A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 382/186, 382/189, 382/187, 345/173
• US Class Current: 382/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/171 by use of digital ink
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/18095 Summing image-intensity values; Projection and histogram analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/36 Matching; Classification

Abstract

Displaying a writing guide for a free-form document editor by detecting electronic ink, classifying the detected ink as corresponding to handwriting or a drawing, and displaying a handwriting guide or a drawing guide in response to classifying the detected ink as handwriting or a drawing, respectively. The writing guides can provide feedback regarding the classification of the detected ink and can be resized as additional ink is detected. The handwriting guide can comprise a writing area, writing guide portion, bullet guide, indent marker, character notches, gesture guide, or sacrificial guide to create meaningful structure within an outline object of an electronic document.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system of displaying a writing guide for modifying the structure of digital ink, the method comprising:

displaying a writing guide comprising writing guide regions for structuring digital ink, each writing guide region associated with a level of a structured outline that is to be applied to digital ink written into that writing guide region;

receiving digital ink that is entered and displayed within a writing guide region of the displayed writing guide; and

structuring the received digital ink in accordance with the level of the structured outline associated with the writing guide region into which the digital ink was entered and re-displaying the structured digital ink.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the writing guide regions for structuring include a bullet region corresponding to a bullet outline of the structured outline.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the method further comprises activating the bullet region to display the bullet outline.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the writing guide regions for structuring include a paragraph indentation control.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the writing guide regions for structuring include a control for merging groups of related ink strokes into a single group.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the groups are paragraphs and the control merges multiple paragraphs into a single paragraph.

7. A system of displaying a writing guide for modifying the format of digital ink, the system comprising:

a display writing guide component configured to display a writing guide comprising a writing guide region for receiving digital ink, the writing guide region associated with a structure that is to be applied to digital ink that is written into the writing guide region;

an adjust writing guide component configured to input a selection of an adjustment to the writing guide and in response, modify the displayed writing guide so that different writing guide regions are displayed, each writing guide region associated with a structure that is to be applied to digital ink that is written into that writing guide region;

a receive digital ink component configured to receive digital ink that is entered and displayed within a writing guide region of the modified writing guide; and

an apply structure component configured to structure the received digital ink in accordance with the structure associated with the writing guide region into which the digital ink was entered and to re-display the structured digital ink.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the displayed writing guide includes a next level indent indicator dividing the writing guide into a first level region and a second level region, the first and second level regions corresponding to different levels of a structured outline.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the writing guide region includes a bullet region corresponding to a bullet outline of the structured outline.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein a writing guide region includes a paragraph indentation control.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the displayed writing guide includes a control for merging groups of related ink strokes into a single group.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the groups are paragraphs and the control merges multiple paragraphs into a single paragraph.

13. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for displaying a writing guide for modifying the structure of digital ink, by a method comprising:

displaying a writing guide comprising a writing guide region and a formatting area containing a format action indicator, the writing guide region associated with a first level of a structured outline that is to be applied to digital ink written into that writing guide region and the format action indicator associated with a format that can be applied to digital ink written into that writing guide region;

receiving an indication to display an additional writing guide region;

displaying the additional writing guide region as part of the displayed writing guide, the additional writing guide region associated with a second level of the structured outline;

receiving a selection of a format action indicator of the displayed writing guide;

receiving digital ink input by a user into a displayed writing guide region;

associating the received digital ink with the level of the structured outline associated with the writing guide region into which the received digital ink was input and with the format associated with the selected format action indicator;

adjusting the display of received digital ink so that it is structured in accordance with the associated level and formatted in accordance with the associated format; and

wherein when the received digital ink is subsequently re-displayed it is displayed in accordance with the associated level and formatted in accordance with the associated format.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the area that contains a formatting control contains multiple formatting controls.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the formatting control is associated with a bold format, an underline format, or an italics format.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the writing guide regions include a bullet region corresponding to a bullet outline of the structured outline.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the writing guide includes a paragraph indentation control.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the writing guide includes a control for merging groups of related ink strokes into a single group.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the groups are paragraphs and the control merges multiple paragraphs into a single paragraph.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein an indication to display an additional writing guide region is received when a user hovers a pointing device over the displayed writing guide.