Application sharing single document sharing

• US 7,418,664 B2
• Filed: 04/03/2002
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Leichtling, Ivan J., Schmieder, Robert W., Ben-Shachar, Ido M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bautista; X. L
• Application Number:
  US10/115,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20030189601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,337 Days
• Field of Search: 715/738, 715/740, 715/748, 715/751, 715/753, 715/759, 715/764, 715/967, 715/810, 715/500.1, 715/700, 715/733, 715/755, 715/765, 715/835, 715/838, 715/846, 709/204, 709/217
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An improved application sharing system and method allow sharing of documents on a per document basis rather than on a per application basis, in order to simplify the user experience and to provide a more secure sharing environment. A window marking method is used to construct a window list describing the shared and unshared status of various windows. In an embodiment of the invention, a viewer machine displays only a most recently active shared document window even when other windows are also marked as shared. In this way, a viewer'"'"'s attention can be automatically focused on a current document of interest.

Claims

1. A method of sharing a visual representation of content of at least one document from a sharer computer to a viewer computer comprising:

executing at the sharer computer an application sharing process that shares executing applications;

executing at the sharer computer at least two applications wherein each application is configured to be able to open multiple documents and generate as a visual output the visual representation of content that is displayed on a display device of the sharer computer to a user of the sharer computer, the content associated with at least one of the multiple documents opened by the executing applications, the executing applications operating in process spaces that are distinct from the application sharing process and from each other;

receiving at the application sharing process an indication that the executing application processes are to be shared thereby making the executing application processes shared application processes;

wherein the application sharing process that shares executing applications performs processing comprising;

generating a list of sharable documents, the list generated based on the multiple documents opened by the shared application processes;

displaying in a single window the list of sharable documents on the display device of the sharer computer to the user of the sharer computer, the list comprising the opened multiple documents associated with the shared application processes;

receiving a first selection from the user of a first one of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents, wherein the first one of the opened multiple documents is associated with a first shared application process;

marking the first one of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents as shared, while leaving unmarked the remainder of documents of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents associated with the first shared application process;

sharing the visual representation of the content of the marked first one of the opened multiple documents from the sharer computer to the viewer computer, the visual representation comprising at least a portion of the visual output generated by the first shared application process;

receiving a second selection from the user of a second one of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents, wherein the second one of the opened multiple documents is associated with a second shared application process that is distinct from the first shared application process;

marking the second one of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents as shared, while leaving unmarked the remainder of the opened multiple documents listed in the list of sharable documents associated with the second shared application process; and

sharing the visual representation of the content of the marked second one of the opened multiple documents from the sharer computer to the viewer computer, the visual representation comprising at least a portion of the visual output generated by the second shared application process.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the displaying a list of sharable documents on a display device of the sharer computer to a user of the sharer computer further comprises displaying a list of sharable documents, wherein each document in the list of sharable documents is associated with a selectable graphical object.

3. A method of sharing visual representations of content documents from a sharer computer to a viewer computer comprising:

providing in a single window a list of multiple sharable documents for display on a display of the sharer computer, wherein the list comprises multiple documents associated with two or more shared application processes;

receiving a selection of at least a first one of the plurality of documents to be shared from the list of sharable documents while leaving unselected at least a second one of the plurality of documents to be shared from the list of sharable documents, whereby the at least first one of the plurality of documents is marked as shared while the at least second one of the plurality of documents is left unmarked; and

sharing visual representations of contents of the documents marked as shared.

4. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method of sharing a visual representation of content of a document, the method comprising:

providing in a single window a list of multiple sharable documents associated with two or more executing processes associated with two or more shared applications, the multiple sharable documents grouped according to their associated executing process;

receiving a selection of a document to share from the provided list of sharable documents; and

sharing the visual representation of content of the selected document with a viewer computer and not sharing visual representations of content of documents that are not selected.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein the sharing includes associating a global item with the selected document.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein a set of documents is associated with the executing process and the receiving includes receiving a selection of a subset of the set of documents.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the selected subset of the set of documents is shared.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein the executing process has a multiple document interface.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 wherein the executing process has opened multiple documents.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 including receiving no selection.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein when multiple documents are indicated as shared, only a document corresponding to an active executing process is shared and the document is a current document of the active executing process.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the active executing process has a single document interface.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the active executing process has a multiple document interface.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein when the document is indicated to be shared, a parent window corresponding to the executing process associated with the document is also indicated to be shared.

15. A method performed by a sharer computer for sharing a visual representation of content of a document from the sharer computer to a viewer computer, the sharer computer executing a sharing program, comprising:

opening, under control of another program executing on the sharer computer, a first document and a second document so that a user of the sharer computer can view contents of the opened documents on the sharer computer;

displaying, under control of the other program, contents of the first and second documents to the user of the sharer computer;

providing in a single window a list of the documents opened by the other program;

receiving from the user of the sharer computer a selection of the first document from the provided list, the selection indicating to share the first document; and

sharing, under control of the sharing program, a visual representation of contents of the first document with the viewer computer so that a user of the viewer computer can view contents of the first document but cannot view contents of the second document when the user of the sharer computer does not share the second document.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the first and second documents have a common document type.