Embedded interaction code printing with Microsoft Office documents

• US 7,532,366 B1
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Issued: 05/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Jiang, Wang, Jian, Yang, Hongyun, Liu, Youjun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brinich; Stephen M
• Application Number:
  US11/067,193
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.9, 358/2.1, 358/3.28, 358/468
• US Class Current: 358/3.28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1244 Job translation or job parsing, e.g. page banding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3245 of image modifying data, e.g. handwritten addenda, highlights or augmented reality information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3271 Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information

Abstract

Computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions provide support for the printing of documents containing embedded interactive code information in conjunction with different applications that include Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint®, and Microsoft InfoPath™. With a Microsoft Word document, the contents and the associated portion of the EIC pattern are printed page by page. A virtual printer intercepts a spooled printed job and saves the associated enhanced metafile. Subsequently, the EMF and the associated EIC pattern for each page are printed. With a Microsoft PowerPoint® document, each page is printed with a selected number of slides and with an associated portion of the EIC pattern. A note-taking section and play control buttons may be printed. For a Microsoft InfoPath™ document, an HTML document is obtained from the InfoPath XML document before printing. Microsoft InfoPath prints the image of one page with the associated EIC pattern.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium for printing a word processing document with an embedded interaction code (EIC) pattern and having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(A) obtaining page setup information from a word processor;

(B) setting a default paper setting for a virtual printer;

(C) sending the word processing document to a virtual printer;

(D) saving an enhanced metafile (EMF) for at least one page of the word processing document;

(E) printing an EMF that corresponds to a current page on an actual printer; and

(F) printing an EIC pattern that corresponds to the current page on the actual printer.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) repeating (E)-(F) for another page.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the word processor is Microsoft Word.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein (C) utilizes Microsoft Windows®

shell, and having computer-executable instructions to perform;

(C)(i) setting SHELLEXECUTEINFO with a virtual printer device name and a printing file path;

(C)(ii) calling Microsoft Win32®

API ShellExecuteEx;

(C)(iii) requesting, by Microsoft Windows®

shell, Microsoft Word to print a Word file; and

(C)(iv) sending, via Microsoft Word, contents to the virtual printer.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) sending a notification from the virtual printer that an associated EMF of the word document has been generated.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the word processor is Microsoft Word, and wherein (G) utilizes a device driver interface (DDI) hook to notify an application that the associated EMF has been generated.

7. A computer-readable medium for printing an information gathering XML document with an embedded interaction code (EIC) pattern and having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

(A) transforming the information gathering XML document to an HTML document;

(B) attaching a rendering behavior object to an HTML element of the HTML document;

(C) loading the HTML document into a print template;

(D) obtaining contents of a current page for the HTML document;

(E) printing an image of the current page; and

(F) printing a portion of an EIC pattern that corresponds to the current page.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) repeating (D)-(F) for another page.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the information gathering program comprises Microsoft InfoPath™

and the information gathering XML document comprises an InfoPath XML document.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) associating an xpath attribute with a corresponding output HTML element.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(D)(i) obtaining a collection of DeviceRect elements, wherein each DeviceRect element contains corresponding contents of a corresponding page of the HTML document.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) obtaining a corresponding bounding box of a corresponding field in the current page; and

(H) obtaining a corresponding xpath attribute of the corresponding field.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(I) wrapping the corresponding bounding box and the corresponding xpath attribute to an embedded interaction coded (EIC) document object.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 having computer-executable instructions to perform:

(G) calling a DrawToDC method of IHTMLElementRender interface to obtain the image of the current page; and

(H) obtaining, from a Draw method of IHTMLPainter interface, a corresponding bounding box for a corresponding HTML element.