Management and use of data in a computer-generated document

• US 7,617,229 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2004
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Garg, Sharad K., Morgan, Ashley, Walker, Charles S., Burke, Eoin, Jones, Brian, Rothschiller, Chad, Wu, Su-Piao Bill, Bishop, Andrew, Villaron, Shawn Alan, Little, Robert, Pollock, Josh
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lie; Angela M
• Application Number:
  US11/019,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20060136477A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707/103.R, 707/103.Y
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/131 Fragmentation of text files, e.g. creating reusable text-blocks; Linking to fragments, e.g. using XInclude; Namespaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

Methods and systems provide for breaking a computer-generated document into a number of components where the components have explicit relationships with each other. A relationship representation is generated for the components of the document. A user may then navigate the relationships between the components to quickly understand the nature of the document and its components and to locate particular portions of the document that are important to the user. In addition, the user may open, edit and reuse particular components of the document apart from the rest of the document and without having to open or edit the document.

Claims

1. A method for managing components of a computer-generated document, comprising:

assembling, by a computer, a plurality of components of a document as a collection of separate components in an electronic file container, wherein the plurality of components are located only within the electronic file container, the plurality of components comprising data objects making up the document, the data objects comprising two or more of a text object, a spreadsheet object, a presentation object, and a formatting object wherein the data objects have different formatting types and at least one applied property;

generating a relationship representation of the document showing how each of one or more components relate to other components, wherein the relationship representation comprises a relationship between two or more of the plurality of components in the document, and wherein at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship is a parent component, wherein the relationship comprises a relationship type, the relationship type identifying how the parent component uses at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship, wherein the parent component comprises an image component, wherein the relationship type for the image component comprises an image, and wherein a content type associated with the image component comprises an image file type;

establishing a link between any related components of the collection of separate components based on a relationship between the any related components;

upon selection of the electronic file container, providing a visual representation of the collection of components and providing a visual representation of how each component of the collection of components relates to other components of the collection of components; and

upon selection of a visual representation of one component of the document from the visual representation of the collection of components, providing access to a component of the document associated with the selected visual representation of one component of the document by launching the selected component associated with the selected visual representation, the selected component comprising a different application than an application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container, for allowing editing of the selected component to make changes to the selected component apart from other components of the document so that when the application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container is re-launched, the changes made to the selected component utilizing the different application are presented in the electronic file container.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing manipulation of the selected component associated with the selected visual representation, wherein the manipulation includes allowing copying of the selected component associated with the selected visual representation to a different document.

3. The method of claim 1, whereby upon launching the document, merging the collection of components of the document for presenting the document according to relationships between each of the components of the document.

4. The method of claim 1, whereby assembling a plurality of components of a document as a collection of separate components in an electronic file container includes assembling the collection of components in a zip format file.

5. A method for managing components of a computer-generated document, comprising:

dividing, by a computer, the document into a plurality of components comprising the document;

assembling each of the plurality of components of the document in an electronic file container, wherein each of the plurality of components are located only within the electronic file container, the plurality of components comprising data object making up the document, the data objects comprising two or more of a text object, a spreadsheet object, a presentation object, and a formatting objects, wherein the data objects have different formatting types and at least one applied property;

representing a relationship between components of the document showing how each of one or more components of the document relate to other components of the document, wherein the relationship is represented by a relationship between two or more of the plurality of components comprising the document, and wherein at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship is a parent component, wherein the relationship comprises a relationship type, the relationship type identifying how the parent component uses at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship, wherein the parent component comprises an image component, wherein the relationship type for the image component comprises an image, and wherein a content type associated with the image component comprises an image file type;

upon launching the document, merging each of the components of the document according to relationships between each of the components of the document; and

upon selection of one component of the document assembled in the electronic file container, launching the selected component to allow editing of the selected component to make changes to the selected component apart from other components of the document so that when an application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container is re-launched, the changes made to the selected component are presented in the electronic file container, wherein an application different than the application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container is utilized to launch the selected component.

6. The method of claim 5, when representing a relationship between components of the document showing how each of one or more components of the document relate to other components of the document, establishing a link between each component of the document according to a relationship between each component of the document.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising storing one or more of the components of the document in one or more locations separate from other components of the document.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising upon selection of one component of the document assembled in the electronic file container, launching the selected component to allow editing of the selected component apart from other components of the document.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for managing components of a computer-generated document, comprising:

assembling, by a computer, a plurality of components of a document as a collection of separate components in an electronic file container, wherein the plurality of components are located only within the electronic file container, the plurality of components comprising data objects making up the document, the data objects comprising two or more of a text object, a spreadsheet object, a presentation object, and a formatting object, wherein the data objects have different formatting types and at least one applied property;

generating a relationship representation of the document showing how each of one or more components relate to other components, wherein the relationship representation comprises a relationship between two or more of the plurality of components in the document, and wherein at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship is a parent component, wherein the relationship comprises a relationship type, the relationship type identifying how the parent component uses at least one of the two or more of the plurality of components in the relationship, wherein the parent component comprises an image component, wherein the relationship type for the image component comprises an image, and wherein a content type associated with the image component comprises an image file type;

establishing a link between any related components of the collection of separate components based on a relationship between the any related components;

upon selection of the electronic file container, providing a visual representation of the collection of components and providing a visual representation of how each component of the collection of components relates to other components of the collection of components; and

upon selection of a visual representation of one component of the document from the visual representation of the collection of components, providing access to a component of the document associated with the selected visual representation of one component of the document by launching the selected component associated with the selected visual representation, the selected component comprising a different application than an application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container, for allowing editing of the selected component to make changes to the selected component apart from other components of the document so that when the application utilized to launch the document in the electronic file container is re-launched, the changes made to the selected component utilizing the different application are presented in the electronic file container.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 further comprising allowing manipulation of the selected component associated with the selected visual representation, wherein the manipulation includes allowing copying of the selected component associated with the selected visual representation to a different document.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein upon launching the document, merging the collection of components of the document for presenting the document according to relationships between each of the components of the document.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein assembling a plurality of components of a document as a collection of components in an electronic file container includes assembling the collection of components in a zip format file.