Story tracking for fixed layout markup documents

• US 7,721,198 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lopez, Rodrigo, Liu, Ming, Gurcan, Ahmet, Sedky, Khaled S, McGatha, Jesse D., Foehr, Oliver H, Dunietz, Jerry, Leese, Eric S
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US11/275,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20070180357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 715/241, 715/242, 715/249, 715/243, 715/273
• US Class Current: 715/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

Techniques relating to story tracking for fixed layout markup documents are described. In one instance, a process identifies stories contained in a fixed layout markup document. The process also determines which portions of the fixed layout markup document relate to an individual story.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying, by a computing device, stories contained in a fixed layout markup document, the fixed layout markup document including;

content markup that conveys content of the fixed layout markup document such that a representation of the fixed layout markup document can be generated from the content markup; and

structural markup that references the content markup and identifies a plurality of individual stories and story fragments of the individual stories, the structural markup including a story break designator to indicate whether a particular story fragment should be merged with a preceding story fragment or a subsequent story fragment; and

determining, by the computing device, which portions of the fixed layout markup document relate to an individual story of the plurality of individual stories.

2. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises generating a story section of the fixed layout markup document which lists the stories and which references portions of the fixed layout markup document related to individual stories.

3. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein content of the fixed layout markup document is conveyed by the content markup and wherein the identifying and the determining comprise generating the structural markup.

4. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 3, wherein the identifying comprises identifying the stories in a story section and wherein the determining comprises determining the portions in a story fragments section which is referenced from the story section.

5. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein content of the fixed layout markup document is conveyed by content markup elements and wherein the determining comprises specifying individual content markup elements that relate to a story fragment of an individual story.

6. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the fixed layout markup document comprises individual fixed pages and the content markup which conveys content for the individual fixed pages and wherein the determining comprises generating the structural markup such that the structural markup is associated with individual fixed pages.

7. The computer-implemented method as recited in claim 6, wherein the structural markup associated with individual fixed pages references specific named elements of the content markup.

8. A computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform acts, comprising:

identifying content of a fixed layout markup document relating to a first story, the fixed layout markup document including;

content markup that conveys content of the fixed layout markup document such that a representation of the fixed layout markup document can be generated from the content markup; and

structural markup that references the content markup and identifies a plurality of individual stories and story fragments of the individual stories, the structural markup including a story break designator to indicate whether a particular story fragment should be merged with a preceding story fragment or a subsequent story fragment; and

identifying different content of the fixed layout markup document relating to a second story of the plurality of individual stories.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the fixed layout markup document stores the content and the different content as content markup elements and wherein the identifying further comprises generating separate structural markup which reference the content markup elements.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the fixed layout markup document comprises a page-based fixed layout markup document and wherein the identifying are accomplished in respect to individual pages of the page-based fixed layout markup document.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10 further comprising identifying individual pages on which the first and second stories appear.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein identifying individual pages comprises generating a document story section which references the first story to individual pages on which portions of the first story appear and which references the second story to individual pages on which portions of the second story appear.

13. The computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the portions comprise story fragments including one or more content blocks of an individual page.

14. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

one or more processors;

a programmed application to generate a fixed layout markup document as a set of fixed pages comprising a set of content markup elements, wherein individual content markup elements specify document content and associated positional data for the document content relative to the fixed layout markup document;

a document story module to identify a story comprising a portion of the document content and to generate a document story section that references the individual content markup elements;

a story fragments module to create a story fragments reference section for each page of the fixed layout markup document that identifies story fragments of stories contained on each page, the story fragments reference section further providing a reading order for story fragments contained on each page relative to a particular story and/or multiple stories on each page; and

a story break designator to indicate whether a particular story fragment should be merged with a preceding story fragment or a subsequent story fragment.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the programmed application is to store the fixed layout markup document as a series of fixed pages, and wherein the story fragments module is to create individual story fragments reference sections for individual fixed pages.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the document story module is to list stories of the document and to list pages on which individual stories appear.

17. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein the document story module references from an individual story to a corresponding set of story fragments and to pages upon which individual story fragments of the set occur.

18. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein the programmed application comprises the document story module and the story fragments module.