Collaborative document development and review system

• US 7,818,678 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Freedom Solutions Group, LLC
• Original Assignee: Litera Technology LLC
• Inventors: Massand, Deepak
• Primary Examiner(s): KE, PENG
• Application Number:
  US10/285,910
• Publication Number:
  US 20040085354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,910 Days
• Field of Search: 715750-759, 715/700
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• 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: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1089 Hierarchical topologies

Abstract

A computer software product for allowing simultaneous multi-level collaboration, including in real time between an author and a group of reviewers invited by the author to comment on a document stored in a computer file. The computer software enables each reviewer to view the document and make changes thereto which are stored in a secondary data file without modifying the contents of the original document. The author receives and views the secondary data files from the reviewers and selectively incorporates the changes into the document. Each reviewer may invite an unlimited number of sub-reviewers to review the document, the comments of each sub-reviewer similarly being stored in a secondary data file wherein only the author may edit the document directly.

Claims

1. A computer-based document collaboration system for managing the simultaneous input of a plurality of reviewers connected over a network of computers, the document collaboration system comprising:

a master data file including a document having contents, and

secondary data files respectively associated with said plurality of reviewers for tracking edits made to the contents of said document;

wherein respective simultaneous edits from said plurality of reviewers that change the contents of said document are stored in said secondary data files;

wherein the respective edits in the secondary data files include respective information specifying respective positions within said document for the respective edits of the contents of the document;

wherein respective edits from said plurality of reviewers corresponding to a position among said respective positions within said document are simultaneously displayed to said plurality of reviewers adjacent to said document in response to activation of a control representing said position within said document; and

wherein as a result of accepting an edit stored in a secondary data file, the document collaboration system modifies the contents of the document according to the edit.

2. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of reviewers is uniquely identifiable by said network, and wherein the master data file includes information specifying review privileges for at least one of said plurality of reviewers.

3. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 2, wherein said edits stored in at least one of said secondary data files displays a subset of the edits in the secondary data file associated with a given reviewer.

4. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 3, wherein said document is created by at least one owner and said at least one owner designates at least one of said reviewers.

5. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 4, wherein said owner selectively incorporates said edits stored in the secondary data files into said document of the master data file.

6. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 3, wherein at least a portion of said document and respective portions of said edits are displayed simultaneously in separate portions of a display device.

7. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 6, wherein said respective portions of said edits displayed correspond to said portion of said document displayed.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the network of computers includes the Internet.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said plurality of reviewers has been designated by another of said plurality of reviewers.

10. A computer-based document collaboration method for managing the simultaneous input of a plurality of reviewers connected over a network of computers, the method comprising:

including a document having contents in a master data file;

respectively associating secondary data files with said plurality of reviewers for tracking edits made to the contents of said document;

storing in said secondary data files respective simultaneous edits from said plurality of reviewers that change the contents of said document;

specifying in the respective edits in the secondary data files respective information for respective positions within said document for the respective edits of the contents of the document;

simultaneously displaying to said plurality of reviewers respective edits from said plurality of reviewers corresponding to a position among said respective positions within said document adjacent to said document in response to activation of a control representing said position within said document; and

when an edit stored in a secondary data file is accepted, modifying the contents of the document according to the edit.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of said plurality of reviewers is uniquely identifiable by said network, and wherein the master data file includes information specifying review privileges for at least one of said plurality of reviewers.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

displaying a subset of the edits in the secondary data file associated with a given reviewer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said document is created by at least one owner and said at least one owner designates at least one of said reviewers.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

said owner selectively incorporating said edits stored in the secondary data files into said document of the master data file.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of said document and respective portions of said edits are displayed simultaneously in separate portions of a display device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said respective portions of said edits displayed correspond to said portion of said document displayed.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of said plurality of reviewers has been designated by another of said plurality of reviewers.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the network of computers includes the Internet.

19. A computer program product for a document collaboration method for managing the simultaneous input of a plurality of reviewers connected over a network of computers, including one or more computer readable instructions embedded on a computer readable medium and configured to cause one or more computer processors to perform steps comprising:

including a document having contents in a master data file;

respectively associating secondary data files with said plurality of reviewers for tracking edits made to the contents of said document;

storing in said secondary data files respective simultaneous edits from said plurality of reviewers that change the contents of said document;

specifying in the respective edits in the secondary data files respective information for respective positions within said document for the respective edits of the contents of the document;

simultaneously displaying to said plurality of reviewers respective edits from said plurality of reviewers corresponding to a position among said respective positions within said document adjacent to said document in response to activation of a control representing said position within said document; and

when an edit stored in a secondary data file is accepted, modifying the contents of the document according to the edit.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein each of said plurality of reviewers is uniquely identifiable by said network, and wherein the master data file includes information specifying review privileges for at least one of said plurality of reviewers.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

displaying a subset of the edits in the secondary data file associated with a given reviewer.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein said document is created by at least one owner and said at least one owner designates at least one of said reviewers.

23. The computer program product of claim 22 further comprising:

said owner selectively incorporating said edits stored in the secondary data files into said document of the master data file.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein at least a portion of said document and respective portions of said edits are displayed simultaneously in separate portions of a display device.

25. The computer program product of claim 24, wherein said respective portions of said edits displayed correspond to said portion of said document displayed.

26. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein at least one of said plurality of reviewers has been designated by another of said plurality of reviewers.

27. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the network of computers includes the Internet.