Desktop, stream-based, information management system
DC CAFCFirst Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of operating a computer system comprising:
- providing the computer system with documents from diverse applications in respective formats unique to the respective applications;
causing the computer system to automatically, without user interaction and without requiring a user to designate directory structures or other pre-imposed document categorizations structures, store the provided documents as a time-ordered main stream of documents associated with respective automatically generated time indicators;
said time-ordered main stream being unbounded to thereby accommodate documents associated with time indicators related to past, present and future times;
said time-ordered main stream requiring no fixed beginning or end and being maintained and being selectively retrievable and searchable by the computer system;
said computer system maintaining the main stream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new documents as provided to the computer system while maintaining the thus expanded main stream time-ordered;
providing selected search criteria;
causing said computer system to search said time-ordered main stream according to said search criteria and use search results to create a time-ordered substream of documents from the main time-ordered stream;
further causing said computer system to maintain said substream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new document provided to the computer system that meet the search criteria while maintaining the thus expanded substream time-ordered;
displaying at least selected portion of the live main stream or substream on computer display means as a display reflecting the time-ordered nature thereof;
automatically showing on the display means a display of a glance view of a displayed document in response to touching with a cursor a screen area associated with the document;
said glance view being an abbreviated version of the document and indicative of content thereof; and
said showing of the glance view occurring essentially instantaneously in response to said touching with the cursor of the screen area associated with the document.
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Abstract
A steam-based document storage and retrieval system accepts documents that are in diverse formats and come from diverse application, automatically creates document model objects describing these documents in a consistent format and associating time stamps with the documents to automatically create a main stream in chronological order. The stream, or sub-streams meeting selected search criteria, are displayed in a variety of forms, including a receding, partly overlapping stack with aids that facilitate user interaction.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method of operating a computer system comprising:
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providing the computer system with documents from diverse applications in respective formats unique to the respective applications; causing the computer system to automatically, without user interaction and without requiring a user to designate directory structures or other pre-imposed document categorizations structures, store the provided documents as a time-ordered main stream of documents associated with respective automatically generated time indicators; said time-ordered main stream being unbounded to thereby accommodate documents associated with time indicators related to past, present and future times; said time-ordered main stream requiring no fixed beginning or end and being maintained and being selectively retrievable and searchable by the computer system; said computer system maintaining the main stream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new documents as provided to the computer system while maintaining the thus expanded main stream time-ordered; providing selected search criteria; causing said computer system to search said time-ordered main stream according to said search criteria and use search results to create a time-ordered substream of documents from the main time-ordered stream; further causing said computer system to maintain said substream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new document provided to the computer system that meet the search criteria while maintaining the thus expanded substream time-ordered; displaying at least selected portion of the live main stream or substream on computer display means as a display reflecting the time-ordered nature thereof; automatically showing on the display means a display of a glance view of a displayed document in response to touching with a cursor a screen area associated with the document; said glance view being an abbreviated version of the document and indicative of content thereof; and said showing of the glance view occurring essentially instantaneously in response to said touching with the cursor of the screen area associated with the document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer readable medium tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer system to cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:
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providing the computer system with documents from diverse applications in respective formats unique to the respective applications; causing the computer system to automatically, without user interaction and without requiring a user to designate directory structures or other pre-imposed document categorizations structures, store the provided documents as a time-ordered main stream of documents associated with respective automatically generated time indicators; said time-ordered main stream being unbounded to thereby accommodate documents associated with time indicators related to past, present and future times; said time-ordered main stream requiring no fixed beginning or end and being maintained and being selectively retrievable and searchable by the computer system; said computer system maintaining the main stream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new documents as provided to the computer system while maintaining the thus expanded main stream time-ordered; providing selected search criteria; causing said computer system to search said time-ordered main stream according to said search criteria and use search results to create a time-ordered substream of documents from the main time-ordered stream; further causing said computer system to maintain said substream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new document provided to the computer system that meet the search criteria while maintaining the thus expanded substream time-ordered; displaying at least selected portion of the live main stream or substream on computer display means as a display reflecting the time-ordered nature thereof; automatically showing on the display means a display of a glance view of a displayed document in response to touching with a cursor a screen area associated with the document; said glance view being an abbreviated version of the document and indicative of content thereof; and said showing of the glance view occurring essentially instantaneously in response to said touching with the cursor of the screen area associated with the document. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer system comprising:
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inputs providing the computer system with documents from diverse applications in respective formats unique to the respective applications; a processing system causing the computer system to automatically, without user interaction and without requiring a user to designate directory structures or other pre-imposed document categorizations structures, store the provided documents as a time-ordered main stream of documents associated with respective automatically generated time indicators; said time-ordered main stream being unbounded to thereby accommodate documents associated with time indicators related to past, present and future times; said time-ordered main stream requiring no fixed beginning or end and being maintained and being selectively retrievable and searchable by the computer system; said computer system maintaining the main stream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new documents as provided to the computer system while maintaining the thus expanded main stream time-ordered; a source providing selected search criteria; said processing system causing said computer system to search said time-ordered main stream according to said search criteria and use search results to create a time- ordered substream of documents from the main time-ordered stream; said processing system further causing said computer system to maintain said substream live and responsive to subsequent events by automatically incorporating therein new document provided to the computer system that meet the search criteria while maintaining the thus expanded substream time-ordered; said computer system; displaying at least selected portion of the live main stream or substream on computer display means as a display reflecting the time-ordered nature thereof; automatically showing on the display means a display of a glance view of a displayed document in response to touching with a cursor a screen area associated with the document; said glance view being an abbreviated version of the document and indicative of content thereof; and said showing of the glance view occurring essentially instantaneously in response to said touching with the cursor of the screen area associated with the document. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification