Document revisions in a collaborative computing environment
First Claim
1. A method of displaying a traversable, chronological representation of an electronic document'"'"'s history, derived from revisions of the electronic document, in a collaborative computing environment, comprising:
- retrieving revision history information from the electronic document;
selecting a region within the electronic document;
selecting a plurality of revision points from the revision history, wherein the revision points correspond to the selected region of the electronic document;
retrieving changes to the document depicted in each of the revision points;
rendering the selected region of the electronic document with each of the changes applied, wherein for each change applied, morphing a first image of the document prior to the application of the change with a second image of the document after the application of the change;
creating media including the rendering of the selected region of the electronic document;
wherein the media is created separately from the document;
wherein the media includes at least one graphical control for controlling display of the media; and
presenting the media.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a collaborative computing environment, a method and system for displaying revisions associated with a hosted electronic document are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, select revisions of an electronic document may be displayed to a user as media (e.g. Flash™ animation, QuickTime™, MPEG, Windows™ Media Video, RealMedia™, DivX™, DHTML, etc.) in which the revisions are animated, recreating a visual history play-back of the evolution of the document. The animation may include an image of each selected revision, morphing into another image of another revision. The animation may be displayed in various orders (e.g. chronologically, by user, etc.) The user may use an application on a client device (e.g. a web-browser, a web-browser with a media plug-in, a media players, etc.) to view the media file and control various properties of the animation playback (e.g. speed, direction, pausing, skipping forward or back, etc.).
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of displaying a traversable, chronological representation of an electronic document'"'"'s history, derived from revisions of the electronic document, in a collaborative computing environment, comprising:
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retrieving revision history information from the electronic document; selecting a region within the electronic document; selecting a plurality of revision points from the revision history, wherein the revision points correspond to the selected region of the electronic document; retrieving changes to the document depicted in each of the revision points;
rendering the selected region of the electronic document with each of the changes applied, wherein for each change applied, morphing a first image of the document prior to the application of the change with a second image of the document after the application of the change;creating media including the rendering of the selected region of the electronic document; wherein the media is created separately from the document; wherein the media includes at least one graphical control for controlling display of the media; and presenting the media. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 26)
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17. A computer-implemented system for allowing a user to view evolution of an electronic document including changes to the electronic document that were made over time, comprising:
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means for retrieving and displaying the electronic document; means for selecting a graphical region within the electronic document; means for retrieving revision information associated with the selected graphical region within the electronic document; means for creating a document-history animation sequence, the animation sequence comprising; means for creating a plurality of revision frames from the retrieved revision information, wherein the plurality of revision frames include revision changes to the selected graphical region within the electronic document, and wherein information included as a change in one revision frame is included with a different transparency factor in a different revision frame, and wherein the document-history animation sequence is created separately from the document; and means for displaying the document-history animation sequence. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A computer-implemented method of playing back evolution of a segment of an electronic document, comprising:
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presenting an electronic document; retrieving a revision history associated with the electronic document; presenting a graphical control, the graphical control allowing to select a graphical region within a visible portion of the electronic document; selecting the graphical region; choosing a first and a second reference points from the revision history, wherein the first and the second reference points are applicable to the chosen graphical region; determining revision points between the first and the second reference points; traversing the determined revision points and generating a graphical representation of the electronic document at each revision point; constructing an animation sequence comprised of the graphical representation of the electronic document at each revision point, wherein the animation sequence is created separately from the document; and displaying the animation sequence as animation-sequence-playback. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification