Tool for tracking versions of media sections in a composite presentation

• US 8,881,013 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2010
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lyons, Charles, Vasta, Patrick, Roenning, Jeff, Diener, Lisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOWENBERGER, AARON J
• Application Number:
  US12/688,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,754 Days
• Field of Search: 715/720, 715/723, 715/229
• US Class Current: 715/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

A computer readable medium storing a media editing application for creating media presentations is described. The application includes a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI has (1) a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of a set of media clips that are part of the composite presentation, (2) a navigation tool including several selectable navigation markers associated with several navigable locations in the composite presentation, and (3) a version management feature for (a) indicating whether each location has been modified, (b) providing an option to create a new version of each location, and (c) providing access to previously-saved versions of each location.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a media editing application for execution by at least one processing unit, said application comprising a graphical user interface (GUI), said GUI comprising:

a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of a plurality of media clips that are part of a plurality of sections of a composite media presentation that the application creates by compositing the plurality of media clips;

a plurality of selectable navigation markers associated with the plurality of sections of the composite media presentation, wherein a first section comprises only one media clip and a second section comprises at least two media clips, wherein a selection of a navigation marker causes the composite display area to present the section of the composite presentation that is associated with the selected navigation marker; and

a plurality of version indicators, each particular different version indicator displayed with a particular navigation marker that is associated with a particular different section of the composite media presentation for which one or more versions have been saved, each particular different version indicator for i) indicating whether the particular section has been modified, ii) providing an option to create a new version of the particular section, and iii) providing access to previously-saved versions of the particular section, wherein a first version of the second section comprises a first set of media clips to replace the two media clips, and a second version of the second section comprises a second, different set of media clips to replace the two media clips.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI further comprises a collaboration tool for (i) receiving input that specifies a collaborator of the composite media presentation and (ii) sending a particular version of the particular section to the collaborator of the composite media presentation.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 2, wherein the collaboration tool is further for receiving the particular version of the particular section from the collaborator.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 3, wherein the collaboration tool is further for (i) locking the particular section when the particular version is sent to the collaborator and (ii) unlocking the particular section when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the GUI further comprises:

a version creation tool for creating a new version, wherein the option provided by the particular version indicator to create the new version is exercised through the version creation tool; and

a version access tool for accessing previously-saved versions of a modified section, wherein the particular version indicator provides access to the previously-saved versions of the modified section through the version access tool.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein each version indicator that is associated with a modified section is graphically displayed in proximity of the selectable navigation marker corresponding to the modified section.

7. A method for providing a media-editing application for creating a multimedia presentation, the method comprising:

providing a composite display area for displaying graphical representations of a plurality of media clips that are part of a plurality of different sections of a composite media presentation;

providing a plurality of selectable navigation markers associated with the plurality of sections of the composite media presentation, wherein a selection of a navigation marker associated with a particular section causes the display of the media clips in the particular section within the composite display area; and

providing a version management tool that comprises a separate selectable item for each navigation marker that is associated with a different section of the composite media presentation for which one or more versions have been saved, each selectable item for providing access to previously-saved versions of the corresponding different section of the composite media presentation,

wherein a first section comprises one media clip and a second section comprises two media clips,

wherein a first version of the second section comprises a first set of media clips to replace the two media clips, and a second version of the second section comprises a second, different set of media clips to replace the two media clips.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein each selectable item of the version management tool is further for:

indicating whether the corresponding particular section has been modified; and

providing an option to create a new version of the corresponding particular section.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein any modified version of the particular section is automatically saved as a temporary version.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the graphical representations of the media clips in the composite display area span along a timeline and the different sections are associated with different positions along the timeline.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising providing a collaboration tool for (i) receiving input that specifies a collaborator of the composite media presentation, (ii) sending a particular version of a section to the collaborator of the composite media presentation, and (iii) receiving the particular version of the section from the collaborator.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the collaboration tool is further for (i) locking the section when the particular version is sent to the collaborator and (ii) unlocking the section when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for execution by at least one processing unit, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying a plurality of graphical representations of media clips along a timeline for a composite media presentation in a composite display area of a media-editing application;

displaying a plurality of selectable navigation markers associated with a plurality of navigable sections in the composite media presentation, each navigation marker associated with at least one version of a navigable section, wherein at least one of the sections comprises multiple media clips of the composite media presentation;

receiving a first user input to select a particular navigation marker, wherein the selection of the particular navigation marker with the first user input causes the display within the composite display area to scroll to a position along the timeline associated with the navigable section and the display of the media clips of a current version of the section in the composite display area; and

receiving a second user input to select the particular navigation marker, wherein the selection of the particular navigation marker with the second user input causes a version management feature to present a list of previously saved versions of the section associated with the particular navigation marker.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer program further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving a user input to select a particular version from the list of previously-saved versions; and

displaying the media clips of the particular previously-saved version of the section in the composite display area.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying a collaboration tool for (i) receiving an input that specifies a collaborator of the composite media presentation and (ii) sending a particular version of a section to the collaborator of the composite media presentation.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the collaboration tool is further for receiving the particular version of the section from the collaborator.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the collaboration tool when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 15, wherein the collaboration tool is further for (i) locking the section when the particular version is sent to the collaborator and (ii) unlocking the section when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for providing a version creation tool for saving new versions of different sections.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 19, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for providing a version access tool for accessing the previously-saved versions of the different sections.

21. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying an indication of whether a particular section has been modified.

22. A method for providing a media-editing application for creating composite presentations, the method comprising:

displaying a plurality of graphical representations of media clips along a timeline for a composite media presentation in a composite display area of a media-editing application;

displaying a plurality of selectable navigation markers associated with a plurality of navigable sections in the composite media presentation, each navigation marker associated with at least one version of a navigable section, wherein at least one of the sections comprises multiple media clips of the composite media presentation;

receiving a first user input to select a particular navigation marker, wherein the selection of the particular navigation marker with the first user input causes the display within the composite display area to scroll to a position along the timeline associated with the navigable section and the display of the media clips of a current version of the section in the composite display area; and

receiving a second user input to select the particular navigation marker, wherein the selection of the particular navigation marker with the second user input causes a version management feature to present a list of previously saved versions of the section associated with the particular navigation marker.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

receiving a user input to select a particular version from the list of previously-saved versions; and

displaying the media clips of the particular previously-saved version of the section in the composite display area.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising displaying a collaboration tool for (i) receiving an input that specifies a collaborator of the composite media presentation and (ii) sending a particular version of a section to the collaborator of the composite media presentation.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the collaboration tool is further for receiving the particular version of the section from the collaborator.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the computer program further comprises a set of instructions for displaying the collaboration tool when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the collaboration tool is further for (i) locking the section when the particular version is sent to the collaborator and (ii) unlocking the section when the particular version is received from the collaborator.

28. The method of claim 22 further comprising:

providing a version creation tool for saving new versions of different sections; and

providing a version access tool for accessing the previously-saved versions of the different sections.

29. The method of claim 22 further comprising displaying an indication of whether a particular section has been modified.