Tracking changes in collaborative authoring environment

• US 9,256,341 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2013
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Megiddo, Eran, Rasmussen, David
• Primary Examiner(s): WENG, PEI YONG
• Application Number:
  US13/848,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20140289645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,056 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Change tracking and collaborative communication are provided in authoring content in a collaborative environment. Monitored changes, comments, and similar input by the collaborating authors may be presented on demand or automatically to each author based on changes and/or comments that affect a particular author, that author'"'"'s portion of collaborated content, type of changes/comments, or similar criteria. Change and/or comments notification may be provided in a complementary user interface of the collaborative authoring application or through a separate communication application such as email or text messaging.

Claims

1. A method to be executed in a computing device for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the method comprising:

receiving one or more of an edit and a comment associated with a collaboratively created content;

receiving a request for viewing changes associated with the collaboratively created content;

displaying a summary of edits and comments associated with the collaboratively created content;

in response to selection of one of the edits and comments, displaying details of the selected one of the edits and comments, wherein the details include a co-author responsible for the selected one of the edits and comments; and

enabling an author who is viewing the selected one of the edits and comments to communicate with the co-author and assign the selected one of the edits and comments to another co-author.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request for viewing changes comprises determining a return of the author to the collaborative authoring environment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request for viewing changes comprises detecting one of selection of a portion of the content and activation of a change view on a collaborative authoring application user interface (UI).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the summary of edits and comments comprises displaying a name of the co-author, a type, a time, and a summary of each edit and comment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the summary includes an initial portion of each edit and comment, a size of the initial portion being selected based on available display area on a computing device of the author.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a selected edit in a changed mode and enabling the author to switch to a change-tracked mode for viewing the edit.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the edits and comments in order of one of a time of each edit and comment, a relevance of each edit and comment to the author, and a type of each edit and comment.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a set of controls for enabling the author to one or more of switch to edit mode, reply to a comment, send a note to the co-author, and accept or reject an edit.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing one of:

a textual scheme, a coloring scheme, a shading scheme, and a graphical element to emphasize the edits and comments.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a pivot history by author.

11. A computing device for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the computing device comprising:

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a collaborative authoring application, wherein the collaborative authoring application is configured to;

receive one or more of an edit and a comment associated with a collaboratively created content;

display a summary of edits and comments associated with the collaboratively created content in response to determining a return of the author to the collaborative authoring environment, detecting a selection of a portion of the content, and detecting an activation of a change view on a collaborative authoring application user interface (UI);

in response to selection of one of the edits and comments, display details of the selected one of the edits and comments, wherein the details include a co-author responsible for the selected on of the edits and comments; and

enable an author who is viewing the selected one of the edits and comments to communicate with the co-author and assign one of the selected one of the edits and comments to another co-author.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the collaborative authoring application is configured to enable the author to communicate with the co-author through one of a notification UI that is part of the collaboration application UI and a separate communication application.

13. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the collaborative authoring application is configured to enable the author to communicate with the co-author through one or more of an email, a text message, a publication to a social network, a publication to a professional network, and a publication to a blog.

14. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the collaborative authoring application is further configured to one or more of restore and compare versions of the content and comments associated with each version.

15. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the author is enabled to interact with the collaborative authoring application through one or more of a touch input, a gesture input, a keyboard input, a mouse input, a pen input, a voice command, and an eye tracking input.

16. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the collaborative authoring application is one a locally installed application, a web application, and a hosted service, and the computing device is one of:

a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet, a smart whiteboard, and a smart phone.

17. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the content includes one or more of textual content, an image, a graphic, an embedded audio object, and an embedded video object.

18. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the instructions comprising:

receiving one or more of an edit and a comment associated with a collaboratively created content;

displaying a summary of edits and comments associated with the collaboratively created content in response to determining a return of the author to the collaborative authoring environment, detecting a selection of a portion of the content, and detecting an activation of a change view on a collaborative authoring application user interface (UI);

in response to selection of one of the edits and comments, displaying details of the selected one of the edits and comments, wherein the details include a co-author of the selected one of the edits and comments; and

enabling an author who is viewing the selected one of the edits and comments to communicate with the co-author through one or more of messages on a portion of the collaborative authoring application UI, an email, a text message, a publication to a social network, a publication to a professional network, and a publication to a blog and assign the selected one of the edits and comments to another co-author.

19. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise presenting the edits and comments based on one or more of a portion of the content that is of interest to the author, changes that affect the author, a history of the entire content, a history of portions of the content, a selected type of edit, and a selected portion of the content.

20. The computer-readable memory device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further comprise presenting the edits and comments following a timeline, wherein an affected portion of the content is emphasized in response to selection of one of the edits and comments in the presented timeline.