Collaborative document development and review system

• US 20040085354A1
• Filed: 10/31/2002
• Published: 05/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Litera Technology LLC
• Original Assignee: Litera Technology LLC
• Inventors: Massand, Deepak
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/751
• 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 input of a plurality of reviewers associated with a plurality of computers connected in a network of computers comprising:

a master data file containing a document stored on at least one of said computers for display on one of a plurality of display devices associated with said network, and

at least one secondary data file stored on at least one of said computers and associated with at least one of said plurality of reviewers and associated with said document;

wherein said network of computers accepts input from at least one of said plurality of reviewers related to said document from said reviewer and stores said input in said secondary data file.

2. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of reviewers is uniquely identifiable by said network.

3. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 2 wherein at least a portion of said input stored in at least one of said secondary data files is displayed on at least one of said display devices.

4. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 1 wherein said reviewers are selected from a plurality of individuals associated with said network of computers.

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

6. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 5 wherein at least one of said reviewers has been designated by another reviewer.

7. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 5 wherein said owner selectively incorporates said input into said document.

8. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 3 wherein at least a portion of said document and said at least a portion of said input are displayed simultaneously in separate portions of said at least one display device.

9. The computer-based document collaboration system of claim 8 wherein said portion of said input displayed corresponds to said portion of said document displayed on said at least one display device.

10. In a network of computers having associated therewith input and display means and to which a plurality of individual users are authorized access, a system for managing the comments of a plurality of reviewers comprising:

a master data file on said network of computers and displayed on said display means containing a document created by at least one owner;

at least one account authorizing access to said network by said owner;

a distribution list identifying at least one of said plurality of users to serve as a first level of reviewers to provide comments on said document;

at least one account for each of said reviewers authorizing access to said network by each of said reviewers; and

at least one secondary data file linked to said document and the account of each of said reviewer;

wherein the comments of said at least one reviewer are provided via said input means and stored in said secondary data file.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said owner is authorized to create said distribution list.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein each of said first level of reviewers are authorized to create a sub-distribution list each identifying at least one of said individual users to serve as a second level of reviewers of said document having authorization to designate further levels of reviewers and further comprising at least one account authorizing access to said network for each of said reviewers.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a hierarchy wherein said account of said owner is assigned a first rank and the account of each level of said reviewers are assigned progressively subordinate ranks; and

a lineage wherein the accounts of each of said reviewers identified by a particular reviewer are assigned to the same line.

14. A computer-based document editing system comprising:

a plurality of computers connected in a network,

a document stored on at least one of said computers;

a data file stored on at least one of said computers containing information related to said document, and

at least one display associated with said network, said display divided into a plurality of regions including at least a first region displaying a portion of the document and a second region displaying a portion of the data file corresponding to the portion of the document.

15. The computer-based document editing system of claim 14 further comprising:

an editor to enable said first region to accept input from said computer modifying the portion of the document displayed in said region and modifying the contents of said document, wherein the modified contents are stored in said data file.

16. The computer-based document editing system of claim 14 wherein the information contained in the second region is selectively incorporated into the document.

17. A computer-based document collaboration system for managing the input of a plurality of reviewers associated with a plurality of computers connected in a network of computers comprising:

a master data file containing a document created by at least one owner stored on at least one of said computers for display on one of a plurality of display devices associated with said network;

at least one secondary data file stored on at least one of said computers and associated with at least one of said plurality of reviewers and associated with said document;

at least one of said display devices having a display divided into a plurality of regions including at least a first region displaying a portion of the document contained in said master data file and a second region displaying a portion of the secondary data file corresponding to said portion of the document; and

an editor to enable said first region to accept input from said computer modifying the portion of the document displayed in said region and modifying the contents of said document wherein the modified contents are stored in said secondary data file.

18. The computer-based document editing system of claim 17 wherein the information contained in the second region is selectively incorporated into the document.

19. A method for editing a document comprising the steps of:

creating on a network of computers a master data file containing the document;

identifying a plurality of reviewers to review the document;

creating on the network of computers at least one secondary data file each uniquely associated with one of the reviewers;

displaying the document on a computer having a display and an input device;

recording changes to the document made by each of said reviewers using the input

device in the secondary data file uniquely associated with each of said reviewers;

selectively modifying the contents of the master data file based on the changes recorded in said at least one secondary data file.