STRUCTURED COAUTHORING

• US 20130297559A1
• Filed: 04/09/2013
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bailor, Jonathan B., Knight, Mark R., Simonds, Andrew R.
• Application Number:
  US13/859,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20130297559A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/608
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system is presented for structured coauthoring of a document, the system comprising a server. The server includes one or more documents organized into sections, a document permissions module that stores user access permissions for each section of a document, a document update processing module that processes requests from a user to share document updates with other users and that processes requests from a user to receive document updates from other users and a document rendering module that renders a document for display on a client so that sections of the document are updated with shared document updates made by users. The user access permissions determine the extent to which a user can modify each section of the document.

Claims

1. A method executable on a computer system for co-authoring a document by a plurality of users, the computer system having at least one data storage device communicatively coupled to at least one processing unit, the method comprising:

accessing the document, wherein the document is organized into a plurality of sections;

receiving first user access permissions associated with a first section of the plurality of sections of the document, wherein the first user access permissions define an extent to which a first user of the plurality of users can access the first section of the plurality of sections of the document;

displaying a control adjacent to each section of the document, wherein the control for a given section is selectable for setting one or more customized rules for changing one or more user access permissions associated with the given section of the document;

in response to a selection of the control adjacent to the first section, setting customized rules for changing the first user access permissions for the first section upon satisfaction of a condition;

determining that the condition has been satisfied; and

in response to the determination, changing the first user access permissions for the first section in accordance with the one or more customized rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first user access permissions include a level of access selected from the group consisting of:

full control, read/write, review only, comment only, read only, and no access.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second user access permissions associated with the first section of the plurality of sections of the document, wherein the second user access permissions define an extent to which a second user of the plurality of users can access the first section of the plurality of sections of the document.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving updates to the first section of the document, wherein the updates are made to the first section according to the second user access permissions.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein after updates are received to the first section of the document, the updates are not available to the first user until the second user sends a request to share the updates with the first user.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a request from the first user to receive the updates;

determining that the request to share the updates by the second user was received; and

displaying the updates to the first user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving changes to the first user access permissions associated with the first section of the document, wherein the changed first user access permissions define a different extent to which the first user can access the first section of the document.