Method and system for propagating object properties in a desktop publishing program
First Claim
1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:
- receiving a layout selection command corresponding to a predefined layout for a document;
the layout comprising a predefined set of objects, each object having a set of object properties for defining a visible element of the document;
each object property having a propagation code associated with an object propagation rule for coordinating that object property with a predefined set of other object properties, wherein the propagation codes and their associated rules are stored within an object propagation rule table;
receiving a publication definition command setting an object property definition for a first one of the object properties;
using the object propagation code associated with the first object property to retrieve the propagation rule for the first object property from the object propagation rule table; and
propagating the object property definition for the first object property to a predefined group of the objects in accordance with the propagation rule for the first object property.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A desktop publishing software program configured to propagate object content-defining and format-defining object properties so that user-defined object properties automatically propagate to other objects in the document. Object property propagation allows the author of the document to edit a number of linked objects by editing just one of the objects. To enable object property propagation, the desktop publishing software program includes a propagation table for each predefined layout. Each document is constructed from a number of components, and multiple instances of the same component may occur in a document. Each object has a name including an identifier and an instance code. The desktop publishing software program supports the following object property propagation rules, which may be applied to content properties and format properties separately: (1) do not propagate to any other objects; (2) propagate to objects in the same component whose identifiers belong to the same content or format group; (3) propagate to objects in the same document whose identifiers belong to the same content or format group; (4) propagate to objects in other components of the same document with the same identifiers and instance codes; and (5) propagate to objects in the same document whose identifiers belong to the same content or format group and save the object property in a registry so that the object property propagates to other documents as well.
147 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:
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receiving a layout selection command corresponding to a predefined layout for a document; the layout comprising a predefined set of objects, each object having a set of object properties for defining a visible element of the document; each object property having a propagation code associated with an object propagation rule for coordinating that object property with a predefined set of other object properties, wherein the propagation codes and their associated rules are stored within an object propagation rule table; receiving a publication definition command setting an object property definition for a first one of the object properties; using the object propagation code associated with the first object property to retrieve the propagation rule for the first object property from the object propagation rule table; and propagating the object property definition for the first object property to a predefined group of the objects in accordance with the propagation rule for the first object property. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. In or for a computer system comprising a processing unit, a user input device coupled to the processing unit, a memory coupled to the processing unit, a display device coupled to the processing unit, and a desktop publishing program running on the processing unit, a method for rendering a desktop publishing document comprising:
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receiving a layout selection command from the user input device corresponding to a predefined layout for the document; the layout comprising a predefined set of objects, each object having a user-definable set of object properties for defining a visible element of the desktop publishing document; each object property having a propagation code associated with an object propagation rule for coordinating that object property with a predefined set of other object properties, wherein the propagation codes and their associated rules are stored within an object propagation rule table; receiving a publication definition command setting an object property definition for a first one of the object properties, using the object propagation code associated with the first object property to retrieve the propagation rule for the first object property from the object propagation rule table; and propagating the object property definition for the first object property to a predefined group of the objects in accordance with the propagation rule for the first object property; and displaying the document on the display device. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for implementing a desktop publishing software program comprising:
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a plurality of predefined layouts; each layout comprising a predefined set of objects, each object having a set of object properties for defining a visible element of a desktop publishing document; each layout further comprising a plurality of components, each component comprising a plurality of the objects; each object having an associated identifier and an associated instance code; the layout further comprises a plurality of groups including objects identifiers that occur in a plurality of the components; and the propagation rule for the first object property is selected from a group of propagation rules including, a first rule for no propagation of the object property definition for the first object property, a second rule for propagating the object property definition for the first object property to objects in the same component whose object identifiers belong to the same group, a third rule for propagating the object property definition for the first object property to objects in the same document whose object identifiers belong to the same group, and a fourth rule for propagating the object property definition for the first object property to objects with the same identifiers and the same instance codes in the document. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification