Method, system, and computer-readable medium for creating, inserting, and reusing document parts in an electronic document

• US 7,617,450 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pratley, Christopher H., Jones, Brian M., Davis, Tristan A., Sawicki, Marcin, Taboada, Roberto C., Bailey, Eric D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell; James H
• Application Number:
  US10/955,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20060075337A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• Field of Search: 715/526, 715/527, 715/529, 715/522, 715/530, 715/539, 715/540, 715/248, 715271-274, 715/255, 715730-731, 715/838, 715/841
• US Class Current: 715/255
• 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 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium are provided for creating, inserting, and reusing document parts in an electronic document. According to a system, a word processing application program receives a selection of a document part category. In response to the selection of the document part category, a gallery of document parts is displayed in a user interface. A selection of a document part from the gallery is received and inserted in the electronic document without the need for additional formatting. The gallery of document parts defines a page layout for the electronic document. Document parts may be created within the user interface by modifying pre-built document parts.

Claims

1. A method for inserting and reusing document parts in an electronic document created within a word processing application program, comprising:

receiving a selection of a document part category;

displaying a gallery of document parts associated with the selected document part category, wherein the document parts include reusable portions of document content;

receiving a selection of a document part from the gallery, wherein the document part includes a role identifier that indicates a role of the document part within the electronic document;

identifying the role indicated by the role identifier;

inserting the selected document part in the electronic document in accordance with the identified role;

receiving user data; and

modifying the selected part with the received user data, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data comprises adding additional data to the selected document part, the additional data comprising at least one document part from one or more alternative galleries of document parts and selecting an option from a menu comprising a plurality of options for modifying the selected document part, wherein selecting the option from the menu for modifying the selected document part comprises generating a submenu displaying thumbnails of additional document parts from the gallery and an option for removing a currently displayed document part, and wherein the submenu is utilized to replace a currently displayed document part with one of the additional document parts from the gallery without returning to the gallery.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data further comprises converting the user data to a preexisting format for the selected document part.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting a new document part from a user interface within the selected document part.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying a gallery of document parts associated with the document element category comprises:

displaying a preview of each document part in the gallery; and

displaying a description of each document part in the gallery.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the gallery of document parts defines a page layout for the electronic document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein inserting the selected document part in the electronic document further comprises inserting the selected document part such that the document part matches a preexisting format of surrounding text.

7. A system for inserting and reusing document parts in an electronic document, comprising a client computer operative to execute an application program for consuming data, the application program further operative to receive a selection of a document part category, display a gallery of document parts associated with the selected document part category, wherein the document parts include reusable portions of document content, receive a selection of a document part from the gallery, wherein the document part includes a role identifier that indicates a role of the document part within the electronic document, identify the role indicated by the role identifier, to insert the selected document part in the electronic document in accordance with the identified role, to receive user data, and to modify the selected part with the received user data, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data comprises adding additional data to the selected document part, the additional data comprising at least one document part from one or more alternative galleries of document parts and selecting an option from a menu comprising a plurality of options for modifying the selected document part, wherein selecting the option from the menu for modifying the selected document part comprises generating a submenu displaying thumbnails of additional document parts from the gallery and an option for removing a currently displayed document part, and wherein the submenu is utilized to replace a currently displayed document part with one of the additional document parts from the gallery without returning to the gallery.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data further comprises converting the user data to a preexisting format for the selected document part.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the application program is further operative to select a new document part from a user interface within the selected document part.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein displaying a gallery of document parts associated with the document element category comprises:

displaying a preview of each document part in the gallery; and

displaying a description of each document part in the gallery.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the gallery of document parts defines a page layout for the electronic document.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein inserting the selected document part in the electronic document further comprises inserting the selected document part such that the document part matches a preexisting format of surrounding text.

13. A system for creating document parts for defining the layout of an electronic document, comprising a client computer operative to execute an application program for consuming data, the application program further operative to generate a user interface for receiving user data, the user data utilized to create a document part defining the layout of the electronic document, wherein the user data is further utilized to modify the document part, wherein modifying the document part comprises adding additional data to the document part, the additional data comprising at least one document part from one or more alternative galleries of document parts, and selecting an option from a menu comprising a plurality of options for modifying the selected document part, wherein selecting the option from the menu for modifying the selected document part comprises generating a submenu displaying thumbnails of additional document parts from the gallery and an option for removing a currently displayed document part, and wherein the submenu is utilized to replace a currently displayed document part with one of the additional document parts from the gallery without returning to the gallery, wherein the document part includes reusable portions of document content, wherein the user interface includes insertion options for indicating a role for the document part within the electronic document, create the document part based on the received user data and the indicated role, and to save the created document part, wherein the user created document part is saved to the document part gallery simultaneously in a plurality of data formats, the plurality of data formats including at least two of a word processing format, a hypertext markup language format, an extensible markup language format, a binary format, and a rich text format.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the application program is further operative to retrieve a previously created document part gallery, receive a selection from a gallery of previously created document parts, identify the role indicated by the role identifier, and to insert the document part from the gallery into the user created document part in accordance with the identified role.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein creating the document part based on the received user data comprises applying a user selected format to the user data, applying a description to the user data, and receiving a selection of a document gallery for the user data.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, will cause the computer to perform a method for inserting and reusing document parts in an electronic document created within a word processing application program, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of a document part category;

displaying a gallery of document parts associated with the selected document part category, wherein displaying a gallery of document parts associated with the selected document part category comprises displaying a preview of each document part in the gallery and displaying a description of each document part in the gallery, wherein the document parts include reusable portions of document content;

receiving a selection of a document part from the gallery, wherein the document part includes a role identifier that indicates a role of the document part within the electronic document;

automatically inserting at least one of author information and current date information in the displayed preview using previously stored document properties associated with the word processing application program;

identifying the role indicated by the role identifier;

inserting the selected document part in the electronic document in accordance with the identified role;

receiving user data; and

modifying the selected document part with the received user data, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data comprises adding additional data to the selected document part, the additional data comprising at least one document part from one or more alternative galleries of document parts and selecting an option from a menu comprising a plurality of options for modifying the selected document part, wherein selecting the option from the menu for modifying the selected document part comprises generating a submenu displaying thumbnails of additional document parts from the gallery and an option for removing a currently displayed document part, and wherein the submenu is utilized to replace a currently displayed document part with one of the additional document parts from the gallery without returning to the gallery, and wherein the selected document part defines a page layout for the electronic document.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein modifying the selected document part with the received user data comprises converting the user data to a preexisting format for the selected document part.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising selecting a new document part from a user interface within the selected document part.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein inserting the selected document part in the electronic document further comprises inserting the selected document part such that the document part matches a preexisting format of surrounding text.