Adding and removing white space from a document

• US 7,735,008 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2006
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Weil, Steve, Iwema, Marieke, Lui, Charlton E., Altman, Dan, Fox, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US11/338,850
• Publication Number:
  US 20060123336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,595 Days
• Field of Search: 715/243, 715/244, 715/245, 715/268, 715/247, 715/246, 715/251, 715/252, 715/253, 715/273
• US Class Current: 715/244
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

A method, a computer system and a computer-readable medium having instructions for a processor stored thereon are provided for growing a page on a display. Input indicating a first position or designation of content on a page of an electronic document and an amount of white space to be inserted in the page is received. Responsive to the received input, at least some of the content of the page of the electronic document is moved to insert white space. The moving starts from a point based on the first position. The portion of the content being moved is moved a distance based on the amount of white space indicated in the received input. The page is grown by an amount based on the amount of the white space indicated in the received input. A respective size of other pages of the electronic document remains unchanged. Also provided are a method, a computer system and a computer-readable medium having instructions for a processor stored thereon for deleting a portion of a page and reducing a size of the page.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of adding space to a page of electronic paper, comprising:

displaying a page of electronic paper on a display, said page having existing content contained within an existing boundary of said page as formatted to a first page size;

receiving a designation of a location on the displayed page where new space is to be inserted in said page;

inserting new space at the location in the page by moving a portion of the existing content on the page, as needed, to provide room for an amount of new space inserted in said page; and

wherein when inserting new space causes a portion of the existing content of the page to be moved outside the existing boundary of said page as formatted to the first page size, then automatically reformatting the page from the first page size to a second page size larger than the first page size based on the new space inserted, so that all of the existing content is maintained on the page as reformatted at the second page size.

2. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when loaded and executed by a processor, cause performance of acts for adding space into a page of electronic paper in an electronic document, the acts comprising:

receiving a designation of a location for inserting new space on a page of electronic paper, said page having existing content contained within an existing boundary of the page as formatted to a first page size;

inserting new space at the location in the page in response to receiving the designation;

moving a portion of the existing content on the page in response to the inserting, as needed, to provide room for an amount of newly inserted space in said page; and

wherein when there is insufficient space to fit all of the existing content of said page together with said newly inserted space within the existing boundary of the page as formatted to the first page size, then automatically reformatting the page from the first page size to a second page size larger than the first page size based on the new space inserted, so that all of the existing content is maintained on the page as reformatted at the second page size.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the designation indicates an amount of new space to be inserted, and further comprising instructions that when loaded and executed by the processor, cause performance of a further act of determining that there is insufficient space when the amount of new space to be added to the page would cause at least a portion of the existing content of the page to not fit within the existing boundary of the page as formatted to the first page size.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein a difference between the second page size and the first page size corresponds to a minimum amount of space necessary to fit at least the portion of the existing content of the page that would not have fit on the page as formatted to the first page size.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions that when loaded and executed by the processor, cause performance of further acts including:

determining that available space exists within the portion of the existing content to be moved; and

removing a portion of the available space within the portion of the existing content to be moved,

wherein removing the portion of the available space provides at least some additional space that allows existing content to fit on the page as formatted to the first page size.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the page is part of a document including plural pages, and further comprising instructions that when loaded and executed by the processor, cause performance of a further act of reformatting the page size of other pages to the second page size based on the new space inserted.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the act of reformatting the page from the first page size to the second page size includes increasing a width of the page.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions that when loaded and executed by the processor, cause performance of a further act of determining a portion of the existing content to be moved based at least in part on a structural component on the page.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the act of moving a portion of the existing content on the page includes modifying a structural component on the page.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the designation is a line or lines separating existing content on said page.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions that when loaded and executed by the processor, cause performance of a further act of providing a scrolling control on a display displaying the page of electronic paper when the second page size of the page is too large to allow the page to be displayed on a single display screen.

12. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a display to display a page of electronic paper of an electronic document in which space will be inserted, said page having existing content contained within an existing boundary of said page as formatted to a first page size;

an input device to input a designation of a location where new space is to be inserted on the splayed page of electronic paper of the electronic document,

wherein the processor is configured to cause performance of acts including;

receiving the input designation;

inserting new space at the location in the page in response to receiving the input designation;

moving a portion of the existing content on the page in response to the inserting, as needed, to provide room for an amount of newly inserted space in said page; and

wherein when there is insufficient space to fit all of the existing content of said page together with said newly inserted space within the existing boundary of the page as formatted to the first page size, then automatically reformatting the page from the first page size to a second page size larger than the first page size based on the new space inserted, so that all of the existing content is maintained on the page as reformatted at the second page size.

13. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the designation indicates an amount of new space to be inserted, and wherein the processor is configured to cause performance of a further act of determining that there is insufficient space when the amount of new space to be added to the page would cause at least a portion of the existing content of the page to not fit within the existing boundary of the page as formatted to the first page size.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein a difference between the second page size and the first page size corresponds to a minimum amount of space necessary to fit at least the portion of the existing content of the page that would not have fit on the page as formatted to the first page size.

15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to cause performance of further acts including:

determining that available space exists within the portion of the existing content to be moved; and

removing a portion of the available space within the portion of the existing content to be moved,

wherein removing the portion of the available space provides at least some additional space that allows existing content to fit on the page as formatted to the first page size.

16. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the page is part of a document including plural pages, and wherein the processor is configured to cause performance of a further act of reformatting the page size of other pages to the second page size based on the space inserted.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the act of reformatting the page from the first page size to the second page size includes increasing a width of the page.

18. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the act of moving a portion of the existing content on the page includes modifying a structural component on the page.

19. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the designation is a line or lines separating existing content on said page.

20. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to cause performance of a further act of providing a scrolling control on the display displaying the page of electronic paper when the second page size of the page is too large to allow the page to be displayed on the display.