Low resolution placeholder content for document navigation

• US 8,959,431 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2012
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bunker, Benjamin J., Himberger, Andrew, Borysenko, Michael I., Frem, Peter, Perkins, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US13/350,838
• Publication Number:
  US 20130185633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,128 Days
• Field of Search: 715/246, 715/247, 715/249, 715/253, 715/241, 715/271
• US Class Current: 715/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

Architecture generates low resolution placeholder content that preserves the usefulness of application responsiveness by preserving and displaying the structure of the content. This facilitates decreased memory requirements associated with pre-rendering structurally-intact content. The architecture enables the storing of pre-rendered content at a lower zoom level than is intended for actual display to require fewer resources, pre-rendering content at a lower zoom level to allow the application to adjust for the lower zoom level to provide more structural integrity than would be achieved rendering at full display zoom level and compressing the resulting data, stretching the pre-rendered content to the zoom level that is intended for display in order to achieve a low resolution appearance that merges directly with the full resolution content, and transitioning between low resolution content and full resolution content when the full resolution content becomes available.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing device having a processor, comprising:

with the processor,

receiving content of a document for presentation in a plurality of document pages;

determining if rendering a portion of the received content at a full resolution is timely for presentation in one of the document pages via a viewport when the one of the document pages is navigated to;

in response to determining that rendering the portion of the received content at the full resolution is not timely,

rendering the portion of the received content as a placeholder content at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the portion of the received content;

inserting the rendered placeholder content into the one of the document pages in place of the portion of the received content;

displaying the one of the document pages with the inserted placeholder content when the one of the document pages is navigated to while continuing rendering the portion of the received content at the full resolution;

transitioning from the placeholder content to the portion of the received content at the full resolution in the displayed one of the document pages when rendering of the portion of the received content at the full resolution is completed;

determining that another page of the document is navigated to based on a direction of navigation of the document;

in response to the determination, rendering another portion of the received content corresponding to the another page of the document as another placeholder image, the another placeholder image being at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the received content; and

utilizing a processor that executes instructions stored in memory to perform at least one of the acts of receiving, determining, generating, inserting, displaying, or transitioning.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising stretching the placeholder content to fit a structural footprint of the portion of the received content in the displayed one of the document pages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transitioning from the placeholder content to the rendered full resolution image of the portion of the received content while the displayed one of the document pages is being viewed in the viewport.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the placeholder content is an image of text of a word processing document, and wherein transitioning includes transitioning to an editable version of the text.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering placeholder content from each of different sets of received content according to rendering prioritization criteria.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising managing navigation to ensure that either the placeholder content or the corresponding portion of received content is presented in the viewport.

7. A method performed by a computing device having a processor, comprising:

with the processor,

receiving content of a document for presentation in a plurality of document pages via a viewport;

determining if rendering at an actual resolution a portion of the received content is timely for viewing via the viewport in one of the document pages when the one of the document pages is navigated to;

in response to determining that rendering at the actual resolution of the portion of the received content would not be timely,

rendering the portion of the received content as placeholder content at a lower resolution than the actual resolution and having a layout generally similar to that of the portion of the received content;

replacing the portion of the received content in the one of the document pages with the rendered placeholder content;

presenting another portion of the received content at the actual resolution and the placeholder content at the lower resolution in the one of the document pages when the one of the document pages is viewed in the viewport while continue rendering the portion of the received content at the actual resolution;

visually transitioning from the placeholder content to the corresponding rendered portion of the received content at the actual resolution when rendering of the corresponding portion of the received content is completed and while the one of the document pages is viewed in the viewport;

determining that another page of the document is navigated to based on a direction of navigation of the document;

in response to the determination, rendering another portion of the received content corresponding to the another page of the document as another placeholder image, the another placeholder image being at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the received content; and

utilizing a processor that executes instructions stored in memory to perform at least one of the acts of receiving, rendering, replacing, presenting, or transitioning.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising pre-rendering the placeholder content based on anticipation, and storing the pre-rendered placeholder content at a lower zoom level than a zoom level of the corresponding portion of the received content.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising stretching the placeholder content to conform to structural dimensions of a footprint of the portion of the received content in the one of the document pages, when inserting the placeholder content into the one of the document pages.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising rendering the placeholder content to a lower resolution unrecognizable to a user but usable to facilitate navigation by the user to a target location in the document pages.

11. A computing system, comprising:

a processor;

a display and a memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory containing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a process including;

receiving a document for presentation, the document having a plurality of pages;

presenting the received document via the display, wherein the presenting includes;

determining if rendering of a portion of the received content at a full resolution is timely for presentation in one of the pages of the document via the display when the page is navigated to;

in response to determining that rendering the portion of the received content at the full resolution is not timely,

rendering the portion of the received content as a placeholder image of the portion of the received content, the placeholder image being at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the received content;

inserting the rendered placeholder image into the page in place of the portion of the received content at the full resolution;

displaying the page with the inserted placeholder image via the display while rendering the portion of the received content at the full resolution; and

transitioning from the placeholder image to the portion of the received content at the full resolution after rendering of the portion of the received content at the full resolution is completed;

determining that another page of the document is navigated to based on a direction of navigation of the document; and

in response to the determination, rendering another portion of the received content corresponding to the another page of the document as another placeholder image of the portion of the received content, the another placeholder image being at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the received content.

12. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the portion of the received content includes text; and

rendering the portion of the received content as the placeholder image includes rendering the portion of the received content as a bitmap image of the text.

13. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the page is a first page of the document;

the another page is a second page; and

the process performed by the processor further includes;

in response to the determination that another page of the document is navigated to,

stopping rendering the portion of the received content corresponding to the first page at the full resolution.

14. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the page is a first page of the document;

the another page is a second page; and

the process performed by the processor further includes;

in response to the determination that another page of the document is navigated to,

inserting the rendered another placeholder image into the second page of the document in place of the another portion of the received content at the full resolution; and

continuing rendering the portion of the received content corresponding to the first page at the full resolution.

15. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the page is a first page of the document;

the another page is a second page, the second page being within a predetermined number of pages from the first page; and

the process performed by the processor further includes;

inserting the rendered another placeholder image into the second page of the document in place of the another portion of the received content at the full resolution; and

stopping rendering the portion of the received content corresponding to the first page at the full resolution.

16. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the portion of the received content is a first portion associated with the page of the document;

the received content includes a second portion associated with the page of the document, the second portion having a different content type than the first portion; and

presenting the received document further includes;

determining if rendering of the second portion of the received content at the full resolution is timely for presentation in one of the pages of the document via the display when the page is navigated to;

in response to determining that rendering the second portion of the received content at the full resolution is not timely,

rendering the second portion of the received content as a placeholder image of the second portion of the received content, the placeholder image being at a lower resolution than the full resolution of the received content;

inserting the rendered placeholder image into the page in place of the second portion of the received content at the full resolution;

displaying the page with the inserted placeholder image via the display while rendering the second portion of the received content at the full resolution; and

transitioning from the placeholder image to the second portion of the received content at the full resolution after rendering of the second portion of the received content at the full resolution is completed.

17. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the portion of the received content is a first portion associated with the page of the document;

the received content includes a second portion associated with the page of the document, the second portion having a different content type than the first portion; and

presenting the received document further includes;

determining if rendering of the first and second portions of the received content at the full resolution is timely for presentation in one of the pages of the document via the display when the page is navigated to; and

in response to determining that rendering the first and second portions of the received content at the full resolution is not timely, preferentially performing the rendering, inserting, displaying, and transitioning operations based on the content type of the first and second portions of the received content.

18. The computing system of claim 11 wherein:

the portion of the received content is a first portion associated with the page of the document, the first portion containing text content;

the received content includes a second portion associated with the page of the document, the second portion containing image content; and

presenting the received document further includes;

determining if rendering of the first and second portions of the received content at the full resolution is timely for presentation in one of the pages of the document via the display when the page is navigated to; and

in response to determining that rendering the first and second portions of the received content at the full resolution is not timely, preferentially performing the rendering, inserting, displaying, and transitioning operations on the second portion of the received content over the first portion of the received content.

19. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the process performed by the processor further includes preventing navigation away from the page of the document until at least one of the placement image or the portion of the received content at the full resolution is presented on the display.

20. The computing system of claim 11 wherein rendering the portion of the received content as the placeholder image includes stretching the placeholder content to fit a structural footprint of the portion of the received content in the displayed one of the document pages.