Effective system and method for visual document comparison using localized two-dimensional visual fingerprints
First Claim
1. A method for detecting and highlighting changes in documents and displaying the documents in a vertically side-by-side aligned view, the method comprising:
- detecting aspects of a source document and a revised document;
comparing the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document;
identifying at least one of similarities and differences between the source document and the revised document based on the comparing, wherein the differences are layout differences found on the documents, including at least one of different widths, different heights, different orientations, different font types, and different font sizes between at least some of the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document;
introducing visual indicators in an automated manner to maintain consistent and accurate vertical alignment between all of the source and revised content based on the comparing and identifying, wherein the vertical alignment includes identifying corresponding content pairs between the source document and the revised document to have corresponding content of the corresponding content pairs in side-by-side alignment in the vertical direction for all of the source document and revised document, and wherein the visual indicators include at least one of (i) an alignment zone in the source document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content that has been added to the revised document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, (ii) an alignment zone in the revised document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content deleted from the source document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, and (iii) page extensions configured to re-direct any content below a visible bottom of a current page or a last page extension to a next page to maintain the side-by-side alignment and a constant 1;
1 scaling ratio between the source document and the revised document; and
outputting a merged single output file containing the aligned side-by-side view of the source document and the revised document, with all differences between the source document and the revised document visually identified, wherein the side-by-side vertical aligned view is accomplished by use of the visual indicators,wherein the visual indicators include rollover zones which indicate content that has been carried over from a previous page into a current page, and wherein rollover zones mark a boundary of an original page layout, andwherein the method is accomplished by use of at least an electronic processor device, configured to perform at least the detecting, comparing, identifying, introducing and outputting.
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Abstract
A method and system detects and highlights changes in documents and displays those documents in a side-by-side aligned view. Aspects of a source document and a revised document are detected and compared. Similarities and/or differences between the source document and the revised document are identified and visual identifiers are introduced to maintain consistent and accurate alignment between content in the source document and content in the revised document. A merged single file is output containing the aligned side-by-side view of the source document and the revised document, with all differences between the source document and the revised document visually identified.
43 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for detecting and highlighting changes in documents and displaying the documents in a vertically side-by-side aligned view, the method comprising:
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detecting aspects of a source document and a revised document; comparing the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document; identifying at least one of similarities and differences between the source document and the revised document based on the comparing, wherein the differences are layout differences found on the documents, including at least one of different widths, different heights, different orientations, different font types, and different font sizes between at least some of the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document; introducing visual indicators in an automated manner to maintain consistent and accurate vertical alignment between all of the source and revised content based on the comparing and identifying, wherein the vertical alignment includes identifying corresponding content pairs between the source document and the revised document to have corresponding content of the corresponding content pairs in side-by-side alignment in the vertical direction for all of the source document and revised document, and wherein the visual indicators include at least one of (i) an alignment zone in the source document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content that has been added to the revised document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, (ii) an alignment zone in the revised document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content deleted from the source document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, and (iii) page extensions configured to re-direct any content below a visible bottom of a current page or a last page extension to a next page to maintain the side-by-side alignment and a constant 1;
1 scaling ratio between the source document and the revised document; andoutputting a merged single output file containing the aligned side-by-side view of the source document and the revised document, with all differences between the source document and the revised document visually identified, wherein the side-by-side vertical aligned view is accomplished by use of the visual indicators, wherein the visual indicators include rollover zones which indicate content that has been carried over from a previous page into a current page, and wherein rollover zones mark a boundary of an original page layout, and wherein the method is accomplished by use of at least an electronic processor device, configured to perform at least the detecting, comparing, identifying, introducing and outputting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13)
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10. An automated system, including at least an electronic processor, configured to detect, highlight changes in a source document and a revised document, and to display the source document and the revised document in a side-by-side aligned view, the system comprising:
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a document input system arranged to input the source document and the revised document, wherein each of the source document and the revised document is without an edit history and represents semantic content; a detector system arranged to detect aspects of the source document and the revised document input via the document input system; a comparison system arranged to receive and compare the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document; an identifier arranged to identify at least one of similarities and differences between the compared aspects of the source document and the revised document and to identify corresponding content pairs based on the layout of the content, each including content in the source document and corresponding content in the revised document, wherein the differences are layout differences, including at least one of different widths, different heights, different orientations, different font types and different font sizes between at least some of the detected aspects of the source document and the revised document; visual indicators configured to automatically maintain consistent and accurate alignment between the source document and the revised document based on output of the comparison system and the identifier, and wherein the visual indicators include (i) an alignment zone in the source document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content that has been added to the revised document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, (ii) an alignment zone in the revised document in a form corresponding to an outline pattern of content deleted from the source document, wherein the outline pattern of the alignment zone changes in its outline form to match the outline form of content to which it is associated, and (iii) page extensions configured to re-direct any content below a visible bottom of a current page or a last page extension to a next page to maintain the side-by-side alignment and a constant 1;
1 scaling ratio between the source document and the revised document, wherein the visual indicators further include at least one of rollover zones, wherein the rollover zones indicate content that has been carried over from a previous page into a current page, and wherein the rollover zones mark an identifying boundary of an original page layout; andan output display device to output and display a merged single file containing an aligned side-by-side view of the content in the source document and the revised document, with all differences between the source document and the revised document highlighted in place without disturbing an overall visual layout of the page, wherein the aligned side-by-side view includes the corresponding content of the corresponding content pairs in side-by-side alignment in a vertical direction by use of the visual indicators. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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Specification