Systems and methods for viewing and editing composite documents

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive a request to open a base document in an application;
• automatically identify a reference to content in a reference document in the base document, wherein the reference identifies a portion of the reference document to be extracted;
• extract reference data from the reference document based on the reference, wherein the reference comprises a reference identifier that identifies the reference data to be extracted from the reference document;
• embed the reference data extracted from the reference document into the base document in order to create a multi-level composite document comprising a plurality of levels of embedded content, wherein the content of the embedded reference data extracted from the reference document is configured to be editable after being embedded into the base document;
• inserting a control mark at a location for each of the embedded reference data in the multi-level composite document;
• and
• selectively cause the embedded reference data to be displayed in the base document at the location of the embedded reference data based on a user input of selecting the control mark.

A system, comprising:

• a server, including a computer readable medium and processor, wherein the server comprises a plurality of reference definitions, a reference data extraction module, and a reference identification module;
• and
• wherein the server is configured to:
• receive from a client a request to open a base document in an application;
• automatically identify a reference to content in a reference document in the base document using the reference identification module, wherein the reference identifies a portion of the reference document to be extracted;
• extract reference data from the reference document based on the reference using the reference data extraction module, wherein the reference comprises a reference identifier that identifies the reference data to be extracted from the reference document;
• embed the reference data extracted from the reference document into the base document in order to create a multi-level composite document comprising a plurality of levels of embedded content, wherein the content of the embedded reference data extracted from the reference document is configured to be editable after being embedded into the base document;
• inserting a control mark at a location for each of the embedded reference data in the multi-level composite document;
• and
• selectively cause the embedded reference data to be displayed in the base document at the location of the embedded reference data based on a user input of selecting the control mark.