Eliminating extraneous displayable data from documents and e-mail received from the world wide web and like networks

In a communication network with user access via a plurality of data processor controlled interactive receiving display stations for displaying received documents of at least one display page containing text and images, and available from sources on the network, a method for eliminating extraneous displayable data from received documents comprising:

• a network interactive browser process associated with each of said receiving stations for accessing said received documents from the network and displaying said documents at said receiving display stations;
• said network browser process further including the steps of:
• superimposing a transparent displayed layer over said displayed received document;
• enabling a user to designate, in said superimposed layer, data in said underlying displayed document page required by said user;
• and
• copying said designated data into said superimposed layer to thereby create a secondary document having a document format structure independent of the format structure of the underlying received document.

A network browser computer program having code recorded on a computer readable medium associated with each of said receiving stations for eliminating extraneous displayable data from received documents in a communication network with user access via a plurality of data processor controlled interactive receiving display stations for displaying received documents of at least one display page containing text and images, and available from sources on the network, said browser program comprising:

• means for accessing said received documents from the network and displaying said documents at said receiving display stations;
• means for superimposing a transparent displayed layer over said displayed received document;
• means enabling a user to designate, in said superimposed layer, data in said underlying displayed document page required by said user;
• and
• means for copying said designated data into said superimposed layer to thereby create a secondary document having a document format structure independent of the format structure of the underlying received document.

In a communication network with user access via a plurality of data processor controlled interactive receiving display stations for displaying received documents of at least one display page containing formatted text and image data, and available from sources on the network, a system for eliminating extraneous displayable data from received documents comprising:

• a receiving display station for displaying a received network document;
• an interactive network browser associated with said receiving display station for accessing said received document from the network and displaying said document at said receiving display station;
• said network browser further including:
• an implementation for superimposing a transparent displayed layer over said displayed received document;
• an implementation for enabling a user to designate, in said superimposed layer, data in said underlying displayed document page required by said user;
• and
• an implementation for copying said designated data into said superimposed layer to thereby create a secondary document having a document format structure independent of the format structure of the underlying received document.