Document content and structure conversion
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsPatrice Y. Simard, Radoslav Petrov Nickolov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system that can convert content and structure of a document from an original format into a target format irrespective of the functional specifics of the original format. The system can automatically infer the content and structure of a document via a rendered format thereby restoring the programmatic functionality of the original file (or generating programmatic functionality of a desired target format) through the novel conversion/import process. The system can extract the document structure (e.g., layout) together with the content in order to effectuate the conversion. Heuristics (e.g., logic and/or reasoning) can be employed to make decisions with respect to importing the document into a target format and/or formats.
Claims20
A computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable components executable via a processor, the computer-executable components comprising:
- a print driver to render a visual representation of a document having a first format, the print driver intercepting at least one print call;
- a receiving component to accept the rendered visual representation of the document in the first format;
- an import component to generate a programmatically functional translation of content and structure associated with the document into the second format based on the at least one intercepted print call;
- and
- a display device to display the programmatically functional translation of content and structure.
A tangible computer-readable storage media comprising computer-program instructions executable by a processor, the computer-program instructions, when executed by the processor, to perform operations comprising:
- determining content of the document via parsing a visual representation of the document in a first format, the content including textual content and pictorial characters;
- inferring structure of the document via parsing the visual representation of the document in the first format, the structure including document layout characteristics;
- and
- converting the document from the first format to a second format, wherein the converting the document from the first format to the second format comprises:
- translating textual content of the document into machine-editable text;
- translating pictorial characters of the document into a standard encoding scheme, wherein the translated machine-editable text and the translated standard encoding scheme are characteristics of the second format;
- and
- translating document layout characteristics of the document to the second format.
A computer device comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-readable instructions executable by the processor, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, perform operations comprising:
- determining a content and structure via a visual representation of the document in the first format, the content including textual content and the structure including document layout characteristics;
- translating the textual content of the document into machine-editable text;
- translating the document layout characteristics to a second format;
- and
- importing the translated machine-editable text together with the translated document layout characteristics into the second format.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.