US 8,209,308 B2 · Method for presentation of revisions of an electronic document

Abstract

A method and apparatus for displaying the evolution of an electronic document (e.g. word-processing document, portable-document-format file, spreadsheet, drawing, and the like), containing tracked changes, is disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and apparatus, the revisions of an electronic document may be treated as parent frames. In between the parent frames, child frames may be constructed from the combined images of their parent frames. To form a child frame, an image of a parent frame has a degree of translucency as it is combined with the translucent image of the other parent frame, such that every child frame contains traces of the images of both its parent frames. An input device (e.g. keyboard, mouse, touchpad, stylus, voice activation, and the like) may be used to control the frame visible to the user at any one time. The user may use the input device to traverse the frames at various speeds and in either direction, creating the visual illusion that a certain revision of the document is being morphed into its future revisions—or stripped off its changes as it is morphed into previous revisions—depending on the direction chosen by the user.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A method of displaying an animation sequence from revisions of an electronic document, comprising:

retrieving revision history information from the electronic document;
selecting a first revision point corresponding to a given point of time during the revision history of the electronic document;
selecting a second revision point corresponding to a given point of time during the revision history of the electronic document which is later in time than the first revision point;
creating an initial parent frame image associated with the first revision point, the parent frame image including revisions made prior to the first revision point;
creating a final parent frame image associated with the second revision point, the parent frame image including revisions made prior to the second revision point and after the first revision point;
creating a plurality of child frame images between the initial parent frame and the final parent frame, wherein the child frame images include:
at least one revision from the initial parent frame at a first transparency factor, and
at least one revision from the final parent fame at a second transparency factor, wherein the transparency factors are varied between the plurality of child frames;
presenting the plurality of child frame as the animation sequence, wherein document editing is disabled for the duration of the animation sequence.

6 more elements

A computer-implemented system for allowing a user to view evolution of an electronic document including changes to the electronic document that were made over time, comprising:

means for retrieving and displaying the electronic document;
means for retrieving revision information associated with the electronic document;
means for selecting a first revision point corresponding to a given point of time during the revision history of the electronic document;
means for selecting a second revision point corresponding to a given point of time during the revision history of the electronic document which is later in time than the first revision point;
means for creating an initial parent frame image associated with the first revision point, wherein the parent frame image includes revisions made prior to the first revision point;
means for creating a final parent frame image associated with the second revision point, wherein the parent frame image includes revisions made prior to the second revision point and after the first revision point;
means for creating a plurality of child frame images between the initial parent frame and the final parent frame, wherein the child frame images include:
at least one revision from the initial parent frame at a first transparency factor, and
at least one revision from the final parent fame at a second transparency factor, wherein the transparency factors are varied between the plurality of child frames;
means for presenting the plurality of revision frames as an animated sequence:
and
means for suspending editing-related user input from affecting the electronic document.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method for presentation of revisions of an electronic document

Life of this patent

Method for presentation of revisions of an electronic document

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14