Document revisions in a collaborative computing environment

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 selecting a graphical region within the electronic document;
• means for retrieving revision information associated with the selected graphical region within the electronic document;
• means for creating a document-history animation sequence, the animation sequence comprising:
• means for creating a plurality of revision frames from the retrieved revision information, wherein the plurality of revision frames include revision changes to the selected graphical region within the electronic document, and wherein information included as a change in one revision frame is included with a different transparency factor in a different revision frame, and wherein the document-history animation sequence is created separately from the document;
• and
• means for displaying the document-history animation sequence.

A computer-implemented method of playing back evolution of a segment of an electronic document, comprising:

• presenting an electronic document;
• retrieving a revision history associated with the electronic document;
• presenting a graphical control, the graphical control allowing to select a graphical region within a visible portion of the electronic document;
• selecting the graphical region;
• choosing a first and a second reference points from the revision history, wherein the first and the second reference points are applicable to the chosen graphical region;
• determining revision points between the first and the second reference points;
• traversing the determined revision points and generating a graphical representation of the electronic document at each revision point;
• constructing an animation sequence comprised of the graphical representation of the electronic document at each revision point, wherein the animation sequence is created separately from the document;
• and
• displaying the animation sequence as animation-sequence-playback.