WO2003056444A1 - Document composing system - Google Patents

Abstract

A document composing system includes a graphic user interface (10) simultaneously providing a source document display region (12) adapted to display a source document, and a composition document display region (14) adapted to display a composition document. An interaction module allows a user to select portions (50A, 50B, 50C) of the source document via the graphic user interface (10), and copy selected portions (50A, 50B, 50C) of the source document to the composition document via the user interface (10). An organization module automatically creates links between copied portions (50A, 50B, 50C) of the source document and pasted portions of the composition document.

Description

DOCUMENT COMPOSING SYSTEM

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/343,510, filed on December 21, 2001. This application further claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/421 ,721 , filed on October 28, 2002. The disclosures of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention generally relates to document composing systems, and particularly relates to assimilation, sharing, and organizational linking of information based on cognitive principles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] There are three general models of memory that have implications for how people understand information that they read in text and graphic displays. More information on these models may be found in, Roediger, H.L., Capaldi, E.D., Paris, S.G., Polivy, J., & Herman, C.P. (1996). Psychology, 4^th Ed. Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing Co. These models all pertain to the cognitive processes that people use when viewing, studying, learning, and remembering information. These principles hold whether the information is displayed in books, on television, or on computer monitors. The first model emphasizes the strength of associations between stimuli that are to be remembered, for example, a word and its definition, or relating one fact to another. The second model emphasizes the kinds of cognitive control processes that operate on the information to transfer it from short- term memory (STM) into long-term memory (LTM). These processes include rehearsal, imagery, and transformation into meaningful chunks or units. The third model emphasizes the "depth of processing" or degree of cognitive analyses applied to the stimuli. The more deeply and meaningfully the stimulus is examined, the more likely it is to be remembered. More information on this point may be found in, Craik, F.I.M., & Lockhart, R.S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671- 684. The strength of associations, effectiveness of control processes, and depth of processing make information memorable in similar ways according to three principles. More information on these principles may be found in Crowder, R.G. (1976). Principles of learning and memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum and Associates. In summary, these principles are: (1) more time and effort expended in perceiving and thinking about the information enhances memory; (2) a greater variety of mental operations applied to the information in order to understand it thoroughly can enhance memory; and (3) more links and cues enable later retrieval of information through direct and indirect pathways.

[0004] The representation of information in text and graphic formats can facilitate memory when it capitalizes on these principles. For example, when information is repeated or rehearsed, the strength of associations increase and memory is facilitated. When information is transformed such as underlined, highlighted, structured in an outline, placed in conceptual diagrams, or accompanied by notes, memory is enhanced. When information is graphically represented in a format that conveys relations and importance, memory is enhanced. In general, experts organize information in conceptually related links and clusters and the multiple retrieval cues allow fluent and automatic access. More information on this point may be found in National Research Council. (2000). How people learn. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

[0005] There is no single way to organize information to insure retrieval from memory. In fact, the act of organizing is critical and learning is enhanced when the learner transforms the information into an organizational scheme that is personally meaningful. The resulting scheme, or schemata, may include many discrete bits of information related to the entire schema and that schema might be verbal, linguistic, or visual. More information on this point may be found in Anderson, R. C. & Pearson, P. D. (1984). "A schema-theoretic view of basic processes in reading comprehension". In P. D. Pearson, R. Barr, M. Kamil, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 255-291). New York: Longman. Learners may use imagery, rehearsal, note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing, and other control processes to embellish a schema for later recall.

[0006] Schemata may be visual tools such as outlines or diagrams that contain text, symbols, and images. Hyerle describes three types of visual tools. More information on these visual tools may be found in Hyerle, D. (1996). Visual tools for constructing knowledge. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The first visual tool is brainstorming webs for personal knowledge because the nodes and relations that are constructed represent personal links. The second kind of visual tool is task-specific organizers for isolated content tasks such as decision trees or diagrams. The third type of visual tool is thinking process maps that enable transfer. These would map relations such as concepts and systems. Hyerle claims that thinking maps help to clarify important information; they help to expand conceptual relations and thematic connections; and they help assimilate information for novel applications and multiple perspectives. A good example of visual thinking tools are graphic organizers that display relations such as main idea and supporting details or set- subset relations or temporal and causal sequences. These pictorial representations of information facilitate learning and memory More information on this point may be found in Ausubel, D. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Still more information on this point may be found in Novak, J.D., & Gowin, B.D. (1984). Learning how to learn. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. These graphic formats can be used as paper and pencil learning aids or displayed visually on computer monitors. When coupled with learner controlled transformation of information, they allow powerful ways to collect, transform, represent, embellish, and annotate information with additional cues that can enhance learning and memory.

[0007] Despite the great deal of study that has occurred with respect to cognitive principles of learning, current document composing systems generally fail to incorporate these principles into their functional and design characteristics. Therefore, the need remains for a document composing system that assists users in collecting, organizing, and interacting with information in accordance with cognitive principles. The present invention fulfills this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] In accordance with the present invention, a viewing and editing system for representing, comprehending, and interacting with multiple documents stored in memory operable with a digital processing system includes a display module operable to render document contents to an active display. It further includes an annotation link module operable to establish annotation links between users' ideas and locations in document contents, and an organization link module operable to establish organization links between users' ideas and users' ideas.

[0009] In a preferred implementation, the present invention is a document composing system having a graphic user interface simultaneously providing a source document display region adapted to display a source document, and a composition document display region adapted to display a composition document.

An interaction module is adapted to allow a user to select portions of the source document using the graphic user interface, and copy selected portions of the source document to the composition document using the user interface. An organization module is adapted to automatically create links between copied portions of the source document and pasted portions of the composition document.

[0010] Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0012] Figure 1 is a block diagram depicting the graphic user interface according to the present invention;

[0013] Figure 2 is a block diagram depicting collaborative sharing of workdesks according to the present invention; [0014] Figure 3 is a block diagram depicting user-defined labels according to the present invention;

[0015] Figure 4 is a block diagram depicting user-selection of multiple portions of document content according to the present invention;

[0016] Figure 5 is a block diagram depicting annotation layers according to the present invention; and

[0017] Figure 6 is a block diagram depicting before and after search results with active anchors according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0018] The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.

[0019] By way of overview, the document composing system (DCS) in accordance with the present invention corresponds to a computer program designed to assist the user in her learning effort. Improving cognitive learning can be described as the improving the assimilation process that takes place for an individual, capturing more information in shorter amounts of time in easier ways. The DCS Software consists of three basic categories of modules and functionalities: (1 ) collection; (2) organization; and (3) interaction.

[0020] The collection toolset offers the viewer a set of functionalities helping her gather information from various sources. The gathering of information can take place over a communications network, over a local area network or from a local storage space. The collection tool can be applied either to webpages, databanks, libraries and other kinds of storage locations where information is allocated. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the software allows the user to "download" information to a local disk-space for storage or display and to select information and information segments for further development and processing.

[0021] The organization segment of the program provides the user with a flexible set of tools to introduce a user-determined organization scheme to information gathered. Most effectively, this tool works in conjunction with information gathered, as the user "grabs" the information (e.g. over the Internet) and "deposits" the material or segments of the material (displayed as an icon) to a certain folder or storage-bin structure. [0022] Once information has been gathered, the user has the choice to examine and investigate a particular material in depth. Such detailed study of the material entails various kinds of engagement with the material, such as reading, writing, annotating, and combinations of these. The invention provides the user with the ability to perform such interactive learning activities in far easier fashion than currently possible with other commercially available software, providing the user with a transparent, easy-to-use tool - a most critical step to improve the assimilation that takes place with the material. In particular, the interaction segment of the software provides features and tools in the following activities: (1) underlining; (2) rapid notetaking; (3) writing; (4) diagramming and drawing of concept maps and other graphical representations; (5) marginal commenting; (6) marking and flagging; (7) searching; and (8) display and various kinds of display of information.

[0023] Most notably, the software allows the user to transform information easily from one representation to another. For example, the writing of text can be easily transformed by a click of a button to a graphical representation (and vice- versa). Further, the interactive user-environment allows the user the simultaneous display and input of information, hence, avoiding the need for the user to switch between separate types of applications.

[0024] In operation, the present invention provides a system that allows users to collect, organize, and interact with electronic documents in manners that facilitate both the users' understanding of the material contained in those documents and the user's ability to reuse the content of old documents in the composition of new documents. It maintains bi-directional links, which map the excerpts placed in new documents to the source documents that the excerpts were taken from, so that a user can easily relate a source document to its derivative documents and vice versa. It gives the users the option of seamlessly integrating documents taken from an existing database into a new database, which will be optimized for a higher degree of informational interaction. It also allows the users to embellish and annotate the documents with both implicit and explicit commentary, by highlighting, underlining and striking out elements of the original document and by adding "marginal" notes, which are attached to particular portions of the document. The navigational, organizational, and annotation components will be discussed in greater detail, after briefly addressing the types of documents the user will operate upon and some potential strategies the user may employ to import source documents into the software.

[0025] As shown in Figure 1 , the DCS has a more rigidly defined user interface 10 than many other software applications that allow the user to have multiple documents open simultaneously. The left and right sides of the screen are reserved for source document display region 12 and composition document display region 14, respectively. These two regions do not overlap, and bar 16 separating region 12 from region 14 can be dragged with the mouse to the left or right to change how the screen space is apportioned to the two regions. Within each of the two regions, DCS allows multiple documents of the region's type to be open at a time and displayed in separate frames in the region as with source frames 18A, 18B, and 18C, and as with composition frames 20A and 20B. Within both the source and composition document areas the documents may not overlap or be resized horizontally independently of each other. The document frames automatically take the width of their document region, and are only resized horizontally when that entire region is resized with bar 16. Source document frames 18A-C share space with each other vertically; they do not overlap, and as the user resizes the vertical of one source document frame, the vertical sizes of the other source documents frames automatically adjust to accommodate it. If a user closes one of several document frames sharing a document region, the other document frame or expand vertically to fill the space freed by the closing. Conversely, opening a new document frame causes the existing document frame or frames already on display in the region to decrease in vertical size to allow space for the new document frame.

[0026] Underneath display of open source document frames and within the source document region is source manager area. This is a region that displays the headers 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, and 24E for all of the source document items that the user is currently working with, including those documents already open and on display in the source document frames 18A-C. Many more document items may be displayed in source manager area 22 than are open in the source document region 12. When a user clicks on the header of a document item, the currently active source document frame has its contents replaced with that of the header's document, effectively swapping the two documents.

[0027] Underneath the composition document frames is an area that, when toggled, is filled with search area 26. Search area 26 is used to find source documents that match criteria specified by the user within search area 26. Like document frames 18A-C, search area 26 does not overlap the composition areas' document frames 20A-B; summoning and dismissing search area 26 causes the document frame or frames on display within composition document region 14 to be resized to accommodate search area 26.

[0028] At the bottom of user interface 10 is a bar 28 known as the DC panel. This panel has many of the buttons used to manage files (like Save, Open, Import, and Export), changes (Undo and Redo), and preferences. The exact number of elements populating the DC panel depends upon the version of DCS in question.

[0029] The exact nature and file formats of the electronic documents that the software allows the user to examine and operate upon is determined to no small extent by the intended user base. While alternative versions of the software attempt to incorporate as many different multimedia file formats as possible, the embodiment described herein principally deals with file formats that are primarily intended to contain textual data. Hyper Text Markup Language (.htm, .html), ASCII (.txt), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), Microsoft Word (.doc), and Rich Text Format (.rtf) file formats are examples of some of the most commonly used textual file formats that are supported. [0030] Different user bases often obtain their documents from differing sources, which sometimes necessitates a mildly different interface for versions of the software catering to different user bases. For example, some users may wish to obtain a majority of their documents via the Internet, either through web searches or from a third party content provider. In other cases, users may be obtaining the documents they wish to examine from the hard drives of their computers, from media devices such as floppy, Zip, or CD-ROM drives, or through a network connection to another computer.

[0031] The software has an integrated web browser that can read, display, and import HTML and other file formats commonly distributed via websites. When the user chooses to import a file for use by the DCS software, the program obtains a copy of the original document, and temporarily stores it in the user's domain. The software then converts the original file from its native format into the software's custom DCS format (.ovf), and stores the converted DCS file, leaving the original file intact.

[0032] In other cases, the users may wish to get their content from a local storage device, either a media storage device or a hard drive. In these cases, the original source file is not be erased. When prompted by the user to import the specified file, the software reads the original source document, creates another version of the file in the custom DCS file format (.ovf), and stores this new version separately.

[0033] Some versions of the DCS software may have an integrated email program. This program allows the user to import documents sent as email attachments into the DCS software as source documents. The importation process once again creates and stores a new .ovf version of the attached file in the user's domain, assuming that the attached file is in a file format recognized by the DCS software.

[0034] Some users may be obtaining source documents from an existing database of documents. Rather than requiring the user to retrieve documents outside of the DCS program and then import them into DCS, some versions of DCS support seamless document retrieval and importation from databases through components that integrate the user interface of DCS with the document location and retrieval functionality of the database software. [0035] It is foreseeable that, at any given time, a user may be engaged in one or more projects, wherein a project corresponds to a user-defined work area or topic. For example, an employee of a firm may have been given the task of composing a new document that needs to be an outgrowth of other, similar documents that members of the firm have already written. In the course of composing the new document, the employee may be simultaneously using several source documents as references. A similar situation can occur when the user is a student who is researching and composing notes on several different topics. For each topic, the student likely has numerous source documents from which he or she wishes to quote excerpts. The DCS software gives the user the option of not only saving the contents of the document he or she is composing, but to also save the entire workdesk environment, wherein a workdesk environment corresponds to all of the documents that are currently open, and the on-screen positioning of the windows that are displaying those documents. [0036] A user may create as many workdesk environment files as they desire. At any time, a user may load a previously created workdesk environment file. When a workdesk environment file is loaded, DCS retrieves the source document files and composition files specified by the workspace environment file and display them in windows having sizes and on-screen locations specified by the workspace environment file. Loading a workspace file is not an additive process; any windows that the user may have had open prior to loading the new workspace environment are closed and replaced by the windows of documents specified by the workspace file. If any of the prior windows contain unsaved changes, the user is prompted to save them, should they so desire, before the retrieval of the workspace environment commences.

[0037] Figure 2 illustrates the split-screen collaborative environment 30 accoθrding to the present invention. After importing source document content from templates 32A, webpages 32B, email 32C, and/or document databases 32D and creating a workspace environment file as at 34A and 34B, a user may share the resulting file with other users of the DCS software by exporting the workspace environment file as a template 32A2, via email 32B2, and/or to a document database 32D2. As a result, other users can import the workdesk environment, and a form of work desk sharing is accomplished as at 36A and 36B. In this process, the source document files & composition document file specified by the workspace environment file are retrieved and "packaged" with the environment file in a compressed file format, which can then be saved to some sort of media device (like a Zip disk) or sent to another user via email as an attachment. If the source document files and composition file are stored on another computer and accessed via a network connection, temporary local copies of the file are made to ease the workdesk environment "packaging" process.

[0038] The DCS software can create two types of files, for which there are two file formats. The standard DCS file format is used for both source document files and composition files, and has the file extension ".ovf." The workdesk environment file is used to store details about the workdesk environment, and has the extension ".desk."

[0039] There are three types of modifications that get stored in a source document file's modification data: labeling modifications, marginal notation modifications, and annotation modifications. The first type, labeling modifications, are referred to by the term "labels". Labels allow the DCS software to be able to recognize certain portions of documents as being labeled with specific characteristics, which in turn allows the user to perform searches for labels with particular characteristics.

[0040] As illustrated in Figure 3, a label has two types of data associated with it: scope 38 of the label (which is determined by the start and the end of the labeled portion of the document), and title 40 of the label (which is a text string that will be entered by the user). Users may locate a label by performing a search for its title. Some versions of the DCS software may allow the users to predefine the label titles, so that they may be more easily and uniformly applied. Some versions of DCS may also allow the user to apply labels that have more than one searchable parameter. For example, a label may have an "emphasis modifier" parameter, which can be specified by the user in addition to the title. This "emphasis modifier" can then be used as another search parameter to distinguish between two labels that have the same title, but different degrees of emphasis.

[0041] New, blank labels are created when the user left-mouse-clicks in the special vertical, rectangular region 42 of a source document frame 18. The onscreen position of the mouse click is mapped to the on-screen portion of the document text, and a label widget is displayed at that location, which is by default both the start and the end of the label's scope. The end 44 of the labeled portion of the document text is adjusted by left-mouse-clicking on the size component of the label widget and dragging it until the label is sized correctly to encompass the desired region of the document. The user may enter the label title 40 either by typing it into the title component of the label widget, or by selecting it from a drop-down of title choices that is displayed in the label widget. If emphasis modifiers are present in the version of DCS, they may be selected from another drop-down component of the label widget.

[0042] Another method may be used to create labels. Rather than left- mouse-clicking in the special rectangular region of the source document window, the user can right-mouse-click in that region. The right-mouse-click summons a pop-up menu, which is populated with the last few label titles used by the user, and the exact number can be adjusted through user preferences. If the user chooses one of these label options, the label will be created at the right-click location, and the selected title will be automatically added to the label. If the version of DCS supports emphasis modifiers, the right-click popup menu selections include title-emphasis modifier pairings. Additional, alternative versions of DCS may have different types of labels, which have different behaviors (similar to "macros" or "scripts") associated with them. These label types may be user-defined, or they may be predefined for that version of DCS.

[0043] Another type of modification that can be made to a DCS source document is what is called a "marginal comment." The activity of making marginal comments takes place in yet another rectangular marginal region 48 on the left side of the DCS document frame 18. After clicking with the left mouse button in region 48, the users can type whatever sort of commentary they see fit. Much like the labels (or flags) discussed previously, the marginal comments are tied to a particular location in the DCS document. There are two pieces of data stored for the marginal notation modifications: the relative location of each comment within the document; and the textual contents of each comment.

[0044] The present invention also includes file annotation. File annotation is a generalized term used to describe an activity performed by the user to change or influence noticeably for the user the appearance and content of a document. Within DCS, annotations are performed without altering the original content of the document itself. Essentially, while viewing a DCS source document, the user may wish to highlight, underline, black out, change the font color, or strike out a portion of the text.

[0045] The user can create annotations by performing a click-and-drag operation with the mouse until the desired text had been selected. As shown in Figure 4, DCS differs from most of standard word processing programs, which allow a user to select only one contiguous portion of text at a time. In particular, DCS allows the user to select multiple, discontinuous portions 50A, 50B, and 50C of text. A current selection is lost only when the user applies an annotation style or selects the option to clear the current selection. [0046] The type of annotation that gets applied to the selected text is determined by the user when the user clicks the right-mouse button. When the user clicks this button, a pop-up menu appears at the location of the right mouse click, populated with the different annotation options. When the user moves the mouse pointer over one of these annotation options, that annotation style's sub-options (for example, the different colors the annotation can have) appear in a sub-pop-up menu. Once the user selects an annotation style, all of the selected document text, contiguous or not, has the chosen annotation style applied to it.

[0047] The DCS software records the user's last sub-option choice for each annotation style (for example, the color the user preferred for each style), and indicates this choice in the top-level of the annotation pop-up menu. This allows the user to choose an annotation style by merely clicking on one of the annotation choices in the top level of the pop-up menu's hierarchy if they wish to continue using the same sub-option choice for that annotation option. The annotation modifications are stored by recording the beginning location and end location for each modification, along with the type of annotation.

[0048] As shown in Figure 5, the different annotation styles are treated visually and conceptually as different layers 50D, 52A, 54A, and 56A. For example, highlighted annotations for selected portions of text stored in layer 50D are appropriately applied to text in the underlying document as at 50A, 50B, and 50C. Also, an underlining annotation for a selected portion of text stored in layer 52A is appropriately applied to text in the underlying document as at 52B. Further, a blackout annotation for a selected portion of text stored in layer 54A is appropriately applied to text in the underlying document as at 54B. Still further, a strikethrough annotation for a selected portion of text stored in layer 56A is appropriately applied to text in the underlying document as at 56B. Notably, annotations can overlap each other - thus, a portion of text, for example, may be both highlighted as at 50C and underlined as at 56B.

[0049] Alternative versions of DCS may allow users the option of attaching certain macro scripts to the different annotation styles, so they can add functionality to their annotation schemes. For example, a user may wish to import all of the underlined portions of the text into the composition document. Rather than doing it piecemeal, the user may attach a macro script to the underline annotation style so that when a certain, specified key combination is pressed (like F3, or Ctrl-E), all underlined text is automatically and sequentially copied over to the composition document.

[0050] The user can customize the annotations by editing the user preferences. For example, a user may wish to specify the exact colors they would like available for highlights. Some versions of DCS may also allow the users to customize and edit the behaviors (macro scripts) associated with the annotations. [0051] All alterations to the document, such as highlighting or underlining, appended marginal notes, and labeling tags, are stored without altering the textual contents of the original source document. A similar scheme can be applied to nontextual documents as well. For example, when a drawing tool is used, any sketches made on top of an image in a DCS document can be stored separately, in a format that supports alpha-channel transparency, to allow them to be overlaid at display time without actually altering the original image.

[0052] A user may import any selected portion of text from a source document into the composition window. The composition window is a limited text- editing program - it's function is not to allow the user to write and format new documents so much as to assemble new documents from portions of previously existing source documents. One of the options presented to the user when they select a portion of text in the source document and right-mouse-click is to import the selected text into the composition window. If this option is chosen, the selected text, contiguous or not, is imported into the composition window in the same order it is displayed in the source. In other words, the selected portions of text are not imported in the order of their selection. Whatever annotations may have been applied to the selected text in the source document may or may not be carried over to the composition window. Each layer of annotation can be selectively carried over or not, according to user preferences. [0053] The DCS software contains "hooks" to third-party word processing applications, so that with the click of a button the word-processing application will start and the current contents of the composition window will be exported into it. The intent is to allow the user to have easy, seamless access to the advanced word- processing features of their preferred word processing program once they have collected the portions of text they desire from the source documents within the DCS environment.

[0054] In alternative versions of the DCS software, there is a custom database that is used to expand the client's content retrieval abilities. The client is able to search for documents that match a list of parameters, which include standard qualities like the date of creation, the author, and document title, as well as parameters that relate to user modifications of the source documents and text searches.

[0055] There are three text searches that may be performed, each with a concentrically increasing scope, when a user provides a text string as a search parameter. The narrowest search examines only the titles of label modifications for the search text string provided by the user. The next level of search examines the text of the marginal comments and the text that has been embellished in the source document in addition to the label titles. The widest level of search examines the textual components of all user modifications in addition to the full text of the source document. Additional, alternative versions of DCS may have search parameters and scopes that are customized for the work environment in which DCS is employed.

[0056] Results of the search are displayed in the left side source region of the interface within the source manager area. Any source documents that are displayed in that region prior to the search are replaced by the files returned by the search, unless they are anchored, a process further described below with reference to Figure 6. Although the results of the search are handled as source documents, these files may in fact be documents created in the composition window and saved into the database by the user. [0057] Figure 6 illustrates that source documents currently on display as at in DCS software may be "anchored" in place by the user by clicking a special- purpose anchor toggle button 60 that appears in the header of the source document frame 18B. Minimized headers in source manager area 22 can also be anchored as at 62A and 62B. Activating the toggle button, thereby anchoring an open or minimized frame, has two effects: when the user expands or minimizes other frames 18A and 18C displayed in the source document stack, the sizes of anchored, open frames are not changed, and when the user performs searches for files, anchored frames are not replaced by the search results. Results of a search are shown at 64, wherein contents of anchored frames 18B, 66A, and 66B have been preserved by virtue of having been anchored, whereas contents of frames 18A, 18C, 68A, 68B, and 68C have been altered to contain content of new source documents returned by the search.

[0058] Whenever a user excerpts portions of a source document's text into a composition window, a bi-directional link is created and stored both within the source and the composition document. The purpose of this link is so that when a user is examining a portion of a source document, they may instantly access any composition documents that have excerpted that portion of the source document. Conversely, when a user is examining a portion of a composition document, the link will allow them to instantly access the source document that portion was excerpted from. The term "instantly access" means that when the link is activated, the corresponding, linked document is opened (if it is not already) and automatically scrolled to the location of the excerpt.

[0059] The user may activate a link embedded in a source document by right-mouse-clicking on the text region and summoning the right-click popup menu. In addition to the normal annotation-oriented items in the menu, there is a "link" menu item, which has a submenu populated with the names of all composition documents that have excerpts of that portion of the document. There may or may not be a visual cue in the source document that indicates which portions of text have ever been excerpted, depending on the version of DCS. Once a composition document title is selected from the submenu, the DCS software opens the specified file and scrolls to the linked excerpt.

[0060] The user may activate a link embedded in a composition document in the same way; by right-mouse clicking on the portion of text for which they desire to locate a source document. In this case, however, a right click menu does not appear - the DCS software instead directly opens the relevant source document and scrolls to the location of the excerpt.

[0061] There are two modes in which the composition document frames may be used. The standard mode, known simply as composition mode, allows the user to add excerpts and type much as a standard word processing application does, with the addition of the previously mentioned bi-directional link functionality. The second mode, known as comment mode, allows the user to add excerpts and type text to a composition document that scrolls synchronously with the current, active source document. In effect, the composition document acts much like the marginal comment region discussed previously, allowing the user to take notes and add excerpts that are tied, when scrolling, to the line of the source document that they are placed next to.

[0062] The user may wish to view all notes made in the composition document while in comment mode without the intervening space that may separate the comments and excerpts. To do this, the user can click on the "fuse" button in the composition document's frame, and all extraneous space separating the text in the composition documents is stripped, compacting the document down to its smallest form. If the user makes no changes to this fused document, they may click on the "fuse" toggle button once again and the composition document is again expanded so that it can scroll synchronously with the active source document.

[0063] The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A viewing and editing system for representing, comprehending, and interacting with multiple documents stored in memory operable with a digital processing system, the system comprising: a display module, said display module operable to render document contents to an active display; an annotation link module, said annotation link module operable to establish annotation links between users' ideas and locations in document contents; and an organization link module, said organization link module operable to establish organization links between users' ideas and users' ideas.

2. The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising a search and retrieval module, said search and retrieval module operable to: search for multiple documents residing in memory accessible to a digital processing system, said search based on at least one of: a) user defined parameters, and b) user defined search terms; and retrieve the multiple documents for use.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said display module is further operable to render users' ideas to the active display in a visually hierarchical manner, the visually hierarchical manner based on organization links between the users' ideas.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the users' ideas are rendered to the active display on a notepad, and wherein the visually hierarchical manner is expressed as at least one of: a) an outline; and b) a chart.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said display module is further operable to render corresponding document contents to the active display in response to user manipulation of visually rendered user ideas, the corresponding document contents further defined as document contents having locations associated with the user's ideas via annotation links.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the user's ideas are rendered to the active display in a manner permitting visual correspondence between user's ideas and corresponding document contents.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the users' ideas are rendered to the active display as margin notes, the margin notes further defined as text displayed in a first reserved region of the active display, the first reserved region visually correspondent to a margin of a document page, the document page further defined as a second reserved region of the active display, the second reserved region used for textual display of the corresponding document contents, and wherein the margin notes align horizontally with the corresponding document contents.

8. The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising a flag link module, said flag link module operable to establish and maintain flag links between visual cues and locations in document contents.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said display module is further operable to render the visual cues to the active display in a manner permitting visual correspondence between the visual cues and relative locations in document contents.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the visual cues are rendered to the active display as page margin flags, the page margin flags further defined as images displayed in a first reserved region of the active display, the first reserved region visually correspondent to a margin of a document page, the document page further defined as a second reserved region of the active display, the second reserved region used for textual display of the corresponding document contents, and wherein the margin tabs align horizontally with corresponding document contents, the corresponding document contents further defined as document contents having locations associated with the user's ideas via annotation links.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the visual cues are rendered to the active display as document margin flags, the document margin flags further defined as images displayed in a first reserved region of the active display, the document margin flags vertically aligned and appropriately spaced to indicate relative location within document contents of each document margin flag.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the document margin flags serve as hyperlinks to corresponding document contents, the corresponding document contents further defined as document contents having locations associated with the user's ideas via annotation links, and wherein corresponding document contents are concurrently displayed in a second reserved region of the active display in response to user manipulation of document margin flags.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein user's ideas are further defined as comprising at least one of: a) document contents selected by a user; and b) original input from the user to a data processing system; and wherein said organization link module is further operable to establish and maintain organization links between user's ideas and user's ideas based at least in part on an option exercised by the user at a time of at least one of: a) selection; b) input; c) promotion; and d) demotion.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the option is further defined as at least one of: a) a type of selection chosen by the user; b) a type of input chosen by the user; and c) a hierarchy label specified by the user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of: a) the type of selection; and b) the type of input; is further defined as an accent applied to text.

16. The system of claii as at least one of: a) a hue of highlight; b) a font of type; c) a font color; d) a font effect; c) an underline; d) an italicization; and e) a bolded face.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the option exercised by the user is a customized option determined by the user according to preferences of the user.

18. A representation, comprehension, and interaction method for use with a viewing and editing system having multiple documents stored in memory, the memory operable with a data processing system, the method comprising: establishing annotation links between users' ideas and locations in document contents; and establish organization links between users' ideas and users' ideas.

19. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising rendering document contents to an active display.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising rendering users' ideas to the active display in a visually hierarchical manner, the visually hierarchical manner based on organization links between the users' ideas.

21. The method of claim 20, the method further comprising, rendering corresponding document contents to the active display in response to user manipulation of visually rendered users' ideas, the corresponding document contents further defined as document contents having locations associated with the user's ideas via annotation links.

22. The method of claim 18, the method further comprising: searching for multiple documents residing in memory accessible to a data processing system; retrieving the multiple documents; and converting the multiple documents into a format for use with the viewing and editing system.

23. A data structure stored in memory operable with a data processing system, the data structure comprising: a first node, said first node having resident therein a first user idea; a second node, said second node having resident therein a second user idea; an annotation link, said annotation link substantially providing a link between the first node and a location in document contents, the document contents stored in memory operable with a data processing system; and an organization link, said organization link substantially providing a link between said first node and said second node.

24. The data structure of claim 23, wherein said annotation link is further defined as a first annotation link, wherein the location in document contents is further defined as a first location in document contents, the data structure further comprising a second annotation link, said second annotation link substantially providing a link between the second node and a second location in document contents.

25. The data structure of claim 23, wherein said organization link substantially defines a hierarchical relationship between the first user idea and the second user idea.

26. A document composing system comprising: a graphic user interface simultaneously providing a source document display region adapted to display a source document, and a composition document display region adapted to display a composition document; an interaction module adapted to allow a user to select portions of the source document via said graphic user interface, and copy selected portions of the source document to the composition document via said user interface; and an organization module adapted to automatically creates links between copied portions of the source document and pasted portions of the composition document.

27. The system of claim 26, comprising a data store storing the source document, a substantial copy of the source document, and the composition document, wherein said graphic user interface is adapted to display the source document by displaying the substantial copy of the source document, said interaction module is adapted to add tags to selected portions of the substantial copy of the source document to indicate user selection of the selected portions, and said organization module is adapted to add tags to at least one of copied portions of the source document and pasted portions of the composition document, thereby providing functional links between the copied portions and the pasted portions.

28. The system of claim 26, further comprising a collection module adapted to collect source documents according to user-specified search criteria.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein said interaction module is adapted, via said user interface, to instantiate a user-defined label describing a selected portion of the source document, and said organization module is adapted to automatically create a link between the label and the source document.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising a collection module adapted to user-labeled source documents according to the user-defined labels and user-specified search criteria.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein said interaction module, via said user interface, is adapted to record a user-authored marginal comment related to a selected portion of the source document, and said organizational module is adapted to create a link between the marginal comment and the selected portion, thereby enabling simultaneous display of the marginal comment and the selected portion in a visually correlated fashion via said user interface.

32. The system of claim 31 , further comprising a collection module adapted to collect source documents having user-authored marginal comments according to the user-authored marginal comments and user-specified search criteria.

33. The system of claim 26, wherein said interaction module is adapted to assign a user-selected annotation to the selected portion of the source document, thereby causing display of the source document via said user interface according to the annotation.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein said organization module is adapted to preserve user-defined organization by creating a file storing information relating to user selection of source documents and related user creation of composition documents, thereby permitting return to a point of authorship, including automatic reselection and redisplay of source documents and composition documents via said user interface.