Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-06
2001-07-24
Herndon, Heather (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06266684
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to creating multi-frame web pages.
Historically, a computer user's ability to author an interactive intranet or internet site (“web site”) has depended upon the user's proficiency with Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language most-commonly used to define the structure and content of web pages. Creating a web page historically requires manual entry of HTML code and plain text to define the structure and content of the page and to establish hyperlinks to other computer resources. As a result, the author of a web page generally must have a relatively deep understanding of HTML.
Creation of multi-frame pages, i.e., pages divided into multiple sub-pages that display the contents of multiple intranet or internet resources, requires an even more developed understanding of HTML. Multi-frame web pages commonly are used to display, at the same time, an HTML page and the contents of another web resource, such as an HTML page, an image, or a graphics file, accessible through a hyperlink in the HTML page. Creating this type of multi-frame page requires manual entry not only of HTML code and plain text defining the HTML page, but also HTML code defining the number and layout of the multiple frames and instructing the computer to display the contents of the hyperlinked resource in a frame other than the frame displaying the HTML file.
Recent introduction of graphics-based page authoring tools has begun to simplify the creation of web sites. For example, Adobe® PageMill™ version 1.0 allowed a user to design a web page by manipulating graphical images representing the page. PageMill™ 1.0 then converted the graphical images into HTML code embodying the page.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In its various aspects, the invention represents improvements to the user interface in graphics-based page authoring tools. In one aspect, the invention allows a user to create a multiple frame web page by manipulating a graphical display representing the web page. The invention includes presenting a graphical display representing how the web page will appear when viewed through a web browser; allowing a creator of the web page to manipulate the graphical display directly to divide the web page into multiple frames; and thereafter embodying the web page in a format that can be used by the web browser to render the web page.
In another aspect, the invention allows a user to create a multiple-frame web page, one frame of which is targeted to display a particular web resource when the web page is viewed through a web browser. The invention includes presenting on a computer display a graphical image representing the frame structure of the web page; allowing a creator of the web page to target a frame by selecting a corresponding portion of the graphical display with a pointing device; and thereafter embodying the web page, including data identifying the targeted frame, in a format that can be used by the web browser to render the web page.
In another aspect, the invention allows a user to save the contents of one or more frames of a multiple-frame web page in a storage medium. The invention includes presenting on a computer monitor, for each frame to be saved, a graphical image representing the structure of the web page and including a highlighted portion representing the corresponding frame. In response to an instruction provided by the user, the contents of one or more of the frames is saved.
Advantages of the invention may include one or more of the following. A computer user with little or no understanding of the standard formats for web resources, e.g., the HTML, GIF, PDF, or Java Applet formats, may define and manipulate the layout of a multi-frame web page using graphical images. In addition, the creator of a multi-frame web page, while creating the page, sees a close facsimile of how the multi-frame page will appear when viewed through a web browser. This allows the creator to produce an aesthetically and functionally pleasing multi-frame page quickly and efficiently and eliminates any need to view the page periodically through a separate browser. The creator also may use graphical images to target a frame in the multi-frame page to display the contents of a web resource. Again, this enables a user having little or no understanding of the standard formats to create a sophisticated web page.
Furthermore, one or more “save” dialog boxes presented when a page author attempts to exit the page may give the author a quick and readily understandable graphical indication of which, if any, of the frames in the page have been altered and therefore should be saved. A “save” dialog box also may indicate, with or without a graphical representation of the web page, that the frame layout (“frameset”) has been altered and therefore should be saved. The multi-frame web page may contain a simple frameset or one or more nested or embedded framesets.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5089990 (1992-02-01), Saito
patent: 5276792 (1994-01-01), Masaki
patent: 5379373 (1995-01-01), Hayashi et al.
patent: 5553217 (1996-09-01), Hart et al.
patent: 5633996 (1997-05-01), Hayashi et al.
patent: 5721852 (1998-02-01), Porter
patent: 5860073 (1999-01-01), Ferrel et al.
patent: 5918010 (1999-06-01), Appleman et al.
patent: 6003047 (1999-12-01), Osmond et al.
patent: 6009429 (1999-12-01), Greer et al.
patent: 6031983 (2000-02-01), Cordell
patent: 6061696 (2000-05-01), Lee et al.
patent: 6061699 (2000-05-01), DiCecco et al.
patent: 6112216 (1999-12-01), Pratley et al.
Stern, Content Providers: “I was Framed”, rstern@ablondifoster.com, Jun. 1997.*
Oliver, Netscape 2 Unleashed, Sams.net Publishing, pp. 408-413, Feb. 1996.*
Microsoft Word 97, Screen Printouts, pp. 1-6, Apr. 1997.*
Lemay, FrontPage 97, Sams.net Publishing, pp. 328-335, Jan. 1997.*
Lemay, FrontPage 97, Sams.net Publishing, pp. 314-339, 1997.*
Brown, Using Netscape 2, Que Corporation, pp. 75, 76, 150, 151, 156-157, 1995.*
Oliver, Netscape 2, Unleashed, Sams.net Publishing, pp. 408-413, 743, 744, 1996.*
SoftQuad, HotMetal Pro 3.0, SoftQuad Inc., pp. 69-75, 97, 1996.*
Microsoft Excel 97, Microsoft Corporation, pp. 1-3, Jun. 6, 1997.
Clarke Emily E.
Kraus William F.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Herndon Heather
Huynh Cong-Lac
LandOfFree
Creating and saving multi-frame web pages does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Creating and saving multi-frame web pages, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Creating and saving multi-frame web pages will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2467966