Data processing: presentation processing of document – operator i – Presentation processing of document – Layout
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-19
2003-07-01
Hong, Stephen S. (Department: 2178)
Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator i
Presentation processing of document
Layout
C715S252000, C715S252000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06585777
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to managing an embedded file within an electronic document, and more specifically relates to simulating the characteristics of a file embedded within a primary file in response to saving the primary file in an Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) format.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Users have clear expectations of how embedded content management should work. These expectations have been established from years of using traditional desktop productivity tools, such as word processing programs, which typically enable both embedding content in a primary document and editing the embedded content. In contrast, for Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML)-formatted documents, such as web pages, each piece of content is required to be a separate linked file. In other words, HTML does not directly support the concept of embedding content in the primary document. Nevertheless, the expectations of users have not changed in this HTML-formatted document environment because they still desire HTML documents to support the characteristics of embedded content.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, when a user saves an electronic document as a typical word processing file, such as a Microsoft “WORD 97” program file shown in a display
100
, both a sunburst image
102
and a background image
104
are physically contained in the file as “embedded” files. In contrast, a linked logo
106
and a hyperlink to another web page
108
remains outside of the file as “linked” items. Users experienced with traditional desktop productivity applications have certain expectations in the characteristics exhibited by embedded content within an electronic document, such as the content presented by the display
100
. For example, users typically expect the following representative results, shown in Table I, in response to manipulating a electronic file containing an embedded file or operating directly upon an embedded file.
TABLE I
(a) deleting embedded content should remove the
embedded content from the file system.
(b) changing embedded content in one copy of a
document should not change this content in other copies of the document.
(c) saving a copy of a document with embedded content
should operate to also copy the embedded content.
(d) saving a document over an existing document should
delete embedded content in the existing document.
(e) adding new embedded content to a document should
not result in an unexpected overwrite of existing content in the
document.
(f) saving a document containing embedded content
should not result in a prompt for a user to save the embedded content.
However, when the electronic document of
FIG. 1
is saved as an HTML-formatted web page, the sunburst image
102
and the background image
104
can not be physically embedded within the electronic document because of the inherent limitations of the HTML file format. Although the user may believe that the sunburst and the background images
102
and
104
are embedded images, the act of saving the document as an HTML file results in linking these images as separate files to the document. Consequently, prior HTML-compatible editors fail to satisfy the above-referenced expectations of typical users for the performance of embedded files in electronic documents. By linking files, rather than physically embedding files, as a consequence of the HTML format, a user's editing operations may result in the undesirable problem of multiple “orphaned” files that waste disk space and cause general user confusion.
Although the prior art has attempted to solve the problem of managing embedded content in several different ways, each prior solution suffers from key limitations. One prior solution is to present a dialog in response to conducting an HTML save operation, thereby prompting users to select the names and storage locations of each embedded piece of content, while internally converting this content to linked content. For the example of a web page “Web Page.htm” having three different pasted pictures, upon initiating a save operation, the user is typically presented by this prior solution with a dialog prompting the user to select file names for the pictures and storage locations.
This prior solution fails to satisfy user expectations regarding the behavior of the pasted pictures because, after the first save within the HTML format, the pasted pictures become separate linked files. For example, deleting a link does not result in the removal of the linked content from the file system. A change to the linked content in one copy of a document can result in the unintended change of this linked content in other copies of the document. In contrast to a save operation of an electronic document having embedded content, saving a copy of a document with linked content does not result in saving a copy of the linked content. Likewise, saving a document over an existing document does not result in the deletion of linked content in the existing document. Adding new linked content to a document can result in an unexpectedly overwrite of existing content in the document. Also, this prior solution typically handles only embedded images and fails to support other varieties of embedded content, such as embedded stylesheets, embedded web pages, embedded framesets, etc.
A second prior solution supports the automated selection of file names and locations of each embedded piece of content for a primary file, but again internally converts each content piece to linked content. For example, if a primary file containing three embedded pictures is saved in HTML format as “Web Page.htm”, this prior solution can automatically select files names, such as Image1.gif, Image2.gif, Image3.gif, for the three pictures. Links are created for these images, which are stored as separate files on a storage mechanism, such as a hard disk drive. While this solution does not rely upon a dialog to prompt a user to select file names or storage locations in response to saving the primary file, the linked content fails to provide the expected behaviors for the original embedded content.
A third prior solution operates to save all content in an HTML-formatted document, both linked and embedded, in a special single file containing embedded files. Although this single file solution addresses some of the desired behaviors expected by users of embedded content, this solution also introduces unacceptable limitations because all content in the document is now treated as embedded content, even linked content. In other words, this single file solution satisfies selected user expectations for embedded content but violates all expectations for linked content. In addition, the single file is typically not formatted as an HTML document. This means that the file is not directly readable by browsers or editable by existing web page editors. Moreover, the single file is typically slower to save and slower to load than a similar HTML-formatted file, because of the inherent disadvantage of loading a large single file rather than progressively loading multiple files over a network connection.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to fulfill users' expectations of how embedded content should work while also using HTML as the file format. The present invention solves this embedded content management problem for HTML-formatted files by placing information in a primary file that provides a cue to an editing program, such as a web page editor, that a particular file associated with that primary file should be treated as either embedded or linked content.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Although HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”) files contain links to electronic files, rather than embedded files, the present invention can simulate the characteristics exhibited by an electronic document having one or more embedded files. For example, users of typical desktop productivity tools, such as word processing or spreadsheet programs, have the expectation that opening an electronic file containing an embedded file will result in the opening of that embedded file. For a corresponding
Aldrich Darrell L.
Buchthal David M.
Olsen Thomas W.
Ramaley Alan A.
Hong Stephen S.
Huynh Thu V.
Merchant & Gould
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