Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Benoit Barabe

Alex Jacob Simmons

Kentaro Urata

Christopher Hugh Pratley

Peter Loren Engrav

Owen Charles Braun

Peter P Baer

Ian C McGraw

A handwriting guide including an active and/or inactive writing guide is rendered by displaying a shaded outline object having a line for receiving electronic ink, displaying the active writing guide thereby indicating a location of a current active context, and expanding the active and/or inactive writing guide up to a maximum width of the outline object in response to receiving more electronic ink within a line. The active writing guide can comprise a bracket displayed on each corner of a writing area distinguished on a line and can correspond to an insertion point upon switching to text mode. A drawing guide that includes an active and/or inactive drawing guide is rendered by displaying a shaded drawing guide and the active drawing guide in response to detecting ink strokes within the drawing guide. The active drawing guide can comprise a bounding rectangle encompassing a drawing area that receives ink strokes.

Writing guide for a free-form document editor

The present invention provides a glom widget to the pen user of a PC that allows them to access contextual tools near a location where they are writing. If the user selects the glom widget, a context menu drops down that contains several of the most common tools and/or commands that a user creating handwriting might want to access. The glom widget menu can also contain contextual commands that are easier to comprehend and use since they are presented directly next to the content on the page to which they relate.

Glom widget

A free-form wiper tool may be used to select and move document objects in an electronic document. A free-form wipe selection may be determined by analyzing the shape of a free-form selection in order to distinguish it from a free-form lasso selection. Once determined, document objects situated on the document in an intended direction are selected. The group of selected objects may be moved, although selected objects may be restricted in their movement, so as to be wiped or moved along only one degree of motion. Selection input may be made using a stylus and a tablet computer, and document objects may include electronic ink.

Free form wiper

A note-taking application is provided which includes a free-form selection tool. In certain embodiments, a particular selection may be based in part on the speed or velocity of a user selection. The free-form selection tool is configured to provide more or less precise selections based in part on the speed of a selection. The free-form selection tool is further operable to recognize when a user is attempting to retry a selection.

Tool for selecting ink and other objects in an electronic document

The present invention provides a method and system for tapping to create document structure, such as writing. A tapping gesture received from the user is interpreted by a writing application to indicate that the user is about to write in a certain location on the page. While in pen mode, the user taps the pen, the gesture recognizer tells the writing application that a 'tap' has occurred, and the writing application creates a new paragraph with an active writing guide attached to it at that location. A tap below text creates a new paragraph. The new paragraph may be located at any available indent level depending on the location of the tap. The tapping gesture may also be used for clearing or moving selections.

Tapping to create writing

A shared document is displayed in a customized form with highlighted content that identifies significant portions of the document. The highlighted content draws a user's attention to the portions of the document that may have been modified, deleted or added by others since the last time the user accessed the document. The highlighted content directs a user to modified document portions that the user has not yet read.

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Snoqualmie, WA, United States of America

Benoit Barabe