Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Igor Ralic

Kyle Matthew Von Haden

Paul Barnes

Ali Taleghani

Tom Neckermann

Alessandro Curzi

The following disclosure describes software components, such as add-ins, that are launched automatically, without being manually activated by a user. In some embodiments, the add-in may run silently, e.g. the add-in runs in the background, without displaying content in an ancillary pane. The add-in may be given access to document content, enabling pre-processing as well as decorating document content with metadata for future use. The add-in may determine that the document has met a criteria, and in response, display a visual cue directing the user to activate the add-in. When a user does manually activate the add-in by clicking on an icon or pressing a keyboard shortcut, the add-in may be pre-loaded, initialized, and have already accessed and processed document content. In this way, the add-in may display useful content in an ancillary pane in much less time, solving the technological problem of delay between manual activation and initialization of an add-in.

Automatically launched software add-ins for proactively analyzing content of documents and soliciting user input

The following disclosure provides a system that filters and batches changes to improve communication between an application and an add-in. In some embodiments, the application batches a threshold number of changes made to a section of content. Using a threshold regulates the rate of updates to the add-in. In some embodiments, changes can be filtered based on the type of change (e.g. text changes, style changes, etc.) or the type of input that caused the change (e.g. keyboard input, cut and paste command, etc.). Filtering changes can reduce traffic between the application and the add-in, preventing the add-in from being overwhelmed and improving application responsiveness.

Enhanced processing and communication of file content for analysis

The present invention enables a system to efficiently maintain an ancillary pane containing a projection of document content, and content derived therefrom, while the underlying document is being edited. In one embodiment, an acronym pane displays a list of acronyms used in a document and one or more expansions of those acronyms. A data store containing maps is used to index which paragraphs contain which acronyms, and which acronyms are associated with which expansions. As sections of content are added, modified, or deleted, acronyms and expansions are added to and/or removed from the data store, causing the acronym pane to be updated.

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Dublin, Ireland

Igor Ralic