Design Intelligence, Inc.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Other

Michael B Orr

Marc B McDonald

Steven E Weil

Geoffrey Von Limbach

Joseph D King

Nathan W Everett

Joseph Spencer King

Keith S Brintzenhofe

Gay Linda Gardner

A three-way separation of information in a document includes content, design and media aspects. This division supports automatic rendering to multiple forms of media such as print, Intranet, Internet, and OLE embedding. In a particular embodiment, the document is separated into its content, design and media aspects. Content, design, a medium specification are identified and layout is performed as per the three aspects. In one embodiment, an information data structure is provided that includes three tree structures: a design tree, a content tree and a media tree. A media division data structure is associated with a parent component in a composition. The parent component has a parent region in a medium and has child components. Each child component is associated with a child region of the medium. The media division data structure provides rules, properties and values for performing layout in a particular region of the medium. Layout may be performed on a server.

Automatic layout of content in a design for a medium

A scheme data structure is used for applying a set of coordinated attributes to any number of components within a composition such as a document, Internet web page, computer screen etc. A scheme data structure allows a user to easily apply variations of professionally designed font, color, graphic, paragraph and other schemes to a composition. The data structure includes a scheme instance category indicating a type of scheme and a number of attributes corresponding to the scheme instance category. The structure has a number of scheme slots, and each scheme slot can be associated with zero or more components of the composition. Each of the scheme slots is arranged to hold a distinct value for each of the attributes. Thus, for each of the scheme slots, the scheme instance data structure may be used to apply values of attributes to the components of the composition associated with each scheme slot. Each scheme instance data structure may also have a number of levels. Each level contains a complete set of values for the attributes of that scheme. User input is used to determine which level should be applied to each component. A user specifies an amount value indicating number of components affected and a diversity value indicating diversity of scheme attributes affecting the components. A threshold value for each component indicates a range of difficulty for changing default values for attributes of that component. A method also applies values in a determined scheme level to components of a composition in response to user input.

Flexible schemes for applying properties to information in a medium

The present invention provides a new system for implementing software objects using an object-prototype model. Objects are defined as collections of properties, each having a unique property name. A collection of property names defines a &ldquo;shape.&rdquo; The use of shapes frees the representation of an object in memory from the order in which the properties of the object are declared. Methods are defined independently of objects and are applicable to a specified shape, rather than to objects that are derived from a class in which the method is defined. Methods can be applied to any object that has the specified shape or that has a superset of the properties defining the specified shape, regardless of the place of the object in any inheritance hierarchy. The definition of a shape can also include additional selection criteria, such as restrictions on the values of properties, so that the application of a method can be restricted to objects satisfying the specified criteria. The. properties of objects can be divided into subgroups representing different aspects of the object and different subgroups of an object can be inherited from different parent objects, based upon either a has-a or an is-a hierarchy. The shape of an object is determine by all of its properties and is not confined by subgroup boundaries.

Method and system for implementing software objects

A method of fitting content elements of a composition to a media layout is disclosed. Each content element has an associated content type, and the media layout has a content rendering space for presenting information contained in the content elements. For each content type, a content scale factor is initialized and extent values are computed. If the content elements do not fit within the media layout, then non-fit factors are determined, the scale factors and extent values are recomputed and these steps are repeated until the content fits. Another method computes a layout of a composition in a recursive fashion using a design tree. Design children components of a current component in the design tree are identified, and new media components between the current component and the identified design children components are created. A media division for each media component indicates a portion of the layout for each media component. Another method computes a layout of a composition for a chosen medium. The composition is represented in a media tree that has components, each associated with a media region of the chosen medium. The method steps down through the media tree of the composition and assigns tentative media regions to each of the components. The extent of each of the components is measured to return a set of values indicating a media region of the medium that is required by each of the components. Finally, the method steps up through the media tree of the composition and assigns new media regions to each of the components.

Design engine for fitting content to a medium

A system for implementing software objects using an object-prototype model. Objects are defined as collections of properties, each having a unique property name. A collection of property names defines a 'shape.' The use of shapes frees the representation of an object in memory from the order in which the properties of the object are declared. Methods are defined independently of objects and are applicable to a specified shape, rather than to objects that are derived from a class in which the method is defined. Methods can be applied to any object that has the specified shape or that has a superset of the properties defining the specified shape, regardless of the place of the object in any inheritance hierarchy. The definition of a shape can also include additional selection criteria, such as restrictions on the values of properties, so that the application of a method can be restricted to objects satisfying the specified criteria. The properties of objects can be divided into subgroups representing different aspects of the object and different subgroups of an object can be inherited from different parent objects, based upon either a has-a or an is-a hierarchy. The shape of an object is determine by all of its properties and is not confined by subgroup boundaries.

One aspect of the present invention provides for a three-way separation of the information in a document. In a particular embodiment, the document is separated into its content, design and media aspects. In one embodiment, an information data structure is provided that includes three tree structures. A design tree structure represents the design of a composition and includes design components. A content tree structure represents the content of the composition and includes content elements. A media tree structure represents the selected medium of the composition and includes media components. The content and media tree structures are linked to the design tree structure. The design tree structure, the content tree structure and the media tree structure are unique but utilize at least some common components from one another. A component data structure represents a content element within a composition. The component includes a content facet, a design facet and a media facet. The content facet includes content properties related to the content element. A design facet includes a design parent pointer to a parent design component and design properties. A media facet includes a media parent pointer to a parent media component and region properties indicating a region occupied by the content element within the composition. A media division data structure is associated with a parent component in a media tree structure of a composition. The parent component has a parent region in a medium and has child components. Each child component is associated with a child region of the medium. The media division data structure includes a link to the parent component, an indicator of the number of child components, an orientation flag and a fit value expressing a relationship between the child regions and the parent region.

Design engine with tree and component structure

A three-way separation of information in a document includes content, design and media aspects. This division supports automatic rendering to multiple forms of media such as print, Intranet, Internet, and OLE embedding. A method adds content to a composition having a chosen design and automatically calculates a layout for the composition. A content object is dropped upon a receiving component of the composition. The dropped content object has at least one potential type. A potential type of the content object is matched with a compatible type of the receiving component. Next, the design tree is modified to incorporate the content object, and media layout values are calculated for each content element of the composition The dropped content may change the existing content, may replace it completely, may be inserted into the existing content, may change its properties, or may result in new components being created in the design tree. If content is dropped in an incorrect location, a tree structure is used to determine where to place the content automatically. A content drop table data structure is used to assist in dropping content onto a composition. When a content object having potential dropped content types is dropped upon a component of the composition, a matching subcomponent type may be determined by reference to the content drop table.

Design engine for automatic layout of content

A three-way separation of information in a document includes content, design and media aspects. This division supports automatic rendering to multiple forms of media such as print, Intranet, Internet, and OLE embedding. A method changes the design of a composition having a current design that is rendered in a particular medium. The composition is represented by components in a current design tree and includes content elements associated with the components. A new design tree is created for the composition based upon a new design and new design components. Next, each of the content elements are linked into an association with one of the new design components such that the set of relationships between the content elements in the context of the new design are maintained. Media layout values are calculated for each content element of the composition. The content elements are laid out in the new design and the new design retains the composition rendered in the particular medium. Another method changes the medium of a composition having a current design. A new media tree is created for the composition that is representative of a new medium and includes media tree components. Next, each of the content elements is associated with one of the media tree components such that each of the content elements is associated with a region of the new medium. Media layout values are calculated for each content element of the composition such that each of the media layout values for each content element defines one of the regions of the new medium.

Design engine for automatic reformatting for design and media

The present invention provides a new system for implementing software objects using an object-prototype model. Objects are defined as collections of properties, each having a unique property name. A collection of property names defines a 'shape.' The use of shapes frees the representation of an object in memory from the order in which the properties of the object are declared. Methods are defined independently of objects and are applicable to a specified shape, rather than to objects that are derived from a class in which the method is defined. Methods can be applied to any object that has the specified shape or that has a superset of the properties defining the specified shape, regardless of the place of the object in any inheritance hierarchy. The definition of a shape can also include additional selection criteria, such as restrictions on the values of properties, so that the application of a method can be restricted to objects satisfying the specified criteria. The properties of objects can be divided into subgroups representing different aspects of the object and different subgroups of an object can be inherited from different parent objects, based upon either a has-a or an is-a hierarchy. The shape of an object is determine by all of its properties and is not confined by subgroup boundaries.

The invention includes an efficient method of dynamically binding an operation (22) to an implementation. During a first occurrence of the operation, the operation identifier and argument information are compared with entries (52) in a dictionary (50) to determine an appropriate implementation. The operation is modified by replacing the operation identifier (58) and argument information (60) with a reference to a matching entry (52). Upon subsequent execution of the operation, the interpreter checks to see whether the types of the arguments in the current function call match those in the dictionary entry. If they match, the implementation referenced by the dictionary entry is executed. If they do not match, the dictionary is searched for a matching entry. Because most operations do not change types of arguments during most function calls, the invention results in greatly improved efficiency.

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Bainbridge Island, WA, United States of America

Michael B Orr