Patent · US Expired

Data processing system and method for random access formatting of a portion of a large hierarchical electronically published document with descriptive markup

US5644776A · kind A · utility

108Cited by
27References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 7, 1995
Grant dateJul 1, 1997
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 7, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99948
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A data processing system and method for generating a representation of an electronic document, for indexing the electronic document, for navigating the electronic document using its representation and for displaying the electronic document on an output device. The system and method are used with electronic documents having descriptive markup which describes the content or meaning of the document rather than its appearance. Such documents may be represented by a tree. Each markup element defines a node or element in a tree. The tree is represented by providing a unique identifier for each element and for accessing a descriptor of the element. An element descriptor preferably includes indications of the parent, first child, last child, left sibling, right sibling, type name and text location for the element. The document representation is used to facilitate navigation of the text for constructing navigational aids such as table of contents and full text indexing. A document is also provided with a style sheet for specifying desired formatting characteristics for each type of element in the document. To display the document, a suitable starting point is found on the basis of a selecte…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.