Microsoft Style Sheet Patent

Business as usual?:


 US5860073: Style sheets for publishing system

  Inventor(s):
 Ferrel; Patrick J. , Seattle, WA
 Gertz; Matthew W. , Redmond, WA
 Meyer; Robert F. , Redmond, WA
 Millet; Stephen J. , Seattle, WA
 Schofield; Kevin M. , Bellevue, WA
 Shewchuk; John P. , Seattle, WA
 Smith; Walter W. , Seattle, WA

 Applicant(s):
 Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

Issued/Filed Dates:
 Jan. 12, 1999 / July 17, 1995

Abstract:

The use of style sheets in an electronic publishing system is described.
A style sheet is
a collection of formatting information, such as font and tabs in a
textual document.
The style sheets described herein are applied to individual display
regions (controls)
on a page. Unlike previous systems, the display regions in this system
do not contain
any text at the time the style sheet is applied. Rather, the text, or
other media such as
graphics, is poured into the display region when the title is rendered
on the customer's
computer.


  CLAIMS:
   [Hide claims]:
   We claim:
   1. A method of styling document content, comprising the steps of:

creating a title including page layouts representing the appearance of
pages of the title;
creating a first style sheet container storing a first plurality of
styles;
creating a second style sheet container storing a second plurality of
styles;
creating at least one content container for storing document content;
providing a first control on a first one of the page layouts for
delineating a first page layout area
where content is to be rendered;
providing a second control on a second one of the page layouts for
delineating a second page
layout area where content is to be rendered;
linking the content container with the first and second controls;
linking the first control to the first style sheet container;
linking the second control to the second style sheet container;
rendering content in the first page layout area according to at least
one of the first plurality of
styles; and
rendering content in the second page area according to at least one of
the second plurality of
styles.

   2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the styles is
selected from the group consisting of
   paragraph styles, character styles and wrap styles.
   3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and
second style sheet containers
   comprise styles for image and textual content.
   4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing
each control with a setting
   corresponding to the location of content to be displayed by the
control.
   5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the steps of
linking the first control to the first style
   sheet and linking the second control to the second style sheet
further comprises the step of loading the
   respective style sheet from a cache object store.
   6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of linking the first
control to the first style sheet and the
   step of linking the second control to the second style sheet comprise
the step of associating with the
   respective control with a globally unique identifier associated with
the respective style sheet.
   7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a first and
second control further comprises
   the step of creating a static story control.
   8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a first and
second control further comprises
   the step of creating a dynamic story control.
   9. A viewer for rendering a title, the title including at least one
page layout representing a desired
   appearance of a respective page of the title, the title having at
least one content object associated
   therewith representing content of at least one document, the viewer
comprising:

a computer, including a storage;
a display operatively associated with the computer;
the content object being stored in the storage;
at least one style sheet stored in the storage separately from the
content object; and
a control stored in the storage, the control delineating an area of the
page layout and being
linked to at least one of the content objects and at least one of the
style sheets such that
content rendered in the delineated page layout area is formatted
according to the linked style
sheet.

   10. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object comprises text
content.
   11. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object comprises image
content.
   12. The viewer of claim 9, further comprising a second control stored
in the storage, the second
   control delineating a second area of the page layout and being linked
to at least a second one of the
   content objects and a second one of the style sheets.
   13. The viewer of claim 9, further comprising a second control stored
in the storage, the second
   control delineating a second area of the page layout, the first and
second controls being linked to the
   same content object.
   14. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the style sheet includes styles
from the group consisting of
   character styles, wrap styles or paragraph styles.
   15. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object contains tagged
content.
   16. In an electronic publication system including a storage, a method
of publishing and viewing a
   title, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a content object representing content of a document associated
with the title;
creating at least one page layout representing a desired layout of a
page of the title;
creating a control object delineating an area of the page layout where
the content is to be
rendered;
creating a style sheet object including at least one style sheet
representing a desired format for
the content;
linking the style sheet object to the control object;
linking the content object to the control object;
storing with a publishing workstation the page layout, content object,
the style sheet object and
the control object in the storage;
retrieving with a customer workstation the page layout, content object,
style sheet object and
control object from the storage; and
rendering the content on a display of the customer workstation, the
content being rendered in
the delineated page layout area according to the format represented in
the linked style sheet.

   17. In a publishing and distribution system including at least one
publishing workstation for creating
   a title and at least one customer workstation for rendering the
title, a publishing method comprising the
   steps of:

creating a content folder containing at least one content object, the
content object representing
the information associated with the title;
creating a title folder for containing the title;
creating at least one layout object on the publishing workstation, the
layout object representing
the layout of at least one page of the title, the layout object
including a control object containing
at least one control delineating a respective area of the layout page in
which content is to be
rendered;
creating a style object containing at least one style sheet representing
a desired format for the
content;
linking the control object with a respective content object;
linking the style object with the control object;
storing the layout object in the title folder; and
rendering the page of the title on a display of the customer workstation
by:
selecting the page; and
rendering the linked content in the respective page layout area
delineated by the control in the
format represented by the style sheet in the linked style object.

   18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
content folder further
   comprises the step of creating tagged content.
   19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
layout object further comprises
   the step of creating search objects for drawing content from the
content object.
   20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
control object includes the step
   of creating a static story control.
   21. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
control object includes the step
   of creating a dynamic story control.
   22. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of
modifying the style sheet on
   the publisher workstation after the step of rendering the title on a
display of the customer workstation.
   23. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of rendering
the title on the customer
   workstation further comprises the steps of:

parsing content represented in the content object to determine a tag
identifier; and
determining a style property from the style sheet based on the tag
identifier.

   24. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of providing
each control with a setting
   representing the location of content to be displayed by that control.

   25. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of rendering the title
on the customer workstation
   comprises the step of loading the style sheet from a cache object
store.
   26. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of rendering the title
on the customer workstation
   comprises the step of associating with the control with a globally
unique identifier identifying the style
   sheet.
   27. The method of claim 17, wherein the control object comprises two
controls and wherein the step
   of rendering the title on the customer workstation comprises the step
of rendering the same content
   with both controls.
   28. In a publishing system including at least one publishing
workstation for creating a title, a
   publishing method comprising the steps of:

creating a content folder containing at least one content object, the
content object representing
the information associated with the title;
creating a title folder for containing the title;
creating at least one layout object on the publishing workstation, the
layout object representing
the layout of at least one page of the title, the layout object
including a control object containing
at least one control delineating a respective area of the layout page in
which content is to be
rendered;
creating a style object containing at least one style sheet representing
a desired format for the
content;
linking the control object with a respective content object;
linking the style object with the control object; and
storing the layout object in the title folder.

   29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the content object
represents tagged content.
   30. The method according to claim 28, wherein the layout object
comprises search objects for
   drawing content from the content object.
   31. The method according to claim 28, wherein the control object
includes a static story control.
   32. The method according to claim 28, wherein the control object
includes a dynamic story control.
   33. The method according to claim 28, further comprising the step of
modifying the style sheet after
   the step of storing the layout object.
   34. The method of claim 28, wherein the style sheet is provided with
a globally unique identifier.
   35. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of creating a layout
object comprises the step of
   creating a control object representing two controls and wherein the
step of linking the control object to
   the content object comprises linking both controls to the same
content.

   Foreign References:
   none

Other References:
Lie, "Cascading HTML style sheets--a proposal",
http://www.w3.org/People/howcome/p/cascade.html, 10 Oct., 1994.
Gifford, "Polychannel systems for mass digital communication", Comm. of
ACM, v.33, n. 2, p.
141(11), Feb. 1990.
Jackson, "The Published Word", PC User, n. 137, p. 32(4), Jul. 18, 1990.

Journalist User's Guide: Your Personalized Newspaper for Compuserve®,
PED Software Corp.,
pp. 1-111, Jan. 1994.
Huser et al., "The Individualized Electronic Newspaper: An Application
Challenging Hypertext
Technology", GMD Report No. GMD-664, Jul. 1992.
Sterahn et al., "Positioning HTML Elements with Cascading Style Sheets",

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/WD-positioning, Jan. 31, 1997.
Lie et al., "Cascading Style Sheets, level 1",
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/REC-CSS1, Dec.
17, 1996.
Hughes, "Thinking about style sheets",
http:www.w3.org/Style/mail/kh-2-May-95.html, May 2,
1995.
Duncan, Rey, "Power Programming: An HTML Primer, " PC Magazine, Jun. 13,
1995, pp.
261-270.
Microsoft ®Word, "About Styles" Chp. 9, pp. 178-183 and Document
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205-224, User's Guide, 1993-1994, Microsoft Corporation.

Received on Monday, 25 January 1999 15:32:42 UTC