Patent ID: 6023715
Filing Date: 2000-02-08
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A computer program product for use with a computer system, the computer system having local storage and a visual display and being connected, via a computer network, to other computer systems, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having program code embodied in the medium for allowing users to create a single virtual document from a plurality of independently-created and edited documents, the program code including:program code for creating a plurality of division containers, at least one of the division containers including a content pointer which references document content information in one of the plurality of documents;program code which responds to user commands by forming the plurality of division containers into an arbitrary hierarchy by inserting at least one pointer into each of the division containers which pointer references another of the plurality of division containers; andprogram code for traversing the hierarchy and loading into the local storage a copy of document content information referenced by each division container encountered in the traversed hierarchy portion so that the document content information from all referenced documents can be manipulated as if it were the document content information of a single document.