Abstract:
A user at a receiving Web station is provided with several alternate Web page display interface formats, from which the user may select the appropriate format for each Web document that he bookmarks. Thus, each time that a bookmarked Web document will be displayed subsequently, it will have this optimum presentation interface format. The implementation comprises bookmarking a received Web document, predetermining at least one display interface format alternate to said standard display interface format for bookmarked Web documents, providing a document folder associated with each alternate display interface format, enabling a user to put a bookmarked Web document into a document folder associated with an alternate display interface format and displaying bookmarked documents in said document folder in said alternate display interface format.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks, such as the World Wide Web (Web), and particularly to ease of use for the interactive user to access data from bookmarked Web documents.  
       BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART  
       [0002]     The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies that have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web (the two terms are used interchangeably) related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communications distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.  
         [0003]     In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered direct links between pages and other documentation on the Web and a variety of related data sources that were at first text and then evolved into media, i.e. “hypermedia”. This even further expanded the use of the Internet or Web. Although many Web pages are professionally designed and, thus, relatively efficient to use, there are still a great many Web pages that are poorly designed and, thus, may present a cumbersome and confusing display interface when presented to the receiving user on the standard Web browser display interfaces, e.g. GUIs (graphical user interfaces). Web browsers that have been available for over a decade as a Web document search and access tool have provided users with the means of bookmarking, i.e. saving the Web path to such documents for future reference. However, such bookmarked Web documents are presented to the receiving user in a standard all-purpose display interface that serves as a default interface. The receiving user may predetermine the values of the attributes that define this interface, and these will serve as the user&#39;s standard or default interface. Of course, as the user receives specific Web documents, he is free to change the attribute values from the default values for any specific document display. This is relatively inefficient and time consuming to do Web document by Web document.  
         [0004]     On the other hand, the user may need to present different types of regularly accessed, i.e. bookmarked, Web documents in different formats. For example, the user may wish to view a newspaper Web page in a different format from his stock portfolio page or job related technical Web page. Consequently, there is a need to provide Web page users with the means for effectively displaying bookmarked Web documents in different interface formats.  
       SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0005]     The present invention provides the user at a receiving Web station with several alternate Web page display interface formats from which the user may select the appropriate format for each Web document that he bookmarks. Thus, each time that a bookmarked Web document will be subsequently displayed, it will have this optimum presentation interface format. The invention uses the combination of means for bookmarking a received Web document, means for predetermining at least one display interface format alternate to said standard display interface format for bookmarked Web documents, means for providing a document folder associated with each alternate display interface format, means for enabling a user to put a bookmarked Web document into a document folder associated with an alternate display interface format and means for displaying bookmarked documents in said document folder in said alternate display interface format. The invention may also be set up to permit a user to simultaneously display the plurality of Web documents having the alternate formats in respective separate windows.  
         [0006]     The invention also provides for further bookmarking a hyperlink in an already bookmarked Web document in a document folder associated with a particular alternate display interface format to thereby put the Web document accessed through this further bookmarked hyperlink into the document folder associated with the particular alternate display interface format so that this further bookmarked Web document may also be displayed in the same alternate display interface format.  
         [0007]     The combination of the present invention may most effectively be implemented through a Web browser at the receiving Web station that will include the above-described combination of means for bookmarking a received Web document, means for predetermining at least one display interface format alternate to said standard display interface format for bookmarked Web documents, means for providing a document folder associated with each alternate display interface format, means for enabling a user to put a bookmarked Web document into a document folder associated with an alternate display interface format and means for displaying bookmarked documents in said document folder in said alternate display interface format. Where the invention also provides for further bookmarking a hyperlink in an already bookmarked Web document in a document folder, this further implementation will also be implemented in the Web browser.  
         [0008]     The invention may further enable a user to put the same bookmarked Web document into a plurality of folders respectfully associated with a plurality of alternate display interface formats to thereby permit the user the option of displaying the Web document in a plurality of formats as desired. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]     The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:  
         [0010]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a data processing system including a central processing unit and network connections via a communications adapter that is capable of implementing the receiving display station on which the received Web page or Web document may be processed by bookmarking in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  is a generalized diagrammatic view of a Web portion upon which the present invention may be implemented;  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  is a diagrammatic illustration of a display screen showing an initial Web document that may be bookmarked in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  is the display screen of  FIG. 3  showing the dialog box that appears after the user has selected to bookmark through which the user may select standard bookmark interfaces or an alternate bookmark interface by selecting to put the bookmarked document;  
         [0014]      FIG. 5  is the display screen of  FIG. 4  showing the dialog box that appears after the user has chosen to create a new customized bookmark folder;  
         [0015]      FIG. 6  is a general flowchart of a program set up to implement the present invention for providing alternate interfaces for bookmarked Web documents; and  
         [0016]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the program set up in  FIG. 6 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0017]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a typical data processing terminal is shown that may function as a basic computer controlled Web receiving terminal used in implementing the present invention for the bookmarking of received Web documents, with selected customized alternate display interfaces for bookmarked Web documents. A central processing unit (CPU)  10 , such as one of the PC microprocessors or workstations, e.g. RISC System/6000™ series available from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), or Dell PC microprocessors, is provided and interconnected to various other components by system bus  12 . An operating system  41  runs on CPU  10 , provides control and is used to coordinate the function of the various components of  FIG. 1 . Operating system  41  may be one of the commercially available operating systems such as IBM&#39;s AIX 6000™ operating system or Microsoft&#39;s Windows98™ or WindowsNT™, as well as UNIX and other IBM AIX operating systems. Application programs  40 , controlled by the system, are moved into and out of the main memory Random Access Memory (RAM)  14 . These programs include the programs of the present invention that will be described hereinafter in combination with any conventional Web browser at the receiving Web station, such as Netscape 3.0™ or Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer™. The program routines in applications  40  would be the programs involved in the provision of alternate customized display interfaces for bookmarked received Web documents. A Read Only Memory (ROM)  16  is connected to CPU  10  via bus  12  and includes the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. RAM  14 , I/O adapter  18  and communications adapter  34  are also interconnected to system bus  12 . I/O adapter  18  may be a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storage device  20 . Communications adapter  34  interconnects bus  12  with an outside Internet or Web network. I/O devices are also connected to system bus  12  via user interface adapter  22  and display adapter  36 . Keyboard  24  and mouse  26  are all interconnected to bus  12  through user interface adapter  22 . It is through such input devices that the user may interactively relate to the programs for bookmarking and selected alternate display interfaces for bookmarked documents at the receiving display terminal according to the present invention. Display adapter  36  includes a frame buffer  39  that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen  38 . Images may be stored in frame buffer  39  for display on monitor  38  through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard  24  or mouse  26  and receiving output information from the system via display  38 .  
         [0018]     Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since a major aspect of the present invention is directed to documents, such as Web pages, transmitted over networks, an understanding of networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. Reference has also been made to the applicability of the present invention to a global network, such as the Internet or Web. For details on Internet nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996.  
         [0019]     The Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers. These network servers are the key to network distribution, such as the distribution of Web pages and related documentation. In this connection, the term “documents” is used to describe data transmitted over the Web or other networks and is intended to include Web pages with displayable text, graphics and other images. This displayable information may be still, in motion or animated, e.g. animated GIF images.  
         [0020]     Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which is described in detail in the text entitled: Just Java, van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referenced  Mastering the Internet , particularly at pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages. The images on the Web pages are implemented in a variety of image or graphic files such MPEG, JPEG or GIF files, which are described in the text,  Internet: The Complete Reference Millennium Edition , Young et al., 1999, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, particularly at pp. 728-730.  
         [0021]     In addition, aspects of this invention will involve Web browsers. A general and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet  text at pp. 291-313. More detailed browser descriptions may be found in the above-mentioned  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition  text: Chapter 19, pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on the Microsoft Internet Explorer; and Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx, Opera and other browsers.  
         [0022]     The invention involves the use of search engines for searching. As described in the above-mentioned  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition  text, pages 395 and 522-535, search engines use keywords and phrases to query the Web for desired subject matter.  
         [0023]     A generalized diagram of a portion of the Web that the computer controlled display terminal  57  used for Web page receiving during searching or browsing is connected as shown in  FIG. 2 . Computer display terminal  57  may be implemented by the computer system set up in  FIG. 1  and connection  58  ( FIG. 2 ) is the network connection shown in  FIG. 1 . For purposes of the present embodiment, computer  57  serves as a Web display station and has received displayed Web page  56  that contains embedded hyperlinks to other Web pages.  
         [0024]     Reference may be made to the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet , pp. 136-147, for typical connections between local display stations to the Web via network servers, any of which may be used to implement the system on which this invention is used. The system embodiment of  FIG. 2  has a host-dial connection. Such host-dial connections have been in use for over 30 years through network access servers  53  that are linked  61  to the Web  50 . The Web servers  53 , which also may have the computer structure described with respect to  FIG. 1 , may be maintained by an ISP to the client&#39;s display terminal  57 . The Web server  53  is accessed by the client terminal  57  through a normal dial-up telephone linkage  58  via modem  54 , telephone line  55  and modem  52 . Presently available high speed cable modems, as well as a variety of conventional wireless connections, may also be used to access the Web. The HTML file representative of the Web page  56  has been downloaded to display terminal  57  through Web access server  53  via the telephone line linkages from server  53 , which may have accessed them from the Internet  50  via linkage  61 . The Web browser program  59  operates within the display terminals  57  to control the communication with the Web access server  53  to thereby download and display the accessed Web pages  56  on terminal  57 . The Web access server  53  uses one of the previously described search engines  51  to access via the Web  50  the desired sequence of Web pages from appropriate Web resources, such as databases  60  and  62 . Web server  53  will carry out the functions of tracking and obtaining the bookmarked Web page that may be stored in association with the Web browser in a plurality of alternate customized display interface versions, as will hereinafter be described.  
         [0025]     With this set up, the present invention, which will be described in greater detail with respect to  FIGS. 3 through 5 , may be carried out using Web browser  59  and associated Web server  53  ( FIG. 2 ). Search engine  51  accesses the sequence of Web pages and provides such pages to the user at terminal  57  via Web browser  59  via server  53 .  
         [0026]     Now, with respect to  FIGS. 3 through 5 , we will provide an illustrative example of how the present invention may be used to provide for customized alternate display interface versions of bookmarked Web documents. Web page  63 ,  FIG. 3 , is an illustration of the displayed Web page  56  in  FIG. 2 . This standard page contains text, graphics and images, as well as hyperlinks to other Web documents. It is displayed in a format that has been set as the standard or default display interface format in all Web documents that will be displayed unless an alternate display interface is selected for the Web document as follows. Let us assume that the user wishes to bookmark the Web document  63 . He selects the bookmark button  64  with cursor  65 . Drop down menu  68  appears,  FIG. 4 , and the user may select the standard interface. In such a case, the bookmarked Web document will display whenever accessed in the standard or default that has been previously determined by the Web browser for the display of Web documents. On the other hand, if the user wishes to display the Web page in an alternate format, in the present example, there are two alternate display interface formats that the user may choose, CBF1 or CBF2 (customized bookmarked folders 1 and 2). In the present example, the user has selected CBF 2   69 . As previously stated, each alternate display interface for a Web document is associated with a folder for which a set of interface format characteristics or properties and their values have already been predetermined, as will hereinafter be described.  
         [0027]     All the user needs to do is to put the bookmarked Web document into the selected folder and the document would be displayed in the selected CBF folder interface. Of course, the user has the option of creating a new CBF by selecting item  70  in menu  68 ,  FIG. 4 . This will result in the interactive group of dialog cascading menus  66  and  49  shown in  FIG. 5 . Through the selection of items  67 , the user may customize the CBF that he is creating to his specifications. In the example shown, the user has selected item  48  from menu  66  that has opened cascading menu  49 . Once created, this CBF may be used for all subsequent bookmarked Web documents.  
         [0028]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart showing the development of a process according to the present invention for creating and storing alternate display interface versions of user selected received Web pages. Most of the programming functions in the process of  FIG. 6  have already been described in general with respect to  FIGS. 3 through 6 . A Web browser is provided at a receiving display station on the Web for accessing Web pages in the conventional manner and loading them at the display station, step  71 . The Web pages are conventionally obtained via a Web server provided by an ISP. The Web browser has the capability of requesting searches from one or more search engines available through the Web. A process is provided to give the Web browser standard bookmarking capabilities, but, in addition, the browser is enabled to offer to the user the capability of creating and using alternate display interfaces with interface attributes different from the standard display interface provided by the Web browser for displaying the received Web pages or documents. Thus, step  72 , the browser permits the user to predetermine alternate graphical user interface (GUI) formats, e.g. font type and size, colors, language etc. These alternate formats are each respectively embodied in each of a corresponding set of customized bookmark folders (CBFs), step  73 . The user is provided with a function for putting any received bookmarked Web document into any CBF, step  74 . The browser has a standard implementation wherein any fetched Web document will be displayed in the standard interface format, step  75 , but an alternate routine is provided for getting and displaying a bookmarked Web document put into a CBF in the alternate display interface format associated with the selected CBF, step  76 .  
         [0029]     There is also provision for the user to select to have a plurality of Web documents from the CBFs of alternate formats simultaneously displayed in a plurality of separate windows, step  77 .  
         [0030]     The running of the process set up in  FIG. 6  and described in connection with  FIGS. 3 through 5  will now be described with respect to the flowchart of  FIG. 7 . Let us assume that we are in a Web browsing session through the browser. The flowchart represents some steps in a routine that will illustrate the operation of the invention. The browser, via the ISP Web server, accesses the pages found by a search engine; the next Web document is accessed, step  81 . A determination is made as to whether the user has bookmarked the page, step  82 . If No, the accessed Web document is displayed in a standard format, step  83 . If Yes, the document is bookmarked; then, step  84 , an additional determination is made as to whether there is an alternate format for the bookmarked Web document, i.e. the document has been assigned to a CBF. If No, the document is displayed in a standard format, step  83 . If Yes, the document&#39;s CBF is located, step  85 , and the Web document is displayed in the CBF format, step  86 . As set forth hereinabove, the user may have selected to have a bookmarked document stored in two different formats. Thus, at this point, a determination may be made as to whether the document has been stored in a different alternate format, step  87 . If Yes, then the above document display routine is performed by returning the process to step  85  and the document&#39;s CBF is located, step  85 , and the Web document is displayed in the other CBF format, step  86 .  
         [0031]     On the other hand, if in step  87 , there is no other alternate format, the user has the option of simultaneously displaying several CBF bookmarked documents in their respective formats, step  88 . If Yes, then the several Web documents are displayed simultaneously in their respective formats in separate windows, step  89 . At this point or if the decision in step  88  had been No, a determination may conveniently be made as to whether the session is at an end, step  90 . If Yes, it is exited. If No, the process is returned to initial step  81 .  
         [0032]     Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.