Patent Abstract:
A stored document of a persistent data store can include digitally encoded content. A version of the stored document can be created that is placed in a non-persistent memory. This version can be referred to as a rendered document. Content from the rendered document can be presented in a user interface. A user selection of a user defined portion of the presented content can be received. Additionally, a user issued command to hide the selected portion of the presented content can be received. The rendered document can be responsively changed to omit the user defined portion of the presented content when outputting the presented content to at least one output device. The changing of the rendered document to omit the user defined portion is unable to affect the stored document in any fashion.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to the field of user interfaces, more particularly, to user-selectable hide options for a user interface that leaves a source electronic document unmodified, which is not persisted, and which is not dependent upon intra-document controls (e.g., metadata). 
         [0002]    Presentation of digital content of an electronic document is becoming a ubiquitous and often occurring task having a myriad of forms. Electronic documents can be digitally encoded in any computer usable medium (e.g., hard drive, optical disk, flash memory device, random access memory, etc.) and can be designed to be presented to computing device (e.g., personal computers, mobile phones, email terminals, etc.) users. The presentation can be visual, as is the case with presenting electronic documents within a graphical user interface (GUI). The presentation can also be audible, such as playing automatically generated speech via a voice user interface (VUI). Other forms of presentation also exist, such as outputting an electronic document to a BRAILLE output device. 
         [0003]    Users often desire to have only a portion of the digitally encoded content presented upon an output device. For example, a user reading text of an electronic document through a visual interface, may find a portion of the document distracting and wish to hide that portion. The distraction can be due to extraneous content (e.g., advertising, graphics, tables, extraneous text, etc.) being presented upon a limited viewing region or due to a display having limited display capabilities. For instance, many mobile devices have very small screens due to size restrictions of the mobile devices, which often results in a highly cluttered and difficult to read output. In another instance, an electronic document can include a portion that has resource intensive output characteristics, which may overload displays capabilities and/or overly task computing resources. For example, attempting to render a media object that uses shading on a portable device can produce poor results. Thus making it desirable from a user perspective to situationally omit a portion of an electronic document from an output device while presenting other document portions. These output challenges are not limited to a visual output, but also apply to printed output, to audio output, and other output modalities. 
         [0004]    One often used means that facilitates selective content hiding involves creating sections within an electronic document using intra-document controls. These controls can be implemented as XML tags, control characters, and other metadata forms. Use of meta-data of an electronic document to assist with selective content hiding can be problematic. One simple problem relates to using automatically generated documents (e.g., PDF scanned document, speech recognized documents, etc.) that lack metadata. Another straight forward problem relates to a user having insufficient privileges against an electronic document to make changes within the document that are needed for content hiding actions. A corollary to this problem is a user saving content hiding options that are distracting to that user in subsequent situations or that are not desired by other users sharing access to the electronic document. 
         [0005]    Traditional usages of meta-data also result in bloated (overly large) electronic documents and result in overly complex electronic documents having metadata intricacies that situationally cause occurrences of idiosyncratic behavior. No known solution provides a user with a simple mechanism to selectively omit outputted content without persisting omission specific data within the electronic document itself and/or that works independent of intra-document content hiding controls (e.g., metadata). 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    One aspect of the present invention can include a method, apparatus, computer program product, and system for interactively presenting digitally encoded content. In this aspect, digitally encoded content stored on a computing device usable medium can be identified. The digitally encoded content can be referred to as a stored document and the computing device usable medium can be a persistent data store. A version of the stored document can be created that is placed in a non-persistent memory. This version can be referred to as a rendered document. Content from the rendered document can be presented in a user interface. A user selection of a user defined portion of the presented content can be received. Additionally, a user issued command to hide the selected portion of the presented content can be received. The rendered document can be responsively changed to omit the user defined portion of the presented content when outputting the presented content to at least one output device. The changing of the rendered document to omit the user defined portion is unable to affect the stored document in any fashion. For example, other changes can occur in the rendered document, which can be saved to the stored document while content-hiding related changes are ignored. 
         [0007]    Another aspect of the present invention can include a user interface of a computing system that includes a content hiding interface control. The control can permit a user to select a user defined portion of content of an electronic document. The control can also permit a user to apply a user selected hide option. The content hiding interface control can be configured such that selection of the user configured hide option triggers programmatic actions causing the electronic document to be presented to an output device with the defined portion of content omitted. The content hiding interface control can also be configured such that user interactions involving the content hiding interface control are unable to be persisted beyond an interactive session involving the electronic document and the user interface. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a system for interactively hiding user defined portions of electronic document content in accordance with the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart of a method for hiding user defined portions of content of an electronic document while not persisting hiding related operations in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    The present invention permits a user to interactively select content of an electronic document that is to be hidden based upon an additional user selection. The selections can be made through a user interface and can cause content to be selectively omitted when presented by an output device. In one embodiment, an expandable indicator can be substituted for the omitted content, which when selected causes the content to again be presented. The invention does not require meta-data or other tags to be written to the electronic document itself. The content hiding options are not persisted beyond a current interactive session involving the interface. That is, a next time a user utilizes the interface to access the electronic document, the document will be cleared of data hiding options. In one embodiment, the electronic document can be concurrently accessed by multiple users; such that each user can selectively enable user-specific content hiding options, which have no effect on other users or upon a commonly accessed form of the shared electronic document. 
         [0011]    The present invention may be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. 
         [0012]    Furthermore, the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to the Internet, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc. 
         [0013]    Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may be utilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory, a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. Other computer-readable medium can include a transmission media, such as those supporting the Internet, an intranet, a personal area network (PAN), or a magnetic storage device. Transmission media can include an electrical connection having one or more wires, an optical fiber, an optical storage device, and a defined segment of the electromagnet spectrum through which digitally encoded content is wirelessly conveyed using a carrier wave. 
         [0014]    Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium can even include paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. 
         [0015]    Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user&#39;s computer, partly on the user&#39;s computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user&#39;s computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user&#39;s computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). 
         [0016]    A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage during execution. 
         [0017]    Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. 
         [0018]    Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters. 
         [0019]    The present invention is described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. 
         [0020]    These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. 
         [0021]    The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. 
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a system  100  for interactively hiding user defined portions of electronic document content in accordance with the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. System  100  includes a computing device  110  utilizing an application  112  able to load one or more electronic document  122  digitally stored in a data store  120 . Interactions between application  112  and a user can occur through user interface  114 . This interface  114  can include a content hiding control  116 , which makes use of content hiding engine  118 . Use of control  116  and engine  118  can affect a presentation of the electronic document  120  within an output device  130 . 
         [0023]    To illustrate, interface example  140  shows a view  150  and a view  160  of a user interface  114 . Document  122  is loaded in each view  150 ,  160 . In view  150 , a user can select a region of content  152  and then use a content hiding control  116 , which triggers one or more hiding options. For example, control  116  can specify whether specified content  152  is to be hidden in all devices  130 , or whether hiding operations are to apply to only a subset of possible output devices  130 , such as only applying to a printer, or a display. Selection of control  116  triggers the content hiding engine  118  to perform a programmatic action that hides the selected content, which results in view  160 . In view  160 , an expansion indicator  162  can replace the selected content  152  and other non-hidden content can be adjusted. A further selection of expansion indicator  162  can restore the presented content to a state shown in view  150 . When content is restored or no longer hidden, the expansion indicator can optionally remain, so that another user selection of it will again result in a presentation state shown in view  160 . 
         [0024]    The content hiding of system  100  has numerous differences from conventional techniques. First, content hiding options are not retained within or even dependent upon structural controls of source document  123 . A source document  123  is a persisted version of the electronic document  122 , as distinguished from a rendered document  124 , which is not persisted. The rendered document  124  is a version of the electronic document  122  presented in the output device  130 . By default, when a save option  164  of interface  114  is selected, changes between rendered document  124  and the stored document  123  are reconciled. Changes related to content hiding control  116  and hiding engine  118  are not saved to source document  123  when a save operation (selection of save option  164 ) occurs. 
         [0025]    In other words, rendered document  124  can be considered a temporary (e.g., RAM version) instance of source document  123 , where content hiding specifics are not persisted. For example, when a user closes view  160  and subsequently re-loads electronic document  122  (i.e., the loading establishes an instance of source document  123  within the interface  114 ), no information is hidden based upon past control  116  utilizations and no expansion indicators  162  are present. 
         [0026]    In another example, electronic document  122  can be concurrently shared by many users, where each user has a user-specific rendered document ( 124 ) version. Content hiding options relating to control  116  and engine  118  affect only one of the concurrent users. In one embodiment, application  112  can be a Web browser and the electronic document  122  can be a served HTML based document (e.g., a Web page), where users can apply user-specific hiding options to the browser rendered and interactive version (document  124 ) of the served Web page. Whenever browser activity occurs that causes the Web page to be reloaded content hiding options are reset. 
         [0027]    In one embodiment, different rendered documents  124  can exist, which vary output presentation for different output devices  130 . Thus, a printed version of a document (Rendered Document A) can include content with respect to content hiding options that varies from a displayed version of the document (Rendered Document B). 
         [0028]    Additionally, in one embodiment, content hiding data  125  can be used to enumerate deltas between the source document  123  and the one or more rendered documents  124 . Further, import  156  and export  157  controls can exist for interface  114  to save and retrieve content hiding data  125 . This permits previously established content hiding settings to be retained beyond a session without “corrupting” the source document  123  with content hiding related metadata. Import  156  and export  157  options and use of data  125  can also permit different users to share content hiding information by sharing content hiding data  125 . 
         [0029]    Implementations are also contemplated where content hiding engine  118  includes import/export automation instructions, which can configured. For example, a user can configure an eBook reader (one device  110  that accesses electronic document  122 ) to automatically import a content hiding data file  125  tailored for an eBook display and configure a desktop computer (another device  110  that accesses electronic document  122 ) to load electronic document  122  normally, without importing file  125 . 
         [0030]    As used herein, output device  130  can be any device able to output content of application  112 . For example, the output device  130  can include a monitor, a printer, a fax machine, an email system, and the like. 
         [0031]    Computing device  110  can be any device able to execute application  112  and to present interface  114  to a user. The computing device  100  can include, but is not limited to, a personal computer, a mobile phone, a server, a tablet, an eBook reader, an embedded computing device, a kiosk, and the like. 
         [0032]    Application  112  can include any executable computer program product having an associated user interface  114 . The application  112  can load a source document  123  and interactively present a rendered document  124 , whose content is selectively hideable using control  116  and engine  118 . For example, application  112  can include a Web browser, a word processor, a document reader, an eBook application, a Web browser, an email application, an instant messaging application, etc. 
         [0033]    The user interface  114  can be an interface that a user can use to interact with application  112 . The user interface  114  can include a graphical user interface (GUI), a voice user interface (VUI), a multimodal interface, a text only interface, and the like. 
         [0034]    Electronic document  122  can include any form of digitally encoded content, which is able to be presented within interface  114  and/or output to device  130 . For example, the electronic document can include a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) based document, a word processing document, an eBook, an audio Book, a PDF document, a FLASH document, a media document, a set of images, and the like. 
         [0035]    The user content  152  can be any user selectable portion of the electronic document  122 . For example, the user selectable content  152  can include text, images, and other presentable content. 
         [0036]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart of a method  200  for hiding user defined portions of content of an electronic document while not persisting hiding related operations in accordance with an embodiment of the inventive arrangements disclosed herein. The method  200  can be performed in context of system  100 . 
         [0037]    Method  200  can begin in step  205  where an application having a user interface can be instantiated. In step  210 , an electronic document (referred to as a stored document) can be loaded from a data store. In step  215 , the loaded electronic document can be presented as output of the user interface, which also includes a user selectable content hiding control. The presented version of the electronic document can be referred to as a rendered document, which can be distinct from the source document. Having a distinct software object for a rendered document is a common practice used in document editing applications, where an “in-RAM” or in-process version (rendered document) of the electronic document is one being actively edited, where the rendered document is reconciled with a stored document when a save action occurs. 
         [0038]    In step  220 , a user specified portion of the rendered document can be defined. For example, a user could highlight a portion of the rendered document within a graphical user interface using a pointing device. In step  225 , a user input can be received for hiding the specified portion of content. In step  230 , hiding options and/or applicable output device(s) can be identified. The output device(s) can include a visual/audio output modality associated with the user interface or any ancillary output device (e.g., printer, fax machine, email device, etc.). In step  235 , in the rendered document, an expandable indicator can be substituted for the specified portion of content. In step  240 , remaining content can be adjusted. In step  245 , the rendered object can be presented to the identified output device(s) with the specified portion of content hidden. 
         [0039]    Further interactions with the rendered document can subsequently occur. For example a user can select he expansion indicator (step  250 ), which results in the previously hidden content being expanded (step  255 ) so that it is no longer hidden. 
         [0040]    In another example, a user can select a save control (step  260 ). This causes a reconciliation between the stored document and the rendered document. During this reconciliation, editing changes can be saved, but aspects of the rendered document related to content hiding can be ignored, as shown by step  265 . That is, content hiding options are temporary options not saved in the stored document. Content hiding related data can be discarded after an interactive user session in one implementation. In another implementation, content hiding related data can be stored in a file separate from the stored document. This optional retention of the content hiding data can permit a user to import content hiding data into a loaded source document should they choose, yet typical accesses of the stored document will otherwise lack the “temporary” and session specific content hiding data. 
         [0041]    The diagrams in  FIGS. 1-2  illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions. 
         [0042]    The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. 
         [0043]    The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6