Patent ID: 7337389

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of annotating pages of an electronic document independently of the contents of the document, comprising the steps of: displaying a page of the electronic document on a computer display device using a document browser that permits a user to move forward and backward among a plurality of document pages; determining whether the currently displayed page of the electronic document is associated with an existing annotation file that is stored separately from the electronic document; if the currently displayed page is associated with the existing annotation file, retrieving the separately stored annotation file and displaying annotations corresponding to previously stored annotation stroke data on the computer display device; if the currently displayed page is not associated with the existing annotation file, creating a new annotation file stored separately from the electronic document; detecting a selection of an annotation mode that permits the user to annotate the currently displayed document page; receiving annotation stroke input from a user input device indicating that the user has moved the user input device for a continuous distance about a stroke location on the currently displayed document page; storing annotation stroke data based on the received annotation stroke input, said annotation stroke data comprising data corresponding to the stroke location and the movement of the user input device, wherein the annotation stroke data is stored in the separately stored annotation file, wherein the stored annotation stroke data corresponds to a translucent highlighting that does not completely obscure the annotated portions of the currently displayed document page; displaying the translucent highlighting on the computer display device, said displaying comprising blending pixels from the currently displayed document with a translucent color to produce a translucent annotation; updating the computer display device to display a different page of the currently displayed document; retrieving previously stored annotation stroke data associated with the different page; and displaying annotations corresponding to the previously stored annotation stroke data on the computer display device superimposed over the different page.