Patent ID: 7877731

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for formatting and viewing representations of source objects, the method comprising: accessing a source object; parsing the source object and creating a structural representation of the source object; at a first computing system, accessing a first set of rules and using the first set of rules for formatting the structural representation of the source object into a first formatted structural representation of the source object, the first set of rules including preferences defined by a first user to be applied in displaying the first formatted structural representation of the source object, wherein a second computing system also accesses a second set of rules that are used to format the structural representation of the source object into a second formatted structural representation of the source object according to preferences defined by a second user; displaying the first formatted structural representation of the source object at the first computing system with a first viewer, wherein a second formatted structural representation of the source object is displayed simultaneously at a second computing system, the second formatted structural representation of the source object being distinguished from the first formatted structural representation of the source object; receiving and mapping changes that are received at the first computing system to the first formatted structural representation of the source object; and synchronizing changes to the structural representation of the source object according to the changes made to the first formatted structural representation of the source object, wherein the synchronized changes to the structural representation of the source object are updated in real-time and are displayed to the second user and are used to notify the second user at the second computing system which first one or more components of the structural representation of the source object are checked out for editing at the first computing system, and wherein second one or more components of the structural representation of the source object are checked out for editing by the second computing system simultaneously to the first one or more components being checked out for editing by the first computing system and wherein the method includes notifying the first user at the first computing system that the second one or more components are checked out for editing.