Patent ID: 7555705

Claim:
A method of managing annotations in a pen-based computing system, the method comprising: monitoring an electronic document for user annotations; recognizing entry of an annotation into the electronic document; collecting context data proximal to the annotation, wherein the context data comprises: time; location; and surrounding text; and determining whether the annotation comprises a gesture, wherein the gesture is an ink object commanding user defined functionality of a computer; determining whether the annotation is associated with a date; responsive to determining the annotation is associated with a date, determining if a date launch feature is enabled, such that: in an event no date launch feature is enabled, continuing monitoring the electronic document for user annotations; in an event the date launch feature is enabled, launching an associated application; locating information related to the annotation using the annotation and the context data; wherein the collecting context data comprises: deriving at least two search terms; comparing the search terms to a history of search terms; and weighting each of the search terms according to whether a particular search term is included in the history of search terms, a higher weight being assigned to a search term that is included in the history of search terms; and wherein the locating information related to the annotation comprises: determining keywords that are likely to be of interest to a user based on the annotation and words contained in documents previously accessed by the user; and using the keywords to locate information such that: in an event a user-specified domain is selected, the keywords are used to locate information in one of a plurality of user-specified domains comprising: a local computer; a local network drive; and the Internet.