Patent ID: 7360157

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for inserting input into an electronic document page comprising: placing a pointer on the electronic document page; scanning the electronic document page for existing objects, determining a dominant existing object; identifying content guidelines of the dominant existing object; selecting a content-based guideline of the dominant existing object that is adjacent to the pointer, the content-based guideline being selected from a plurality of content-based guidelines by applying rules to determine which one of the plurality of content-based guidelines is dominant, the plurality of content-based guidelines comprising the following: a gravity parameter defining a distance beyond which the plurality of content-based guidelines are suppressed, vertical lines and horizontal lines defined by an equation of a line, the vertical lines being attached to content features of the dominant existing object and the horizontal lines being aligned to text comprising the dominant existing object, wherein at least one of the vertical lines intersects substantially perpendicularly with at least one of the horizontal lines, wherein applying the rules to determine which one of the plurality of content-based guidelines is dominant comprises one of the following: using guideline hierarchy and applying the rules with guideline dominance being a function of page position and the plurality of content-based guidelines move with the dominant existing object when the dominant existing object is moved; aligning the pointer to the content-based guideline for inserting the input; and creating a new object wherein the content of the new object is aligned with the selected content guideline of the dominant existing object, wherein the input comprises an input document object, wherein the content-based guideline is an existing content-based guideline, and wherein the input document object comprises content, and wherein the method further comprises the step of identifying an input content-based guideline of the input document object, and wherein the aligning step comprises positioning the content of the input document object on the page so that the input content-based guideline is aligned to the existing content-based guideline.