Patent ID: 7689975

Claim:
A machine executed method of processing files, the method comprising providing a plurality of original files; providing one or more common files, that contain information that several of the original files refer to; preprocessing the original files each to generate a respective preprocessed file, said preprocessing comprising expanding the several of the original files with the information from a first one of the common files; applying a collective processing step to make coordinated changes to information from the preprocessed files; selecting one of the preprocessed files, on the basis of detection that the selected file elaborates the information from the first one of the common files, and regenerating regenerated files for the original files and the first one of the common files as affected by the collective processing step, said regenerating of the regenerated file for the first one of the common files being controlled using information from the selected preprocessed file, so that information in the selected preprocessed file controls how much will be included in the regenerated file for the first one of the common files.