Patent ID: 8458587

Claim:
A method of entering page layout constraints into a computer, the method comprising the steps of: providing a container for representing a page layout, wherein the container is delimited by an existing set of gridlines; providing a set of graphical objects, each of the graphical objects having a set of object gridlines for delimiting important graphical features of the object, wherein each of the set of object gridlines has a span which is identical with one of: where the object and the gridline overlap and where the object and the gridline intersect; selecting the set of graphical objects one by one; placing each selected graphical object within the container, wherein each of the selected graphical objects are positioned by one of: snapping the position of the span to a non-empty gridline and positioning the span onto the container by adding a new gridline; determining at least one pair of colliding gridlines, wherein colliding gridlines have a parallel direction and at least one pair of spans which at least partially overlap in the parallel direction; inserting page layout constraints between the at least one pair of colliding gridlines; storing in a hierarchical data structure the gridlines within the container and the page layout constraints between the gridlines; and applying a constraint resolution for automatic layout of the graphical objects to the stored hierarchical data structure and for automatically repositioning and resizing graphical object based on the constraints between the spans.