Patent ID: 7320104

Claim:
A method for controlling typesetting and layout editing, comprising: receiving a user input to create a new electronic document; displaying a first dialog box having a layout grid mode on a display; creating the electronic document; displaying a second dialog box that includes user modifiable values for a plurality of grid parameters for a layout grid for the new electronic document if the user selects the layout grid mode, the grid parameters including a plurality of parameters for defining typesetting attributes of the layout grid according to a content to be typeset; generating one or more layout grids within the electronic document, where generating the one or more layout grids within the electronic document includes: creating a layout grid for a page in the electronic document using user-inputted values for the plurality of grid parameters, the grid parameters defining a grid starting point and dimensions, the layout grid defining a particular arrangement of grid cells and providing a guide for positioning a plurality of characters for typesetting; and using the grid parameters of the layout grid to determine the margins of the page of the electronic document, wherein the margins are automatically determined as a region of the page remaining after creating the layout grid and where the margins correspond to cell boundaries of the created layout grid; and typesetting the plurality of characters using the defined arrangement of the layout grid.