Patent ID: 7117429

Claim:
A computer implemented method for a user to manage styles in electronic documents, comprising: providing an attribute list that includes a plurality of individually user selectable attributes, each user selectable attribute defining a content-independent property of an element in an electronic document; enabling the user to select at least one attribute from the attribute list and a value for each selected attribute independently of an existing style; defining at least one new uniquely identifiable style that includes the at least one user-selected attribute from the provided attribute list and the selected value for each selected attribute; providing a style list that includes user-selectable styles that include the defined style and at least one additional style; enabling the user to select at least one style from the provided style list; defining and storing a style sheet, the defined style sheet including at least one user-selected style from the provided style list, the defined style sheet being configured to control an appearance of the electronic document upon being linked thereto, and generating a linking statement to link the defined and stored style sheet to the electronic document.