Patent ID: 7260773

Claim:
A method for comparing sections of text in one or more documents, the method executing in a computer system, the computer system including a display screen coupled to a processor, the method comprising: selecting, by using the processor, a first heading of a first text subsection and a second heading of a second text subsection from among a group of 3 or more text subsections, wherein the first heading is not similar to the second heading, wherein the selecting is performed without the user manually selecting said first or second text subsections; automatically determining, by using the processor without user input, a similarity measure for each pair of text subsections in the group, wherein a particular similarity measure results in a similarity rating for the first and second text subsections that is higher than similarity ratings for other pairs of text subsections in the group even when the first and second headings are not similar, wherein the similarity measure is derived from text subsections and headings; determining, by using the processor, and based on the similarity measure, that the first text subsection is more similar to the second text subsection than to other text subsections in the group; displaying, by using the processor, the first and second non-similar headings on the display screen to indicate that the first and second text subsections are most similar; wherein a first document includes a first plurality of text subsections, wherein a second document includes a second plurality of text subsections, the method further comprising: accepting, by using the processor, a signal from a user input device to designate the first document as a dominant document; determining, by using the processor, a mapping among the first and second pluralities of text subsections; displaying, by using the processor, the first headings of the first text subsections in an order in which the first headings appear in the dominant document; and displaying, by using the processor, the second headings of the second text subsections in an order according to the determined mapping, wherein the second headings are displayed in an order that is not the same as an order in which the second headings appear in the second document.