Patent Document ID: 8838591
Application ID: 11461037
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method of embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, the method executed by a computer and comprising: using the computer to perform the steps of: embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space; in response to a print command, capturing from the fiducial mark coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and coordinates corresponding to the hot spot by parsing the printed representation for a subset of the coordinates corresponding to the hot spot; in response to the print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark; creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification corresponding to the hotspot; and rendering a page layout comprising the printed representation including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.