<nettime> Microsoft patents style sheets

["Michael Sippey" <michael@theobvious.com>]

http://www.patents.ibm.com/patlist?icnt=US&patent_number=5860073

<quote>


Inventor(s):
Ferrel; Patrick J. , Seattle, WA
Gertz; Matthew W. , Redmond, WA
Meyer; Robert F. , Redmond, WA
Millet; Stephen J. , Seattle, WA
Schofield; Kevin M. , Bellevue, WA
Shewchuk; John P. , Seattle, WA
Smith; Walter W. , Seattle, WA

Applicant(s):
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

Abstract:
The use of style sheets in an electronic publishing system is described. A
style sheet is a collection of formatting information, such as font and tabs
in a textual document. The style sheets described herein are applied to
individual display regions (controls) on a page. Unlike previous systems,
the display regions in this system do not contain any text at the time the
style sheet is applied. Rather, the text, or other media such as graphics,
is poured into the display region when the title is rendered on the
customer's computer.


Claims:
We claim:
    1. A method of styling document content, comprising the steps of:
creating a title including page layouts representing the appearance of pages
of the title;
creating a first style sheet container storing a first plurality of styles;
creating a second style sheet container storing a second plurality of
styles;
creating at least one content container for storing document content;
providing a first control on a first one of the page layouts for delineating
a first page layout area where content is to be rendered;
providing a second control on a second one of the page layouts for
delineating a second page layout area where content is to be rendered;
linking the content container with the first and second controls;
linking the first control to the first style sheet container;
linking the second control to the second style sheet container;
rendering content in the first page layout area according to at least one of
the first plurality of styles; and
rendering content in the second page area according to at least one of the
second plurality of styles.
    2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the styles is selected
from the group consisting of paragraph styles, character styles and wrap
styles.
    3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second
style sheet containers comprise styles for image and textual content.
    4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of providing each
control with a setting corresponding to the location of content to be
displayed by the control.
    5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the steps of linking
the first control to the first style sheet and linking the second control to
the second style sheet further comprises the step of loading the respective
style sheet from a cache object store.
    6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of linking the first control
to the first style sheet and the step of linking the second control to the
second style sheet comprise the step of associating with the respective
control with a globally unique identifier associated with the respective
style sheet.
    7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a first and
second control further comprises the step of creating a static story
control.
    8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a first and
second control further comprises the step of creating a dynamic story
control.
    9. A viewer for rendering a title, the title including at least one page
layout representing a desired appearance of a respective page of the title,
the title having at least one content object associated therewith
representing content of at least one document, the viewer comprising:
a computer, including a storage;
a display operatively associated with the computer;
the content object being stored in the storage;
at least one style sheet stored in the storage separately from the content
object; and
a control stored in the storage, the control delineating an area of the page
layout and being linked to at least one of the content objects and at least
one of the style sheets such that content rendered in the delineated page
layout area is formatted according to the linked style sheet.
    10. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object comprises text
content.
    11. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object comprises image
content.
    12. The viewer of claim 9, further comprising a second control stored in
the storage, the second control delineating a second area of the page layout
and being linked to at least a second one of the content objects and a
second one of the style sheets.
    13. The viewer of claim 9, further comprising a second control stored in
the storage, the second control delineating a second area of the page
layout, the first and second controls being linked to the same content
object.
    14. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the style sheet includes styles from
the group consisting of character styles, wrap styles or paragraph styles.
    15. The viewer of claim 9, wherein the content object contains tagged
content.
    16. In an electronic publication system including a storage, a method of
publishing and viewing a title, the method comprising the steps of:
creating a content object representing content of a document associated with
the title;
creating at least one page layout representing a desired layout of a page of
the title;
creating a control object delineating an area of the page layout where the
content is to be rendered;
creating a style sheet object including at least one style sheet
representing a desired format for the content;
linking the style sheet object to the control object;
linking the content object to the control object;
storing with a publishing workstation the page layout, content object, the
style sheet object and the control object in the storage;
retrieving with a customer workstation the page layout, content object,
style sheet object and control object from the storage; and
rendering the content on a display of the customer workstation, the content
being rendered in the delineated page layout area according to the format
represented in the linked style sheet.
    17. In a publishing and distribution system including at least one
publishing workstation for creating a title and at least one customer
workstation for rendering the title, a publishing method comprising the
steps of:
creating a content folder containing at least one content object, the
content object representing the information associated with the title;
creating a title folder for containing the title;
creating at least one layout object on the publishing workstation, the
layout object representing the layout of at least one page of the title, the
layout object including a control object containing at least one control
delineating a respective area of the layout page in which content is to be
rendered;
creating a style object containing at least one style sheet representing a
desired format for the content;
linking the control object with a respective content object;
linking the style object with the control object;
storing the layout object in the title folder; and
rendering the page of the title on a display of the customer workstation by:
selecting the page; and
rendering the linked content in the respective page layout area delineated
by the control in the format represented by the style sheet in the linked
style object.
    18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
content folder further comprises the step of creating tagged content.
    19. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
layout object further comprises the step of creating search objects for
drawing content from the content object.
    20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
control object includes the step of creating a static story control.
    21. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of creating a
control object includes the step of creating a dynamic story control.
    22. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of
modifying the style sheet on the publisher workstation after the step of
rendering the title on a display of the customer workstation.
    23. The method according to claim 17, wherein the step of rendering the
title on the customer workstation further comprises the steps of:
parsing content represented in the content object to determine a tag
identifier; and
determining a style property from the style sheet based on the tag
identifier.
    24. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of providing
each control with a setting representing the location of content to be
displayed by that control.
    25. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of rendering the title on
the customer workstation comprises the step of loading the style sheet from
a cache object store.
    26. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of rendering the title on
the customer workstation comprises the step of associating with the control
with a globally unique identifier identifying the style sheet.
    27. The method of claim 17, wherein the control object comprises two
controls and wherein the step of rendering the title on the customer
workstation comprises the step of rendering the same content with both
controls.
    28. In a publishing system including at least one publishing workstation
for creating a title, a publishing method comprising the steps of:
creating a content folder containing at least one content object, the
content object representing the information associated with the title;
creating a title folder for containing the title;
creating at least one layout object on the publishing workstation, the
layout object representing the layout of at least one page of the title, the
layout object including a control object containing at least one control
delineating a respective area of the layout page in which content is to be
rendered;
creating a style object containing at least one style sheet representing a
desired format for the content;
linking the control object with a respective content object;
linking the style object with the control object; and
storing the layout object in the title folder.
    29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the content object
represents tagged content.
    30. The method according to claim 28, wherein the layout object
comprises search objects for drawing content from the content object.
    31. The method according to claim 28, wherein the control object
includes a static story control.
    32. The method according to claim 28, wherein the control object
includes a dynamic story control.
    33. The method according to claim 28, further comprising the step of
modifying the style sheet after the step of storing the layout object.
    34. The method of claim 28, wherein the style sheet is provided with a
globally unique identifier.
    35. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of creating a layout object
comprises the step of creating a control object representing two controls
and wherein the step of linking the control object to the content object
comprises linking both controls to the same content.

</quote>
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