Abstract: An adaptive transformation and User Interface system enables transformation of a file or document (e.g. an SGML, XML, HTML or other multimedia file or document) from one format to another format. The transformation supports error correction, filtering and collation of elements of a source document for output and is performed in response to control information comprising transformation parameters. The system transforms a document encoded in a language including presentation style determination attributes from a first format to a different second format. The system includes a source of transformation parameters determining a desired presentation style and content structure as well as an input document processor. The input document processor transforms a received input document in a first format by parsing the input document and collating elements of the input document into a hierarchically ordered structure representing an intermediate document structure.

Abstract: A generalized hyperlinking system interactively creates hyperlinks one a time or automatically in mass production, statically at authoring time or dynamically at browsing time. A Generalized Hyperlink Specification Language (GHSL) allows for the author to specify patterns and contexts for identifying sources and destinations of links in all media and define link information as interfaces between hyperlinking modules. The generalized automatic hyperlinking system includes a source identifier, a source anchor generator, an initial semi-link generator, an intermediate destination identifier, an intermediate anchor generator, an intermediate link generator, an intermediate semi-link generator, a destination identifier, a final semi-link generator, a final link generator, link management, a link database, a link browser, a link interpreter and a document browser.

Abstract: An automatic card-based presentation generation system programmatically creates card-based presentation documents from source documents by transforming a card layout style specification into presentation specifications which at run-time, are used to generate formatting object descriptions. The formatting object descriptions are then used to actually create card-based presentation documents. The invention includes a presentation style transformer and a card-based presentation generator. The presentation style transformer takes a card layout style specification (CLSS) and a card display schema (CDS) and transforms them into card-based presentation specifications (CPS). The card-based presentation generator takes the card-based presentation specifications and a card-based document content to create formatting object descriptions.

Abstract: A system of hyperlink authoring allows authors to establish links in multimedia documents interactively and provides generalization and specialization mechanisms for transforming the content and context of the instances of links indicated by the authors into more general link rules that when executed can automatically generate a large number of syntactically similar links. A major component of the system, the link editor, comprises specifications for the source, the intermediate destination, if required, and the final destination. Each specification comprises content pattern generalization, pattern variable instantiation, attribute modification, context specialization and attribute variable instantiation. The output of the link editor is link specifications which are forwarded to an automatic hyperlinker which outputs linked documents.

Abstract: An adaptive transformation and User Interface system enables transformation of a file or document (e.g. an SGML, XML, HTML or other multimedia file or document) from one format to another format. The transformation supports error correction, filtering and collation of elements of a source document for output and is performed in response to control information comprising transformation parameters. The system transforms a document encoded in a language including presentation style determination attributes from a first format to a different second format. The system includes a source of transformation parameters determining a desired presentation style and content structure as well as an input document processor. The input document processor transforms a received input document in a first format by parsing the input document and collating elements of the input document into a hierarchically ordered structure representing an intermediate document structure.

Abstract: A document generator is provided, for generating structured documents on-the fly from product database. The method is based on high-level document generation specifications, which are SGML documents conformed to specification DTD. A document generator transforms document specifications and queries the product database to generate a structured SGML document. The document generator includes document generation specifications, a document structure template transformer, a document content filling operator, and a document maker.

Abstract: An automatic formatting system programmatically creates an electronic file format for card-based hypermedia documents without the knowledge of the target document format. The script-based formatting system includes an automated method for generating formatting scripts which, at run-time, are used by a commercial authoring tool to generate the document file format. With this approach, it is possible to take advantage of the script interpreter capabilities rather than interactive editing capabilities in authoring tools. The system includes a mixer where descriptions about documents are obtained by attaching formatting commands to document contents through a pre-processing procedure. The descriptions are input to an automatic scripting module which generates formatting scripts. The automatic scripting module includes an HCF generator and a formatting script interpreter. At run-time the formatting scripts are executed by the authoring tools' script interpreter to generate card-based hypermedia documents.

Abstract: In Web applications, collections of individual document files are stored on a delivery server for delivering to the users. Each document is represented in HTML and identified by a URL. To efficiently transport the documents over the network locally or globally, all documents are relatively small in size. Thus, a well-structured technical manual has become a collection of loosely related small document files. In order to relate documents, hyperlinking is often adopted in an ad-hoc way, no matter whether they are structurally related, semantically related, or even unrelated in any sensible way. A system analyzes the structures of related documents to automatically generate the hierarchical ToC structure that can be used by a set of generic navigation controls to traverse all documents in an efficient way.

Abstract: A system for automatically assembling product manuals based on a product model, a delivery model and a formal configuration specification includes a structure instantiator for instantiating a product manual structure from a model-specific configuration specification to create a logical structure for a product manual. The product manual structure incorporates product information from a product model, the product manual structure including document objects. A manual configurer is included for configuring the product manual by binding the document objects in the logical structure to proper versions of component documents stored in a document database. A manual generator is also included for generating the product manual by physically extracting the document objects from the document database to a directory, based on a delivery model. A method for automatically assembling product manuals is also included.

Abstract: A system of hyperlink authoring allows authors to establish links in multimedia documents interactively and provides generalization and specialization mechanisms for transforming the content and context of the instances of links indicated by the authors into more general link rules that when executed can automatically generate a large number of syntactically similar links. A major component of the system, the link editor, comprises specifications for the source, the intermediate destination, if required, and the final destination. Each specification comprises content pattern generalization, pattern variable instantiation, attribute modification, context specialization and attribute variable instantiation. The output of the link editor is link specifications which are forwarded to an automatic hyperlinker which outputs linked documents.

Abstract: A system that automatically restructures SGML documents into a format referred to as card-based documents is based on a Card Layout Style Specification Language (CLSSL). The CLSSL controls the information, arrangement, sequencing, and presentation features of the cards. The system includes a scroll-card transformer, a media-card extractor, a card style editor, a platform-independent generator and a platform dependent generator. SGML documents are first transformed in scroll-card transformer into cards based on various scroll-to-card transformation guidelines. The non-textual media that are associated with textual documents are also transformed in the media-card extractor by extracting a portion of the information for individual cards. Once the textual and non-textual documents are transformed properly into cards, the card layout style editor is used to create the formatting commands, referred to as Card Layout Style Specifications (CLSS), for each type of card in the card-based manual.

Abstract: A system for automatically synthesizing semantic information units from raw material extracted from non-textual documents supports error detection and correction, allows mapping from pieces of raw information extracted from the media into semantic information entities in the application domain and provides a complete procedure for building up hierarchical information structures for non-textual media. It adopts a formal specification to describe the synthesis process of constructing semantic media structures for all different media in multimedia documentation. The system includes an error corrector for receiving raw AIU's and for providing corrected raw AIU's. A primitive identifier receives the corrected raw AIU's and provides primitives. A basic synthesizer receives the primitives and provides basic objects. An abstract synthesizer receives the basic objects and provides abstract objects which are in condition for the hyperlinking process.