Abstract: Technologies are described herein for applying rich visual effects to arbitrary runs of text. The dimensions of the run of text following the application of the rich visual effect are determined. Once the dimensions of the run of text following the application of the rich visual effect have been determined, a layout for the run of text is determined utilizing the dimensions of the run of text following the application of the rich visual effect. The run of text is then rendered according to the layout with the rich visual effect applied thereto. Layout functions and typographical functions may be utilized in conjunction with the run of text prior to and following the application of the rich visual effect to the run of text.

Abstract: A token identifies a special comment that includes information usable by a specific Web page editor. Tile information included within a special comment may include authoring state information, such as parameters used by "WEBBOT" components to provide extensions to hypertext markup language (HTML) features. When a Web page is opened, the editor parses each element on the page and determines if a comment is special by detecting the presence of a predefined token. In the preferred embodiment, the token is the word "WEBBOT." The information included within this special comment can include references to extensions to HTML tags, including those that are not known by the editor, and parameters required by HTML extensions. Since the special comment is in a format ignored by Web browsers, it does not impact upon the ability of a browser to render the page.

Abstract: A client/server system for authoring an on-line service uses a server machine accessed a client machine which performs authoring operations on information stored on the server machine comprising the on-line service. Requests for authoring operations to be performed on information on the server machine, for authoring the online service, are translated on the client machine into at least one message which is sent to the server machine. The server machine receives the at least one message from the client machine and performs authoring operations identified in the received at least one message so as to author the online service. This information on the server machine is then made accessible by the server machine to other client systems that can be used to access the information without modifying the information, such as a browser.

Abstract: A client/server computer system for remote editing of document objects stored on the server includes a client computer connected to a server computer via a communication channel over which messages are sent in a communication protocol. Typically, the client computer has an operating system with a first file name space and the server computer has an operating system with a second file name space and the first file name space does not include names of files which map to names of files in the second file name space. The connection is preferably a TCP/IP connection providing data transport according to TCP/IP. Messages in the HTTP protocol are preferably used. The client computer sends request messages to the server. A request message may indicate a request for either retrieval or storage of a document object, such as an HTML document or script program.