Patent Application
20060259858
Many individuals and businesses prepare and deliver presentations using a computer presentation program. Typically, presentation programs allow the user to edit, create, and present slides using their computer. A user selects from predefined slide layouts and then configures the set of slides for their presentation based on the predefined layout that was selected. Conveying the look and feel the user desires, however, may be difficult to achieve.
Embodiments of the present invention are related to applying a slide layout having an arbitrary number of placeholders.
According to one aspect of the invention, placeholders are mapped from an original slide layout to a new slide layout. The slide layouts may be predefined slide layouts that include a predetermined number of placeholders or customized slide layouts that may include an arbitrary number of placeholders.
According to another aspect of the invention, a layout algorithm maps placeholders within an original slide layout into a new slide layout that has fewer, the same, or more placeholders than contained within the original slide layout.
According to another aspect of the invention, a best match determination is conducted to determine the mapping of placeholders between slide layouts. The placeholders are examined to determine characteristics associated with them, such as: the function of the placeholder; the name of the placeholder; the type of the placeholder; and the position ID of the placeholder. The best match for a placeholder is found by cycling through the placeholders on the original slide and matching them up against the list of unmatched placeholders in the new layout.
Generally, embodiments of the present invention are related to applying a slide layout having an arbitrary number of placeholders. Placeholders in an original slide layout are mapped to placeholders within a new slide layout configuration. The slide layouts may be predefined slide layouts that include a predetermined number of placeholders or customized slide layouts that include an arbitrary number of placeholders. The placeholders in the original slide layout are mapped to a new slide layout that may have fewer, the same, or more placeholders than the original slide layout. The placeholders may be matched based on many different criteria, including, the function of the placeholder; the name of the placeholder; the type of the placeholder; and the position ID of the placeholder.
Illustrative Slide Layout System and Method
According to one embodiment of the invention, each presentation includes at least one slide master (205) and each slide master may include at least zero or more layouts that may be associated with zero or more slides (215). Slide master 205 is at the highest level within the hierarchy. Original layout 210 and new layout 212 are located at the second level within the hierarchy and the slides (215) are at the third level within the hierarchy. Slides 215, therefore, inherit their corresponding properties from associated layouts and the layouts inherit properties from an associated slide master. Changes made to the slide master propagate to the layout level and then propagate to the slide level. Changes made to the layout propagate down to the associated slides. Therefore, when a new layout is applied, the changes are propagated down to the slides (215). When an exception can be made to a property at one or more of the hierarchical levels, that overrides the inheritance of that property from parent layers.
Slide master 205 helps to enable presentation authors to create an overall look and feel for a presentation. More than one slide master may be included within the presentation. The slide master(s) determines the styles and background for the presentation. The slide master defines characteristics including background, layout, color scheme and text styles associated with the presentation. Slide masters also store the global placeholder and text style definition that is the default for a layouts' position and size of: title placeholders; header, footer and slide placeholders.
One or more layouts are used to define properties, such as the geometries, associated with slides 215. According to one embodiment, a default list of predefined layouts are provided. These predefined layouts include a predefined number of placeholders and may represent many different layouts. Presentation authors can also add additional custom layouts having an arbitrary number of placeholders that can be used and that are based on their own design criteria. Presentation authors may also apply a new layout to existing slides to create a new look and feel for a presentation.
Slides point to layouts for their placeholder and slide-level properties. Generally, layouts (both predefined and custom) derive the default position of their title, date/time, footer, and slide number placeholders from their counterparts on the master. For each of these placeholders, if no size or position changes have been made on the layout, then their position/size is inherited from the master. Each layout, such as original layout 210 and new layout 212, may include its own number and arrangement of body placeholders that share the global style definition from the slide master by default, but may also store unique size and position information for each layout.
Initially, slides 215 point to original layout 210. When a new layout is applied, such as new layout 212, the slides (215) pointing to the original layout (210) now point to new layout 212 and any change made as a result of applying the new layout is reflected in the slides that use that layout unless the slide specifically provides an exception. After the new layout is applied, when any formatting change is made to the new layout (212) all of its children inherit the change unless an exception to that type of change is provided within the child. According to one embodiment, if a placeholder is added to a new layout its existing children are not affected. Newly created slides based on this layout, however, will include the additional placeholder.
When new layout 212 is applied to original layout 210, the placeholders across the layouts are attempted to be matched (See
After a start block, the process flows to decision block 310, where a determination is made as to whether the placeholder is of an equal or equivalent type and has the same name as a placeholder within the new layout. Generally, an equivalent placeholder is a placeholder that is used to store the same or similar content. An equal type placeholder is a placeholder of the same type. According to one embodiment, the following table illustrates equivalent placeholders. Other equivalents may be used and may vary based on the slide layout program being used.
X = any content type;
T = text only;
◯ = object only
When there is a placeholder of the equivalent type or equal type and the placeholder has the same name, a match is found and the process moves to block 370.
When there is not a placeholder of the equivalent or equal type and does not have the same name, the process flows to decision block 320.
At decision block 320, a determination is made as to whether the placeholder is of an equal type and has the same position as a placeholder in the new layout. According to one embodiment, the position is a relative position of the placeholder in relation to the slide. When the placeholder is an equal type and does have the same position, a match is found and the process moves to block 370.
When the placeholder is not of an equal type and does not have the same position, a match is not found and the process moves to decision block 330.
At decision block 330, a determination is made as to whether the placeholder is of an equal type. When the placeholder is an equal type, a match is found and the process moves to block 370.
When the placeholder is not an equal type, a match is not found and the process moves to decision block 340.
At decision block 340, a determination is made as to whether the placeholder is of an equivalent type and has the same position. When the placeholder is an equivalent type and does have the same position, a match is found and the process moves to block 370.
When the placeholder is not an equivalent type and does not have the same position, a match is not found and the process moves to decision block 350.
At decision block 350, a determination is made as to whether the placeholder is of an equivalent type. When the placeholder is an equivalent type, a match is found and the process moves to block 370.
When the placeholder is not an equivalent type, a match is not found and the process moves to block 360.
At block 360, a floating placeholder is created for the placeholder since no placeholders were found that were a match. According to one embodiment, the floating placeholder is located on the new slide at the location of the placeholder on the original slide.
The process then moves to and end block, where the process returns to processing other actions.
As discussed above, the layout algorithm cycles through all of the placeholders on the slide and determines if they match any of the placeholders in the new layout. Applying the process as described with reference to
A match is found by first looking for a placeholder that has the same name and is of an equivalent or equal type to a placeholder in the new layout. In the present example, placeholder 402 has the same name and is of an equal type to placeholder 408 in the new layout. Therefore, placeholder 402 is matched to placeholder 408. The remaining placeholders to be matched in the new layout are placeholder 410 and placeholder 412.
When a match is not found, a placeholder that matches the identifier of the placeholder in the original layout and who's position in the new layout equals the position in the original layout is sought. In the present example, the two remaining placeholders do not meet these criteria. According to one embodiment, a placeholder identifier is maintained for each placeholder that is used to identify the type of the place holder.
If the algorithm does not find this match, the algorithm looks for the first placeholder in the list of remaining placeholders who's identifier is equal to the original placeholder's identifier. If a match is found, the placeholder in the original layout is resized and repositioned such that it looks like the placeholder in the new layout as long as there are no exceptions. In the present example, placeholder 404 has an equal type (Body Type) to placeholder 410. Therefore, placeholder 404 in the original layout is resized to placeholder 410 in the new layout. According to one embodiment, the original placeholder's shape and formatting properties are maintained. The remaining placeholder to be matched is placeholder 412.
The algorithm then looks for the first placeholder in the list of remaining placeholders who's identifier is equivalent to the original placeholder's identifier and has the same position. In the present example, there are no matches.
The algorithm then looks for the first placeholder in the list of remaining placeholders who's identifier is equivalent to the original placeholder's identifier. In the present example, placeholder 406 is of an equivalent type to placeholder 412 (See Chart of equivalent types above).
When no matches are found, and the placeholder contains content, a floating placeholder is created (See
Illustrative Operating Environment
With reference to
Computing device 100 may have additional features or functionality. For example, computing device 100 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
Computing device 100 may also contain communication connections 116 that allow the device to communicate with other computing devices 118, such as over a network. Communication connection 116 is one example of communication media. Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media.
The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.
