Patent Application
20060156229
None.
None.
This invention was not developed in conjunction with any Federally-sponsored contract.
Not applicable.
None.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to technologies which allow users of browsers to print documents, some of which are specially formatted for printing instead of viewing through a browser.
2. Background of the Invention
With the availability of the Internet today, there is a massive amount of information being transferred. People can stay current on the latest news, articles, or stories within a click of a user's fingertip. Many users utilize this benefit by browsing on the web to get updated sports scores, conduct research for work projects, or simply stay abreast of latest world news.
Because of the enormous amount and wide variety of types of information available, users sometimes will print out copies of web pages to read during their leisure times such as lunch, on a commute, or to save for later usage. By selecting and printing only what a user wants to keep or save, the need to purchase the traditional stacks of newspapers or magazines itself is minimized or eliminated as hard copies of uninteresting stories are not printed or stored.
Web browser programs and computers can print any web page that a user is viewing, but the printed copy of the web page is often not an exact duplicate of the page as viewed through the web browser. This is because Hyper Text Markup Language (“HTML”), as well as other types of web objects such as Macromedia's Flash or Apple's QuickTime, are “interpreted” by the web browser program and then are rendered to a viewable image in the web browser user interface. The same web page viewed in two different web browser programs may even appear differently. When a user selects a print option in a web page, the web browser re-interprets the current web page for printing on the selected printing device, often adjusting the color content, aspect ratio, text size, image resolutions, and sometimes omitting items such as backgrounds. The final printed product, however, is sometimes less than optimal, as it may contain many partially filled pages, omitted information, etc.
To assist site “visitors” with obtaining properly formatted printouts of pages on the site, many web sites offer visitors links to their own “printer-friendly” versions of pages. These linked items often include web pages which have minimized content (e.g. no backgrounds, banners, Flash, etc.) which tends to print more reliably, or they are in an alternate format which assures accurate printing across multiple printers and computing platforms (e.g. Adobe's Acrobat Portable Document Format).
Turning to
In the Goto Address Bar (104) is shown or entered an actual Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”), “jump word”, or shortcut that is a unique accessible address, for a particular web page or file accessible on the Internet. Once the web page is loaded on the browser window, it is typical to find grouped or organized titles, subtitles, bullets, etc., (10, 11) which are linked to other web pages containing more information relative to the title, subtitle, etc. In our example of
User highlighting and selection of a hyperlink is illustrated in
Next, the item is selected by the user (e.g. cursor is clicked, screen tapped, etc.). This selection initiates opening or loading the web page linked to the selected item, for example a web page that displays the detailed news story, either in the same browser window, or in a new window depending on user setup and program capabilities, such as shown in
Turning to
To use the browser's print command, the user moves the cursor (12″) and selects the Print option on the command menu bar. This often leads to a printer dialogue or menu in which the user is allowed to pick which printer to send this particular page for printing. The information actually formatted and sent to the printer may or may not include a banner advertisement (32), backgrounds, etc., after the web browser applies certain user-specified options for printing such as scaling (e.g. make image fit to page width), font, paper page orientation, etc.
If provided on the web page, the user can also choose to “go to” a printer-friendly version of the same page by selecting a printer-friendly icon or hyperlinked text (31). This retrieves a file, document or web page which has been specially formatted for printing instead of viewing.
Once the user-selected page or document has been printed, the user may elect to return to the previous web page where he or she may select additional hyperlinks to retrieve additional articles, followed by printing them after they have been retrieved and viewed.
Using either method (or using a combination of them), a tediously manual process is followed to locate the specified web page, highlight the desired article, and print each information individually for each story, and then repeat these steps for another news article, web page, search subject, etc. This results in numerous steps that are repetitive and time-consuming. There is provided no ability for users to select any number of articles to print in a quick and efficient manner which avoids such redundant navigation operations. As such, each article or page is located individually and printed individually, which can also lead to a waste of paper on the printer in situations such as networked printers which provide a separation page between each individual print job.
Turning to
There exists several “multi-select” user interface methods in the art, including clicking to select a first item, followed by holding down a “control” or “shift” key and clicking on additional items which either selects a range of items or set of individually selected items.
For example, Microsoft's Windows Explorer™ provides a version of multi-select printing in which a user may view the contents of a folder on a hard drive, select a plurality of those items, and then right-click to display a menu which includes a “print” option. Alternatively, a user may “click and drag” over several items to select them, and then right-click to display the “print” option. As these items may represent a variety of data formats and file formats, such as word processor files, spreadsheets, photographs, etc., the Windows operating system accomplishes the printing of each selected item by simultaneously invoking each associated application program (e.g. a wordprocessor program for document files, a presentation program for slideshows, etc.) to print each item. This results in multiple programs being instantiated, which can place a considerable instant demand on system resources (e.g. memory, hard drive, processor bandwidth, etc.), and leads to multiple individual print jobs being sent to the printer. Additionally, Windows Explorer provides this multi-select printing function only for folder contents on a computer, but not for hyperlinked documents and pages in a web page.
One available web browser, Mozilla's Firefox™ browser, provides a feature that allows a user to open multiple view frames, each attached to a tab and containing a view of a web page, within its web browser window following a multi-item selection operation. In its browser window, a user can have several instances of web pages available simultaneously, each organized or accessed using a tab structure within the web browser's display area. For example, a user can have Firefox browser display with tabs for ESPN, CNN, MSN, and Wall Street Journal web pages. Firefox allows its users to group open these tabs using its group open arrangement method. The user can CTRL-Click the selected hyperlink text and then right-click to open the highlighted document in a new tab under the same browser window. Firefox's print operations, however, still follow the traditional methods discussed previously wherein each page to be printed must be individually viewed and explicitly printed by the user. Firefox does not consolidate multiple printed document into one print job requests, either.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a system and method which allows a user to perform a multi-select operation on hyperlinked items in a web page, and to instantiate a print operation which will retrieve the linked documents and pages, search for a printer-friendly version of each document, and consolidate the multiple prints into a single print job.
The following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the figures presented herein present a complete description of the present invention.
The invention provides a mechanism which allows Internet users to efficiently and quickly select multiple links to documents or files within a web page or set of web pages to print, without having to navigate to and review the documents themselves, and without having to manually search for a printable or printer-friendly version of the document. The invention automatically selects the best available document for printing purposes, and consolidates multiple pages or documents into a single print job.
The present invention can be realized as a combination of new functions to a web browser system or product, either through addition of functionality to an existing web browser by such means as a plug-in or Dynamically Linked Library (“DLL”), or through modification of software or circuitry of a web browser. For the purposes of this disclosure, the invention will be referred to as the “Group Print Assistant”, which can be either software coupled with a computing platform, circuitry, or a combination of both.
Turning to
However, rather than navigate to each document, review it, find a printer-friendly version, and execute a print command for each linked document, the user performs a multi-item selection (52) from the top page for each of the linked items which he or she wishes to print. Any of a number of multi-item selection processes may be employed as previously described.
Next, the user then selects and invokes a “Group Print” command, such as selecting an option from a drop-down Print menu, or right-clicking one of the selected items and selecting a “Group Print” command from a pop-up menu. This invokes the invention (55), which receives a set of hyperlinks (54) from the web browser, as indicated in the multi-item selection step previously performed.
Turning to
The invention then searches the first document or web page associated with the first hyperlink in the selected links (54), and looks for an indicator of a printer-friendly version, such as hyperlinked text in the document or page “Print This”, “Printer-Friendly”, etc. A considerable list of variations of this indication text can be quickly searched as it is simple text searching which is very efficiently performed by modern computers.
However, according to one optional aspect of the present invention, special printer-friendly markup tags may also be found so as to allow for the use of non-text web objects to indicate to the user and to the invention the existence of a printer-friendly version, such as a graphic image button or picture (e.g. a GIF or JPG image).
Turning temporarily to
So, in this first coding example (71), if a document to which a hyperlink points which was selected (54) by the user contains this additional HTML code (71), the invention automatically finds this code and retrieves the printer-friendly version at the provided hyperlink (73) without the need for the user to manually search for and select the embedded hyperlink.
In the second example (77), a graphic image “print_icon” (a GIF image) is surrounded by hyperlink tags (73, 75) and our new printer-friendly tags (72, 76). As with the first example, the printer-friendly tags (72, 76) help the invention find a graphic image such as a button icon which otherwise would visually indicate to the user the availability of a printer-friendly version of the web page or document. The invention retrieves this version, if available, automatically for printing.
Returning to
The temporary buffer is then appended (65) to the print job buffer, which is currently empty because this is the first document being processed on the list of selected links (54). In some operating systems, a print job can be built directly in the print buffer, and in other operating systems a print job must be created separately and then sent to the print queue. The invention may be realized in any manner necessary to be compatible with a specific operating system's or computing system's printing scheme.
The document or web page to which the next selected link (54) points is then retrieved and searched (61) for printer-friendly versions, including optionally searching for our special printer-friendly tags (61, 62), printing the web page or document to a temporary buffer (63, 64), and appending the printed document or page to the job buffer (65).
This process is repeated automatically for each document to which a selected link (54) points until all selected links (66) have been handled. As print information is concatenated in the print buffer, a single print job is built prior to sending the job to the print queue. Finally, one print job is sent (67) to the printer queue for printing, which effectively causes the multiple printed documents to be printed as just one print job by the printer, thereby saving paper (e.g. only one separation page) and time (e.g. no waiting by the user for intervening jobs to complete so that all of his or her individual jobs complete).
It should be noted that the example HTML code provided in the foregoing paragraphs is for illustrative purposes only, and the invention may be realized in alternate forms to process other web page and document encoding languages, including but not limited to eXtensible Markup Language (“XML”), Wireless Markup Language (“WML”), Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (“HPGL”), and Printer Control Language (“PCL”).
According to an enhanced embodiment of the present invention, the user may perform multiple item selection not only within a single web page or single web document, but may also perform selections of multiple items across different “tabs” within a web browser instance, or multiple items across multiple instances of web browsers or other application programs. In the case of the latter operation, the list of selected links would be prepared in part or whole by the operating system or file navigation system, using code modifications or additions according to the present invention.
The present invention may be realized for use in a Microsoft Windows operating system environment, as illustrated in the foregoing paragraphs, but may alternately be realized in other computing environments, including but not limited to Palm Computing's PalmOS™, IBM's AIX™, Unix, Linux, Sun Microsystem's Solaris, Novell's Netware, etc. Further, the present invention can equally well cooperate with, reside in, or form an extension to any suitable web browser system or program, including but not limited to Netscape's Navigator™, Microsoft's Internet Explorer™, and Mozilla's FireFox™.
As the present invention is preferably realized in part or whole as a software product executed by a suitable computer, we now turn to
As shown in
Many computing platforms are also provided with one or more storage drives (89), such as hard-disk drives (“HDD”), floppy disk drives, compact disc drives (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, etc.), and proprietary disk and tape drives (e.g., lomega Zip™ and Jaz™, Addonics SuperDisk™, etc.). Additionally, some storage drives may be accessible over a computer network.
Many computing platforms are provided with one or more communication interfaces (810), according to the function intended of the computing platform. For example, a personal computer is often provided with a high speed serial port (RS-232, RS-422, etc.), an enhanced parallel port (“EPP”), and one or more universal serial bus (“USB”) ports. The computing platform may also be provided with a local area network (“LAN”) interface, such as an Ethernet card, and other high-speed interfaces such as the High Performance Serial Bus IEEE-1394.
Computing platforms such as wireless telephones and wireless networked PDA's may also be provided with a radio frequency (“RF”) interface with antenna, as well. In some cases, the computing platform may be provided with an infrared data arrangement (“IrDA”) interface, too.
Computing platforms are often equipped with one or more internal expansion slots (811), such as Industry Standard Architecture (“ISA”), Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture (“EISA”), Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”), or proprietary interface slots for the addition of other hardware, such as sound cards, memory boards, and graphics accelerators.
Additionally, many units, such as laptop computers and PDA's, are provided with one or more external expansion slots (812) allowing the user the ability to easily install and remove hardware expansion devices, such as PCMCIA cards, SmartMedia cards, and various proprietary modules such as removable hard drives, CD drives, and floppy drives.
Often, the storage drives (89), communication interfaces (810), internal expansion slots (811) and external expansion slots (812) are interconnected with the CPU (81) via a standard or industry open bus architecture (88), such as ISA, EISA, or PCI. In many cases, the bus (88) may be of a proprietary design.
A computing platform is usually provided with one or more user input devices, such as a keyboard or a keypad (816), and mouse or pointer device (817), and/or a touch-screen display (818). In the case of a personal computer, a full size keyboard is often provided along with a mouse or pointer device, such as a track ball or TrackPoint™. In the case of a web-enabled wireless telephone, a simple keypad may be provided with one or more function-specific keys. In the case of a PDA, a touch-screen (818) is usually provided, often with handwriting recognition capabilities.
Additionally, a microphone (819), such as the microphone of a web-enabled wireless telephone or the microphone of a personal computer, is supplied with the computing platform. This microphone may be used for simply reporting audio and voice signals, and it may also be used for entering user choices, such as voice navigation of web sites or auto-dialing telephone numbers, using voice recognition capabilities.
Many computing platforms are also equipped with a camera device (8100), such as a still digital camera or full motion video digital camera.
One or more user output devices, such as a display (813), are also provided with most computing platforms. The display (813) may take many forms, including a Cathode Ray Tube (“CRT”), a Thin Flat Transistor (“TFT”) array, or a simple set of light emitting diodes (“LED”) or liquid crystal display (“LCD”) indicators.
One or more speakers (814) and/or annunciators (815) are often associated with computing platforms, too. The speakers (814) may be used to reproduce audio and music, such as the speaker of a wireless telephone or the speakers of a personal computer. Annunciators (815) may take the form of simple beep emitters or buzzers, commonly found on certain devices such as PDAs and PIMs.
These user input and output devices may be directly interconnected (8′, 8″) to the CPU (81) via a proprietary bus structure and/or interfaces, or they may be interconnected through one or more industry-standard open buses such as ISA, EISA, PCI, etc. The computing platform is also provided with one or more software and firmware (8101) programs to implement the desired functionality of the computing platforms.
Turning to now
Additionally, one or more “portable” or device-independent programs (94) may be provided, which must be interpreted by an OS-native platform-specific interpreter (95), such as Java™ scripts and programs.
Often, computing platforms are also provided with a form of web browser or micro-browser (96), which may also include one or more extensions to the browser such as browser plug-ins (97).
The computing device is often provided with an operating system (90), such as Microsoft Windows™, UNIX, IBM OS/2™, LINUX, MAC OS™ or other platform specific operating systems. Smaller devices such as PDA's and wireless telephones may be equipped with other forms of operating systems such as real-time operating systems (“RTOS”) or Palm Computing's PalmOS™.
A set of basic input and output functions (“BIOS”) and hardware device drivers (91) are often provided to allow the operating system (90) and programs to interface to and control the specific hardware functions provided with the computing platform.
Additionally, one or more embedded firmware programs (92) are commonly provided with many computing platforms, which are executed by onboard or “embedded” microprocessors as part of the peripheral device, such as a micro controller or a hard drive, a communication processor, network interface card, or sound or graphics card.
As the foregoing paragraphs have described in detail and with examples certain embodiment options, aspects and features of the present invention, it will be readily recognized by those skilled in the art that these illustrative embodiments do not define the extent of the present invention as many other embodiment alternatives may be made within the skill of the art according to the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should be determined by the following claims.
