Tracking changes in collaborative authoring environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10915219-B2
Application number	US-201916417530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2019
Priority date	Mar 20, 2013
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

Change tracking and collaborative communication are provided in authoring content in a collaborative environment. Monitored changes, comments, and similar input by the collaborating authors may be presented on demand or automatically to each author based on changes and/or comments that affect a particular author, that author's portion of collaborated content, type of changes/comments, or similar criteria. Change and/or comments notification may be provided in a complementary user interface of the collaborative authoring application or through a separate communication application such as email or text messaging.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method executed in a computing device for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the method comprising:
detecting a creation of collaborative content;
receiving modifications to the collaborative content from a plurality of authors;
receiving a request to view the modifications to the collaborative content;
displaying a summary of the modifications to the collaborative content;
presenting a subset of the modifications to an author who is viewing the collaborative content, wherein the subset of the modifications comprises edits or comments to a portion of the collaborative content originally provided by the author, wherein the subset of the modifications omits modifications to other portions of the collaborative content that are originally provided by other authors; and
enabling the author to communicate with a co-author by one or more of an addition of a note to the subset of the modifications and an addition of a comment to the subset of the modifications.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving comments associated with the collaborative content;
receiving another request to view the comments associated with the collaborative content; and
displaying a summary of the comments associated with the collaborative content.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
in response to detecting a selection of a subset of the comments, displaying details associated with the subset of the comments, wherein the details include one or more of an author who drafted the subset of the comments, a time stamp associated with the creation of the subset of the comments, and a portion of the collaborative content associated with the subset of the comments; and
enabling the author who is viewing the subset of the comments to one or more of communicate with a co-author and assign the subset of the comments to another co-author.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to comparing a first time stamp to a second time stamp, determining a first set of the modifications as being older than a second set of the modifications, wherein the first time stamp is associated with creating the first set of modifications and the second time stamp is associated with creating the second set of the modifications; and
highlighting a portion of the collaborative content associated with the second set of the modifications.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
enabling an author to one or more of insert a comment into the highlighted portion of the collaborative content and insert a note into the highlighted portion of the collaborative content.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
enabling the author to one or more of reply to a comment associated with the highlighted portion of the collaborative content and assign the highlighted portion of the collaborative content to a co-author.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
detecting an action executed on the highlighted portion of the collaborative content;
presenting one or more of a history of the modifications to the highlighted portion of the collaborative content and a history of comments to the highlighted portion of the collaborative content; and
employing one of: a textual scheme, a coloring scheme, a shading scheme, and a graphical element to distinguish the modifications to the highlighted portion of the collaborative content from the comments to the highlighted portion of the collaborative content.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting an action executed on a portion of the collaborative content; and
presenting one or more of the modifications to the portion of the collaborative content, comments associated with the portion of the collaborative content, and a type of the modifications to the portion of the collaborative content.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting an action executed on a portion of the collaborative content; and
presenting one or more of a history of the modifications to the portion of the collaborative content and a history of comments associated with the portion of the collaborative content.

10. A computing device for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the computing device comprising:
a memory;
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a collaborative authoring application, wherein the collaborative authoring application is further configured to:
detect a creation of collaborative content, wherein the collaborative content includes one or more of textual content, an image, a graphic, an embedded audio object, and an embedded video object;
receive modifications to the collaborative content from a plurality of authors;
receive a request to view the modifications to the collaborative content;
display a summary of the modifications to the collaborative content on a collaborative authoring user interface (UI);
display a subset of the modifications to an author who is viewing the collaborative content, wherein the subset of the modifications comprises edits or comments to a portion of the collaborative content originally provided by the author, wherein the subset of the modifications omits modifications to other portions of the collaborative content that are originally provided by other authors; and
enable the author to communicate with a co-author by one or more of an addition of a note to the subset of the modifications and an addition of a comment to the subset of the modifications.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the collaborative authoring application is further configured to:
in response to comparing a first time stamp to a second time stamp, determine a first set of the modifications as being older than a second set of the modifications, wherein the first time stamp is associated with creating the first set of the modifications and the second time stamp is associated with creating the second set of the modifications.

12. The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the collaborative authoring application is further configured to:
order, based on the first time stamp and the second time stamp, the first set of the modifications and the second set of the modifications in one of an ascending order and a descending order; and
display, on the collaborative authoring UI, a time line summary of the modifications to the collaborative content based on the ordering.

13. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the collaborative authoring application is further configured to:
identify information associated with the author, wherein the information includes one or more of a credential associated with the author and an identification of the author;
compare the information to one or more of a predefined rule and a predefined scheme;
detect a match between the information and one or more of the predefined rule and the predefined scheme; and
enable the author to modify the collaborative content.

14. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the details include one or more of the author of the subset of the modifications, a time stamp associated with the creation of the subset of the modifications, and a portion of the collaborative content associated with the subset of the modifications.

15. A computer-readable memory device with instructions stored thereon for tracking changes in a collaborative authoring environment, the instructions comprising:
detecting a creation of collaborative content, wherein the collaborative content includes one or more of textual content, an image, a graphic, an embedded audio object, and an embedded video o

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Megiddo Eran
• Rasmussen David

Classifications

• H04L12/1831 Primary

  Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status · CPC title

• H04L51/216

  Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• H04L51/56

  Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM] · CPC title

• G06Q10/101

  Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services · CPC title