Help document animated visualization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9524279-B2
Application number	US-91432710-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2010
Priority date	Oct 28, 2010
Publication date	Dec 20, 2016
Grant date	Dec 20, 2016

Abstract

Data for performing help document animated visualization is obtained by generating operation records from a text-based help document of an application. Each of the operation records may include data for animating an operation action that is performed on a user interface (UI) element of the application. The help document is further enhanced to include controls that load the operation records. The enhanced help documents and the operation records are distributed for use.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. One or more data storage devices storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a property associated with a user interface (UI) element of an application;
parsing a text instruction in a text-based help document of an application to identify a noun and a related verb;
determining, based at least in part on the property, that the noun corresponds to the user interface (UI) element of the application and that the verb corresponds to an operation action performed on the user interface (UI) element;
generating, based at least on the determining, an operation record from the text-based help document of the application, the operation record including data for generating an animation of the operation action that is performed on the user interface (UI) element of the application, the animation including a visualization of steps for completing the operation action, and the generating including inserting one or more cursor move action instructions into data representing the operation action in the operation record;
inserting controls into the text-based help document to generate an enhanced help document, the controls loading the operation record in the enhanced help document; and
distributing the enhanced help document and the operation record to one or more client devices.

2. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise compiling an editable text document into the text-based help document prior to the generating of the operation record.

3. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
decompiling the text-based help document into an editable text document;
performing at least one of inserting, modifying, or deleting one or more text instructions in the editable text document; and
re-compiling the editable text document into a text-based help document.

4. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise integrating the operation record into the enhanced help document prior to the distributing of the enhanced help document.

5. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise assigning the operation action to the related verb using an operation mapping table that links the operation action to the related verb.

6. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise, as part of generating the operation record, storing at least a portion of the operation record for completing a task into a corresponding file.

7. The one or more data storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise, as part of generating the operation record: traversing a user interface (UI) element tree of the application to obtain a hierarchic path from a main window to a user interface (UI) element of the application; and
representing the user interface (UI) element of the application in the operation record via a corresponding hierarchic structure that includes hierarchical strings that lead from the main window of the application to the user interface (UI) element.

8. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a client device, an enhanced help document and at least one operation record, the at least one operation record, when activated by a control in the enhanced help document, providing an animated representation of a text instruction in the enhanced help document, the at least one operation record including at least:
data that denotes a hierarchic path from a main window of an application to a user interface (UI) element of the application, the user interface (UI) element being associated to a noun parsed from the text instruction;
cursor movement instructions configured to smooth out movements of a mouse cursor on a display of the client device; and
an operation action to be performed on the UI element, the operation action being associated to a verb parsed from the text instruction;
locating the user interface (UI) element of the application based at least on the hierarchic path upon activation of the control in the enhanced help document;
determining the operation action to be performed on the user interface (UI) element from the at least one operation record;
animating performance of the operation action specified in the at least one operation record on the user interface (UI) element to provide an animation of the text instruction, the animation including a visualization of one or more steps for completing the operation action;
modifying, based at least in part on the cursor movement instructions, at least one of the one or more steps to include a smooth movement of the mouse cursor from the one a first location to the a second location; and
presenting a control to enable a user to, upon completion of playing the animation, retain the operation action performed and undo the operation action performed.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the enhanced help document is constructed from a text-based help document by inserting the control into the text-based help document.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the receiving includes receiving the enhanced help document and the at least one operation record during an installation of the application or a help document upgrade for the application.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the locating further includes locating two-dimensional pixel coordinates of the user interface (UI) element via an application interface (API) of an operating system that is running the application.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the receiving includes receiving a plurality of operation records, including the at least one operation record, that are related to completion of a task described in the enhanced help document using a user interface (UI) of the application.

13. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory that includes one or more software components that are executable by the one or more processors to:
parse a text instruction in a text-based document of an application to identify a noun that corresponds to a user interface (UI) element of the application and a related verb that corresponds to an operation action performed on the UI element;

 in response to being unable to parse the text instruction for the related verb, prompt a user, via a user interface (UI), to manually enter the related verb or to select the operation action that corresponds to the related verb;
 receive, via the user interface (UI), one of the manual entry of the related verb or a selection of the operation action;
 generate, based at least in part on the noun and the related verb, an operation record from the text-based help document of the application, the operation record including data for animating the operation action that is able to be performed on the user interface (UI) element of the application as described in the text-based help document;
 modify the text-based help document to generate an enhanced help document including a control that loads the operation record;
 play an animation of the operation action that is able to be performed on the UI element upon activation of the control in the enhanced help document, the animation including a visualization of one or more steps for completing the operation action; and
 present an option menu to enable a user to, upon completion of playing the animation of the operation action, retain the operation action performed and undo the operation action performed.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more components are further exe

Assignees

• Li Fan
• Lin Qingwei
• Li Jiang
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Li Fan
• Lin Qingwei
• Li Jiang

Classifications

• G06F40/211

  Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars · CPC title

• G06F40/169 Primary

  Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes · CPC title

• G06F40/157 Primary

  using dictionaries or tables · CPC title

• G06F17/2276

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/271

  Physics · mapped topic