Method and apparatus for creating and editing electronic documents

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for creating and editing electronic documents. One embodiment of the inventive method involves generating an electronic document in a first document format type, in accordance with one or more user-specified parameters, and converting the electronic document from the first document format type into a second document format type, in accordance with a user instruction to finalize the electronic document. In one embodiment, the first document format type is a structured document format type, such as hypertext markup language or extensible markup language, while the second document format type is a secure document format type such as portable document format.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]The present invention relates generally to electronic business management, and relates more particularly to the creation, editing and mining of electronic business documents. Specifically, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for creating and editing electronic documents.[0002]A number of systems exist for the creation, editing, management and data mining of electronic business documents (e.g., electronic contracts). Typically, these systems implement only one kind of document type. For example, one known type of system implements a structured document type (e.g., hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML)) that is easy to parse, insert and modify. Although such document types are well-suited for activities such as electronic contract negotiation online or over a network (e.g., the Internet), the security functions provided thereby are limited.[0003]Other systems have attempted to implement document types that enable tighter...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for creating and editing electronic documents. One embodiment of the inventive method involves generating an electronic document in a first document format type, in accordance with one or more user-specified parameters, and converting the electronic document from the first document format ty...

Problems solved by technology

Although such document types are well-suited for activities such as electronic contract negotiation online or over a network (e.g., the Internet), the security functions provided thereby are limited.

However, these document types typically allow only limited editing or modification (e.g., line editing), which makes them less well-suited for activities that will include negotiation or revision of documents.

However, the document types implemented in such systems are not as flexible as structured document types, and the available security features are not as strong as those offered by PDF document types.

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