Unified Digital Book Authoring Interface with Interactive Widget Anchors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current digital book authoring tools lack a unified and intuitive graphical user interface that allows authors to easily design layouts, insert interactive elements, and manage glossaries and indices, making the process cumbersome and difficult for non-technical users.
Innovation Solution
A single graphical user interface (GUI) that functions as both a digital book layout design tool and a word processor, enabling authors to edit text, insert various interactive elements, and create hybrid glossaries and indices with user-selectable anchor points, widget inspectors, and accessibility descriptions for enhanced usability and accessibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple separate software tools are used for digital book authoring tasks, then each tool can be specialized and powerful, but the overall system becomes complex and difficult to use for non-technical users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate software tools for digital book authoring into a single integrated GUI. This unified interface consolidates functions for layout design, text editing, interactive element insertion, glossary management, and indexing into one cohesive system, eliminating the need for users to switch between multiple applications and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining functional versatility
Solution Approach 2:
The single GUI is designed to perform multiple authoring functions simultaneously, serving as both a layout design tool and a word processor. It provides universal access to all authoring features through one interface, allowing users to complete various tasks without leaving the application and simplifying the workflow for non-technical users
2Ease of operation
If a single unified GUI is provided for all authoring tasks, then ease of operation is improved, but the ability to provide specialized functionality for each task may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The unified GUI is segmented into distinct functional modules, each dedicated to specific authoring tasks such as layout design, text editing, interactive element insertion, glossary management, and indexing. This segmentation allows the interface to maintain organization and ease of operation while providing specialized functionality for each task through dedicated panels and tools within the single interface
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds organizational dimensions to the unified GUI through hierarchical navigation structures, sidebars, and contextual menus that allow users to access specialized functionality through multiple levels of interface hierarchy. This dimensional organization enables the interface to present specialized tools only when needed, maintaining simplicity while providing comprehensive functionality
3Manufacturing precision
If interactive elements and widgets are inserted manually, then precise control over placement is achieved, but the time required for authoring increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides pre-defined templates and preset configurations for interactive elements and widgets that can be quickly inserted into the document. These pre-prepared elements eliminate the need for manual creation and configuration from scratch, allowing authors to insert functional components with a single action while maintaining precise placement control through template-based positioning
4Reliability
If accessibility descriptions are added to all widgets, then accessibility for visually impaired users is improved, but the amount of information and time to author increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically generates accessibility descriptions for widgets and interactive elements based on their visual content and functional properties. This self-service approach eliminates the need for manual description entry by authors, as the system autonomously creates accurate accessibility information from the widget's inherent characteristics, thereby maintaining high accessibility standards without significantly increasing authoring time
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes systems, methods, and computer program products for authoring content for digital books. In some implementations, a single graphical user interface (GUI) is presented that allows an author to design a layout for the digital book, including editing text and inserting various types of interactive elements in the text. The GUI functions as both a digital book layout design tool and a word processor to facilitate the building of a digital book. The relative page location of inserted widgets can be determined by a user-selectable anchor point placed within the text. An outline view of the digital book can be created and presented in the GUI based on a hierarchical structure determined by paragraph styles applied to the text. The GUI can provide a hybrid glossary and index page for allowing the author to create and manage a glossary and index for the digital book.