Document Formatting Suggestions for Visual Consistency
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Solution Overview
Problem
In document editing applications, maintaining visual consistency across multiple editing units is time-consuming and error-prone, as existing tools do not effectively propagate spatial attributes like size or position, requiring users to manually navigate and apply formatting changes to each object.
Innovation Solution
A system generates editing rules based on edits performed on one object, suggesting candidate edits for other objects within a visual interface, allowing users to select and apply formatting changes across multiple editing units, ensuring consistency while minimizing user effort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual navigation through each editing unit is used to maintain visual consistency, then formatting changes can be applied to all objects, but the process becomes time-consuming and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects formatting changes made to one object and self-applies the same formatting to other similar objects across multiple editing units without requiring manual user intervention, thereby maintaining visual consistency while eliminating time-consuming manual navigation
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors formatting changes in real-time and provides feedback by suggesting formatting applications to other objects, allowing users to review and confirm changes before application, ensuring reliability while reducing time investment
2Ease of manufacture
If manual navigation through each editing unit is used to apply formatting changes, then all objects can be formatted, but the operation becomes complex and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary formatting suggestion mechanism that acts as a mediator between the user's initial formatting action and the application to other objects, simplifying the user interface while managing the complexity of cross-editing-unit formatting propagation automatically
3Productivity
If automatic formatting propagation is implemented, then time and effort are reduced, but user control over formatting decisions may be limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies formatting automatically to objects that fully match the source object's properties, while providing user review options for objects with partial matches, thereby maintaining high productivity for clear cases while preserving user control for edge cases
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the level of automation based on the matching degree between source and target objects, providing fully automatic propagation for exact matches and user-reviewed propagation for partial matches, balancing productivity and user control adaptively
Data Source
AI summary
A solution for formatting document objects by visual suggestions is proposed. For a document including multiple editing units each of which contains multiple objects, a first editing rule is generated, the first editing rule indicating an edit performed on a first object in a document. Then, an editing suggestion is generated based on the first editing rule, the editing suggestion describing a candidate edit to be performed on a second object within a suggestion scope. The editing suggestion is then presented in a visual form to a user for selection.