AU2005202679A1 - Selected content printing - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION NAME OF APPLICANT(S):: Canon Information Systems Research Australia Pty Ltd ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: DAVIES COLLISON CAVE Patent Attorneys Level 10, 10 Barrack Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000 INVENTION TITLE: Selected content printing The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- 5102 P:\WPDCSJS\fwmt Work\C=aWpik.O05-doc-2/O6/OS

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-1- SSELECTED CONTENT PRINTING "i Field of the Invention ,A The present invention relates to method and apparatus for printing selected content from ,I documents and in particular to printing selected content from Web pages or HTML documents.

Description of the Background Art The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.

The World Wide Web (the "Web") represents a vast repository of information accessible to users of the Internet and other computer networks. Information available on the Web is generally formatted according to well known standards and processes such as HTML and JavaScript, and applications such as plug-ins and applets. In spite of standards being followed, users often encounter problems when accessing or viewing Web pages and/or specific content contained on such pages. In some instances such problems arise from the computer browser application being operated by the user to access Web pages. One such problem that often arises occurs when a user selects to print a Web page only to find that the printed matter does not correspond with that displayed on the video screen to the user by the browser.

The problems of printing arise from a number of issues. Firstly, Web pages are often formatted to optimise display on a computer display screen, making them in appropriate for reproduction on printing media, such as A4-size paper. Secondly, the Web page also typically includes a wide range of content, which is not of interest to be printed. Thus, for example, Web pages often include different advertisements and the like which the user will not want to form part of the printed document. However, only limited techniques are P:\WPDOCS\AJS\Ourt Work\Conon\pikaO5audoc-2/6/O5 -2provided for selecting frames of content for printing, and it will be appreciated that in many 'A cases, this does not result in an appropriate printing arrangement.

7 For example, the width of elements presented on the Web page may be greater than that of D the print media on which the web page is printed. This in turn results in elements being truncated or omitted in the printed Web page.

Additionally, Web pages may include frames. In this instance, a user can select to print all frames, or one frame only. In the case of printing a single frame, this generally results in a waste of print media as the content of the frame often fills only a small portion of the print media. In the case of printing all frames, the frames may be printed with scroll bars to ensure all frames fit on the print media. In this case, content within the frame is truncated so that the content is not necessarily viewable in the printed document.

Thus, existing printing techniques provide only limited abilities to control the printing of content from Web pages.

Summary of the Present Invention It is an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more disadvantages of existing arrangements.

In a first broad form the present invention provides a method of assembling a document for printing onto a print medium, said print medium having a print boundary within which the document can be reproduced, the document comprising a plurality of content items, each content item having a predetermined content, the method comprising, in a computer system, the steps of: a) displaying a first representation of the document, the first representation comprising the plurality of content items; b) displaying, simultaneously with said first representation, a second representation being a printable version of the first representation, said second representation having the predetermined content of the plurality of content items scaled to fit within the print boundary of the print medium; P:\WPDOCSAJS\Currt Work\Cnonpik OS..dc-20/6/0 -3- Sc) updating the second representation by at least one of: 'A i) deleting a content item from the second representation in accordance with a first instruction; and, ii) restoring a deleted content item to the second representation in accordance with a 'A second instruction; and, 'A d) assembling the document for printing in accordance with the updated second representation.

In a second broad form the present invention provides a method of assembling a document for printing onto a print medium, said print medium having a print boundary within which the document can be reproduced, the document comprising a plurality of content items, each content item having a predetermined content, at least one content item being selectable, the method comprising, in a computer system, the steps of: a) displaying a first representation of the document, the first representation comprising the plurality of content items; b) displaying, simultaneously with said first representation, a second representation being a printable version of the first representation; c) detecting a selection of a content item from the at least one selectable content item; d) updating the second representation to provide a modified plurality of content items by at least one of: i) deleting the selected content item from the second representation in accordance with a first instruction; and, ii) restoring the selected content item to the second representation in accordance with a second instruction; and, e) scaling the predetermined content of said modified plurality of content items of the updated second representation to fit within the print boundary of the print medium to assemble the document for printing.

Typically the method comprises, in the computer system, determining at least one of the first and second instructions in accordance with input commands.

P:\WPDOCS\AJSXO,,,t WorMCauon\pikO5dow-20/06/05 -4- Typically the method comprises, in the computer system, wherein the input commands are determined in accordance with the position of a cursor, and an associated button or key stoke action.

S Typically the method comprises, in the computer system, deleting and restoring the content items by the use of mouse clicks on the first print representation.

Typically the method comprises, in the computer system, at least one of: a) highlighting a selected item in the first print representation; b) bounding a selected item in the first print representation; and, c) scaling down a selected item in the first print representation.

Typically the printable representation comprises at least part of a print job dispatched to a printer.

Typically the document is an HTML document defining a Web page.

Typically the method comprises, in the computer system, printing the document in accordance with the second printable representation.

Brief Description of the Drawings An example of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a first example of a Web page; Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a first example of a print preview of the Web page of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a second example of a Web page; Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a first example of a print preview of the Web page of Figure 3; Figures 5A to 5D are schematic diagrams of a second example of a print preview of the Web page of Figure 4; Figure 6 is a flow chart outlining the process of generating a custom print preview for selectively printing page content; P:\WPDOCSWS\Cuwt WorCkonik\O25audo-20O6/05

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Figure 7A is a schematic diagram of an example of a Web page; q Figures 7B to 7F are schematic diagrams of an example of a custom print preview of the Web page of Figure 7A; Figure 8 is a schematic diagram of an example of a processing system; A Figure 9 shows a modified Web browser toolband incorporating a custom print preview ,A option; Figure 10 is a flow chart of a custom printing approach for a generic web browser; 'A Figure 11 is a schematic example of a print preview including a number of elements; and, Figure 12A and 12B are a flow chart of the process of generating a custom print preview using a Web browser.

Detailed Description Including Best Mode An example Web page having a number of content items is shown in Figure 1. In this example, the Web page 104 includes a banner 106, a number of links 108, an image 112, more links 110, text links and content 114, and more content 116. A vertical scroll bar 118 is provided to allow the Web page 104 to be scrolled to review the entirety of the Web page 104.

When a user wishes to print the Web page, the user can select a print preview option which displays the Web-page as it will appear when printed. An example print preview display is shown in Figure 2. The print preview display 200 includes a toolbar 202, and a representation 204 of the Web page including a representation of each of the content items, shown at 206, 208, 212, 214, 216. This allows a user to review the page to determine if current settings are suitable for printing. In this case, it can be seen that the content items 206, 214 and 216 extend beyond the boundaries of the page and therefore will not print correctly.

To allow the page to print correctly, the user must change the printer settings and allow the print preview to be regenerated. Thus, for example, the user may select a landscape page orientation to accommodate the width of the content to be printed. However, it is not possible to print only selected content without copying the content to another application and P:\WPDOCSJS\CAurt Work\CaonXikaO5u.d-20/06/05 .d -6-

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editing the content directly. This therefore provides only a limited ability to manipulate the S appearance of the printed page.

I A second example of a Web page is shown in Figure 3. In this example, a Web page 308 is q presented in a browser window 300 having a toolbar 302 with a print icon 304 and print q preview icon 306. The Web page 308 includes a number of content items 310, 312, 314, 316, 322 arranged as frames allowing the content items to be displayed within the display space q afforded by the browser window 300. In this regard, whilst the content items 316 and 322 extend beyond the displayable boundaries, each of those items are provided with vertical 318, 324 and horizontal 320, 326 scroll bars respectively, thereby allowing the user to scroll within those particular content items to view all information contained therein.

In the case of printing frames Web pages, two main print options are available, namely whole page printing and frame printing.

An example of the print preview provided in whole page printing is shown in Figure 4. The print preview display 400 includes a toolbar 420, and a representation of the Web page including a representation of each of the content items, shown at 402, 404, 406, 408, 414. In this case, the width of content 410 exceeds the width of the content item 408, and a horizontal scroll bar 412 is therefore reproduced in the print preview display 400. Similarly, horizontal and vertical scroll bars are also associated with the content item 414.

The reproduction of horizontal or vertical scroll bars in a print preview display does not provide a mechanism by which the user may scroll within that print preview display. The print preview display, once created cannot be altered in its content. This again therefore allows the user to view the appearance of the page that will be presented, but not modify the configuration to allow it to print correctly, other than for example to alter gross scaling of the entire page, or selecting different paper for printing.

An example of frame printing is shown in Figures 5A to 5D. In this instance, each of the frames are printed on separate pages. Accordingly, the print preview 500 includes four pages 500, 510, 520, 530, each presenting selected content items 502, 512, 522, 524, 532 corresponding to a respective frame in the Web page. Again, however, this provides limited P:\WPDOCS\AJS\Cm,,mt Wok\Cpon\pikO5m~xdoc.20/6O5 -7ns options to allow the user to ensure the page is printed correctly, and will often result in a ZA waste of paper, when the content contained within the frames only partially fills the pages.

P It is also possible to print a single selected frame, which results in a print preview 3 corresponding to one of Figures 5A to 5D, although again this provides only a limited ability to efficiently print content of interest, as the user must select each frame of interest S separately. Additionally, there is often significant paper wastage associated with printing a single frame of content on a page, as generally the frame will fill only a portion of the page, which in turn leaves a large portion of the paper blank.

An example of the process of using a computer system to generate a custom print preview for displaying HTML documents, such as Web pages, to allow for selective printing of content, will now be described with respect to Figure 6.

At step 600 the computer system displays a Web page to the user, with the user selecting a custom print preview option at step 610. In this regard, the term "custom print" preview is only used for the purpose of distinguishing over the print previews described for example with respect to Figure 1 to At step 620 the computer system generates a custom print preview including both an original print representation and a modified print representation. These are generally presented to the user of on a display, such as an appropriate Graphical User Interface (GUI), and an example of this is shown in Figures 7A to 7E.

In this example, Figure 7A is an example of a Web page 740, having respective content items 741, 742, 743, 744, which in this example are in the form of text content 741, a banner 742, an advertisement 743, and an image 744.

When the user requests the custom print preview at 610, the computer system generates the GUI 750 shown in Figure 7B. The GUI includes the original print representation 760 and a modified print representation 770 each of which include content items 761, 762, 763, 764, 771, 772, 773, 774, corresponding to the content items 741, 742, 743, 744.

P:\WPDOCSAJS\Ommt Wmk\Con\pia5doc20106/05 In this example the original print representation 760 represents the Web page as it would be printed using default printing options. As a result, the content contained in the text content item 741 will not fit onto a single page, and accordingly, two pages 760A, 760B are provided, 7 with the content item 761, split into two potions 761A, 761B.

Initially the modified print representation 770 is identical to the original print representation 760, as shown.

At step 630 the user interacts with one or more of the content items. This may be achieved in any one of a number of ways the manner in which the interaction occurs will depend on the respective implementation of the invention. Thus, for example, the interaction could be achieved by clicking on one of the content items with the mouse. Alternatively the item may require selection with the mouse and the use of additional input, such as key-strokes, or the like, in order to effect the interaction.

At step 640 the computer system updates the modified print representation 770, based on the user interaction. Thus, in one example, interaction with a content item 761, 762, 763, 764 on the original print representation 760 causes the corresponding content item 771, 772, 773, 774 to be removed from the modified print representation.

An example of this is shown in Figure 7C, in which the user has selected the content items 762 and 763, thereby causing the computer system to remove the corresponding content items 772, 773 from the modified print representation.

This allows the user to cause the computer system to print the Web page based on the appearance of the modified print representation at step 650. Thus, this allows the computer system to produce a modified print-out of the Web page in which select content items are removed.

It will be appreciated that at step 640 the process may return to step 630 to allow the user to interact with additional ones of the content items.

Additionally, if the user reselects one of the content items at 762, 763, which have previously been removed from the modified print representation, these can be reinstated. Thus, this p:\WPDOCS\AJS\Cw t ok W o\\onpiaO5..d-2/05 -9allows the user to manipulate the original print representation with the changes being displayed on the modified print representation to allow the user to see how the interactions will affect the final printed document.

S In addition to performing the functionality described above, when the computer system updates the modified print representation, the computer system may operate to apply one or S more additional processing rules to the remaining content items.

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This can be achieved for example by allowing the content items to reflow, when the modified print representation is repopulated with content items. This in turn allows the content items to be repositioned, allowing them to fill the available print area.

An example of this is shown in Figure 7D in which the modified print representation 770 includes positioned versions of the content items 771, 774, in which the content items have been resized to fill the available space.

In this example, the resulting appearance of the printed page is therefore more appealing with the unwanted content items 742, 743 removed leaving only representations of the content items 741, 744 of interest.

However, in this example, the content item 741 is still too large to be incorporated on to a single page, and accordingly, the modified print representation still includes two content item portions 771A, 771B.

Accordingly, the process can be enhanced to provide for further modification of the content items, for example to allow reformatting or rescaling. Thus, this allows additional changes to be made as opposed to simple reflow of the content items into the modified print representation 770. This allows more complex adjustments to be made.

Thus, in the example shown in Figure 7E, the content item 771 has been rescaled, and as result can fit onto a single page, thereby eliminating one of the pages from the print job.

Re-scaling is achieved by having the computer system examine the Web page and record the dimensions of the largest element in the entire document. The computer system then records P:\WFDOCSWS\QCrufl WorMkCano\pik5O~au.doc-20/06105 j the dimensions of the print media on which the Web page will be printed, and determines a Ki print-scaling ratio. The print-scaling ratio is then used to reduce the dimensions of the elements so that they can fit onto the page.

The element could be a single content item, in which case the computer system records the width of the widest content item in the Web page, such as the content item 742. However, if S scaling is performed on this basis, this may still result in minor truncation of the content i items 741, 743, when the page is printed, as these content items in combination are wider than the content item 742. Accordingly, the element can alternatively be formed from a group of content items.

In the case of the print media dimensions, it is typically for print media to have a printable area defined by print boundaries. For example, the print boundaries may be in the form of margins or the like, and accordingly, the print-scaling ratio is typically based on the dimensions of the print boundaries, as opposed to the print media.

It will be further appreciated that whilst this process of rescaling can be performed after content items have been deleted or re-instated in the second print representation, alternatively this could be performed when the first and second print representations are first created.

An example of this will now be described with respect to Figure 7F. In this example, the GUI 750 is again generated to print the Web page shown in Figure 7A. In this example however, the print media includes print boundaries that restrict the width over which content can be printed onto the media, as shown generally at 781, 782. As a result of this, the content items 762, 764, and the content item portion 761B are unable to fit onto the print media, and the right hand side of each of these content items 762, 764, 761B will not be displayed, as shown by the dotted lines.

In this example, when the computer system generates the modified print representation at step 620, the computer system generates a print-scaling ratio, and scales the content items based on this, to thereby ensure all content items are correctly displayed in the modified print representation 770A, 770B as shown. Thus, the computer system determines the width P:\WPDOCSWS\QC,,mt Work\Con\pikaO5au.dc-200&/O05 Z -11- S between the print boundaries 781, 782, and the width of the largest element, which in this S case is the content items 761, 763, and uses this to calculate the print-scaling ratio.

N The print-scaling ratio is then used to scale each of the content items 771, 772, 773, 774, thereby ensuring that each of the content items 771, 772, 773, 774 fit within the print

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boundaries 791, 792 on the modified print representation 770, as shown.

It will be appreciated that in the event that certain items are de-selected, then the print-scaling Sratio may be re-calculated, to thereby allow the dimension of the content items to be modified as appropriate based on the updated modified print representation. Thus, in the case of Figure 7E, as the content items 762, 763 have been de-selected, then the content item 761 becomes the widest element, and the computer system therefore determines the print-scaling ratio based on the width of the content item 761. This allows the computer system to automatically scale the content items presented in the modified print representation.

In any event, in the above examples, by not printing the unwanted content items 742, 743, this provides additional space for accommodating the text content 741. In this case, the entire text content 741 can be displayed by rescaling the content item when it is displayed at 771, thereby allowing the wanted content items 741, 744, to be provided on a single print page.

The process is generally performed using a general-purpose computer system, and an example of a suitable system is shown in Figure 8.

The computer system 800 is formed by a computer module 801, input devices such as a keyboard 802 and mouse 803, and output devices including a printer 815, a display device 814 and loudspeakers 817. A Modulator-Demodulator (Modem) transceiver device 816 is used by the computer module 801 for communicating to and from a communications network 820, for example connectable via a telephone line 821 or other functional medium. The modem 816 can be used to obtain access to the Internet, the Web, and other network systems, such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), and may be incorporated into the computer module 801 in some implementations.

P\WPDOCSWS\Cuxwt Work\Caow\pikaO5au.dcC-20/6/O5 .i -12- The computer module 801 typically includes at least one processor unit 805, and a memory Ki unit 806, for example formed from semiconductor random access memory (RAM) and read only memory (ROM). The module 801 also includes an number of input/output (I/O) S interfaces including an audio-video interface 807 that couples to the video display 814 and ,A loudspeakers 817, an 1/O interface 813 for the keyboard 802 and mouse 803 and optionally a A joystick (not illustrated), and an interface 808 for the modem 816 and printer 815. In some implementations, the modem 816 may be incorporated within the computer module 801, for Ki example within the interface 808. A storage device 809 is provided and typically includes a hard disk drive 810 and a floppy disk drive 811. A magnetic tape drive (not illustrated) may also be used. A CD-ROM drive 812 is typically provided as a non-volatile source of data.

The components 805 to 813 of the computer module 801, typically communicate via an interconnected bus 804 and in a manner which results in a conventional mode of operation of the computer system 800 known to those in the relevant art. Examples of computers on which the described arrangements can be practised include IBM-PC's and compatibles, Sun Sparcstations or the like.

The modem 816 enables a user of the computer 800 to access a Web page 830 via the network 820. The Web page may be resident on a server computer 825 (shown separately) and accessible via a Web address defined by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to thereby reproduce content 832 to the user.

The processes of browsing and printing are typically implemented using software, such as one or more application programs executing within the computer system 800. Typically, the browser application activates a graphical user interface (GUI) on the video display 814 of the computer system 800 which displays the content 832 and any associated links 834 to the user.

Most commercially available browser applications include functionality to enable printing of the Web page 830 on the user's local printer 815.

In particular, the methods and processes are affected by instructions in the software that are carried out by the computer. The instructions may be formed as one or more code modules, each for performing one or more particular tasks. The software may also be divided into P:WPDOSWS\Cuwrt WorklCmnon'pikaO5au.doc-20/6/05 -13r three separate parts, in which a first part performs the browsing methods, a second part which 'A handles the printing of Web pages, and a third part manages a user interface between the first part and the user.

D The software may be stored in a computer readable medium, and loaded into the computer, from the computer readable medium, to allow execution. A computer readable medium I having such software or computer program recorded on it is a computer program product.

The use of the computer program product in the computer preferably affects an advantageous apparatus for Web printing.

Typically, the browser application program, by which a user of the computer 800 accesses the Web, is resident on the hard disk drive 810 and read and controlled in its execution by the processor 805. Intermediate storage of the program and any data fetched from the network 820 may be accomplished using the semiconductor memory 806, possibly in concert with the hard disk drive 810. In some instances, the browser program may be supplied to the user encoded on a CD-ROM or floppy disk and read via the corresponding drive 812 or 811, or alternatively may be read by the user from the network 820 via the modem device 816. Still further, the software can also be loaded into the computer system 800 from other computer readable media.

The term "computer readable medium" as used herein refers to any storage or transmission medium that participates in providing instructions and/or data to the computer system 800 for execution and/or processing. Examples of storage media include floppy disks, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, a hard disk drive, a ROM or integrated circuit, a magneto-optical disk, or a computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card and the like, whether or not such devices are internal or external of the computer module 801. Examples of transmission media include radio or infra-red transmission channels as well as a network connection to another computer or networked device, and the Internet or Intranets including e-mail transmissions and information recorded on Websites and the like.

An example of a custom print preview implemented as an add-on toolband to a generic browser application Internet Explorer by Microsoft Corp. USA) will now be described P:\WPDOCSWS\Curt WokCaaon\pikaOSudoc-2/6/05 -14- S with respect to Figure 9. Figure 9 shows part of the generic browser GUI 900 which includes S a generic print icon 910 contained in the generic browser tool bar 908, which allows standard printing to be performed. A custom print preview toolband 902 is provided to enable customised print previews to be generated using the preview and print icons 904, 906, as I shown, to allows a custom print preview to be displayed, and manipulated, to thereby allow I selected content to be printed.

For generic browsers, printing and previewing is controlled by print templates, which are HTML files that developers can create using the object model exposed by the print template behaviours. For example, the print template in a generic browser typically contains code Ssuch as JScript code (a Microsoft version of JavaScript, which is developed by Netscape Communication Corp. of Mountain View, California, USA) that is used for manipulating content and accessing objects within the page.

The custom print toolband 902 (a application) is the control that issues IDM_PRINT or IDMPRINTPREVIEW commands, which are commands used within the generic browser, and provides the path to a custom print template. By default, the generic browser uses its own print template associated with the icon 904.

Figure 10 is a flowchart depicting a method 1000 demonstrating interaction between the custom print application and a host browser application. At step 1002 the user chooses to select a print preview function from the browser. That selection may be a default print preview selection 1004, which instigates step 1006 whereby the browser calls its own default print template. Alternatively, the user's selection may be one from the custom print toolband 904 as indicated at step 1008 and at step 1010, the toolband code issues commands to the browser application.

At step 1012, the toolband triggers a custom print template using HTML code. The custom print template makes it is possible to control: the layout of pages when printed/previewed, and the content that is printed/previewed on them P:\PDOCS\AJS\Ommt Wwk\on\piaO5dom-2Q/06/05 -t how print jobs are handled for instance, which pages are printed in what order; 'A and the look of the print preview window and controls available on the print preview user interface.

A print template is preferably written using standard HTML, JScript and element behaviours specific to print templates. Four behaviours associated with generic browsers are:

DEVICERECT

LAYOUTRECT

TEMPLATEPRINTER

HEADERFOOTER.

Element behaviours are also used to provide the ability to add custom elements to Web pages.

In the following description, the terms element and behaviour may be used interchangeably.

These four new element behaviours are used within print templates in the following fashion: DEVICERECT A DEVICERECT element represents a page to be printed or viewed in print preview. The number of physical pages printed will correspond to the number of DEVICERECT elements within the print template. The DEVICERECT will have width and height properties that correspond to the width and height of the physical page. These are obtained by querying the TEMPLATEPRINTER element.

LAYOUTRECT LAYOUTRECT elements define the area or areas (and their styles) on a page where a document's (Web page) content is displayed when printed or during print preview. In a print template, LAYOUTRECT elements are contained by the DEVICERECT elements described above. A DEVICERECT can contain more than one LAYOUTRECT.

As well as width and height properties, the LAYOUTRECT also has a zoom property that can be used to scale its content. The custom print application uses this for scaling content to fit a page. To add content to a LAYOUTRECT, the contentSrc attribute can be passed a URL string. The page pointed at by the URL will then load or "flow" into the

LAYOUTRECT.

P:\WPDOCSAJS\Curct Work\Caon\pika05au.doc-20/06/05 S-16- TEMPLATEPRINTER The TEMPLATEPRINTER element provides a number of methods

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C-i that give a print template control over the start and end of print jobs, control over the printing of each individual page in a print job and control over the display of printing dialog boxes S such as the standard Print and Page Setup dialogues. The properties of C-i TEMPLATEPRINTER enable a print template to set or retrieve the page setup settings and N current print job settings. For instance, a print template might set or retrieve the page width In 0 and page height for page setup, or the start and finish pages to determine the page range to c1 print.

HEADERFOOTER The HEADERFOOTER behaviour is a conversion tool used by the print template to generate HTML from the header and footer formatting strings defined by the Page Setup dialog box. The element contains properties textHead and textFoot that can be used to insert text headers and footers on the page to be printed. This often includes information such as the page URL and the page number.

The relationship between some of these elements is demonstrated in Figure 11 where a print preview 1100 is shown. The print preview 1100 includes a DEVICERECT 1106, which corresponds to a printed page and can contain multiple LAYOUTRECT's. A number of LAYOUTRECT's 1104 are shown and can be positioned within the DEVICERECT 1106 and contained Web page documents. HEADERFOOTER 1302 adds text headers and footers.

It is possible to access the parameters passed to the print preview dialogue window by accessing the dialogArguments object in the generic browser. This object includes the property IE_BrowseDocument that allows a print template access to the document object for the current Web page loaded in the generic browser. It is possible to use this object to access any information in the document including information about framesets and widths and heights of elements.

The custom print template uses a PT_PrintDocument data structure to represent each page or frame that will be printed. This structure contains information such as the URL of the page, a unique identifier, the top and left hand positions of the frame, a Boolean to indicate whether P:\WPDOCSWS\Cuwmt Work\CmmmikaOau.doc-20606O5 -17-

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or not there are frames in the page and also an array of PT_PrintDocuments to be used when \1 the page contains frames.

I An example of how the print template is used to generate the custom print preview will now be described with reference to Figures 12A and 12B.

S In particular at step 1200, the computer system 800 uses the browser to display a selected Web page, in accordance with normal browser operation.

At step 1210 the user selects a custom print preview option on the toolband 904. This causes the toolband code to generate LAYOUTRECT data flows. A respective LAYOUTRECT data flow is formed for each of the original print representation and an original print representation.

In one example, the LAYOUTRECT data flows for each of the original and modified print representations are identical, and accordingly, this can be achieved by adding each content item from the document data structure into each LAYOUTRECT data flow.

However, as described above with respect to Figure 7F, in an alternative example, the second print representation can be scaled to optimise the presentation of the content items contained therein.

In one example, this is achieved by calculating a print-scaling ratio by extracting the width of the widest element in the web page to be printed. In the regard, the widest element could be a single content item, or could be a number of content items that are presented in a side-by-side arrangement, such as the content items 741, 742. The width of the widest element of the page is stored by the toolband code in an attribute of the page called the scrollWidth.

Using the TEMPLATEPRINTER element, the toolband code extracts the width of the printable area of the print media, as defined by print boundaries, such as margins, or the like.

The toolband code then calculates a scaling ratio by which to reduce the document in order to fit it onto the print area. This ratio is then used as the zoom parameter for the LAYOUTRECT into which the document will be loaded. The following pseudo code extract P:\WPDOCS\AJS\Ourrfl Work\CmwopikaO5au.do-20/O6/O5 K -18-

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demonstrates how the widest element value is used in conjunction with the print media width "q to calculate a scaling ratio.

get the width of the widest element A maxWidth page.scrollWidth; get the width of the print media S printMediaWidth physicalPageWidth marginWidths calculate the scaling ratio scaleRatio printMediaWidth maxWidth The LAYOUTRECT zoom is then set to this scaling ratio and the content (the web page document) will be entirely viewable on the page. It is also necessary to increase the width of the LAYOUTRECT by the inverse of the scaling ratio. This is because when the scaling ratio is applied to the LAYOUTRECT, the content not only gets smaller but so does the LAYOUTRECT. It is therefore necessary to increase the width of the LAYOUTRECT by the same ratio so that the width of the LAYOUTRECT appears not to be scaled.

In any event, by modifying the LAYOUTRECT data flow for the modified print representation, this allows the content items within the modified print representation to be scaled as required, to ensure these will print within the print area.

The toolband transfers IDMPRINTPREVIEW commands to the browser, together with the LAYOUTRECT data flows at step 1230, thereby causing the browser to generate a custom print preview including both original and modified print representations at step 1240. Thus, the commands will be transferred to the API associated with the browser, allowing the API to interpret the commands and cause the browser software to present the required custom print preview.

At step 1250 the user selects one of the content items in the original print representation.

This could be achieved in any one of a number of ways but is typically achieved by positioning the cursor over the corresponding content item and then performing an action P:\WPDOCS\AJS\Cuwrt Work\CwwnpiOSum.d-206105 -19such as a mouse click. It will be appreciated however that alternative commands could be q used.

At step 1260 the toolband code determines the modified print representation is to be updated.

At step 1270, the toolband code determines the next content item in the document data S structure, and then determines if this is selected at step 1280. If the content item is selected, S in this example, this means it is to be omitted from the modified print preview. Accordingly, the toolband code will simply return to step 1270 to determine the next content item in the document data structure.

Otherwise, at step 1290, the toolband code will determine if the content item is to be scaled.

If not, the content item is inserted into the modified LAYOUTRECT data flow at step 1300.

Otherwise, the toolband code determines a scaling factor, and inserts this together with the content item, into the LAYOUTRECT data flow, at step 1310. This could be achieved as described above and will not therefore be described in any further detail.

In either case, at step 1320 the toolband code determines if the content item is the last content item in the document data structure. If not, the process returns to step 1270 to determine the next content item in the document data structure. Otherwise, at step 1330, the toolband code transfer the modified representation rect data flow to the browser, thereby causing it to update the modified print preview at step 1340.

The process can then be repeated allowing the user to select further items. Additionally, the user can also deselect items, by clicking on the item for a second time. In this case, when the document data structure is next parsed, the content item will be added to the LAYOUTRECT data flow and reinserted into the modified print preview.

It will be appreciated from the above, that each time the print representation is updated, the toolband code, re-parses the document data structure, and includes all those content items which are not currently selected. This allows non-sequential recovery of content items to be performed, so that content item can be added or removed in any order. This can therefore be contrasted with delete and undo sequences in which content items can only be retrieved in the reverse of the order in which they were originally deleted.

P:\WPDOCSAJWS\CuCmt Work\Cman\pikO05au.dc-20/06/05 n In any event, once the user is happy with the appearance of the modified print representation, the user can select a print option. At this point the toolband code to generate print commands using the modified document data structure, and the print template, thereby causing the browser to print the document in accordance with the modified print representation.

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Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the technique allows users to select the add and

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remove content items, from Web pages, viewing the changes that this will make to the printed document with a side by side comparison between the original and modified print representations. This makes it far easier for a user to assess whether they have selected the preferred content items for printing and whether the subsequent modifications to the page appearance result in an improvement in the print page appearance.

To further enhance the ease of use, the original print representation may also be modified in some manner to indicate those content items that have been selected for removal from the modified print representation.

This can be achieved by generating a new original LAYOUTRECT data flow in a similar manner to that performed in steps 1270 to 1330. However, in this example, instead of omitting the selected item content from the LAYOUTRECT data flow, the toolband code can include the content item with an appropriate command to allow the selected content item to be identified by the user.

This can be achieved in a number of manners, for example by having the content item highlighted, bound by a frame or alternatively scaled down in size. The use of such indicators allows the user to easily view the content items that have been selected for deletion, thereby further easing the user's interaction with the content items.

In the above example, each of the content items are provided in the modified LAYOUTRECT data flow in sequence, thereby allowing the items flow into the modified print representation in turn. This helps ensure that the basic order of content items in the original print representation is maintained in the modified print representation.

P:\WPDOCSJS\Qmof Work\Cunon\pikOSau.dc-20/6/0 S-21-

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Additionally, by applying one or more additional processing rules, such as scaling rules, q defined in the print template, this allows the arrangement of the content items to be adjusted.

This can be performed, for example, to reposition, resize, rescale or otherwise modify the content items.

By applying these rules after each selection of the desired content by the user, this allows the j computer system to optimise the print out based only on the desired content items, thereby further enhancing the optimisation of the final printed document.

This can therefore be used to allow Web pages to be printed by printing only those content items of interest, whilst allowing the arrangement of the content items of interest to be optimised.

Using the custom print application as described, the printing functionality of generic browsing applications may be readily adapted to faithfully accommodate and allow for the quality user interpretation of printed Web pages containing frames.

The custom print application may be downloaded via the Internet to the user's computer 801 in the form of an application program that automatically attaches itself to the generic browser application. In this fashion, the user interface of the custom print application (ie. the toolband 904 in Fig. 6) may be automatically reproduced with the generic browser application at initialisation.

It is apparent from the above that the arrangements described are applicable to the computer and data processing industries and particularly as a component or subsidiary to a browser application program.

The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention, and modifications and/or changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, the embodiments being illustrative and not restrictive.

In the context of this specification, the word "comprising" means "including principally but not necessarily solely" or "having" or "including", and not "consisting only of'. Variations P:\WPDOCS\AJS\Cffwl Wrk\Cmnika05mu dxc20/0&D5S 22 of the word "comprising", such as "comprise" and "comprises" have correspondingly varied meanings.