WO2001052032A1

WO2001052032A1 - Method and apparatus for displaying, retrieving, filing and organizing various kinds of data and images

Info

Publication number: WO2001052032A1
Application number: PCT/US2001/000396
Authority: WO
Inventors: Clifford Anthony Meador; Harold Baker; J. Robert Ray
Original assignee: Winlook Corporation
Priority date: 2000-01-07
Filing date: 2001-01-05
Publication date: 2001-07-19
Also published as: AU2929301A

Abstract

A rapid access data processing system (10) includes a file store (20), a data store (22), a user interface (26) and a processor (12) processing an information segmenting data management program. The program improves the convenience with which a subset of a block of information may be selected and separated from the block of information by a user. The user may select, essentially randomly, a plurality of information segments with no requirement that the selected segments be contiguous to each other. The program may be located at a user site, an internal service provider server or a web site server. The program may be distributed on a CD or DVD disk or other storage media.

Description

Method and Apparatus for Displaying. Retrieving. Filing and Organizing Various Kinds of Data and Images

Background of the Invention

The World Wide Web was first introduced in 1992. In 1993 the first browser was released and the Internet became a valuable source of information and content for many people on many different subjects. It provided a new and exciting way of communicating with distant locations. The first popular browser (Mosaic/Netscape) supported HTML (HyperText Markup Language). Microsoft Corporation also introduced a browser, Internet Explorer, that also supported HTML.

Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make requests of Webservers throughout the Internet on behalf of the browser user.

Massive amounts of information have now become available on the Internet. With this availability of extensive information, which includes both textual data and graphic image data, the availability of adequate access, bandwidth, data storage capacity, processing speed and other factors have become a major concern when receiving information from the Internet. The adequacy of data storage capability is a concern whether the information is to be stored at a remote server, on a personal computer or terminal, on a PIM (personal information manager) or on a PDA (personal data assistant). In addition to HTML, the current display view for users to access information efficiently off of the Internet is limited by the current DHTML, HDML and XML formats, which have become alternative standard types of formats. DHTML, XML and HTML are especially limited in the way the user (researcher, viewer, etc..) retrieves information (data and graphics) from the Internet. A user may desire to locate some information or to retain data or graphics for future use in the following areas: a) to locate to a word processor file (Word, Word Perfect, etc..) at a later time b) to email information to a friend or associate c) to save an email address to an addressbook d) to save a telephone number e) to save a fax number to an addressbook f) to save a web address to an addressbook g) to save a date to a calendar or datebook The following multiple and time-consuming steps are necessary to save selected information:

In number a, the user is required to copy and paste the entire document and save the document to a file on the desktop (Word, WordPerfect, etc...)or an online file system. The user then accesses the desired website and 1) HIGHLIGHTS the information with a mouse, 2) goes to the browser command and clicks COPY command (or equivalent shortcut key strokes/commands), 3) then the user proceeds to OPEN the word processing program (or the program may be opened already), 4) WAITS for the program to open, 5) PLACES the cursor at the desired insertion point, 6) PULLS-DOWN the menu to access the paste command and PASTES the text and 7) the user then has to go BACK into the web browser and RESUME the research (viewing, reading, etc..) and REMEMBER WHERE he pasted the information image and WHAT THE FILE was named. If the user wants to save only a sentence from each of several paragraphs this can be time-consuming and frustrating.

In number b, the user clicks on an email address and an email window pops up and the user can send an email to the individual.

In number c-g, there is no current method to allow the user to deal with these items.

Summary of the Invention

A data processing system in accordance with the invention processes information to display the information to a user in a format that facilitates easy selection by the user of a selected subset of the set of displayed information. The data processing system includes a segmented information display management program in accordance with the invention. In one embodiment the data processing system is a computer such as a personal computer or personal data assistant that is used by a user to access a source of information on the internet, information stored within a file on the personal computer or information stored at some other location. Alternatively, the data processing system may be a computer that is in communication with a user computer from a remote location and providing access to a user of a source of information such as connection to the internet or connection to a data base.

The data processing system includes a processing circuit dividing a block of information into a plurality of segments and associating a selection icon with each segment; a display device coupled to receive the plurality of segments and the selection icons from the processing circuit and display the plurality of segments to a user with each segment having a selection icon associated therewith; an input circuit receiving from the user information identifying a destination location, the input circuit further receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments in response to selection by the user of the at least one selection icon associated with the at least one selected segment; and a writing circuit that is responsive to the information identifying a destination location received from the user and responsive to the selection information received from the user, the writing circuit writing to the received destination location the at least one segment that is associated with the at least one selected icon.

Alternatively the data processing system includes a file store; an input circuit receiving a block of information, the block of information including both text and graphic image information; a processing circuit, the processing circuit dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; a display device operating in response to information provided by the processing circuit, the display device displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; the display device further displaying to the user a selection symbol at the beginning (or end) of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a subsequent (or preceding) segment; an input circuit operating in response to the data processing circuit, the input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; the input circuit further receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store and receiving from the user a save command; and a writing circuit that operates in response to the processing circuit, the writing circuit writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information, all of the selection symbols being deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block.

A program in accordance with the invention greatly improves the ease with which one or more information items such as data segments or graphic images can be selected from among the total information contained within a block of data. With the invention pertaining to number a) The following time-saving steps are necessary: the user 1 ) clicks on the individual sentence, paragraph or entire article buttons (the data chunk is automatically saved on a clipboard or in a specified file), 2) then the user either goes to the next segment or chunk of data or clicks a "save" button and saves the file to an existing online RAD File or names a new file. This quick and easy procedure provides users a way to save valuable time.

In the embodiment pertaining to number b) The user clicks on the email (easily recognizable by a special color, such as green) and a window pops up which allows the user to 1 ) either send an email, 2) save the email to his addressbook for a later date, 3) Create a title, 4) Save to related file or 5) send to a friend.

The operation described in number c can be performed in one operation.

In an embodiment relating to number d) the user clicks on the telephone number (easily recognizable by a special color, such as green) and a window pops up which allows the user to 1) either dial the telephone number, 2) save the telephone no. to an addressbook for a later date, 3) Create a title, 4) Save to related file or 5) send the number to a friend.

In an embodiment relating to number d) The user clicks on the fax number (easily recognizable by a special color, such as green for addresses) and a window pops up which allows the user to 1 ) either dial the fax number, 2) save the fax no. to an addressbook for a later date, 3) Create a title, 4) Save to related file or 5) send the number to a friend.

In an embodiment relating to number f) the user clicks on the web address (easily recognizable by a special color, such as green) and a window pops up which allows the user to 1 ) either go to the web address, 2) save the web address to an addressbook for a later date, 3) save the web address to a related file, 4) add additional information by clicking on a link to an addressbook main page, 5) add a title or 6) send the web address to a friend.

In an embodiment relating to number g)^~the user clicks on the date (easily recognizable by a special color, such as red) and a window pops up which allows the user to 1 ) either go to the date on a calendar and type add related information, save the date to a calendar and add title/related information directly in the pop up window or send the date to a friend or click on a link to the full calendar where additional information can be added such as time, location of event and such.

A program in accordance with the invention includes the acts of dividing a first block of information into a plurality of information segments, selecting two or more information segments in response to user commands, the selected information segments including noncontiguous information segments that have an unselected information segment between them, and copying the two or more selected information segments to a second block of information in response to a user save command.

Alternatively, the program includes the acts of receiving information from a source of information, dividing the received information into a plurality of segments, displaying the received information in a segmented format with each segment being identifiable by a user, displaying a selection graphic or icon, such as a button, check box or a radio button, in association with each segment, receiving a selection indication from the user for one or more of the selection graphics or icons, and outputting each segment that is associated with a selection icon or graphic that is selected by the user. The program may additionally receive a user supplied designation of a file and output each selected segment to the designated file for later access and use by the user.

The segments are typically based on identifiable grammatical constructs such as sentences, paragraphs, graphic images and quoted phrases. In the preferred embodiment the segments are identified by displaying a selection graphic as an icon, Javascript icon, check box or a radio button that is associated with the segment at the beginning or the end of each segment and hence between segments. Color changes or font changes may optionally be used to make the segments distinguishable one from another by a user.

A user selects a text segment by selecting the selection graphic or icon that is associated with the text being selected by clicking on the graphic or icon with a mouse, touch pad or other pointing device or corresponding keyboard key combination. Upon being clicked, the graphic or icon changes character, such as imposing a check mark, changing color, or taking on a depressed appearance. The associated selected segment may also be changed in display appearance as by color or font change to enable a user to readily distinguish selected segments from unselected segments within a document.

One embodiment of the invention does not use a form, so a user has no opportunity to check off several "chunks" and press a save button. Instead, a user must click on each desired item of information individually and the checked items are saved. This process is quite fast and does not cause the page to be reloaded.

Without a form, saved chunks go (information segments) into an unnamed file section of a data store and they can be browsed, named, and categorized at a later date.

A program in accordance with the invention has a link that is clicked on to save a current chunk. It is possible to use javascript or some other technology to make the link change after it has been clicked on to give the user some feedback, similar to seeing a checkmark appear.

There is a "save whole page" button located on the bottom of the page of displaced information. One embodiment of the invention is not responsive to sentences, but merely responds to html tags for clues on where to define segment boundaries. The program does not look for periods, question marks or the like. Finding the end of a sentence is a non-trivial task; the software cannot rely on every website to have perfect grammar and puntuation either.

The code responds to <p>, <br>, <hr>, <li>, and <td> tags to define chunk boundaries.

Another alternative is "rad-enabled" pages that have html tags embedded in it for the express purpose of telling the software where and what is a chunk.

Current hyperlinks in a document are modified to point back to the rad server, so that clicking on them does not take a user straight to the page but instead tells the rad server to bring that page up for the user, thus keeping the user within the system.

It is also necessary to modify the img tags and various other tags that have relative path information (i.e. <img src=7img.jpg">) so that they point to the appropriate page (i.e. <img src="http://original.host.com/img.jpg">), otherwise the browser searches for the image on the rad server.

The text of the saved chunk is not sent to the server when clicked on, and the source text of the chunk is not duplicated within the source of the HTML. When the rad server queries a web page and translates it, each chunk is saved locally in a cache with a unique ID. If a user decides to save a chunk, only the unique ID is sent to the rad server, and the server transfers the chunk out of its local cache and saves it to a data store associated with the user's account.

An alternative method using a form: A form block generally looks like this: <form action=7some/program.cgi"> ... </form>. These characters are translated by the rad server so that a request goes to the rad server in the format: <form action="radserver.cgi"> <input type=hidden name="form1_orignalaction" value="/some/program.cgi"> ... </form>

All of the input tags need to be modified to reflect what form they are a part of, as multiple forms may be present on a single page, and the software would effectively merge all the forms into one single form. Tag names are duplicated and need to be mangled to prevent namespace collisions.

The program can be located either on a user data processing system or at a remote data processing system such as at the location of an internet access provider or even at an accessed web site such as a data base that is to make information available to a user in a segmented format that facilitates easy selection of desired information.

A web based excerpter (TM) program may be located at the data processor of an Internet access provider or at an actual World Wide Web (web) cite. The purpose of the program is to enable persons browsing the World Wide Web with any standard browser software to conveniently transfer information and text to a personal record for later reference. The source of all transferred information is clearly marked in the saved records so that plagiarism and other illegal uses of the information are hindered. The excerpter program can form a virtual browser program that is itself accessed over the World Wide Web by registered users and personal files are stored on a host server. No installation on the user's computer is required, although the program could optionally or redundantly be located on the user's computer. The excerpter program can optionally be part of a browser program or as a plug-in or active-x form.

The Contents of the web pages are displayed in the virtual browser in nearly the same way as they would be displayed in an ordinary browser, with certain differences described in the following.

Before or after each complete sentence or other block of information (such as information having skipped lines before and after the information) containing one or fewer complete sentences, there appears an icon, button or check box that need not be part of the original web page content. By clicking on this check box, the user selects the corresponding sentence or other block of information as part of the file to be created when a "Save" icon is clicked. Any number of sentences or blocks may be selected: if no check boxes are clicked the entire page is considered to have been selected as implemented in the preferred embodiment. Normally, when the "Save All" or "Save" button is clicked, a new file is created with a name supplied by the user. The selected excerpts (or entire page) are written to and stored in the new file and in the preferred embodiment, the new file can be immediately displayed to the user.

Users of the RAD (TM) excerpter (TM) segmented display program or system can click on the "Files" button to navigate a directory of their existing files and select the files for display in the segmented mode.

The segmentation rule is: when a web page is accessed using the virtual browser, the Excerpter program reads in the HTML source code for that page and edits (modifies) it in a special way. In particular, the program divides it into segments according to a Segmentation Rule described in the following.

The program merely responds to html tags for clues on where to define the segmentation chunks. In this case it does not respond to periods, question marks or the like.

The code looks for <p>, <br>, <hr>, <li>, and <td> tags to define chunk or segmentation boundaries.

Other alternative arrangements have "rad-enabled" pages that have html tags embedded in the page for the express purpose of telling the software where and what is a chunk (segment of information).

Hyperlinks in the document are modified to point back to the rad server, so that clicking on them does not take address control straight to the page but instead tells the rad server to bring that page up for display to the user, thus keeping the user's access within the segmenting data management program.

The img tags and various other tags that have relative path information (i.e. <img src="/img.jpg">) are also modified so that they point to the appropriate page (i.e. <img src="http://original.host.com/img.jpg">), otherwise the browser assumes it should find the image on the rad server.

The text of the saved chunk (segment of information) is not sent to the server when clicked on, and the source text of the chunk is not duplicated within the source of the HTML. When the rad server queries a web page and translates the web page, each chunk is saved locally in cache with a unique ID. If a user decides to save a chunk, only the unique ID is sent to the rad server, and the server transfers the chunk out of its local cache and saves it to storage that is associated with the user's account.

An alternative method is to use an html form:

A form block generally looks like this: <form action="/some/program.cgi"> ... </form>. These characters are translated by the rad server so that a request goes to the rad server as: <form action="radserver.cgi"> <input type=hidden name="form1_orignalaction" value="/some/program.cgi"> ... </form>

All of the input tags need to be modified to reflect what form they are a part of, as multiple forms may be present on a single page, and the software must effectively merge all the forms into one single form. Tag names are optionally duplicated and mangled in a word that prevents namespace collisions. The user is enabled to view HTML formatted documents with a program that reformats the data in the documents using icons, buttons or the like to provide a data format called RTML (RAD Text Markup Language). A standard is provided wherein icons (with javascripts), radbuttons, check boxes and the like are added at the beginning or end of every sentence (or other information segment such as title or other grammatical structure), by recognizing punctuation and HTML code, specifically periods, exclamation marks and question marks and known and pre-determined areas of punctuation such as double spaces after period, exclamation mark or question mark or other punctuation consistencies. Other consistent and pre-determined indicia of punctuation such as capital letters (noting beginning), new paragraphs, font size commands (title) and standard current HTML coding such as title, header, body, etc... can be used to select the beginning or end of a segment of information.

Information can be collected from books, lengthy law documents, medical documents, data bases, or other sources of information.

A data processing system in accordance with the invention can be implemented in a desktop version or a palmtop version (PDA ) (e.g. Palm III or V). The data processing system maybe non Internet connectable, e.g. Palm VII or may be connectable to the internet, the web or another source of data.

With the introduction of the Internet desktop computer, users (non-Internet Users) are now faced with the problem of copying and pasting information into their word processing or filing systems. Huge files may be developed by collecting information from books, lengthy law documents, medical documents, etc... Such files are cumbersome and require time to navigate and save information to another file in the same program or in another program (such as a file from a word processing program to be transferred to a desktop publishing program such as Pagemaker). Instead of having to copy and paste the whole file from the word processing program into the desktop publishing program and stripping (cutting) the information, a segmenting data management program in accordance with the present invention enables a user to bring the file to the desktop publishing program. Before a user brings the information to the desktop publishing program, the user can delete the information that is not needed (or select only the information that is needed). The user can then copying the remaining desired information and paste it to the desktop publishing program. With a data management program according to the present invention the user can filter the file though the data management program and create check boxes to capture and save information as it is viewed by the user, without leaving the data management program. In addition to the internet use, the segmenting data management program can be used to re-format certain formatted data such as that used by word processors, such as Microsoft Word documents (.doc extension), Corel Word Perfect documents (.wps) and documents having other file extensions such as rtf, jpeg, bmp tif, xls, pdf, Palm extension, etc. to RTML format or rad file extension.

Although a word processor such as Microsoft Word includes a feature to save data to HTML format, an RTML format option can be used to convert from a data processing format directly to RTML format or the user can save the doc extension file as HTML and the file can be converted to RTML at the web or desktop interface. Graphics files can be recognized by their file extension and reformatted to be saved to Rad book format. A file system can be implemented that allows a user to save Rad files on the internet. The segmentation program allows the user to view HTML formatted documents with a software program that reformats received data. As used herein, the reformatting language will be called Rad Text Markup Language. The program adds buttons (square, round or triangular) or color coded graphics or icons for ease of familiarity and use, responds to periods, exclamation marks, question marks as the beginning (or end) of sentences in addition to a double space and adds a radial button or some type of button at these locations or other selection icon. Square buttons or radials can indicate the beginning (or end) of a sentence and save the sentence and round buttons can be used at the beginning (or end) of a paragraph to save the whole paragraph. The user can also save the whole page and the program can also recognize the word copyright and variations of this word and the name next to the copyright word will automatically be saved with the document.

Different colors or other visual cues can be used to indicate various visual features. For example, green can indicate email addresses (contacts). Other characters or consistent areas that can be recognized by the program are capital letters, font size, font size change commands, standard HTML coding such as Header, Title, Body, etc... An Internet, desktop or PDA user searches for information. With a segmenting data management program or data processing system in accordance with the present invention the user can locate the data on any website on the internet or in the case of a desktop computer software program or PDA (personal data assistant) software program, view the data in a format that allows the user to easily decide what information and graphic images the user desires to save and, without leaving the screen, save an individual sentence, paragraph or the entire document or article, send an email of the information to an associate or file the document in an organized manner. The user can create a file and save in the data store associated with the user's account, allowing the user to easily view the next document or article. The viewer can instruct the program to save to a specific file and cursor location in that file designated by color. The user can also locate a specific sentence to a red section or specific paragraph to a blue section and so on.

Moreover, the flexibility of a system or program in accordance with the present invention allows the user to download information or a graphic image desired to a desktop or PDA program (calendar, organizer, file system or contact system) the information viewed at a later date.

With memory capacity being a major concern on the Internet (bandwidth, speed, memory storage capacity, etc. being a concern as well) on computers, PDA devices and on the internet servers, a memory gauge allows a user to track the data storage capacity that is being used for storage, sent (via email) or saved online or at a Rad book storage location. This method includes a software program to re-format the data from HTML or any word processing format (such as Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect) or database format to collect and organize the information including images and a web browser (such as Netscape, Explorer or the like) or on a desktop a software system similar to Microsoft Word (Corel Draw, to view the data on a desktop) to view the data on the Internet. A data processing system in accordance with the present invention provides a personal information management system that is dramatically simpler, faster and easier to use.

Another advantage of such a system when used for e-commerce is that by segmenting the data provided to a user by the owner of the website being viewed by a segmenting data management program, the site can charge the customer only for what information the user needs and not for additional data. The user may not want a whole article. Users can select and pinpoint only information that matches their interests. And when the user data management program or the website computer tracks the type of information requested by the viewer, the information can be segmented and limited to only what is important to the user.

One embodiment of the invention is a RAD data management program that can be located on the (server) Internet RAD website or located on the Browser-based (client) and synchronized (both the Internet and browser) upon accessing the Internet. These modulated version works with a modular navigational bar. The modular RAD version is very compact and does not require much viewing space on the display device and because it is located on both the client (browser) and the server (Internet website), it provides access 24 hours a day from any computer with almost any browser software. When the RAD program is on the client, a client browser interprets received text and the RAD program does not require the text to be converted to RAD text format. The client based RAD program automatically adds checkboxes, push buttons or equivalent icons to save information segments, the title or heading, the URL, the date or time saved and other applicable information.

In addition, the client based RAD programs includes an innovative compact and modular navigation bar that is linked to any saved URLs and segmented text or information files. This navigation bar is located both on the (server) Internet RAD website and browser-based (client) and synchronized upon accessing the Internet. By generating the navigational bar and RAD tools with both the Internet server and the Browser, the user can access saved and organized sites from any computer anywhere in the world at any time. This navigation bar includes an easy to save and organize folder system that allows the navigational bar to be easily customizable to the user's preferences. The folder system includes the URL address, the date/time saved and the size of the RAD file attachment. This folder system allows the user to easily add new websites or URLs of interest to the folder system. As URLs are added, the navigation bar automatically updates the navigational bar supported by both the Internet (server) and the Browser (client) programs. This navigation bar includes a feature to add several different categories of navigational bars for different uses. In addition, the navigational bar has an alphabetical bar to locate by a-z, a search navigational bar feature and a current category feature. The multilevel self-contained navigation bar does not require very much space in the window, and consumes very little of the viewing window area which is limited by the browser functions around the window and Internet functions on the inside of the browser functions, leaving limited space to view text and graphics. This compact navigational bar is designed to allow the user to search the Internet with pre-imputed websites organized in a manner that takes up limited display viewing space. Other unique features include a user option to drag and drop a desired URL into a Category folder and create main and sub-index folders that are automatically duplicated in the Navigational Bar Indexes. The folders provide an easy and familiar way to insert and organize the Navigational Bar. Because the RAD Compact Tool Bar and the Navigational Bar are compact and mobile, the RAD Compact Bar and the Navigational Bar can remain available for all user accessed website. In addition, the Navigational Bar or the RAD Tool Bar can be an addon or a companion to an existing commercially available browser such as Microsoft Explorer and Netscape Communicator/Navigator or existing add-on companions such as Stilesoft's Netcaptor.

The RAD tool bar and the Navigational Bar can be customized. These items can be used together or independent of each other and they can be controlled with the same internet search boxes and pull-down search menu boxes, thus reducing space taken up in the user's display viewing area.

Present browsers are limited by the amount of viewing space available on a user display device. The present commercially available browsers also do not easily allow the integration of a users client-based (desktop or palmtop) or server-based (website or Internet) calendar, organizer, tasks, addressbook and emails. With the modulated features of the programs RAD tools and Navigational Tools, a user can identify what is important to use and to take up valuable viewing space on the display area. In addition, a user can easily integrate a desktop calendar, addressbook and files with an Internet calendar (such asjump.com) , organizer or file/ hardrive (such as xdrive.com) system. A feature of the invention is the ability to locate saved URLs and web addresses. Currently if Internet users save URLs as bookmarks, it can be difficult to locate the specific URL or bookmark saved because the user has no title (heading), segmented data or information saved with the bookmark. The question always is "where was that information and what URL was it located in." With bookmarks the address/URL and the information do not always relate or have common words. A news article with education would be hard to locate by the URL/Address such as www.cnbc/news A RAD program solves this problem by providing a search URL, heading, segmented data or date and time of saved RAD and Navigational Bar database. Also, the program can tie the segmented information or text, the heading, the URL or the date and time saved to the address or URL bookmark.

The navigational bar and simple drag and drop folder system is also available to the user to navigate through the user's addressbook, calendar, emails, files, tasks, memos or RAD files -

Another big advantage of the pre-inputted Navigational Bar with known websites for particular categories is that when websites users go to search engines or search directories, the search results typically require many refinements to locate a specific website or subject. With the Navigational Bar with pre-inputted websites, based on known existing websites or credible websites, the user can refine a search much easier with the compact multilevel tiered navigation tool.

The RAD data management program includes optional navigational bars that are pre-inputted with theme navigational tool bars such as a sports navigational bar or an educational navigational bar. These theme pre-inputted (pre-programmed) navigational bars are a unique way to provide Internet user's a simple, but comprehensive way to locate specific categories and subject matter on the Internet. Again, with a limited amount of viewing area on a user's screen, the modular, versatile and compact features allow the user to define which navigation, RAD, calendar, addressbook or such tools that the user needs or desires. This is especially helpful when using a PDA device where viewing screens are limited in size and the horizontal bar index buttons can be reduced in size to show fewer main index categories on the index buttons.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A more complete understanding of the invention may be had from a consideration of the following Detailed Description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram representation of a data processing system having an information segmenting data management program presenting information to a user in a format having user selectable segments in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 1A is a program flow chart illustrating the operation of the information segmenting data management program stored on the data processing system shown in Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 1 B is a block diagram representation of an alternative arrangement of a data processing system having an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention in which the data processing system serves as an internet access provider for one or more internet users;

Fig. 1 C is a program flow chart illustrating the operation of the information segmenting data management program stored on the data processing system located at the site of an internet access provider as shown in Fig. 1 B;

Fig. 1 D is a pictorial representation of an image that is displayed to a user by the data processing system that is shown in Fig. 1 B in response to the program that is illustrated in Fig. 1C;

Fig. 1E is a block diagram representation of an alternative arrangement of a data 7processing system having an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention in which the data processing system serves as in internet web site or information site having an internet URL address;

Fig. 1 F is a pictorial representation of an image that is displayed to a user by the data processing system that is shown in Fig. 1 E in response to the program that is illustrated in Fig. 1 C;

FIG. 1 G is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present invention using an internet browser or a local browser having an information segmenting data management program as a subpart thereof;

FIG. 1 H illustrates the interaction(s) between an information segmenting web data conversion system (RAD Web Data Conversion System), a web site having an information segmenting data management program, various other web sites, and the Internet User using an internet browser;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an html web page is submitted to the information segmenting data management program (RAD Web Data Conversion System), converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to the user as a segmented document or page with options for saving or forwarding the document using an internet browser;

FIG.2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present invention using a conventional, commercially available operating system such as Windows, WindowsCE, Apple, Linux;

FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an html or text page is submitted to an information segmenting data management program running under a commercially available operating system such as Windows 98, Linus or Apple, converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to the user as a segmented text document with options for saving or forwarding the document using a windows based or stand alone operating system;

FIG.3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of an information segmenting data management system in accordance with the present invention using a 3 Com Palm, PDA or such based operating system;

FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an html or text page is submitted to an information segmenting data management system for a Palm data processing system or a PDA data processing system, converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to the user as a segmented text document with options for saving or forwarding the document using a windows based or stand alone operating system;

Figures 4 and 4A are a user flow diagram illustrating the operation of an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention;

Figures 5, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5D, 5E, 5F, 5G, 5H, 51, 5J and 5Kare program flow diagrams illustrating the operation of an information segmenting data management system in accordance with the invention;

Figure 6 is a pictorial representation of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse; Figure 7 is a data processing system in accordance with the invention displaying a frame of information for an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention, showing a monitor view with the program's display frame;

Figure 8 is an enlarged view of a frame of information shown in Fig. 7. The frame depicts the program display frame using a browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer's or Netscape Navigator's or the program's browser's view in "normal view" mode (typical HTML format) of a website of news articles. The user has the option of selecting button(1 ) to have the page refreshed & viewed as a segmented (RAD) document, or the user may select the button(2) to have a segmented text page viewed as a Normal web page once again. A user may also enter a search address (URL) into the URL field(3), click upon the "GO" button(4) and have a new web page selected and displayed. The lower control panel(5) features options for handling the web page after it has been converted to segmented text;

Figure 9 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a website news article viewed through a RAD frame using a browser or with RTML system integrated system and converted from HTML to RTML standard. In this view, blocks of text are followed by checkboxes(7) allowing user to selectively choose portions of the document they would like to save. In this illustration, the bottom radial (Save ALL) button(6) has been selected in order to select and save the entire document.

In the Lower control panel(5) are options for saving the currently selected document. In the "Name Field"(8), a user may enter a name for the document that is to be saved. Towards the end of the bottom control Panel, a Size Field(11 ) declares the size of the selected RAD Document. The document will be saved to a user Main Folder unless a user click the File Button(9) which allows them to select an alternate folder or location for saving their RAD document. Once a location has been selected, a user clicks the SAVE button(10) to store/save the information. The credited writer, author or such is automatically saved as pre-programmed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be passed on with excerpts or save files).

Figure 10 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a Frame using a browser view in segmented (RTML Standard) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of news article with the individual check boxes chosen by the user at the end of the segment. This page is formatted with RTML RAD paragraph (checkbox every sentence) standard. In this view the File Size field(11) reflects the smaller portion of the document selected. A reference to the credited writer, author or such is automatically saved as preprogrammed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be past on with excerpts or save files);

Figure 10A is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting the segmenting Frame using a browser view in segmented (RTML Standard) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of news article with the individual check boxes chosen by the user at the beginning of the segment. This page is formatted with RTML RAD paragraph (checkbox every sentence) standard. In this view the File Size field(11 ) reflects the smaller portion of the document selected. The credited writer, author or such is automatically saved as pre-programmed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be past on with excerpts or save files);

Figure 11 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame using a browser view of a user's "MY Rad book" page based on the save all radio button selected in Fig. 9;

Figure 12 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view of the user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chose in Fig. 10;

Figure 13 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view of the user's RAD with a segmented file saved and filed from Figure 11 (schoolprob.rad) and (schoolprobl .rad) Figure 12 and other files previously saved and organized in the RAD document;

Figure 14 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory Frame view of a home page. The user has the option of searching via a segmentation program's portal links or choosing to search via another web portal or engine, as listed below;

Figure 15 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory Frame view of a Search Directory such as Snap.com after selecting Snap.com in the pull down menu of the Search Directory;

Figure 16 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory Frame view of a news page entered via an information segmenting data management program through Snap.com, after selecting the view RadText at the top of the Frame and selecting a news page and not choosing any of the segmentation Boxes (7); Figure 17 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices showing checkboxes or such after the segment":

Figure 17A is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting as segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices showing buttons or such before the segment":

Figure 17B is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices showing icon buttons or such before the segment":

Figure 18 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Search Directory view of a news page after selecting the view segmented text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices". This page also depicts the segmented selection check boxes (7) every paragraph (not every sentence);

Figure 19 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view in segmented (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news article with the individual check boxes that were chosen by the user in Figure 18;

Figure 19A is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view in segmented (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news article with the individual check boxes that were chosen by the user in Figure 18;

Figure 20 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented view in segmented text (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news logo (graphic image) with the individual check boxes chosen by a user in Figure 18. The software program responds to a graphic image and a separate pop-up window displays and requests that the user to save to a separate file as the existing image type (jpeg, gif, etc) or the user can click to save the graphic image to separate image file as shown;

Figure 21 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view of the user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chose from the options shown in Fig. 6. This figure depicts the segmented file saved and filed as cnbcnews.rad, a separate RAD file. Fig.21 picture also depicts a cost accumulator (e-commerce) for data stored;

Figure 22 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view of the user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chosen in Fig. 6. This figure depicts the RAD file saved and filed as cnbclogo.jpeg, a separate RAD file. This picture also depicts a cost accumulator (e-commerce) for data stored;

Figure 23 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD Calendar/Datebook program with the individual dates/appointments shown and a "Quick Add" feature for the Calendar;

Figure 24 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD Contact/Addressbook program with the individual contacts/addresses shown and a "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook;

Figure 25 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's calendar or datebook. A user recognizes a date being displayed in red. A date format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Datebook (Figure 23);

Figure 26 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's contacts or addresses. A user recognizes an email address being displayed in green. An email address format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook (Figure 24);

Figure 27 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's contacts or addresses. A user recognizes a web address being displayed in green. A web address format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook (Figure 24);

Figure 28 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting the Datebook/Calendar with "Quick Add RAD" Oil Tradeshow date entry from Figure 25 added automatically by computer on December 1 , 2000;

Figure 29 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting an Addressbook with "Quick Add" company website entry from Figure 26 added automatically by computer with a name of a company; Figure 30 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting an Addressbook with "Quick Add" individual email entry from Figure 27 added automatically by computer with name of the individual (Robert Jones);

Figure 31 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented display Frame using a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or similar program) viewed in "normal view" mode which is a typical HTML format) of a website of news articles;

Figure 32 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented display Frame using a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or similar Software) viewed in segmented View mode (RTML Standard or typical HTML format converted to RTML standard) of a website of news articles with the radio button chosen as save all;

Figure 33 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented information display Frame view of the article from Fig. 19 located in RadFile Details with pull down menu for RAD files to be located in Business category;

Figure 34 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented information display Frame view of the article from Fig. 19 located in segmented file Details with pull down menu for RAD files with the business category selected;

Figure 35 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting the Palm Computing Palm Frame view of main menu showing RAD segment selection icon;

Figure 36 is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device depicting a segmented data Frame using a Web Clipping Program in a Microsoft a Windows or WindowsCE Operating System (or other Software) viewed in "normal view" mode using a typical HTML format) of a website of news articles;

Figure 37 is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device, depicting a segmented information display Frame using a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or another program) view in segmented text View mode (RTML Standard or typical HTML format converted to WinLook's RTML standard) of a website of news articles with the save all radio button chosen;

Figure 37A is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device depicting a RAD files selection menu;

Figure 38 is a pictorial view of a compact disk or digital versatile disk (DVD) media storing an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention for use on a data processing system;

Figure 39 is a pictorial view of RAD browser display image (or browser companion) with a search directory website with RAD tools and a compact and modular navigational bar loaded, showing RAD features and the navigational bar displayed by both web browser (client) and Internet (server) software programs;

Figure 40 is a pictorial view of a display image with a navigational bar and RAD tools being utilized together with information and data in RAD text format at a cnbc.com website;

Figure 41 is a pictorial view of a display image showing a My Navigational Folders Section showing the coordinating hierarchy structure and how it matches the hierarchy structure of the Navigational Bar above (Gen Search level 1 , News Level 2 and the websites abc, nbc, cbs and cnbc (the chosen site). Figure 41 also depicts a RAD attachment saved in with a URL such as http://cnbc.com;

Figure 42A, 42B and 42C are pictorial views of a display image showing variations of a modulated Navigational Bar. Fig.42A bar does not include (to reduce viewing space) Current Category or Search URL input boxes. Item 85 is the top level or Main Index Button. Item 86 is the second level or Sub-index Button. Item 86 is the URLs that fall under the Sub-index (86) categories. In reference to the middle navigational bar (Fig. 42B), the current category input box (80) is shown and the search navigational bar Input box is shown (76). In reference to the lower navigational bar (Fig. 42C), the bar includes Items 80 and 76 above, but Item 80 is shown in a pull-down mode, to depict various categories that have been pre-imputed by the inventor or added (customized) by the user;

Figure 43A, 43B and 43C are pictorial views of a display image showing Figure 43A compact navigational bar with URL input box and search pull-down menu. Figure 43B Compact RAD tool bar with navigational bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu. Figure 43C Compact Navigational bar with compact RAD tool bar and URL and search pull-down menu;

Figure 44A, 44B and 44C are pictorial views of a display image showing Figure 44A compact navigational bar utilizing the browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or Websites URL Search box. Figure 44B compact RAD tool bar utilizing the Browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or Websites URL Search box. Figure 44C Combination compact RAD tool bar and compact navigational bar utilizing the browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or websites URL search box; and

Figure 45A, 45B and 45C are pictorial views of a display image showing Figure 45A Customizable and compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the Modular navigational buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails. Figure 45B customizable and compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and modulated datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails search pull-down menu and the modular navigational buttons such as datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails. Figure 45C Customizable and compact RAD tool bar and navigational bar with URL input box and and search pull-down menu with the modular navigational buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails.

Figure 46A, 46B and 46C are a pictorial view of Figure 46A Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook. Figure 46B Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's calendar combined with Figure 46A above. Figure 46C Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook.

Figures 47A, 47B and 47C depict the versatility of adding combinations of the navigational buttons such as back or forward and adding other user identified buttons such as print, datebook, tasks or emails. Figures 47A, 47B and 47C are a pictorial view of Figure 47A Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pulldown menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook combined with the RAD tools. Figure 47B Customizable compact RAD tool bar and navigational bar with URL input box and search pull-down menu with the modular navigational buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails combined with Figure 47A and Figure 46C (this this figure also includes the RAD tools).

Figures 48A, 48B and 48C depict the pre-inputted or user-inputted informational theme navigational bars utilizing the easy-to-use folder system and navigational index button configuration for various themes. The lower configuration is shown with an advertisement banner. Figures 48A, 48B and 48C are pictorial views of different theme naviational bars such as sports (Figure 48A), kids (Figure 48B) and finance (Figure 48C). Figure 49 shows the versatility of the compact Navigation bar for palmtop and miniature device use where viewing space is very limited. The index buttons are configured with less horizontal index buttons to minimize the horizontal space requirement. Figure 49is a pictorial view of a PDA device with a compact invention navigational bar.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Referring now to Fig. 1 , a data processing system 10 having an information segmenting document management program displaying and storing easily selectable information segments in accordance with the invention includes a data processor 12 that is coupled by a communication path 14 to a file store 20, a data store 22, a communication Input/Output channel 24 and various components of a user interface 26. The hardware configuration of data processing system 10 may be conventional. For example, the hardware portion of data processing system 10 may be implemented as a typical desk top or notebook personal computer, a personal data assistant (PDA) or another computer system having a file store 20, a data store 22, a user interface 26 and optionally a communication channel 24.

The communication path 14 represents generally communication between the data processor 12 and its associated components including file store 20, data store 22, communication channel 24 and user interface 26 without indicating any particular physical structure that might be used by a conventional data processing system. The file store is a disk drive storing blocks of data in the form of named files in the preferred embodiment, but alternatively could be implemented with a magnetic tape drive or alterable memory that is capable of storing a block of data that is accessible in response to an identifier such as a file name. The file store 20 stores an information segmenting document management program that divides a block of information into a plurality of segments and enables a user of data processing system 10 to select certain ones of the segments for further processing.

Data store 22 is preferably a combination of read only memory and random access memory, but alternatively may be any data storage device capable of storing program instructions that are to be executed by data processor 12 and data that is to be processed by data processor 12 in response to the stored instructions. Parts or all of the information segmenting document management program are transferred as needed from the file store 20 to data store 22 for execution by data processor 12. The communication channel 24 may include a modem and provides communication between the data processing system 10 and a source of information, such as the internet, a communication network, another data processing system or a data base. The user interface subsystem 26 provides a communication interface between the data processor 12 and a user, and enables a user of the data processing system 10 to view and issue commands to manipulate information that is being processed by the system 10. In the preferred embodiment the user interface includes a display device 28, a keyboard 30, a pointing device 32 and an audio interface 34 that includes a microphone and one or more speakers. The display device 28, which is typically a liquid crystal display (LCD), but may be a CRT or any device for visually displaying or presenting to a user of system 10, information that is being processed by system 10. Keyboard 30 is a typical keyboard found on a personal computer or PDA. Pointing device 32 is a track ball and click key in the preferred embodiment but alternatively can be a mouse, a touch pad or other point and click device. Audio interface 34 provides a microphone and speakers for audio communication between a user and processor 12. It will be appreciated that the specific component content of user interface 28 can be varied by adding or deleting components so long as the user is able to view a block of information in a segmented format and select one or more segments for additional processing.

When located at the user terminal, the information segmenting document management program processes blocks of data in the form of disk files stored in file store 20. Alternatively, the program may be a part of a standard internet browser program. In this case, the user is offered an option to operate in normal text mode or segmented text mode. If the user selects view normal text mode, the browser program operates as a conventional internet browser program to allow the user to select and receive information from accessed internet sites. If the user selects view text in segmented mode, information at internet sites is accessed in the same way, but the information is "filtered" through the information segmenting document management program before being displayed on the user display device 28 and the program options illustrated in Fig. 1 A become available to the user.

The flow chart shown in Fig. 1A illustrates the operation of the information segmenting document management program when installed on the user data processing system 10. Upon loading the program, the program, as an initial act 40, displays a list of user options. Alternatively, the list of options is displayed in response to a selection of the view segmented text option from within the enhanced browser program. These options may be displayed in addition to the options typically associated with a Windows based program. The displayed user options include (1) Source file select; (2) Destination file select; (3) Save and (4) Exit.

The program responds to the Source file select and Destination file select options by producing a Windows type file selection dialog box that enables the user to select a file. It will be appreciated that in the alternative arrangement in which the program is a part of an otherwise conventional browser program, the source file selection function is unnecessary and is replaced by the normal browser function of accessing an internet web site and receiving a block of information from an accessed web site.

Upon receiving a source file designation, the program advances to act 42 and displays the source file (or alternatively information received from the internet) as a block of information in a segmented format on display device 28. In this format each sentence, paragraph, page or graphic image information segment of the source file is followed (or preceded) by a small selection icon, such as a check box, which is associated with the preceding (or following) information segment. Segment selection is toggled by alternately selecting and unselecting the associated check boxes. If the content of a selected file exceeds the capacity of a single window on the display device, the user is permitted to scroll through the information as in a standard word processor program. Each time a new segment is selected by selecting an associated check box, a visual characteristic of the segment, such as the color of the segment, is changed to provide the user with an easily discemable visual indication of which segments have been selected and which have not.

Segments are typically sentences that are detected by recognizing sentence ending punctuation such as periods, question marks, exclamation points or two consecutive character spaces. Alternatively, or in addition, a segment can be a paragraph recognized by a line space-carriage return character combination or a tab. A segment can also be a page that is recognized by the occurrence of a form feed character or other end of page character.

While it is preferred that the selection icon (check box) be located immediately preceding (or following) its associated text or graphic image segment, it can be located elsewhere so long as the association between the selection (check box) and the associated segment is readily apparent to the user. In addition, check boxes associated with different kinds of information such as sentences, paragraphs, pages, and graphic images are preferably displayed with different sizes, shapes or colors so as to make the segments with which they are associated readily apparent to a user. The user is thus provided with the option to select segments on an arbitrary basis and to accumulate multiple segments, whether or not the selected segments are separated by unselected segments of information. In contrast to the selection of text using a Windows type highlighting option, the text need not be contiguous segments within a document. The user may select multiple segments of information with unselected segments of information being located between any one or more of the selected segments.

Upon selection of both a source file (or alternatively data from an accessed internet site) and a destination file, the program, at act 44, may receive and respond to a save command. Upon receipt of a save command, the program saves only the selected segments to the designated destination file. If the file does not exist, the file is opened. If the file already exists, the selected segments are appended to the end of the file. If no segments have been selected, all segments are saved to the designated destination file.

Alternatively, if no segments have been selected, the save command produces a dialog box that warns the user that no files have been selected and offers the user the option to either select all files or cancel the save command.

At any time during the execution of act 42 or 44, the user may designate a new source file (or alternatively, receive new information from an accessed internet site), thereby overwriting any previously selected block of information on the user display device and returning program execution to act 42. Upon execution of the Exit option, the program terminates without saving any additional segments of information. Once selected segments have been written to a designated destination file, the user may open the destination file with a word processor program or other program and process only the previously selected information segments without having to sort and distinguish other information contained in the designated source file or files (or alternatively, the information block accessed from an Internet site).

Referring now to Fig. 1 B, an alternative arrangement of a data processing system 50 having an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention is a server, which either provides a private connection to the internet or serves as an internet access provider for one or more internet users. The data processing system 50 includes a file store 52, a data store 54 and a data processor 56 that processes data stored in the data store 54 in response to program instructions stored in data store 54. File store 52 stores blocks of data that can be accessed for reading or writing in response to a file designator such as a file name. The blocks of data include information files and program files, including an information segmenting data management program 58 in accordance with the invention. Program files are transferred in whole or in part to data store 54 as needed for execution by data processor 56.

A first communication channel 60 provides communication between data processing system 50 and a communication network such as the internet, while a second data processing channel 62 provides communication between data processing system 50 and one or more (typically many) network or internet user data processing systems 64.

A flow chart illustrating the operation of the information segmenting data management program executed by data processing system 50 is illustrated in Fig. 1 C. A user data processing system 64 is used to access the server data processing system 50 in the usual manner as indicated by act 70 of the program. The user accesses the internet server data processing system 50 (which may be operated by an internet access provider) with a conventional server access communication program or with a program that is typically furnished by the access provider with or without the user's own browser program. Upon authentication of the user screen name and password, the system 50 communicates to the user data processor, an initial window of information as indicated at step 72. This initial window enables additional internet access functions.

As illustrated in Fig. 1 D, to which further reference is now made, the initial window of information is nearly identical to a conventional initial window of information typically provided by an internet access provider, except that options to view normal text 74 or to view segmented text 76 are added as an additional option, with one or the other, but not both being selected. The default is "view normal text" 74. In addition, if "view segmented text" is selected as an option, an additional small widow 78 appears at the bottom of the screen offering a Files command 80, a Save command 82, a Save all command 84, and a size display window 86.

The files command 80 produces a typical Windows type file dialog box that enables the user to establish a tree structure of folders and open, close, delete, create and otherwise manipulate files substantially as in a typical Windows based program. However, the files are physically located at the site of the internet access provider even though they appear to the user to be unique to the user as if they were on the user data processing system 64. A list of previously established file names that may be selected by the user is provided in a small pull down window 88.

If "view normal text" is selected by the user, the server data processing system 50 operates in a conventional manner, passing user search or URL address commands on to the internet and sending any information that is accessed to the user data processing system 64. However, if "view segmented text" is selected, operation is somewhat different. User search commands and URL addresses are still passed to the internet just as before, but any information passed back to the user in response to those commands is passed through a program "filter" that divides the information into segments and inserts segment selection icons, which are preferably in the form of check boxes, at the beginning (or end) of each segment. Each check box is associated with the preceding segment and allows the associated segment to be alternately selected and deselected by toggling the selection of the associated check box. As each segment of information is selected by selecting the associated selection icon (check box), the segment is highlighted or the color is changed as displayed to the user to enable the user to readily determine which segments of information have been selected and which have not.

Segments are typically sentences that are detected by recognizing sentence ending punctuation such as periods, question marks, exclamation points or two consecutive character spaces. Alternatively, or in addition, a segment can be a paragraph recognized by a line space-carriage return character combination or a tab. A segment can also be a page that is recognized by the occurrence of a form feed character.

While it is preferred that the selection icon (check box) be located immediately preceding its associated text or graphic image segment, it can be located elsewhere (such as at the end of a segment) so long as the association between the selection icon (check box) and the associated segment is readily apparent to the user. As a selection icon (check box) is toggled to selected and unselected states by repeated selection (clicking) of the icon (check box), the selection of the associated information segment is correspondingly toggled to selected and unselected states. In addition, selection icons (check boxes) associated with different kinds of information such as sentences, paragraphs, pages, and graphic images are preferably displayed with different sizes, shapes or colors so as to make the segments with which they are associated readily apparent to a user. The user is thus provided with the option to select segments on an arbitrary basis and to accumulate multiple segments, whether or not the selected segments are separated by one or more unselected segments of information. In contrast to the selection of text using a Windows type highlighting option, the text need not be contiguous segments within a document. The user may select and accumulate multiple segments of information with unselected segments of information being located between any one or more of the selected segments.

Once the segmented text option has been selected by the user, in addition to the conventional internet location accessing and viewing commands, clicking on the Files icon invokes program act 90, causing the user to be presented with a file selection menu to either create a new file or to select an existing file for receipt and storage of selected segments of information. The physical location of the files is in file store 58 of data processing system 10. However, as viewed by each user, the files are personal to the screen name or password used to access the internet service provider system 50 and the file access dialog boxes and file/folder structure has substantially the same appearance to the user as the file structure maintained on a typical personal computer. Until a file has been selected by the user, a default file, such as a file named "DefaultFileOI" in the root folder or directory is deemed to have been selected. This default file is used for any activities requiring an identified file. Once the segmented text format has been selected, the Files command can be selected by the user to change the active file. Upon exiting the server or switching to the normal text format, any open file is automatically closed.

Also, any time the segmented text option has been selected by the user, the user can command the selection of a page or block of information from an internet information site as represented at act 92. This is done in a conventional manner by entering a URL address of an internet site or by searching on key words using a browser. However, as pages of information are selected, they are modified by segmenting the information and adding selection icons, such as check boxes or radial buttons, to the information, each associated with a different segment of information, before the page or block of information is communicated to the user data processing system 64 for display on the user display device.

Once the user data processing system 64 has received a block of information at act 92, the user may toggle the selection of information segments by toggling the selection of the associated selection icons (check boxes) at act 94. As information segments are selected or unselected, the corresponding number of bytes of storage represented thereby is added to or subtracted from the size display 88 (Fig. 1 D). In the preferred embodiment, each time a selection icon (check box) is clicked, information defining the clicking of the selection icon is communicated from the user data processing system 64 to the server data processing system 50. The server data processing system responds by resending the block of information to the user data processing system 64, but with the modified information segment selectively highlighted or changed in color to reflect the selection or deselection of the segment.

Alternatively, the display characteristics of the selected information segments can be changed locally by the user data processing system 10, with the a list of selected segments being communicated to data processing system 50 only in response to a save or save all command at act 96.

The save 82 and save all 84 commands are received and responded to at act 96. In response to the save command the server data processing system stores selected information segments in a file on file store 52 at a location previously designated by the user in response to a dialog box opened by the files command. If no file has been designated by the user, a default file name such as "DefaultFileOI" is opened and receives the selected information segments. If no information segment has been selected by the user, a dialog box appears in response to a save command at act 96 that warns the user that no information segment has been selected and provides the user the option of cancelling the save command or executing a save all command 96.

The save all command at act 96 saves a complete block of information to the designated file regardless of whether any information segments have been selected.

It should be appreciated that the acts of receive and execute information block selection commands 92 and receive and execute files command 90 may be executed any time segmented text mode has been selected and the corresponding frame is being displayed to the user. In addition, the acts of receive and execute information segment selection commands 94 and receive and execute save or save all commands 96 have meaning and are available to the user only after a receive and execute information block selection commands act 92 has been executed and a block of information is actually being displayed on the user display device at user data processing system 64.

An exit command 72 or a switch to the normal text display mode 74 terminates the segmented text display mode with no further action. A switch to normal text display mode causes any presently selected block of information to be resent to the user data processing system 10 in regular display format.

In a further alternative arrangement shown in Fig. 1 E, an internet communication system 100 includes a user data processing system 102 that is coupled by a communication link 104, such as a telephone line, to an internet access server data processing system 106, which is in turn coupled by an internet communication link 108 to a server data processing system 110 providing an internet web site. The user data processing system 102 is a conventional system such as a personal computer, a personal data assistant, or other system providing a user display device and other user interface components. User data processing system 102 optionally includes a conventional web browser program and an internet access program sufficient to access the internet via communication link 104 and the internet access server data processing system 106.

The internet access server data processing system 106 may be operated by a commercial internet service provider or may be a private connection, so long as it provides a connection to a communication network such as the internet 108.

The internet web site data processing system 110 includes a file store 112, a data store 114 and a data processor 116 processing data stored in the data store 114 in response to instructions stored in the data store 114. Program instructions and data are selectively transferred from file store 112 to data store 114 as necessary for program execution. File store 112 stores an information segmenting data management program either as a stand alone program, or alternatively, as a part of a browser program.

The internet web site data processing system is assigned a URL internet web site address and is accessed by the user data processing system 102 in response to this address. Upon being accessed in response to its URL address, it displays to the user an initial page or "home page" in the form of a frame as shown in Fig. 1 F. The frame offers the user the option of using the information segmenting data management program as a stand alone program 74A or as a subprogram within a browser 76A. If the user is connected to the internet through a browser at the user data processing system 102, the user would select the stand alone version. Otherwise the user would select the browser at the web site data processing system 110.

Under either arrangement the information segment data management program operates in substantially the same way. The data processing system 110 operates as though it were an internet access server providing access to further internet information sites, either in response to specific URL internet address or in response to search terms. Once a site is located, each block of information provided by that site is in effect filtered by the information segmenting data management program.

The operation of the information segmenting data management program is substantially as shown and described in conjunction with the program illustrated in Fig. 1 C, except that at act 70 the connection is established through a URL internet address and at act 72 the option is to select the information segmenting data management program with or without a browser, rather than selection of unsegmented text or segmented text as in the program illustrated in Fig. 1 C.

It will thus be appreciated that regardless of where the program is located, the information segmenting data management program provides a user the opportunity to select a plurality of information segment having a least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments having unselected information between them and to transfer all of the selected segments to an identified block of information in response to a single save (paste) command. As each segment is selected it is high lighted or displayed in a different color or other visual characteristic to enable the user to readily distinguish selected information segments from unselected information segments.

Typically, pages of information are stored in an HTML format and the Internet user is given an option of converting the information to an RTML segmented format before communication over the Internet or not. If converted, the conversion is performed by the information segmenting data management program. Alternatively, the pages of information may be stored in data store 84 in an RTML format, in which case, the information must be converted to a different format (such as HTML or XTML) before it is provided to a user or it must be communicated to the user in the RTML segmented format.

As used in Figs. 1 G-38, reference numerals have the following meaning:

1. Button to convert or view Web Page to RAD Text (RTML) document

2. Button to convert or view RAD Text (RTML) document back to standard HTML web page

3. Search box to enter URL to be located by Excerpter browser

4. GO" button to begin search for URL listed above

5. Lower RAD Book control panel with options for handling a web page after it has been converted to RAD Text. 6. "Save All" radial button to select entire RAD Text document for saving to RAD Book or desktop.

7. Sample checkboxes for selecting the preceding block of text (for later saving).

8. RAD "Name" Field Box for adding title to the document about to be saved or recalling an existing file or document.

9. File button for selecting alternate folder or location for saving RAD document.

10. SAVE button for saving selected RAD document into online RAD Book or into Desktop computer.

11. "File Size" field: declares size of the RAD document about to be stored.

12. Folder section for My RAD files

13. Files section for folder chosen in #12

14. Hyperlinks to Portals such as Yahoo, Lycos or Excite.

15. Pull-down menu to search via other Portals or websites URLs.

16. Directory Listings of Websites or pages.

17. Left Page Navigator - allows user to shift frame view to the left of page.

18. Right Page Navigator - allows user to shift frame view to the right of page.

19. Up Page Navigator - allows user to shift frame view up.

20. Left Page Navigator - allows user to shift frame view down.

21. Hyperlink such as CNBC.com

22. Image such as CNBC.com logo

23. RAD book "Name" Field Box for adding title to the document about to be saved or recalling an existing file or document.

24. PDA such as 3 Corn's Palm

25. Computer to run software

26. Monitor to view software

27. Keyboard to input data

28. Mouse to navigate software efficiently

29. RAD website

30. RAD Search Directory

31. Snap.com Search Website viewed through Rad Frame.

32. RAD Bank Cost Accumulator Box 33. RAD File Cost Accumulator Quantity Indicator

34. Calendar/Datebook

35. Event/Appointment

36. "Quick Add" Feature on the Face of the Calendar

37. Category Selection on Calendar

38. Addressbook/Contact System

39. Contact

40. Contact Category(Business, Personal or such)

41. "Quick Add" Addressbook Feature

42. "Quick Add RAD" Addressbook Feature Popup Box

43. Date Saved Box (for calendar)

44. Title Add Box

45. Related File Box

46. Send-to Box

47. "Quick Add RAD" Web Address Feature Popup Box

48. "Go to Website" hypertext

49. "Quick Add RAD" Email Feature Popup Box

50. Add more contact info" hypertext]

51. Oil Tradeshow event added by invention to calendar

52. Dow Jones website added to addressbook

53. Robert Jones added to addressbook

54. PDA Palm Device

55. Checkbox on RAD Look program

56. RAD File Details button

57. RAD File

58. Main Program RAD Icon

59. Windows, WindowsCE Device or Linux Device

60. RAD Book Program Indicator

61. RAD File Section

62. Browser

63. View RAD Text or Segmented Text Button on Browser

64. View HyperText or Un-Segmented Text Button on Browser

65. Delete hypertext or button for quick deleting segment 66. Date and time segment selected

67. Hyperlink to page selected and URL address where segment located

FIG. 1G is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present invention using an internet browser or a local (client) browser having an information segmenting data management program as a subpart thereof.

As is also shown in FIG. 1 G, any outside web site may also display a button or link which allows said site to be displayed within the initial RAD control panel and be manipulated as described herein. The one difference with this situation is that the RAD control panel & features can be turned off at the user's request and would otherwise remain on with said web site alone.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 G illustrates one embodiment of the present invention:

As shown in FIG. 1 G, an Internet User may access a web site having an information segmenting document management program (segmented display website) (See Fig. 1 E) to utilize the program's unique document management features. Upon accessing the segmented display web site, the user has the option of viewing any standard web page beneath or within a control panel or frame which allows the Internet User to refresh the web page (through the web data conversion system) and view the web page in a segmented format. At the segmented display web site, the Internet User has the option of using the web site as a traditional Search Engine / Portal. The difference between segmented display and a traditional Engine / Portal is that once the user begins to follow links from a segmented web site, a strip or (control) panel remains on the frame for each web page that the user views. This control panel allows the user to instantly convert any selected web page into a segmented or RAD document. Once converted to a RAD document, the control panel will enlarge, or an additional control panel will open at the page bottom, or a "pop-up" control panel window will be allowed to display at the user's request. This control panel will list all the additional features and options that are unavailable to the user for saving, forwarding or manipulating a RAD document.

As is also shown in FIG. 1 G, an outside web site may also display a button or link which allows a page of information provided by said site to be displayed within the initial RAD control panel and be manipulated as described above (and below). The one difference with this situation is that the RAD control panel & features can be turned off at the user's request and would otherwise remain on with said web site alone.

FIG. 1 H illustrates interaction(s) between the an information segmenting web data conversion system (RAD Web Data Conversion System), a web site having an information segmenting data management program, various other web sites, and an Internet User using an internet browser;

Referring now to FIG. 1 H, an Internet User may access a RAD web site to utilize it's unique document management features. Once at the RAD web site, the user has an option of viewing any standard web page beneath or within a control panel or frame which allows the Internet User to refresh said web page (through a RAD Web Data Conversion System) and view it as a RAD web page.

At the RAD web site, the Internet User has the option of using the RAD web site as a traditional Search Engine / Portal. The difference a between RAD web site and a traditional Search Engine or Portal is that once the user begins to follow links from a RAD web site, a strip or (control) panel remains at the top of each web page that the user views. This control panel allows the user to instantly convert any selected web page into a RAD document. Once converted to a RAD document, the control panel enlarges, or an additional control panel opens at the page bottom, or a "pop-up" control panel window is allowed to display at the user's request. This control panel lists all the additional features and options that the user has in saving, forwarding or manipulating a RAD document.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an html web page is submitted to the information segmenting data management program (RAD Web Data Conversion System), converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to the user as a segmented document or page with options for saving or forwarding the document using an Internet browser.

FIG.2 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the present invention using a conventional, commercially available operating system such as Windows, WindowsCE, Apple, or Linux.

As shown in FIG. 2, in addition to using a data segmenting program as a typical search engine or web portal, an Internet User also has an option of utilizing selected web portals or search engines to access web sites over the net. A search box is displayed next to links to all of the major Search Engines or Portals. After entering a search string, the Internet User then clicks on the service that the user would like to use to perform a search. Once a search query is submitted, the search results page of the selected Portal or Search Engine is displayed beneath a RAD control panel. This panel remains in place as the User selects a link to follow. Upon selecting a page to be manipulated as a RAD Document, the user selects the appropriate buttons or commands from the control panel (as described above and below).

When viewing a RAD document, a user has an option of manipulating information contained in the document in a number of ways. As described in FIG. 11A, the web page is displayed as a RAD document with strings of text followed by check-box[es] or radial button(s). Each graphic is also followed by a button(s) or check-box[es]. By selecting a particular box or button, the user selects the preceding text or graphic. Other boxes/buttons allow the user to select larger sections of text or graphics. After making a selection of data, options available to the user include saving it to a data store at the server, saving it to the client desktop, or e-mailing the document over the Internet. All documents saved or forwarded are appended with a small copyright notice declaring the document's origin and original URL.

Other options available through the control panels include to the ability of the user to access a personal RAD document and transfer files.

With memory being a major concern for Internet (as well as bandwidth, speed, memory storage capacity, etc.) computers, PDA devices and online, a memory gauge allows a user to track any memory that is being stored, sent (via email) or saved on the RAD Internet server or storage location. A software program re-formats data from HTML or any format (Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect) a database to collect and organize the information or images and a web browser (Netscape, Explorer or the like) or on a desktop a software system similar to Microsoft Word (Corel Draw, to view the data on a desktop) to view the data on the Internet.

FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an HTML or text page is submitted to an information segmenting data management program running under a commercially available operating system such as Windows 98, Linus or Apple, converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to a user as a segmented text document with options for saving or forwarding the document using a windows based or stand alone operating system. FIG.3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of an information segmenting data management system in accordance with the present invention using a 3 Com Palm, PDA or similar based operating system.

FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process by which an HTML or text page is submitted to an information segmenting data management system for a Palm data processing system or a PDA data processing system, converted to a segmented ("RAD") document, and redisplayed to the user as a segmented text document with options for saving or forwarding the document using a Windows based or stand alone operating system.

Figures 5, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E, 5F, 5G, 5H, 51, 5J, and 5K are program flow diagrams illustrating the operation of an information segmenting data management system in accordance with the invention.

Figure 6 is a pictorial representation of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Figure 7 is a front view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention displaying a frame of information for an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention, showing a monitor view with a RAD program display frame.

Figure 8 is an enlarged view of a frame of information shown in Fig. 7. The view depicts a RAD program display frame displayed by a browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer's or Netscape Navigator's or the RAD program's browser's view in "normal view" mode (typical HTML format) of a website of news articles. A user has an option of selecting button(1 ) to have the page refreshed & viewed as a segmented (RAD) document, or the user may select button(2) to have a segmented text page viewed as a Normal web page once again. A user may also enter a search address (URL) into the URL field(3), click upon the "GO" button(4) and have a new web page selected and displayed. The lower control panel(5) features options for handling the web page after it has been converted to segmented text.

Figure 9 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a website news article viewed through a RAD frame using a browser or with RTML system integrated system and converted from HTML to RTML standard. In this view, blocks of text are followed by checkboxes(7) allowing a user to selectively choose portions of the document the user would like to save. In this illustration, a bottom radial (Save ALL) button(6) has been selected, the RAD program selects and saves the entire document in response to activation of the Save ALL button.

In the Lower control panel(5) are options for saving the currently selected document. In the "Name Field"(8), the user may enter a name for a document the user wishes to save. Towards the end of the bottom control Panel, a Size Field(11 ) displays the size of the selected RAD Document. The document will be saved to a user Main Folder unless the user clicks the File Button(9), which allows the user to select an alternate folder or location for saving the RAD document. Once a location has been selected, the user clicks the SAVE button(10) to store the information as a file. A reference toa writer or author is optionally automatically saved as a pre-programmed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be passed on with excerpts or save files).

Figure 10 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a Frame using a browser view in segmented (RTML Standard) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of news article with the individual check boxes chosen by the user. This page is formatted with RTML RAD paragraph (checkbox every sentence) standard. In this view the File Size field(11 ) reflects the smaller portion of the document selected. A reference to a writer or author is optionally automatically saved as pre-programmed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be past on with excerpts or save files).

Figure 10A is a pictorial view of a RAD display frame containing a Frame of segmented information generated by a browser operating in segmented (RTML Standard) view mode (typical HTML format). The view displays news articles that are available at a Web site with check boxes associated with information segments selected by a user being checked. This page is formatted with RTML RAD paragraph (checkbox every sentence) standard. In this view a File Size field(11) reflects the size in bytes of the selected information. A reference to a writer or author is optionally automatically saved as pre-programmed function (To allow copyright and ownership rights to be passed on with excerpts or save files).

Figure 11 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame from a browser view of a user's "MY RAD Book" page based on the save all radio button selected in Fig. 9. Figure 12 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame view of a user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chosen in Fig. 10.

Figure 13 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a segmented Frame view of the user's RAD File Store with a RAD document saved and filed from Figure 11 (schoolprob.rad) and (schoolprob rad) Figure 12 and other files previously saved and organized in the RAD document.

Figure 14 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Search Directory Frame view of a home page. The user has the option of searching via a segmentation program's portal links or choosing to search via another web portal or engine, as listed below.

Figure 15 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Search Directory Frame view of a Search Directory such as Snap.com after selecting Snap.com in a pull down menu of the Search Directory.

Figure 16 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a RAD Search Directory Frame view of a news page entered via an information segmenting data management program through Snap.com, after selecting the view segmented at the top of the Frame and selecting a news page and not choosing any of the segmentation Boxes (7).

Figure 17 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices". This page also depicts the checkboxes or such at the end of the paragraph.

Figure 17A is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting as segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices showing buttons or such before the segment". This page also depicts the checboxes or such at the beginning of the paragraph.

Figure 17B is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Search Directory Frame of a news page after selecting the view Normal Text at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices showing icon buttons or such before the segment". This page also depicts the checkboxes or such at the beginning of the paragraph.

Figure 18 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a RAD Search Directory view of a CNBC.com news page after selecting RAD view at the top of the Frame and the hypertext "Wall Street slips amid jump in oil prices". This page also depicts RAD check boxes (7) for every paragraph (not for every sentence).

Figure 19 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame view in segmented (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news article shown with the individual check boxes that were chosen by the user in Figure 18.

Figure 19A is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame view in segmented (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news article showing the information segments associated with check boxes that were selected by the user in the view shown in Figure 18.

Figure 20 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented view in segmented text (RTML Standard or HTML converted document to RTML) view mode (typical HTML format) of a website of a news logo (graphic image) shown with the individual check boxes chosen by a user in Figure 18. The software program recognizes a graphic image and a separate pop-up window displays and requests that the user to save to a separate file as the existing image type (jpeg, gif, etc) or the user can click to save the graphic image to separate image file as shown.

Figure 21 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame view of a user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chosen from the options shown in Fig. 6. This Fig. 21 depicts the segmented file saved and filed as cnbcnews.rad, a separate RAD file. FIG.21 also depicts a cost accumulator (e-commerce) for data stored.

Figure 22 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented Frame view of a user's RAD page based on the individual check boxes chose in Fig. 6. This figure depicts the RAD file saved and filed as cnbclogo.jpeg, a separate RAD file. This picture also depicts a cost accumulator (e-commerce) for data stored.

Figure 23 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a RAD Calendar/Datebook program with the individual dates/appointments shown and a "Quick Add" feature for the Calendar.

Figure 24 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD Contact/Addressbook program with the individual contacts/addresses shown and a "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook. Figure 25 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's calendar or datebook. A user recognizes a date being displayed in red. A date format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Datebook (Figure 23).

Figure 26 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's contacts or addresses. A user recognizes an email address bing displayed in green. An email address format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook (Figure 24).

Figure 27 is a pictorial view of a display frame depicting a RAD "Quick Add" feature pop-up window or such for the user's contacts or addresses. A user recognizes a web address being displayed in green. A web address format is recognized by a software program. See the "Quick Add" feature for the Addressbook (Figure 24).

Figure 28 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a Datebook/Calendar with "Quick Add" Oil Tradeshow date entry from Figure 25 added automatically by computer on December 1 , 2000.

Figure 29 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing an Addressbook with "Quick Add" company website entry from Figure 26 added automatically by computer with name of a company.

Figure 30 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing an Addressbook with "Quick Add" individual (jones@bbc.com) email entry from Figure 27 added automatically by computer with name of the individual (Robert Jones).

Figure 31 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented display Frame using a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or similar program) viewed in "normal view" mode which is a typical HTML format) of a website of news articles.

Figure 32 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented display Frame with a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or similar Software) viewed in segmented View mode (RTML Standard or typical HTML format converted to RTML standard) of a website of news articles with a radio button chosen as save all.

Figure 33 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented information display Frame view of the article from Fig. 19 that are located in segmented Details section with pull down menu for RAD files to be located in the Business category of a PDA device. Figure 34 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing a segmented information display Frame view of the article from Fig. 19 that are located in segmented file Details section with pull down menu for RAD files with the business category selected.

Figure 35 is a pictorial view of a display frame containing the Palm Computing Palm Frame view of main menu showing a RAD segment selection icon.

Figure 36 is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device depicting a segmented data Frame with a Web Clipping Program in a Microsoft a Windows or WindowsCE Operating System (or other Software) viewed in "normal view" mode using a typical HTML format) of a website of news articles.

Figure 37 is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device, depicting a segmented information display Frame with a Web Clipping Program by Palm Computing, Inc. (or another program) viewed in segmented text View mode (RTML Standard or typical HTML format converted to RTML standard) of a website of news articles with the save all radio button chosen.

Figure 37A is a pictorial view of a data processing system in accordance with the invention having a keyboard and a display device depicting a RAD files selection menu.

Figure 38 is a pictorial view of a compact disk or digital versatile disk (DVD) media storing an information segmenting data management program in accordance with the invention for use on a data processing system.

The following reference numbers apply to Figs 39-49.

68. Browser (or browser add-on/companion)

69. Calendar Feature incorporated into browser

70. Addressbook incorporated into browser

71. Files incorporated into browser

72. Tasks incorporated into browser

73. Directional navigational button for Main Index

74. Directional navigational button for sub-index

75. Directional navigational button for website address or URL

76. Keyboard Input Box to search Navigational bar data base 77. Customizable (add or remove components)

78. Navigational bar on the server (Interent) ad the browser Client.

79. Current category pull-down menu

80. My Navigational Folder selection pull-down menu

81. RAD File attachment with URL address, file size and date and time of save.

82. Main index button

83. Sub-index button

84. URL/Address Index Button

85. Main index folders

86. Sub-index folders

Figure 39 is a pictorial view of a display image generated by RAD browser program (or browser companion) with a search directory RAD website loaded showing RAD features and a navigational bar on both the web browser (client) and the Internet (server) software programs. Figure 39 depicts the features of the RAD tool bar being located at the bottom of the drawing and including save and RAD files buttons, in addition to the RAD file size indicator box. Towards the top of the drawing is a compact navigational bar appearing on both the website and the browser software (68) as an add-on companion or as a separate browser. The invention depicts a compact and modulated version that is located both on the (server) Internet RAD website and browser-based (client). Other features include the desktop calendar (69), addressbook (70), files (71 , tasks (72) buttons that provide synchronization to the user's online or website-based (server) quick access to a calendar program, addressbook program, files and task. Both the compact navigational bar and the RAD tool bar are synchronized upon accessing the Internet. The modulated RAD tools are integrated with the navigational bar. The modulated RAD version does not require much display viewing space, as shown in Figure 39. Because the program is located on both the client (browser) and the server (Internet website), the program enables access 24 hours a day from any computer with almost any browser software. Figure 39 depicts another advantage of the navigational bar software program with access available to the user (as shown in Figure 39 (78)) on both the Internet (Server) and the Desktop (Client Browser) is the power of these related programs to synchronize information betwen the Desktop and Internet. Dually located programs enable the user to access Internet Server software programs (e.g. Jum.com or X- Drive.com) and keep them current with Desktop software programs (e.g. Windows or Word).

Figure 40 is a pictorial view of a display image showing a navigational bar and the RAD tools being utilized together with information and data in RAD text format at a cnbc. com website. This displayed page shows a checkbox or segment button (7) with the compact modulated RAD tools and compact modulated navigational bar.

Figure 41 is a pictorial view of a display image showing a My Navigational folders section showing the coordinating hierarchy structure and how it matches the hierarchy structure of the navigational bar above (Gen Search level 1 , News Level 2 and the websites abc, nbc, cbs and cnbc, the website chosen by the user). The display image shown in Figure 41 also depicts a RAD attachment saved with a URL such as http://cnbc.com. A pull-down menu category box (83) allows a user to create and locate several different theme navigational tool bars such as a sports navigational bar or a educational navigational bar. The display image shown in Figure 41 depicts a filing section of a multilevel hierarchy system with URL's or web addresses and RAD files or segmented data (84) to the right of the folder system display. Included are the date and time of the URL or segmented data, the size of the file and the type of file.

Figures 42A, 42B and 42C are a pictorial view of a display image showing variations of modular and compact navigational bar. This figure shows the versatility of the compact navigational bar. Fig.42A bar does not include (to maximize viewing space) the current category or Search URL input boxes. Item 85 is the top level or Main Index Button. Item 86 is the second level or Sub-index Button. Item 87 is the URLs that fall under the Sub-index (86) categories. In reference to the middle navigational bar (Fig. 42B), the current category input box (80) is shown and the search navigational bar Input box is shown (76). In reference to the lower navigational bar (Fig. 42C), the bar includes Items 80 and 76 above, but Item 80 is shown in the pull-down mode, to depict the various categories that have been pre-imputed or added (customized) by the user. The variations provide users the ability to access the RAD files and segmented text based on the URL or web address.

Figures 43A, 43B and 43C are a pictorial view of a display image showing Figure 43A Compact navigational bar with URL input box and search pull-down menu. Figure 43B Compact RAD tool bar with navigational bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu. Figure 43C Compact navigational bar with compact RAD tool bar and URL and search pull-down menu. These views show the flexibility of the modular navigational bar and the RAD tools bar. In this pictorial view (Fig. 43 A) of a minimum size bar showing the Compact RAD tool bar with navigational bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu, the user is still provided with the minimum functions needed for the RAD tools along with the ability to browse the Internet and search the navigational and RAD files.

Figures 44A, 44B and 44C are a pictorial view of a display image showing Figure 44A Compact Navigational Bar utilizing the Browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or websites URL Search box, Figure 44B Compact RAD Tool Bar utilizing the Browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or websites URL Search box, and Figure 44C Combination Compact RAD Tool Bar and Compact Navigational Bar utilizing the Browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) or websites URL Search box. Figures 44A, 44B and 44C depict the versatility of the modular navigational bar and the RAD tools bar along with depicting the small area required for the tools.

Figures 45A, 45B and 45C are pictorial view of a display image showing Figure 45A Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and and search pull-down menu with Modulated Navigational Buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails, Fibure 45B Customizable Compact RAD Tool Bar and URL input box and modulated datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails search pull-down menu and the Modulated Navigational Buttons such as datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails, Figure 45C Customizable compact RAD tool bar and navigational bar with URL input box and search pull-down menu with the modular navigational buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails. Figures 45A, 45B and 45C depict the modular versatility of adding only the quick buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails to the other features or modular sections shown in Figures 40 through 44C.

The innovative navigation bar (78) shown in Figure 39 is linked to the saved URLs and segmented text files shown in Figure 41. This navigation bar is located both on the (server) Internet RAD website and Browser-based (client) and synchronized upon accessing the Internet. This navigation bar includes an easy to save and organize folder system depicted in Figure 41 that allows the navigational bar to be easily customizable to user preferences. A folder system includes a URL address, the date/time saved and the size of the RAD file attachment (84). This folder system allows the user to easily add new websites or URLs of interest and a category folder access menu bar (83). As URLs or web addresses and RAD files (84) are added, the navigation bar automatically updates the navigational bar on both the Internet (server) and the Browser (client) programs. This navigation bar includes a feature to add several different categories of navigational bars for different uses (83). In addition, the navigational bar has an alphabetical bar shown in Figure 42A as item 77. This allows the user the ability to locate by selection of letters a-z. Also, included are a search navigational bar feature (76) and a current category feature. The multilevel self-contained navigation bar does not require very much display area in the window, which is limited by the browser functions around the window and Internet functions on the inside of the browser functions, leaving a small space to view text and graphics. This compact navigational bar is designed to allow a user to search the Internet with pre-imputed websites organized in a manner that takes up a small amount of viewing space as shown in Figure 40. Other unique features include providing a user with an option to drag and drop a desired URL into the Category folder and create main (97) and sub-index (98) folders that are automatically duplicated in the navigational bar index buttons. The folders provide an easy and familiar way to insert and organize the compact navigational bars as shown in Figure 42.

With the limited amount of viewing area on the user's screen, the modular, versatile and compact features allow the user to define which navigation, RAD, calendar, addressbook or such tools that the user needs. Figure 46A, 46B and 4C depict the index buttons used to navigate a user's calendar or addressbook or a combination thereof. Figure 46A, 46B and 46C are a pictorial view of Figure 46A Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook. Figure 46B Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's calendar combined with Figure 46A above. Figure 46C Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull-down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook.

Figures 47 A, 47B and 47C depict the versatility of adding combinations of the navigational buttons such as back or forward and adding other user identified buttons such as print, datebook, tasks or emails. Figures 47A, 47B and 47C are a pictorial view of Figure 47A Customizable compact RAD tool bar and URL input box and search pull- down menu with the compact and modular navigational buttons used to locate information in the user's addressbook combined with the RAD tools. Figure 47B Customizable compact RAD tool bar and navigational bar with URL input box and search pull-down menu with the modular navigational buttons such as back, forward, refresh, stop, print, home, datebook, addressbook, files, tasks and emails combined with Figure 47A and Figure 46C (this including the RAD tools.

The various sections are modular and can be implemented individually or in selected combinations.

Figures 48A, 48B and 48C depict the pre-inputted or user-inputted informational theme navigational bars utilizing the easy-to-use folder system and navigational index button configuration for various themes. The lower configuration is shown with an advertisement banner. Figures 48A, 48B and 48C are pictorial views of different theme naviational bars such as sports (Figure 48A), kids (Figure 48B) and finance (Figure 48C).

Figure 49 shows the versatility of the compact Navigation bar for palmtop and miniature device use where viewing space is very limited. The index buttons are configured with less horizontal index buttons to minimize the horizontal space requirement. Figure 49is a pictorial view of a PDA device with a compact invention navigational bar.

A segmented display data management program in accordance with the invention enables persons browsing the world wide web to conveniently transfer information and text to a personal record for later reference. The source of all transferred information may be clearly marked in the saved records so that plagiarism and other illegal uses of the information are hindered. The program may itself be accessed over the World Wide Web by registered users and personal files are stored on a host server. No installation on the user's computer is required for a server based program.

A user wishing to use a server based data management program goes to the program's home website and logs on with Username and Password. Registration facilities may also be available through the web site for new users.

The kernel of the program is an embedded Virtual Browser which appears in the display window of any standard web browser. This display window is a web page with the following components, which partly parallel the components of a normal browser:

1. a small input field at the top of the page for entering URSs.; 2. next to 1 , a button marked "Go" (the effect of this button is to display the indicated URL, as in any browser);

3. a large framed central area for displaying the contents of web pages.

4. at the bottom of the page, an input field for the name of the file to be created;

5. next to 4, a button marked "Save" (the effect of this button is to save portions of the text and information contained by the displayed web page to the file named in 4);

6. at some convenient location in the page, a button marked "Files" (the effect of this button is to transfer the user to another mod of the where that user's personal files, created with Excerpter; can be viewed).

When a form (HTML tool) is not used, a user does not get to check off several "chunks" (information segments) and press a save button. Instead, the user clicks on each segment individually and the clicked segments are saved. This process is quite fast and does not cause a web display page to be reloaded. The process is very similar to the user vis-a-vis clicking on checkboxes.

Without a form (HTML tool), it is not possible to set a name as is described above. An alternative would be saved chunks go into an unfiled category, and they can be browsed, named, and categorized at a later date.

The Contents of the web pages are displayed in the Virtual Browser in nearly the same way as they would be displayed in an ordinary browser, with certain differences described in the following. After each information segment (complete sentence or complete block of information) (with skipped lines before and after) containing one of fewer complete sentences there appears a checkbox that is not part of the original web page content. By clicking on this checkbox, the user selects the corresponding information segment as part of the file to be created when "Save" is clicked. Any number of information segments may be selected: if no checkboxes are clicked, the entire page is considered to have been selected. Normally, when the "Save' button is clicked, a new file is created with a name supplied by the user and containing the selected excerpts (or entire page): the new file is immediately displayed to the user.

As an alternative to checkboxes, the program can provide a link that is clicked on to save the current segmented chunk. An alternative possibility is to use javascript or some other technology to make the link provide a visual que after it has been clicked on to give the user some feedback, similar to seeing a checkmark appear.

Also, included in a user display might be a "save whole page" button.

When a web page is accessed using an information segmenting virtual browser, the program reads in the HTML source code for that page and edits it in a special way. In particular, the program divides the page into segments according to a Segmentation Rule described in the following. Any one or more of the following traits, alone or in combination, defines the end of a segment: a period, question mark, or exclamation point, or any HTML tag which causes a skipped line or forced line break in output (<>, <hn>, <blockquote>, <th>, <tr>, <dd>, <dt>, <br>, and potentially others). These tags, and others which may accompany them, are associated with either the segment preceding or the segment following the division.

Other alternative methods include:

In editing the file, it is enclosed within <form> tags and all other necessary changes made so that data will be submitted to the server. For every segment that has been defined, a <checkbox> tag is placed immediately after it (but before any HTML tags causing a skipped line or forced line break). The text of the segment, with HTML tags escaped or disguised, is copied as the "value" string of the checkbox (so that the text of each segment appears twice in the source HTML). The text of the checked checkboxes buttons is sent to the server along with the new file name when the "Save" button is clicked.

The hyperlinks in the document are modified to point back to a RAD segmented information server, so that clicking on them does not take user control straight to the page but instead tells the RAD server to bring that page up for you, thus keeping user control within the system.

The img tags and various other tags that have relative path information (i.e. <img src="/img.jpg">) are normally modified so that they point to the appropriate page (i.e. <img src="http://original.host.com/img.jpg">), otherwise the browser assumes it should find the image on the RAD server.

The text of a saved chunk is not sent to the server when clicked on, and the source text of the chunk is not duplicated within the source of the HTML. When a RAD server queries a web page and translates it, each chunk is saved locally in cache with a unique ID. If a user decides to save a chunk, only the unique ID is sent to the RAD server, and the server transfers the chunk out of its local cache and saves it to a storage location associated with the user's account.

When using a form. A form block generally looks like this: <form action="/some/program.cgi"> ... </form>. This block is advantageously translated by the RAD server so that a request goes to the RAD server as: <form action="radserver.cgi"> <input type=hidden name="form1_orignalaction" value- '/some/program. cgi"> ... </form>

All of the input tags are typically modified to reflect what form they are a part of, as multiple forms may be present on a single page, and the software effectively merges all the forms into one single form. Tag names could potentially be duplicated and would need to be mangled in such a way as to prevent namespace collisions.

The excerpts which have selected by the user appear in a new file on the server, named according to the user's choice. Each non-continuous segment appears as a paragraph, in quotations, with the source URL and source web page title in brackets following (as an indication of where the excerpt was found). Continuous segments appear together as single paragraphs, also in quotations with the source indicated at the end.

As used in the specification of this application, including the claims, the word "or" is intended to be an inclusive or, meaning either alternative or both alternatives unless expressly stated to be otherwise. It is the intent of the inventors that the claim elements of the attached claims be limited by the disclosed embodiments and equivalents thereof when, and only when, a claim element is expressly designated to be a "step" or includes the express phrase "means for ..."

While there has been disclosed one or more embodiments of the invention for the purpose of enabling a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains, to make and use the invention, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limited thereto. Accordingly, any modifications, variations or equivalent arrangements within the scope of the attached claims should be considered to be within the scope of the invention.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A computer program comprising the acts of: displaying a block of data to a user as a plurality of segments; receiving user commands identifying each segment that is selected by the user; and outputting only the one or more segments that are selected by the user.

2. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the act of: dividing the block of data into a plurality of segments before displaying the block of data to the user.

3. A computer program according to claim 2, further comprising the acts of: associating a selection icon with each of the segments; and displaying each selection icon in visual association with the segment that is associated with the selection icon.

4. A computer program according to claim 2, wherein the act of displaying a block of data to a user further comprises the acts of: associating a selection icon with each of the segments in the block of data; and displaying each selection icon in visual association with the segment that is associated with the selection icon.

5. A computer program according to claim 1 , wherein the act of displaying a block of data further comprises the acts of: identifying punctuation within the block of data; dividing the block of data into a plurality of segments in response to the identified punctuation within the block of data; associating a selection icon with each of the segments in the block of data; displaying the block of data to a user as a plurality of the segments; and displaying each selection icon in visual association with the segment that is associated with the selection icon.

6. A computer program according to claim 3, wherein the act of receiving user commands identifying each segment that is selected by the user further includes the act of: receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments in response to selection by the user of the at least one selection icon associated with the at least one selected segment.

7. A computer program according to claim 1 , wherein the act of receiving user commands identifying each segment that is selected by the user further includes the acts of: associating a selection icon with each of the segments; displaying each selection icon in visual association with the associated segment of the selection icon; and receiving from the user segment selection information selecting one of the segments in response to selection by the user of the selection icon associated with the selected segment.

8. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: associating a selection icon with each of the segments; displaying each selection icon in visual association with the associated segment of the selection icon. receiving from the user, segment selection information selecting one or more of the segments in response to selection by the user of the selection icon associated with each selected segment receiving from the user location information identifying a destination location; and writing to the one or more selected segments to the destination location identified by the location information received from the user.

9. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: receiving the block of data from a source of data, the block of data containing punctuation information; identifying a plurality of segments within the block of data in response to punctuation information contained within the block of data; associating a selection icon with each of the segments; displaying each selection icon in visual association with the associated segment of the selection icon. receiving from the user, segment selection information selecting one or more of the segments in response to selection by the user of the selection icon associated with each selected segment receiving from the user location information identifying a destination location; and writing to the one or more selected segments to the destination location identified by the location information received from the user.

10. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: dividing the block of data into a set of segments having the plurality of segments in the set; and wherein the outputting act includes the act of outputting as a single block of information the one or more segments that are identified by the received user commands.

11. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: receiving the block of information; dividing the block of information into a set of segments including the plurality of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition; displaying to a user a set of selection symbols with each selection symbol being associated with a different segment and with each selection symbol being displayed at the end of the segment that is associated with the selection symbol; receiving from the user said commands identifying each segment that is selected by the user, said commands selecting at least one of the selection symbols; displaying the segments associated with a selected selection symbol with an altered visual characteristic that permits a user to readily distinguish segments that are associated with a selected selection symbol from segments that are not associated with a selected selection symbol; receiving from the user a designation of a file in a file store; receiving from the user a save command; and outputting only the one or more segments that are selected by the user by writing to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

12. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: receiving the block of data, the block of data including both text and graphic image information; dividing the received block of data into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point and two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space and an indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; displaying to the user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; receiving from the user a designation of a file in a file store; receiving from the user a save command; and writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information, all of the selection symbols being deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block of data.

13. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: receiving a block of data, the block of data including both text and graphic image information; dividing the received block of data into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by sentence transition punctuation including punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point and two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by paragraph transition information including information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space and an indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by graphic image transition information including information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; receiving from the user a designation of a file in a file store; receiving from the user a save command; and wherein the act of displaying a block of data includes: displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; and displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; wherein the act of receiving user commands includes: receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; and wherein the act of outputting only the one or more segments that are selected by the user includes: writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

14. A computer program according to claim 13, wherein all of the selection symbols are deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset of segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block; receiving the block of information; dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; displaying to the user one or more selection symbols, each selection symbol being associated with a segment; optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store; receiving from the user a save command; and writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

15. A computer program according to claim 1 further comprising the act of capturing segmented text in response to radio buttons, check boxes and text highlighting for every segmented section selected by a user.

16. A computer program according to claim 14, wherein the act of displaying to the user one or more selection symbols, includes the act of displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection symbol being associated with a preceding segment.

17. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: receiving a block of information; dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; and wherein the act of displaying a block of data to a user includes displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; and displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection symbol being associated with a segment; wherein the act of receiving user commands includes optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; and wherein the act of outputting only te one or more segments that are selected by the user includes outputting in response to a received user command a subset of the set of segments, the subset of the set of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

18. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the acts of: segmenting data within the block of data in response to punctuation marks indicating a sentence ending, the punctuation marks including periods, exclamation marks and question marks; associating with each segment, a selection icon; and wherein the act of displaying a block of data includes displaying in visual association with each segment, the selection icon that is associated with the segment.

19. A computer program according to claim 18, wherein each selection icon is located near the end of its associated segment in the displayed block of data.

20. A computer program according to claim 8, wherein each selection icon is located near the beginning of its associated segment in the displayed block of data.

21. A computer software program according to claim 18 that enables a user to view the document and to excerpt HTML formatted text, DHTML formatted text or unformatted text.

22. A computer software program according to claim 18 that enables a user to view the block of data and segments the text, in response to pre-determined punctuation marks.

23. A computer program according to claim 18, including a browser program for viewing the document to excerpt text or graphics.

24. A computer program according to claim 1 , including a browser program for viewing the document to excerpt text or graphics.

25. A computer software program according to claim 18, the program segmenting the text in response to pre-determined punctuation marks, the pre-determined punctuation marks including periods, quotation marks and question marks, an article ending and any HTML tag which causes a skipped line or forced line break in output including: <>, <hn> <blockquote>, <th> <tr> <dd>, <dt>, <br>.

26. A computer software program according to claim 8, wherein the selection icon is a check box.

27. A computer software program according to claim 18, wherein the act of displaying a block of data includes displaying a SAVE icon and wherein the act of outputting only the one or more segments that are selected by the user occurs in response to selection of the SAVE icon by the user.

28. A computer program according to claim 18, wherein the program organizes the segmented text using different pre-determined colors for different types of data content.

29. A computer program according to claim 28, wherein the different colors include green for contacts, e-mails and addresses for address books, blue for hypertext, red for date based items or data book items including calendar dates and yellow for segmented text items for RAD.

30. A method of extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the method comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information.

31. A computer program extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the program comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information.

32. A method of extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the method comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information in response to user commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information.

33. A system for extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the system comprising: means for selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information in response to user commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and means for creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information.

34. A computer program extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the program comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information in response to user commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information.

35. A method of extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the method comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information, but not unselected information from the first block of information.

36. A computer program extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the program comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information, but not unselected information from the first block of information.

37. A method of extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the method comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information in response to user commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information, but not unselected information from the first block of information.

38. A computer program extracting a plurality of segments of information from a block of information, the program comprising the acts of: selecting a plurality of segments of information from within a first block of information in response to user commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information; and creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information, but not unselected information from the first block of information.

39. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a first block of information; a data store storing the received block of information; and a data processor selecting a plurality of segments of information from within the first block of information in response to user selection commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information, the data processor further creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information in response to a user save command.

40. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a first block of information; a data store storing the received block of information; and a data processor receiving user select and save commands, the data processor selecting a plurality of segments of information from within the first block of information in response to user selection commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information, the data processor further creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information in response to a user save command.

41. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a first block of information; a display, displaying the first block of information together with a plurality of selection icons, each selection icon being associated with a segment of the first block of information; a data store storing the received block of information plus information defining the plurality of selection icons; and a data processor selecting a plurality of segments of information from within the first block of information and changing a display characteristic of each selected segment in response to user selection commands selecting a selection box associated with each selected segment of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information, the data processor further creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information in response to a user save command.

42. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a first block of information; a display device displaying the received first block of information; a data store storing the received block of information; a data processor receiving user select and save commands, the data processor selecting a plurality of segments of information from within the first block of information in response to user selection commands, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information, the data processor further creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information in response to a user save command; and a file store receiving and storing the second block of information as a data file that is accessible in response to a file name identifier.

43. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a first block of information; a display, displaying the first block of information together with a plurality of selection icons, each selection icon being associated with a segment of the first block of information; a data store storing the received block of information plus information defining the plurality of selection icons; and a data processor selecting a plurality of segments of information from within the first block of information and changing a display characteristic of each selected segment in response to user selection commands selecting a selection box associated with each selected segment of information, at least two of the segments being noncontiguous segments separated by unselected information, the data processor further creating a second block of information containing the plurality of selected segments of information in response to a user save command, but not containing any unselected segment of information from the first block of information.

44. A program for a data processing machine comprising the acts of: dividing a block of data into a plurality of segments; displaying the plurality of segments to a user with each segment having a selection icon associated therewith; receiving from the user a destination location; receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments in response to selection by the user of the at least one selection icon associated with the at least one selected segment; and writing to the received destination location the at least one segment.

45. A computer program comprising the acts of : receiving information from a source of information; dividing the received information into a plurality of segments; displaying the received information in a segmented format with each segment being identifiable by a user; displaying a selection graphic that is associated with each segment; receiving from a user a selection indication for one or more of the selection graphics; and outputting each segment that is associated with a selection graphicfor which a selection indication is received from the user.

46. A program for a data processing machine comprising the acts of: dividing a block of data into a plurality of segments; displaying the plurality of segments to a user; receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments; and outputting as a single block of information the at least one selected segment.

47. A computer program for a computer having a file store, the program comprising the acts of: receiving a block of information; dividing the block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition; displaying to a user the set of segments; displaying to a user a set of selection symbols with each selection symbol being associated with a different segment and with each selection symbol being displayed at the end of the segment that is associated with the selection symbol; receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; displaying the segments associated with a selected selection symbol with an altered visual characteristic that permits a user to readily distinguish segments that are associated with a selected selection symbol from segments that are not associated with a selected selection symbol; receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store; receiving from the user a save command; and writing to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

48. A computer program for a computer having a file store, the program comprising the acts of: receiving a block of information, the block of information including both text and graphic image information; dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space and an indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store; receiving from the user a save command; and writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information, all of the selection symbols being deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block.

49. A data processing system comprising: a processing circuit dividing a block of data into a plurality of segments and associating a selection icon with each segment; a display device coupled to receive the plurality of segments and the selection icons from the processing circuit and displaying the plurality of segments to a user with each segment having a selection icon associated therewith; an input circuit receiving from the user information identifying a destination location; the input circuit receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments in response to selection by the user of the at least one selection icon associated with the at least one selected segment; and a writing circuit that is responsive to the information identifying a destination location received from the user and responsive to the selection information received from the user, the writing circuit writing to the received destination location the at least one segment that is associated with the at least one selected icon.

50. A data processing system comprising: a data processor, the data processor including: a display device displaying a block of data to a user as a plurality of segments; an input circuit receiving user commands identifying each segment that is selected by the user; and an output circuit outputting only the one or more segments that are selected by the user.

51. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving information from a source of information; a data processing circuit dividing the received information into a plurality of segments and creating a selection graphic that is associated with each segment; a display device displaying the received information in a segmented format with each segment being identifiable by a user and displaying the selection graphic that is associated with each segment; an input circuit receiving from the user a selection indication for one or more of the selection graphics; and an output circuit outputting each segment that is associated with a selection graphic for which a selection indication is received from the user.

52. A data processing system having an information segmentation data management program, the program comprising the acts of: dividing a block of data into a plurality of segments; displaying the plurality of segments to a user; receiving from the user segment selection information selecting at least one of the segments; and outputting as a single block of information the at least one selected segment.

53. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a block of information; a processing circuit dividing the block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition; a display device displaying to a user the set of segments and displaying to the user a set of selection symbols with each selection symbol being associated with a different segment and with each selection symbol being displayed at the end of the segment that is associated with the selection symbol; the input circuit including a circuit receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; the display displaying the segments associated with a selected selection symbol with an altered visual characteristic that permits a user to readily distinguish segments that are associated with a selection symbol from segments that are not associated with a selected selection symbol; the input circuit receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store; the input circuit receiving from the user a save command; a file store; and a writing circuit writing to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

54. A data processing system comprising: an input circuit receiving a block of information, the block of information including both text and graphic image information; a processing circuit processing the received block of information by dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; a display device displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user, the display device further displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; an input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; the input circuit receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store; the input circuit receiving from the user a save command; a file store; and an output circuit writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information, all of the selection symbols being deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block.

55. A data processing system comprising: a file store; an input circuit receiving a block of information, the block of information including both text and graphic image information; a processing circuit, the processing circuit dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; a display device operating in response to information provided by the processing circuit, the display device displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; the display device further displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; an input circuit operating in response to the data processing circuit, the input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; the input circuit further receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store and receiving from the user a save command; and a writing circuit that operates in response to the processing circuit, the writing circuit writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information, all of the selection symbols being deemed selected when none of the selection symbols have in fact been selected, in which case the subset segments that is written to the file store comprises all of the segments in the block.

56. A data processing system comprising: a file store; an input circuit receiving a block of information; a processing circuit operating in response to a computer program and dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; a display device receiving display information from the processing circuit and displaying to a user the set of segments in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user and displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; an input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols and optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; the input circuit further receiving from the user a designation of a file in the file store and receiving from the user a save command; and an output circuit writing to a file in the file store in response to a received save command, a subset of the set of segments, the subset of segments being written to a file in the file store indicated by the designation of a file received from the user, and the subset of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

57. A data processing system comprising: a file store; an input circuit receiving a block of information; a processing circuit coupled to receive the block of information from the input circuit, the processing circuit operating in response to a program and dividing the received block of information into a set of segments in response to information in the block of data indicating a sentence transition, a paragraph transition or a graphic image transition, a sentence transition being indicated by punctuation indicating the end of a sentence or the beginning of a sentence and including a period, a question mark, an exclamation point or two consecutive character spaces, a paragraph transition being indicated by information indicating a beginning of a paragraph or an end of a paragraph, including an extra line space or and indent, and a graphic image transition being indicated by information identifying the beginning or end of a graphic image; a display device displaying to a user the set of segments in response to information received from the processing circuit, the set of segments being displayed in such a way that the individual segments are identifiable by the user; the display device displaying to the user a selection symbol at the end of each segment, each selection signal being associated with a preceding segment; an input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information selecting at least one of the selection symbols; the input circuit optionally receiving from the user selection information deselecting at least one of the selection symbols; and an output circuit outputting in response to a received user command a subset of the set of segments, the subset of the set of segments being the segments that are associated with the selection symbols that are selected by the received user selection information.

58. A computer program according to claim 18, wherein the act of associating each segmentwith an icon includes selecting an associated icon from a set that includes radio buttons, checkboxes and text highlighting of text and further comprising the act of capturing segmented text in response to selection of an icon from the set.

59. A computer program according to claim 18, wherein the act of associating each segmentwith an icon includes selecting an associated icon from a set that includes radio buttons, checkboxes and further comprising the act of capturing segmented text in response to selection of an icon from the set.

60. A computer program according claimslδ, further comprising the act of organizing selected segmented text using pre-determined colors for selected items, the selected items including contacts, emails, addresses for an addressbook, hypertext, date based items including datebook items, calendar dates and RAD.

61. A computer program according claimslδ, further comprising the act of organizing selected segmented text using pre-determined colors including green for contacts, emails and addresses for addressbook, blue for hypertext, red for date based items and datebook items including calendar dates and yellow for RAD.

62. A computer program according to claim 18, further comprising the act of locating E-mail in an addressbook in response to an @ feature and an ending including .com, .net, and .org.

63. A computer program according to claim 18, further comprising the act of locating a web address in an addressbook in response to selected symbols including the Http:// and www. symbols and in response the web address ending in a predetermined symbol including .com, .net, and org.

64. A computer program according to claim 18, further comprising the act of locating a mailing address in an addressbook in response to a predetermined set of symbols, the predetermined set of symbols including a zip code.

65. A computer program according to claim 8, further comprising the act of locating a mailing address in an addressbook in response to a predetermined set of symbols, the predetermined set of symbols including a five digit zip code and a ten digit zip code having a dash in the general form (25555) or (25555-02000).

66. A computer program according to claim 1 , further comprising the act of locating a telephone number or fax number in response to the occurrence of a predetermined pattern of digits.

67. A computer program according to claim 66, wherein the predetermined pattern of digits includes 7 digits with a hyphen between the third and fourth digits.

68. A computer software program according to claim 18, further comprising the act of locating a date entered in a calendar or datebook in response to a predetermined pattern of characters.

69. A computer software program according to claim 18, further comprising the act of locating a date entered in a calendar or datebook in response to the eight digit date entry with dashes (25-05-2000 or 2000-12-05) or (25/05/2000 or 2000/05/25) slashes.

70. A computer software program according to each of claims 18, further comprising the act of filing the segmented text using a RAD File System for RAD documents (RAD extension) and saving the RAD document for use at a later time.

71. A computer software program according to claims 18, wherein the program includes the act of displaying selected segmented text using pre-determined colors including green for contacts, emails and addresses for addressbook, blue for hypertext, red for date based items or datebook items such as calendar dates and yellow highlighted or yellow for segmented text items for RAD.

72. A computer software program according to claim 18, wherein the program includes the act of organizing the segmented text using a RAD book System for RAD documents (RAD extension) and saving the RAD document for use at a later time.