Methods and systems for authoring of a compound document following a hierarchical structure

摘要

Embodiments generally relate to improvements in methods and systems for authoring hierarchical documents. According to one embodiment, computer software applications, and accompanying data structures and GUI components, are provided for the development by multiple authors of one or more hierarchical documents within a client-server database environment or Internet environment. The application provides a visual display showing the hierarchical structure of the content document and a visual display showing the hierarchical structure of a guidance document. Subsections of the content document are linked to subsections of the guidance document, via linked data structures, such that the two can be easily correlated and viewed whenever a subsection is selected. Guidance information is displayed adjacent to an edit window to allow users to view appropriate guidance while editing content. Tasks can be assigned and displayed directly in the displayed hierarchy. Also, the master document is automatically generated from various subdocument electronic files