David M Rolfe

US Patent:

53033612, Apr 12, 1994

Filed:

Jan 18, 1990

Appl. No.:

7/466750

Inventors:

Steve Colwell - Rochester NY
Lawrence S. Gross - Santa Monica CA
William T. Gross - Montrose CA
Lee Hasiuk - Rochester NY
David Rolfe - Pasadena CA

Assignee:

Lotus Development Corporation - Cambridge MA

International Classification:

G06F 314

US Classification:

395425

Abstract:

A text search and retrieval system which builds an index representing every word in stored files created by a variety of applications, searches for requested words using the index and ranks the files based on the relative strength of match with the search request. From a display of the ranked filenames, the user can select a file, whereupon the file is tested to determine which one of a plurality of file viewers to deploy. The corresponding viewer is automatically loaded and used to display consecutive screens of information from the selected file. Further searching within the file is accomplished within the context of the viewer by matching character strings of a new search request with words in the items of the file produced by the viewer. To work on a file in view, the user can invoke the software application which created the file by loading the application corresponding to the viewer along with the desired file, without abandoning the search system.