Visual communications tool

Abstract

A visual communications (VC) tool creating visual arrangements and presenting the visual arrangements to others for feedback and comment in an efficient and secure manner. An author uses the VC tool to generate a folio, storyboard, or presentation, and publishes the generated arrangement to desired recipients. The published arrangement is uploaded to a server once, and a recipient equipped with a copy of the VC tool downloads the arrangement in response to a notification from the server. Thereafter, only changes to the visual arrangement are uploaded to the server and forwarded to the recipient. The recipient may transmit a comment on the visual arrangement back to the author's VC tool. The author's VC tool tracks and automatically correlates all received comments to their respective arrangements, allowing them to be concurrently displayed on a single screen.

1 . A method for visual communication and collaboration comprising:
 generating via a visual communications tool hosted by an end user device a visual arrangement including an image;   publishing the visual arrangement to a first address of a first recipient device in a first mode via an electronic mail application coupled to the visual communications tool; and   publishing the visual arrangement to a second address of a second recipient device in a second mode via the electronic mail application;   wherein the publishing of the visual arrangement in the first mode enables the first recipient device to download a copy of the visual arrangement in a first local data store coupled to the first recipient device, and the publishing of the visual arrangement in the second mode prevents the second recipient from downloading a copy of the visual arrangement in a second local data store coupled to the second recipient device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 including the first address of the first recipient device into a first list; and 
 including the second address of the second recipient device into a second list, 
 wherein, the visual arrangement is published to the first address in the first mode if the first address is included in the first list, and the visual arrangement is published to the second address in the second mode if the second address is included in the second list. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the publishing transmits the visual arrangement to the first and second recipients. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving a comment from either the first recipient or the second recipient; 
 automatically correlating, without user intervention, the received comment to a portion of the visual arrangement to which the comment pertains; and 
 invoking the visual communications tool for displaying the portion of the visual arrangement with the correlated comment. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the comment includes an identifier associated with the portion of the visual arrangement to which the comment pertains, and the automatically correlating is based on the identifier. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the comment and identifier are transmitted by the one of the first recipient and second recipient without also transmitting a copy of the visual arrangement. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic mail application is integrated with the visual communications tool. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visual communication tool is a stand-alone application. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the publishing includes:
 generating an electronic mail message for the visual arrangement via the electronic mail application;   determining whether the visual communications tool is connected to the data communications network; and   if the visual communications tool is not connected to the data communications network, storing the electronic mail message until the connection is established and then automatically transmitting, without user intervention, the electronic mail message.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 determining if the publishing to the first and second addresses is in a public mode or a private mode; 
 if the publication is in the public mode, transmitting a first comment by the first recipient device to both the end user device and the second recipient device, and a second comment by the second recipient device to both the end user device and the first recipient device; and 
 if the publication is in a private mode, transmitting the first comment and the second comment to only the end user device.