Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for cooperating with a first software program to perform a supplemental search over the Internet or another public network. A supplemental search is performed in the background to obtain desired information, while the user continues the primary task of creating, for example, a document. The user does not have to divert his or her attention from the primary task of creating the document to manually initiate a search. An illustrative word processing application program spawns a background thread in a multithreaded environment to perform the supplemental search using a browser, while the word processing application program maintains continuous control until the search results are obtained and viewed by the user. A supplemental search can be performed on a given topic (i) when requested by a user, or (ii) automatically, if a predefined condition, such as the occurrence of an apparently improper data element that fails to satisfy the requirements of a spelling or grammar database, is detected in a document of an application program. Thus, the invention can be configured to perform Internet-based spelling or grammar checking and automatically detect the adoption of new words or phrases and changes in acceptable grammar usage. In addition, the word processing application program automatically determines if a document being created corresponds to one or more predefined categories. If a document being created corresponds to a predefined category, the document can optionally be provided to an expert associated with said identified category for review.

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First Claim