Methods of populating a third-party document with digital information content
Systems and methods of transferring information from at least one source context to at least one target context, and associated physical computer-readable medium. A service software application is used on a processor-based platform to transfer digital data content from at least one data source to at least one data target in at least a semi-automatic manner. The data source is associated with a source software application and the data target is associated with a target software application. The digital data content includes, for example, text data, image data, graphics data, or a clipboard object.
1. A method of transferring information from a data source to at least one data target, said method comprising:
launching a source software application on a processor-based platform;
launching a service software application on said processor-based platform;
displaying a service application icon on a display of said processor-based platform in response to said launching of said service software application;
displaying at least one data source having data content on said display of said processor-based platform using said source software application;
positioning said service application icon over a first displayed data source of said at least one data source having first digital data content;
said service software application automatically pulling said first digital data content from said first data source in response to said positioning; and
said service software application automatically populating at least one data target provided by at least one target software application with said first digital data content in response to said pulling.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of launching said service software application occurs automatically in response to said step of launching said source software application.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of said service software application automatically populating includes said service software application automatically launching said at least one target software application.
4. The method of claim 1 further including launching said at least one target software application before performing said step of positioning said service application icon.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said service software application is pre-linked to said at least one data target provided by said target software application.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein said first digital data content includes at least one of text data, image data, graphics data, and a clipboard object.
7. A system for transferring information from a data source to at least one data target, said system comprising:
means for launching a source software application on a processor-based platform;
means for launching a service software application on said processor-based platform;
means for displaying a service application icon on a display of said processor-based platform in response to said launching of said service software application;
means for displaying at least one data source having data content on said display of said processor-based platform using said source software application;
means for positioning said displayed service application icon over a first displayed data source of said at least one data source having first digital data content;
means for automatically pulling said first digital data content from said first data source of said at least one data source in response to positioning said displayed service application icon over said first data source; and
means for automatically populating said at least one data target provided by at least one target software application with said first digital data content in response to automatically pulling said first digital data content from said first data source.
8. The system of claim 7 wherein launching said service software application occurs automatically in response to launching said source software application.
9. The system of claim 7 wherein said automatically populating includes automatically launching said at least one target software application.
10. The system of claim 7 further including means for launching said at least one target software application before positioning said service application icon.
11. The system of claim 7 wherein said service software application is pre-linked to said at least one data target provided by said target software application.
12. The system of claim 7 wherein said first digital data content includes at least one of text data, image data, graphics data, and a clipboard object.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with computer-executable instructions constituting a service software application for transferring information from a data source to at least one data target, said computer-executable instructions including program code for:
launching a source software application on a processor-based platform;
launching a service software application on said processor-based platform;
displaying a service application icon on a display of a computer-based platform in response to launching said service software application on said computer-based platform;
displaying at least one data source having data content on said display of said processor-based platform using said source software application;
positioning said service application icon over a first displayed data source of said at least one data source having first digital data content;
automatically pulling the first digital data content from said first data source provided by said source software application in response to positioning said service application icon over said first data source; and
automatically populating at least one data target provided by at least one target software application with said first digital data content in response to said pulling.
14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein launching said service software application occurs automatically in response to launching said source software application.
15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein said automatically populating includes automatically launching said at least one target software application.
16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 further including launching said at least one target software application before positioning said service application icon.
17. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein said service software application is pre-linked to said at least one data target provided by said target software application.
18. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein said first digital data content includes at least one of text data, image data, graphics data, and a clipboard object.