US Patent 9971468 Automatically generating column layouts in electronic documents

In one aspect, a page layout editor is configured to automatically modify page layouts of Web pages with sections and columns. An online WYSIWYG HTML editor enables users to create page layouts with arbitrary numbers of sections and columns without specialized knowledge of HTML coding techniques. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented data processing method comprises obtaining source code of an electronic document; automatically modifying the source code by adding a coded hierarchy configured to specify definitions of one or more sections and one or more columns, and initially specifying a single section and a single column in the coded hierarchy; receiving first input indicating selection of a particular page layout control among a plurality of page layout controls in a graphical user interface, the input specifying any of: adding a section; deleting a section; changing to a first number of columns; in response to the first input, automatically modifying the source code by changing the coded hierarchy to specify definitions of a different number of sections or the first number of columns as indicated by the input; causing generating an updated editing view of the electronic document that graphically represents the different number of sections or the first number of columns; wherein the method is performed using one or more computing devices.