Dynamic joint dividers for application windows

• US 10,678,412 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2014
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vranjes, Miron, Jones, Oliver R., Sundelin, Nils Anders, Fang, Richard, Sareen, Chaitanya Dev, Bowen, Jeremy, Snitkovskiy, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Xia, Xuyang
• Application Number:
  US14/448,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20160034156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,140 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials

Abstract

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling dynamic joint dividers for application windows. In some embodiments, these techniques and apparatuses enable sizing and positioning of application windows to provide an optimized layout of application windows.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting in a multi-application environment on a display of a computing device;

a first application window that is not touching any edges of the display in the multi-application environment, and

a second application window;

receiving a first user-initiated input to move the first application window effective to snap the first application window into a predefined area of the multi-application environment, the first user-initiated input causing;

the first application window to contact a plurality of adjacent edges of the display in the predefined area of the multi-application environment, and

the first application window to expand to an adjacent edge of the second application window, while maintaining contact with the plurality of adjacent edges of the display;

establishing, responsive to the first application window expanding to the adjacent edge of the second application window, a joint divider between the first application window and the second application window, the joint divider established along an entire length of an edge of the first application window and the adjacent edge of the second application window; and

altering respective sizes of the first application window and the second application window simultaneously in response to a second user-initiated input received via the joint divider.

2. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprising presenting a visual indication of the joint divider.

3. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 2, wherein the visual indication of the joint divider is presented over respective portions of the first and second windows.

4. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprising presenting a joint-separation control configured to enable independent sizing of the first application window or the second application window.

5. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the second application window is a snapped application window that contacts two or more adjacent edges of a workspace of the multi-application environment.

6. The computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the first user-initiated input includes moving the first application window into a region that corresponds with the predefined area of the multi-application environment.

7. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a first user-initiated input to snap a first application window that is not touching any edges of a display in a multi-application environment into a predefined area of the multi-application environment, the first user-initiated input effective to;

position the first application window such that the first application window contacts a plurality of adjacent edges of the display in the predefined area of the multi-application environment, and

expand the first application window to an adjacent edge of a second application window in the multi-application environment, while maintaining contact with the plurality of adjacent edges of the display,

responsive to the first application window expanding to the adjacent edge of the second application window, presenting a joint divider shared by the first application window and the second application window, the joint divider established along an entire length of a shared edge between the first application window and the second application window;

receiving, via the joint divider, a second user-initiated input to alter a size of the first application window or a size of the second application window; and

altering the respective sizes of the first application window and the second application window simultaneously in response to the second user-initiated input received via the joint divider.

8. The system as described in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise indicating a presence of the joint divider in response to receiving cursor input or touch input proximate the joint divider.

9. The system as described in claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise indicating the presence of the joint divider via haptic feedback or a visual indication.

10. The system as described in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise presenting a joint-separation control configured to enable independent sizing of the first application window or the second application window.

11. The system as described in claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise reducing respective sizes of the first and second application windows to create space between the first and second application windows, and wherein the joint divider is presented in the space between the first and second application windows and the joint-separation control is presented over the joint divider.

12. The system as described in claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise disabling the joint control divider in response to independent movement of the first application window or the second application window, the independent movement initiated via a respective edge of the first application window or the second application window that is not associated with the joint divider.

13. The system as described in claim 7, wherein the second application window is a snapped application window in contact with two or more adjacent edges of a workspace of the multi-application environment.

14. The system as described in claim 7, wherein the first user-initiated input includes moving the first application window into a region that corresponds with the predefined area of the multi-application environment.

15. One or more computer hardware memory devices storing processor-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

presenting a joint divider shared by a first application window and a second application window in a multi-application environment, the second application window being spaced from an edge of the multi-application environment, the joint divider established along an entire length of a shared edge between the first application window and the second application window wherein the first application window and the second application window each have an initial size;

receiving, via the joint divider, a user-initiated input to increase a size of the first application window in a direction toward the second application window;

increasing, responsive to the user-initiated input received, the size of the first application window while concurrently moving the second application window toward the edge of the multi-application environment until an edge of the second application window opposite of the first application window encounters the edge of the multi-application environment, the moving the second application window effective to maintain a size of the second application window in the multi-application environment;

decreasing, responsive to the edge of the second application encountering the edge of the multi-application environment, a size of the second application window while concurrently continuing to increase the size of the first application window; and

expanding, responsive to the second application window reaching a minimum size, the second application window to its initial size while concurrently continuing the user-initiated input, via the joint divider, to increase the size of the first application window such that the first application window overlaps the second application window in the second application window'"'"'s initial size.

16. The one or more computer hardware memory devices as described in claim 15, wherein the size of the first application window is increased until the joint divider encounters the edge of the multi-application environment and the operations further comprise relegating the second application window to a layer of the multi-application environment that is behind a layer on which the first application window resides.

17. The one or more computer hardware memory devices as described in claim 15, wherein the presenting the joint divider is in response to receiving cursor input that is proximate the joint divider.