Palette-based graphical user interface

• US 20030063126A1
• Filed: 10/28/2002
• Published: 04/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: Webb, Mark Stephen, Yanchar, Christopher Charles
• Granted Patent: US 7,478,338 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/781
• 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

Abstract

A palette-based graphical user interface for a computer-implemented system. The palettes can be customized in a number of different ways to make them more user-friendly.

Claims

1. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes a bottom resize corner, so that the palette forms a non-rectangular window, and the bottom resize corner is selected and dragged in order to resize the palette.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bottom resize corner is a chamfered corner.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the bottom resize corner is a beveled corner.

4. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes one or more title bars extending vertically along a side of the palette and text within the title bars extends vertically.

5. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes one or more tabs extending vertically along a side of the palette and text within the tabs extends vertically.

6. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette snaps to an edge when brought into proximity of the edge.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the edge is a window edge.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the edge is a screen edge.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the palette leaves a buffer space when it snaps to the edge.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the palette flips when it snaps to the edge.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein a title bar of the palette flips when it snaps to the edge.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein a title bar of the palette flips justification when it snaps to the edge.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the title bar faces an inward side of the palette when the palette flips when it snaps to the edge.

14. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette uses auto-hide functionality that, when enabled, causes the palette'"'"'s window to disappear when a cursor moves off of the palette, leaving only a tide bar of the palette displayed.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the palette uses auto-hide functionality that, when enabled, causes the palette'"'"'s window to appear when a cursor onto the palette.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the auto-hide functionality is enabled and disabled by a button on the palette.

17. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette'"'"'s contents are scrolled using pan scrolling.

18. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein a palette is added to a stack of the palettes by grabbing the palette'"'"'s tide bar or tab, dragging the palette into proximity with the stack and dropping the dragged palette onto the stack.

19. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein a first stack of the palettes is added to a second stack of the palettes by grabbing a title bar or tab of a palette on top of the first stack, dragging the first stack into proximity with the second stack and dropping the dragged first stack onto the second stack.

20. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palettes are arranged in a stack, a specific one of the palettes is activated by selecting a tab of the stack associated with the specific one of the palettes, wherein the tab is not displayed when the specific one of the palettes is removed from the stack.

21. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palettes are arranged in a stack, a title bar of a palette on top of the stack displays a palette set name, and a tide bar of a palette removed from the stack displays a palette name.

22. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface;

positioning a first one of the palettes over a second one of the palettes;

stacking the first one of the palettes onto the second one of the palettes, wherein the first one of the palettes assumes a justification characteristic of the second one of the palettes.

23. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface;

positioning a first one of the palettes over a second one of the palettes;

stacking the first one of the palettes onto the second one of the palettes, wherein the first one of the palettes assumes an auto-hide characteristic of the second one of the palettes.

24. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface;

positioning a first one of the palettes over a second one of the palettes;

displaying an outline of the second one of the palettes using an XOR indication of target acquisition, while the first one of the palettes is positioned over the second one of the palettes, in order to indicate that the first one of the palettes may be stacked onto the second one of the palettes.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the XOR indication of target acquisition comprises an outline of the second palette, lying immediately outside a border line of the second palette, and following a contour of the second palette, including any tabs.

26. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the one or more of the palettes are flagged to restrict stacking to only certain other ones of the palettes.

27. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein one or more the palettes are flagged to restrict tearing the palettes apart when the palettes are stacked.

28. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a plurality of palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palettes are arranged in a stack, each of the palettes is associated with one of a plurality of tabs displayed on the stack, and the tabs proportionally resize when the stack is resized.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising overflowing one or more of the tabs when a minimum size is reached.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the overflowed tabs are contained on a flyout menu.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the flyout menu shows all of the tabs in the stack, exposed palettes in the stack are above a separator line in the flyout menu, and hidden palettes in the stack are below the separator line in the flyout menu.

32. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein one or more text labels for the palette elide when the text labels do not fit within the palette'"'"'s available space.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising displaying the text label fully when a cursor hovers over the elided text labels.

34. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying one or more palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein a palette scheme defines a collection of the palettes and their state in the graphical user interface.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the state comprises one or more characteristics selected from a group comprising:

a screen location, a size, a transparency level, a justification, an auto-hide state, a visibility, a currently selected palette, a currently selected tab, an icon size and an icon arrangement.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising adding and removing palettes from the palette scheme.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein the palettes are added to the palette scheme by dragging and dropping the palettes from a tool catalog, web site, or definition file.

38. The method of claim 34, further comprising dropping a palette, defined in a tool palette schema format, into a session, wherein the dropped palette is added to a workspace palette scheme and the dropped palette is displayed in the graphical user interface.

39. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

creating one or more palettes in the graphical user interface; and

saving the created palette in a catalog, so that the saved palette is available for sharing.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising retrieving the saved palette from the catalog into the graphical user interface.

41. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying one or more palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes zero or more existing content items; and

adding a new content item from a catalog to the displayed palette.

42. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying one or more palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes zero or more existing content items; and

adding a new content item to the displayed palette by dragging an object from the graphical user interface and dropping the dragged object onto the palette.

43. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying one or more palettes in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes zero or more existing content items; and

adding a new content item to the displayed palette by dragging an object from an Internet web page and dropping the dragged object onto the palette.

44. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes a “

refresh from”

property that indicates that the palette'"'"'s contents are refreshed from a source location.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the source location comprises a catalog located on a local system, intranet, or internet.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein the palette displays the catalog'"'"'s name and the catalog'"'"'s name hyperlinks to the catalog'"'"'s location.

47. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes a “

auto-refresh”

property that indicates that the palette'"'"'s contents are refreshed when a palette scheme containing the palette is loaded.

48. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes a “

name and description”

property that is displayed when the palette is published in a catalog.

49. A method for operating a graphical user interface in a computer, comprising:

displaying a palette in the graphical user interface, wherein the palette includes a “

more info”

property that displays information about the palette, wherein the information is selected from a group comprising a publisher, date modified, last refreshed, and an ability to assign keywords.