System and method for providing a category separator in a list of documents

• US 20050144572A1
• Filed: 12/29/2003
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Loverin, Darrell J., Moody, Paul B., Wattenberg, Martin M., Coppinger, Jodi L., Kerr, Bernard J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,664 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/822
• 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 system and method is provided to assist a user in selecting, identifying, and handling email messages. A selection color module may provide for the display of color coding and selection highlighting. The selection color module may provide a secondary highlighting color to indicate messages related to a selected message. A category navigation module may provide one or more of the following: an indicator that provides the user with a number of items that are off the screen for a particular category, a command that causes the first entry for a category to be scrolled into view, a label to indicate the number of items in a particular category matching a particular criteria, and/or a control for scrolling between next or previous categories.

Claims

1. A method for presenting one or more categories of related items to a user via a display, the display having a plurality of display lines, the method comprising:

presenting at least a portion of a first category of related items;

presenting at least a portion of a second category of related items, wherein each presented item is presented to the user on at least one display line on the display; and

presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items comprises presenting a category separator that substantially includes one of the plurality of display lines.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items comprises presenting a category separator in conjunction with a display line used to display a first item of the second category of related items.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items comprises presenting a category separator in conjunction with a display line used to display a last item of the first category of related items.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to one or more actions by the user, scrolling the first category of related items, the second category of related items, and the category separator bar; and

once the category separator bar reaches a predetermined position of the display, maintaining the category separator bar at the predetermined position on the display in response to further of said one or more actions by the user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a first line of the display.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a last line of the display.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising removing the category separator bar from the display once none of the second category of related items are presented.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the category separator bar is associated with the second category of related items, and wherein said presenting the category separator bar further comprises presenting the category separator bar with indicia of a total number of related items in the second category of related items.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the category separator bar is associated with the second category of related items, and wherein said presenting the category separator bar further comprises presenting the category separator bar with indicia of a number of related items in the second category of related items that are not presented on the display.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the category separator bar is associated with the second category of related items, and wherein said presenting the category separator bar further comprises presenting the category separator bar with indicia of a number of related items in the second category of related items that are presented on the display.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the respective items comprise documents.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the respective documents include messages.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the respective messages include email messages.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to one or more actions by the user, presenting a first related document of the first category of documents at a predetermined position of the display.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

in response to one or more actions by the user, presenting a first related document of the first category of documents at a predetermined position of the display.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said presenting a first related document of the first category of documents at a predetermined position of the display comprises presenting the first related document on the first line of the display.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said presenting a first related document of the first category of documents at a predetermined position of the display comprises presenting the first related document on the second line of the display, and further comprising presenting the category separator bar on the first line of the display.