User Interface for a Touch Sensitive Display on an Electronic Device

• US 20110289406A1
• Filed: 05/10/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Wässingbo, Tomas Karl-Axel
• Granted Patent: US 8,656,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/256
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

A user interface (UI) for a text editing application executing on an electronic device, such as a wireless communication device, partitions a touch-sensitive display into two functional areas, a user input area and a text composition area. The UI displays text output in the text composition area and allows a user to scroll “user documents” through the input area. From an active user document displayed in the input area, users can automatically copy-and-paste text directly into a text area without having to exit the text editing application.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a touch sensitive display; and

a processor configured to execute a text editing application to;

display a user interface for the text editing application, the user interface including a user input area to receive user input and a text composition area to display text output;

display a user input interface in the input area;

replace, responsive to a user command, the user input interface displayed in the input area with a document that includes arbitrary text; and

copy and paste arbitrary text selected by the user from the document displayed in the input area into the text composition area.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the user input interface displayed in the input area comprises a touch-sensitive keypad.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to scroll a plurality of documents having arbitrary text through the input area responsive to receiving one or more user commands.

4. The electronic device of claim 3 wherein the processor is configured to scroll the plurality of documents forwards and backwards through the input area responsive to respective first and second user commands.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the document comprises a web page.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to automatically copy and paste the arbitrary text selected by the user from the document displayed in the input area into the text composition area responsive to detecting a touch and release action performed by the user.

7. The electronic device of claim 6 wherein the processor is configured to automatically copy the arbitrary text selected by the user from the document displayed in the input area into memory responsive to the user touching the arbitrary text.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 wherein the arbitrary text comprises a plurality of consecutive words contained in the document that have been selected responsive to a drag action performed by the user.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 wherein the processor is configured to automatically paste the arbitrary text from the memory into the text composition area responsive to the user releasing the arbitrary text.

10. The electronic device of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to partition the touch sensitive display into the input area and the text composition area.

11. A method of editing text on an electronic device having a touch-sensitive display, the method comprising:

displaying a user interface for a text editing application executing on the wireless communication device to include a user input area to receive user input and a text composition area to display text output;

displaying a user input interface in the input area;

replacing the user input interface displayed in the input area with a document that includes arbitrary text; and

copying and pasting arbitrary text selected by the user from the document displayed in the input area into the text composition area.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein replacing the user input interface displayed in the input area with the document comprises replacing a touch-sensitive keypad displayed in the input area with the document responsive to receiving a user command.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising scrolling a plurality of documents having arbitrary text through the input area responsive to receiving one or more user commands.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein scrolling a plurality of documents through the input area comprises scrolling the plurality of documents forwards and backwards through the input area responsive to respective first and second user commands.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein copying and pasting the arbitrary text selected by the user from the document into the text composition area comprises automatically copying and pasting the arbitrary text from the document into the text composition area responsive to detecting a touch and release action performed by the user.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein automatically copying and pasting the arbitrary text comprises automatically copying the arbitrary text from the document into memory responsive to the user touching the arbitrary text.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein automatically copying and pasting the arbitrary text comprises automatically copying a plurality of user-selected words from the document respective to detecting a drag action performed by the user.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein automatically copying and pasting the arbitrary text comprises automatically pasting the arbitrary text from the memory into the text composition area responsive to the user releasing the arbitrary text.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising partitioning the touch sensitive display into the input area and the messaging composition area.