BORDER MENU FOR CONTEXT DEPENDENT ACTIONS WITHIN A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

• US 20120124515A1
• Filed: 11/17/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: LI, Jin, WULKAN, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,292,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/808
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A border menu can be presented on four sides of an outer border of a graphical user interface. The border menu can be presented at the top of a stack of a graphical user interface. The border menu can include a set of user-selectable options, each selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button. At least one of the user-selectable options can be presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu. Selection of each of the user-selectable options can result in triggering an event, which results in firing of a programmatic action to run executable code for a corresponding one of the user-selectable options. At least a portion of the user-selectable options can include application-specific options for an application running on the computing device.

Claims

1. A computer program product stored on a non-transient storage medium able to be executed by a processor of computing device, said computer program product comprising:

a border menu of a graphical user interface, which is presented on four sides of an outer border of a graphical user interface, wherein the border menu is presented at the top of a stack of a graphical user interface, said border menu comprising a plurality of user-selectable options, each selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button, wherein at least one of the user-selectable options is presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu, wherein selection of each of the user-selectable options results in triggering an event, which results in firing of a programmatic action to run executable code for a corresponding one of the user-selectable options, wherein at least a portion of the user-selectable options comprise application-specific options for an application running on the computing device, wherein said application is an application currently having focus within a graphical user interface, and wherein said application-specific options comprise a plurality of context-dependent options specific to a context of the current application state of the application.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the border menu replaces functionality of a linear context menu of the application.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the user-selectable options are a first set of options, where at least a second set of different user-selectable options exist, wherein said border menu comprises a switch control, wherein selection of the switch control changes the shown options from showing the first set of options to showing the second set of options.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the border menu dynamically changes its visibility state so that the border menu is only shown within the graphical user interface when context-dependent options specific to a context of the current application state are to be shown, and wherein the border menu is not shown within the graphical user interface when no context-dependent options specific to a context of the current application state are to be shown.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein each of the user-selectable options are presented on the outer edge of the display so that it is impossible for a user to overshoot the user-selectable options by moving a pointing device beyond the user-selectable options relative to the outer edge.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the user selectable options of the border menu comprise all application options selectable given the current application state.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a plurality of different applications are running on the computing device, wherein said user-selectable options of the border menu dynamically change as different ones of the different applications receive focus so that the border menu continuously and dynamically presents all options available for the application having focus.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the border menu is positioned outside the boundaries of an application window of the application.

9. A method for presenting a user with context dependent actions within a user interface comprising:

detecting a user selection of a GUI object within a graphical user interface of an application running on a computing device;

determining a plurality of object-specific actions relevant to the GUI object for a current application state of the application;

responsive to the user selection of the GUI object, visually presenting a border menu, which was not previously shown, said border menu comprising a plurality of user-selectable options, wherein at least a portion of the user-selectable options comprise an option for each of the object-specific actions relevant to the GUI object for the current application state, wherein said border menu is presented at a outer border of a display of the graphic user interface along at least two of the sides of the display;

receiving a user selection of one of the user-selectable options;

triggering a programmatic action corresponding to the selected one of the user-selectable options; and

responsive to the user selection of the one of the user selectable options, automatically adjusting a display state of the border menu so that it is no longer visually presented.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least two sides comprises four sides, wherein the border menu is presented at the top of a stack of the graphical user interface, wherein each of the user selectable options are selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button, wherein at least one of the user-selectable options is presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu, wherein said application is an application currently having focus within a graphical user interface.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the border menu replaces functionality of a linear context menu of the application.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving input from a pointer device, wherein the input is generated by moving the pointing device in a direction that causes an on-screen pointer to move in a corresponding direction on the screen, wherein each of the user-selectable objects on the border menu are positioned so that the moving of the pointing device is unable to overshoot the user selectable objects.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the border menu is presented at the outer border along four sides of the display.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the user selectable options of the border menu comprise all application options selectable by a user, which are available given the current application state of the application.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of different applications comprising said application concurrently run on the computing device, wherein said user-selectable options of the border menu dynamically change as different ones of the different applications receive focus so that the border menu continuously and dynamically presents all options available for the application having focus.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the border menu is positioned outside the boundaries of an application window of the application.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the border menu is an graphical user interface control managed by a graphical user interface manager, wherein an operating system level event handler handles user selection events for each of the user selectable options, where the event handler maps the user selection events to programmatic actions including the programmatic action of the triggering.

15. The method of 14, wherein the user selectable options comprise over fifty different user-selectable options, all concurrently presented at a top-level of the border menu.

19. A computer program product for presenting a user with context dependent actions within a user interface, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to detect a user selection of a GUI object within a graphical user interface of an application running on a computing device;

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to determine a plurality of object-specific actions relevant to the GUI object for a current application state of the application;

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to, responsive to the user selection of the GUI object, visually present a border menu, which was not previously shown, said border menu comprising a plurality of user-selectable options, wherein at least a portion of the user-selectable options comprise an option for each of the object-specific actions relevant to the GUI object for the current application state, wherein said border menu is presented at a outer border of a display of the graphic user interface along at least two of the sides of the display;

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to receive a user selection of one of the user-selectable options;

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to trigger a programmatic action corresponding to the selected one of the user-selectable options; and

computer usable program code stored on a storage medium that when executed by a processor is operable to, responsive to the user selection of the one of the user selectable options, automatically adjust a display state of the border menu so that it is no longer visually presented.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the at least two sides comprises four sides, wherein the border menu is presented at the top of a stack of the graphical user interface, wherein each of the user selectable options are selectable via a pointing device, each of the user-selectable options being associated with at least one of an icon or text button, wherein at least one of the user-selectable options is presented along each of the four sides of the outer border of the border menu, wherein said application is an application currently having focus within a graphical user interface.