Method for routing items within a computer system
First Claim
1. A method of performing a routing action on a document in a pointer-based computer system having a processor, a display, and memory, the method comprising the following steps:
- running an application on the processor, the application having a document associated therewith that is to be routed;
producing an action list in response to at least one selection gesture implemented by a pointing means, the action list containing a list of routing actions available to the application, and residing, at least in part, in the memory;
displaying on the display at least one window, the at least one window containing the list of routing actions available to the application;
selecting a routing action for the document from the list of routing actions;
subsequent to said selecting, transferring the document to an out box in communication with a plurality of ports and residing, at least in part, in the memory, the out box having a plurality of different groups and being arranged to associate the document with one of the different groups based on the selected routing action; and
performing the routing action on the document via the out box.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for routing information with a pointer-based computer such as a pen-based computer. The routing actions may be faxing, printing, mailing (electronically), and beaming (by infrared light). The routed information may be document or other item produced by or associated with a particular application running on the computer. Routing actions that send items out of the computer system preferably are processed according to the following steps. First one or more menus or windows associated with the application of the document being routed are displayed on a display screen of the computer. At least one of these menus or windows contains a list of routing actions available to the application. The user selects one of these routing actions and, in some cases, provides additional information pertaining to the destination, format, etc. of the document being routed. Then the document or item being routed is transferred to an out box which resides, at least in part, in the memory of the computer system. The out box is communication with a plurality of ports such as a modem, an IR beam transceiver, etc. From the out box, the item is routed out of the computer system and through one of the ports and the process is concluded.
393 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of performing a routing action on a document in a pointer-based computer system having a processor, a display, and memory, the method comprising the following steps:
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running an application on the processor, the application having a document associated therewith that is to be routed; producing an action list in response to at least one selection gesture implemented by a pointing means, the action list containing a list of routing actions available to the application, and residing, at least in part, in the memory; displaying on the display at least one window, the at least one window containing the list of routing actions available to the application; selecting a routing action for the document from the list of routing actions; subsequent to said selecting, transferring the document to an out box in communication with a plurality of ports and residing, at least in part, in the memory, the out box having a plurality of different groups and being arranged to associate the document with one of the different groups based on the selected routing action; and performing the routing action on the document via the out box. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of routing a document in a pointer-based computer system having display means and a memory, and running a computer-implemented application, the method comprising the following steps:
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displaying on the display means an action menu including one or more routing action types associated with the application; displaying on the display means a routing slip for a selected routing action from the action menu, the routing slip at least containing fields for defining parameters of a routing action type and containing an execute button for executing the selected routing action; displaying on the display means, in response to a selection gesture for the execute button, an out box having regions for all available types of routing actions in the pointer-based computer, and having an entry for the document within the region of the out box for the selected routing action; and performing the selected routing action on the document in response to one or more selection gestures in the out box. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of inputting an item in a pointer-based computer system having a display and memory, the method comprising the following steps:
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receiving an item through a port in the computer system; transferring the received item to an in box in communication with a plurality of ports in the computer system, the in box residing, at least in part, within the memory, the in box having a plurality of different groups and being arranged to associate the received item with one of the different groups based on their corresponding routing action; displaying on the display an in box window representing the in box and listing the received item and any other previously received items held in the in box; and transferring at least one of the items listed, in response to a gesture, from the in box to a region of memory associated with an application. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
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25. A pointer-based computer system comprising:
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processing means; memory means coupled to said processing means; a display coupled to said processing means; a plurality of ports; a plurality of computer implemented routing processes which run on the processing means and reside, at least in part, in the memory means; an out box in communication with the plurality of ports and temporarily holding documents being routed by the routing processes, the out box residing, at least in part, in the memory means; an out box window representing the out box and displayed on the display, the out box window containing a list of documents held in the out box; and an out box categories list containing instructions for dialog appearing in the out box window and other windows associated with the out box, the out box categories list residing, at least in part, in the memory means. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification