Non-overlapping tiling apparatus and method for multiple window displays
First Claim
1. A tiling system comprising:
- a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction;
a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes, wherein at least two of the plurality of partitions have a common end;
means for moving one of the partitions having a common end; and
means for simultaneously moving the at least two partitions having a common end.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A user interface provides a non-overlapped tiling mechanism for management of windows or panes. The non-overlapped tiling mechanism provides independent manipulation of panes and partitions between panes, and creates arrays of partitions from an array of panes in a tiled area. The partition arrays include whole partitions, segments, and combinations of segments. The various types of partitions can be managed and manipulated to effect resizing, repositioning and adjustment of multiple panes simultaneously. The mechanism provides free form and arbitrary arrangement of panes in configurations which do not require or necessarily exhibit any particular symmetry, any parent-child relationship, or any other fixed relationship among panes. The mechanism also provides for ad hoc addition, deletion and hiding of panes. Additionally, application regions can be freely associated and displayed with any of the panes, and associations between application regions and panes can be changed.
645 Citations
75 Claims
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1. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes, wherein at least two of the plurality of partitions have a common end; means for moving one of the partitions having a common end; and means for simultaneously moving the at least two partitions having a common end. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for manipulating panes in a non-overlapping tiling system comprising the steps of:
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defining a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction; defining a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes; defining at least one first set of aligned partitions including at least two partitions which are aligned selecting one partition from a first set of aligned partitions; and changing a position of said selected partition so as to manipulate at least one of the plurality of panes. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for manipulating panes in a non-overlapping tiling system comprising the steps of:
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defining a plurality of non-overlapping panes; defining a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes; defining at least one first set of aligned partitions including at least two partitions which are aligned; displaying the plurality of partitions; and jointly displaying the at least one first set of aligned partitions distinctly from the plurality of partitions. - View Dependent Claims (28)
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29. A tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes comprising:
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means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in a first direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in a second direction transverse to the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the second direction when not coupled; and
;wherein the means for selectively coupling includes; a first individually selectable control for coupled manipulation of the at least two panes; and a plurality of second individually selectable controls, each corresponding to one of the at least two panes, for uncoupled manipulation of the corresponding pane. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes comprising:
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means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in a first direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in a second direction transverse to the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the second direction when not coupled; and means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in the second direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the first direction when not coupled; means for selectively coupling a first pane, at least one second pane adjacent the first pane in the first direction, and at least one third pane adjacent the first pane in the second direction such that the first pane, the at least one second pane, and the at least one third pane can be jointly manipulated in the first and second directions when coupled.
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39. A tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction, the tiling system comprising:
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means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in a first direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in a second direction transverse to the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the second direction when not coupled, wherein the means for selectively coupling includes; a first individually selectable control for coupled manipulation of the at least two panes; and a second individually selectable control for uncoupled manipulation of at least one of the at least two panes. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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41. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction; means for associating at least one application region with at least one of said plurality of panes; means for changing an association of a first application region from an association with a first one of said plurality of panes to an association with a second one of said plurality of panes. - View Dependent Claims (42)
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43. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes; means for jointly displaying partitions which are aligned; and means for displaying at least one of the aligned partitions distinctly from the partitions which are aligned. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46)
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47. A system for creating partitions adjacent panes in a tiling system having a plurality of panes, a first set of aligned edges of a first set of the panes, and a second set of aligned edges of a second set of the panes which is adjacent to the first set of panes, wherein the second set of aligned edges is aligned with the first set of aligned edges, the system comprising:
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means for iteratively expanding a first subset of the first set of aligned edges; means for iteratively expanding a second subset of the second set of aligned edges; means for determining whether the first subset is coextensive with the second subset; and means for identifying coextensive subsets as partitions. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49)
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50. A non-overlapping tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction; a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes; means for selecting one of a single partition and a set of aligned partitions including said single partition as a movement partition; and means for moving the movement partition. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52)
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53. An apparatus for manipulating panes in a tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes comprising:
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first manipulation means for simultaneously moving a first edge which is an edge of a first pane and a second edge which is an edge of a second pane and which extends the first edge; second manipulation means for moving the first edge without moving the second edge; third manipulation means for simultaneously moving a third edge, which is an edge of the first pane transverse to the first edge, together with one of the first edge, the second edge, and a fourth edge which extends the third edge; and fourth manipulation means for moving the third edge without moving the first, second and fourth edges. - View Dependent Claims (54)
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55. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes; and aligning means for aligning a first partition with a second partition when said first partition is within a range of said second partition; and wherein the aligning means includes means for altering said range. - View Dependent Claims (56)
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57. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes; and aligning means for aligning a first partition with a second partition when said first partition is within a range of said second partition; and wherein said aligning means includes; a plurality of predefined partition positions; and means for locating a partition into alignment with one of said plurality of predefined positions. - View Dependent Claims (58)
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59. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes, wherein at least two of the plurality of partitions are aligned; and means for creating an additional pane including; first means for defining an area for placement of the additional pane by movement of one partition of the aligned partitions; and second means for defining an area for placement of the additional pane by movement of the one partition and at least one other of the aligned partitions.
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60. A tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes and a plurality of partitions adjacent to the panes, the system comprising:
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means for moving at least one partition to define an area between an initial position and a final position of the at least one partition; and means for creating an additional pane in the area such that one of the panes is situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction and one of the panes is situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction.
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61. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions abutting said plurality of panes; and means for creating an additional pane including means for defining an area for placement of the additional by moving a partition between two adjacent panes.
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62. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes, wherein at least two partitions are aligned; first parallel moving means for moving a partition parallel to the aligned partitions and moving one of the aligned partitions so as to maintain a predetermined dimension for at least one of said plurality of panes; and second parallel moving means for moving the partition parallel to the aligned partitions and moving the aligned partitions so as to maintain a predetermined dimension for at least one of said plurality of panes.
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63. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent said plurality of panes, wherein at least two of the plurality of partitions are transverse; parallel moving means for moving a first transverse partition, a second transverse partition, at least one partition parallel to the first transverse partition and at least one partition parallel to the second transverse partition so as to maintain a predetermined dimension of at least one of the plurality of panes.
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64. A computer system comprising:
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a processor for executing program steps; and a display connected to the processor; and a set of program steps to be executed on the processor which generate a tiling system on the display, the tiling system including; a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction; a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes, wherein at least two of the plurality of partitions have a common end; means for moving one of the partitions having a common end; and means for simultaneously moving the at least two partitions having a common end.
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65. A tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes, wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a first direction, and wherein a pane can be situated adjacent to more than one pane along an edge in a second direction transverse to the first direction, and wherein at least one of the panes is a tenanted pane with which an application region is associated, and at least one of the panes is an untenanted pane with which no application region is associated; and means for displaying each application region at a position corresponding to an associated tenanted pane and for displaying each untenanted pane as an empty pane. - View Dependent Claims (66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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72. A tiling system having a plurality of non-overlapping panes comprising:
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means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in a first direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in a second direction transverse to the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the second direction when not coupled; and means for selectively coupling at least two of the plurality of panes which are adjacent in the second direction such that the at least two panes can be jointly manipulated in the first direction when coupled and individually manipulated in the first direction when not coupled; wherein the means for selectively coupling includes; a first individually selectable control for coupled manipulation of the at least two panes; and a second individually selectable control for uncoupled manipulation of the at least two panes. - View Dependent Claims (73)
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74. A non-overlapping tiling system comprising:
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a plurality of non-overlapping panes; a plurality of partitions adjacent to said plurality of panes, wherein the plurality of partitions include at least one set of aligned partitions including at least two partitions which are aligned; means for displaying the plurality of partitions; and means for jointly displaying the at least one set of aligned partitions distinctly from the plurality of partitions. - View Dependent Claims (75)
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Specification