System for designing dynamic layouts adaptable to various display screen sizes and resolutions

• US 5,796,401 A
• Filed: 08/09/1996
• Issued: 08/18/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Winer, Peter W.
• Original Assignee: Winer, Peter W.
• Inventors: Winer, Peter W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phu K.
• Application Number:
  US08/694,992
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• Field of Search: 345/433, 345/439, 345/428, 345/127
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

An intelligent layout system for drawing objects and organizing the drawn objects. The layout system facilitates creation of objects, such as boxes that can contain text, graphics, outlines, titles, headlines, and other information and data, to provide a custom dashboard layout, as well as serves as a layout manager for organization of the objects. Additionally, the layout system enables objects to be manipulated individually or as a group and to be arranged permanently in various relationships, in which various components or attributes of the objects are interrelated. For example, the layout system enables a user to interrelate objects in one or more permanent relationships by selectively distributing, aligning, sizing, and/or spacing the objects. The layout system also provides a graphical user interface design tool for designing dynamic page layouts that automatically adapt to various page sizes and display screen sizes and resolutions. The layout system enables objects to be connected to the edge or edges of one or more pages in an intuitive and gestural manner to provide a dynamic page layout tool that automatically moves objects and causes them to re-size automatically to adapt the size and position of the objects if the page is re-sized or the size or resolution of the display screen is altered.

Claims

1. A layout system for drawing objects and organizing the drawn objects to facilitate creation of objects, such as boxes that can contain text, graphics, outlines, titles, headlines, animation, video, and other information and data, to provide a custom layout as well as to serve as a layout manager for organization of the objects, comprising:

a processor for executing a program;

a program executable in the processor, the program comprising subroutines for designing a graphical user interface, the subroutines for enabling objects to be created and manipulated both individually and as a group and to be arranged permanently in various relationships, in which components of the objects are interrelated;

a display screen connected to the processor for displaying the graphical user interface comprising the objects; and

user input means connected to the processor and able to be manipulated by a user to interrelate objects in one or more permanent relationships by selectively distributing, aligning, sizing, or spacing components of the objects.

2. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines comprise a distribution subroutine for equally spacing objects and there is a plurality of objects including a first object, a second object, and a third object on a page, and when one of the objects is moved, the distribution subroutine moves the other objects so that the separation among the objects across the page is equal.

3. The layout system according to claim 2 wherein the objects are one of horizontally and vertically arranged across the page, and if one of the objects is moved toward the edge of the page, the distribution subroutine moves the other objects so that the corresponding one of the horizontal and vertical separation among the three objects is equal with the separation between the first and second objects being automatically maintained equal to the separation between the second and third objects.

4. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines comprise a distribution subroutine for equally spacing objects and the distribution subroutine enables the user to select permanent distribution so that if the user then selects and moves any object, all of the objects move in unison together as a group, and a permanent distribution relationship is maintained among the objects.

5. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines comprise an alignment subroutine for aligning a selected component of the objects and the component of the objects to be aligned is one of the left edges, right edges, top edges, bottom edges, and centers of the objects to provide one of left edge justification, right edge justification, top edge justification, bottom edge justification, and centering of objects, respectively.

6. The layout system according to claim 5 wherein the alignment subroutine enables the user to select permanent alignment so that if the user then selects and moves any object, all of the objects move in unison together as a group, and a permanent alignment relationship is maintained among the objects.

7. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines comprise a sizing subroutine for causing the objects to have at least one of an identical width and an identical height and the width and height can be any desired dimension.

8. The layout system according to claim 7 wherein the sizing subroutine enables the user to select permanent sizing so that if the user then selects and moves any object, all of the objects move in unison together as a group, and a permanent size relationship is maintained among the objects.

9. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the user input means comprises a keyboard and the subroutines comprise a spacing subroutine for enabling the user to set a distance in a spacing box by means of numeric keys of the keyboard and for causing the objects to become at least one of horizontally and vertically spaced by the set distance.

10. The layout system according to claim 9 wherein the spacing subroutine enables the user to select permanent spacing so that if the user then selects and moves any object, all of the objects move in unison together as a group, and a permanent spacing relationship is maintained among the objects.

11. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines enable the user to select show relations and create a relations box displayed around related objects to provide a graphical representation that at least one relationship exists based on user selection of distributing, aligning, sizing, or spacing the objects and wherein the user can select the relations box to move and re-size the objects in unison together as a group.

12. The layout system according to claim 1 wherein the subroutines enable the user to select a relationship query and the subroutines create a dialog box which enables the user to ascertain whether any relationship exists between a selected object and any other object and to identify any existing relationship that exists.

13. The layout system according to claim 12 wherein the dialog box provides a textual representation that any relationship exists based on user selection of distributing, aligning, sizing, or spacing the objects.

14. A layout system, comprising:

a processor for executing a program;

a program executable in the processor, the program comprising subroutines for designing a graphical user interface, the subroutines for designing dynamic page layouts that automatically adapt in size to various page sizes and display screen sizes and resolutions by enabling objects to be interrelated to a page and automatically moving the objects and causing them to grow and shrink automatically to adapt the position and size of the objects if the page is re-sized or as the size or resolution of the display screen changes;

a display screen connected to the processor for displaying the graphical user interface comprising the objects; and

user input means connected to the processor and able to be manipulated by a user for interrelating objects to the page.

15. The layout system according to claim 14 wherein the subroutines enable any object to be connected to any other object and an edge of the page to provide automatic repositioning of any interconnected objects, which are also connected to the edge of the page, if the size of the page changes, whereby a dynamic page layout is defined.

16. The layout system of claim 15 wherein the subroutines set proportional distances expressed as a percentage of the page to truly scale on a percentage basis with respect to the size of the page, and as the size of the page is changed, the subroutines cause the size of the object to grows and shrink as the size of the page grows or shrinks so that, when the size of the page changes, the objects truly scale with respect to the page.

17. The layout system according to claim 14 wherein the user input means comprises a mouse and the subroutines enable the user to connect an edge of an object to the corresponding edge of the page by manipulating the mouse to point to the edge of the object and dragging to the corresponding edge of the page in a gestural manner and wherein the subroutines cause the size of the object to be automatically altered with a change in the size of the page.

18. The layout system according to claim 17 wherein the subroutines display a double-headed arrow connecting the edge of the object to the corresponding edge of the page and having a distance bubble, which is automatically created when the user drags from the edge of the object to the corresponding edge of the page, and the distance between the edge of the object and the corresponding edge of the page established by performing the interconnection is automatically displayed in the distance bubble so that when the size of the page changes or the edge of the page is moved, the distance between the edge of the object and the corresponding edge of the page is maintained at the displayed distance and the object changes size accordingly so that the edge of the object remains at the displayed distance from the corresponding edge of the page.

19. The layout system according to claim 14 wherein the user input means comprises a mouse and the subroutines enable the user to specify that a selected object has one of a fixed interior size and an proportional interior size expressed as a percentage of the page by manipulating the mouse to point to an edge of the selected object and dragging across the interior of the selected object from one edge to an opposite edge of the selected object to establish a interior size.

20. A layout system for drawing objects and organizing the drawn objects to facilitate creation of objects, such as boxes that can contain text, graphics, outlines, titles, or headlines, to provide a dynamic custom layout as well as to serve as a layout manager for organization of the objects, comprising:

a processor for executing a program;

a program executable in the processor, the program comprising subroutines for designing a graphical user interface, the subroutines for enabling objects to be created and manipulated both individually and as a group and to be arranged permanently in various relationships, in which components of the objects are interrelated, and for designing dynamic page layouts that automatically adapt in size to various page sizes and display screen sizes and resolutions by enabling objects to be interrelated to a page and automatically moving the objects and causing them to grow and shrink automatically to adapt the position and size of the objects if the page is re-sized or as the size or resolution of the display screen changes;

a display screen connected to the processor for displaying the graphical user interface comprising the objects; and

user input means connected to the processor and able to be manipulated by a user to interrelate objects in one or more permanent relationships by selectively distributing, aligning, sizing, or spacing components of the objects and for interrelating objects to the page.