Adaptive menus
First Claim
1. A method for expanding a menu of a computer program module, comprising the steps of:
- (a) determining which of a plurality of commands is included in a subset of the commands;
(b) displaying a short form of the menu, the short form containing the subset of the commands;
(c) detecting an expansion action;
(d) expanding the menu by displaying a long form of the menu, the long form of the menu having each of the commands; and
(e) in response to expanding the menu, expanding each of a plurality of other short form menus contained in the program module into corresponding long form menus.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Drop down menus provided by a computer program are provided in two states, a short menu state and a long menu state. When a user opens a desired menu, the menu opened will initially take the form of a short menu of executable commands which are a subset of the total number of executable commands available under the selected menu. The short menu may be dynamically expanded into a long menu which will contain the complete set of executable commands available under the selected menu. The short menu may be adapted to the personal needs of the user when the user selects commands from the long menu which are not contained in the short menu. Usage information is stored and updated on the usage of each menu command added to a short menu. Menu commands are removed from the adapted short menus based on non-use of those menu commands by the user. Information stored, maintained, and updated on the usage of the menu commands added to the short menus is stored in a compact and efficient data structure which facilitates efficient computer memory use.
-
Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A method for expanding a menu of a computer program module, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) determining which of a plurality of commands is included in a subset of the commands; (b) displaying a short form of the menu, the short form containing the subset of the commands; (c) detecting an expansion action; (d) expanding the menu by displaying a long form of the menu, the long form of the menu having each of the commands; and (e) in response to expanding the menu, expanding each of a plurality of other short form menus contained in the program module into corresponding long form menus. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of creating and updating an historical usage record for a command within a menu of a program module, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) creating the historical usage record comprising a command identifier field, a usage count field, a last session count field, wherein the historical usage record further comprises an Allow-- Decay field wherein the Allow-- Decay field contains data determinative of whether step (d) is performed; (b) incrementing the usage count field each time the menu command is selected from the menu; (c) incrementing the last usage count field each time the program module is operated, wherein the command is not selected for use; (d) decrementing the usage count field by "n" usage counts if the last session used field is incremented to a prescribed number of last sessions used during which the command was not selected, wherein if the data contained in the Allow-- Decay field is set to one (1), step (d) is performed and, wherein if the data contained in the Allow-- Decay field is set to zero (0), step (d) is not performed; (e) deleting the historical usage record if the usage count field is decremented to a prescribed number of usage counts; and (f) resetting the last usage count field upon use of the command. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:
-
(a) a first data field containing data representing a menu command of a program module; (b) a second data field containing data representing a first number of executions of the menu command identified by the data contained in the first data field; and (c) a third data field containing data representing a number of sessions the program module containing the menu command has been operated during which the menu command was not executed, wherein if data contained in the third data field is altered to represent a predetermined number of the sessions, the data in the second data field is altered to represent a second number of executions of the menu command. - View Dependent Claims (20)
-
-
21. A computer-readable medium on which is stored a computer program for expanding a menu of a computer program module, the computer program module comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of:
-
(a) determining which of a plurality of commands is included in a subset of the commands; (b) displaying a short form of the menu, the short form containing the subset of the commands; (c) detecting an expansion action; (d) expanding the menu by displaying a long form of the menu, the long form of the menu having each of the commands; and (e) in response to expanding the menu expanding each of a plurality of other short form menus contained in the program module into corresponding long form menus. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A system for expanding a menu of a computer program module, comprising a control module operative
(a) to determine which of a plurality of commands is included in a subset of the commands; -
(b) to display a short form of the menu, the short form containing the subset of the commands; (c) to detecting an expansion action; (d) to expand the menu by displaying a long form of the menu, the long form of the menu having each of the commands; and (e) to expand each of a plurality of other short form menus contained in the program module into corresponding long form menus, in response to expanding the menu. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
Specification