Method of displaying elements having a width greater than a screen display width

• US 6,147,670 A
• Filed: 03/13/1997
• Issued: 11/14/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Phone.com Incorporated
• Inventors: Rossmann, Alain
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CHANH DUY
• Assistant Examiner(s): Suraci, John
• Application Number:
  US08/815,646
• Time in Patent Office: 1,342 Days
• Field of Search: 345/123, 345/124, 345/341, 345/40, 345/192, 345/28, 345/340, 345/332, 345/333, 345/26, 707/508, 707/509, 364/919.4, 364/919.5, 710/47
• US Class Current: 345/685
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/343 for systems having a character code-mapped display memory

Abstract

A structured screen display process presents structured information that includes a plurality of elements on any width screen display so that the user is able to see as many of the elements as possible at once, and is able to see the complete text of any element as needed. The process dynamically adapts the display of structured information to the screen display width of the device. Further, in this dynamic adaptation, the user sees at a glance as many as possible of the elements of the structure, and the user can see any of the elements at the user'"'"'s discretion in a way which is compatible with using structured information such as a menu of choices. The structured information is presented on a screen display by displaying at least a portion of each element in a plurality of elements on the screen display where at least one of the elements has a width greater than a width of the screen display. The at least one element is scrolled horizontally while continuing to display the portion of each other element in the plurality of elements.

Claims

1. A method for displaying multiple text strings on a screen comprising:

displaying on said screen a portion of each of said text strings in a predefined screen layout, wherein one of said text strings has a length greater than a width of said screen; and

scrolling in a predefined direction said one of said text strings, when said one of said text strings is selected, in such a manner that, at any given time, a first number of complete words of said selected text string are displayed on said screen and then a second number of complete words of said selected text string are displayed without said first number of complete words being displayed, while continuing to display without scrolling said portion of each other text string in said predefined screen layout, wherein part of said first number of complete words and part of said second number of complete words are not displayed at the same time.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein said scrolling in a predefined direction further comprises displaying said first number of complete words of said selected text string for a predefined time.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein said scrolling in a predefined direction further comprises displaying said second number of complete words of said text string for another predefined time.

4. A method as in claim 3 wherein said scrolling in a predefined direction further comprises testing to determine whether said selected text string includes only said first number and said second number of complete words.

5. A method as in claim 1, further comprising repeating said scrolling of said selected text string a predefined number of times.

6. A method for displaying a plurality of lines of text strings in a predefined screen layout on a screen comprising:

selecting one of said lines of text strings from said screen, said text strings including multi-character words;

determining whether a width of said selected line of text string is greater than a width of said screen; and

horizontally scrolling said text string of said selected line, without scrolling each other said lines in said predefined screen layout, displaying at any given time a first portion of complete words of said text strings and then a second portion of complete words of said text string without said first portion being displayed, upon determining that said length of said selected line is greater than said width of said screen, wherein part of said first portion of complete words and part of said second portion of complete words are not displayed at the same time.

7. A method as in claim 6, further comprising displaying a section of other lines of text strings while horizontally scrolling said selected text string.

8. A method as in claim 6 further comprising repeating said scrolling of said selected text string a predefined number of times.

9. A method as in claim 6 wherein said horizontally scrolling of said selected text string further comprises displaying said first portion of said selected text string for a predefined time.

10. A method as in claim 9 wherein said horizontally scrolling said selected text string further comprises displaying said second portion of said selected text string for another predefined time.

11. A method as in claim 10 wherein said horizontally scrolling said selected text string further comprises testing to determine whether said selected element includes only said first portion and said second portion.