Displaying thumbnail images of document pages in an electronic folder

• US 6,496,206 B1
• Filed: 06/29/1998
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ScanSoft, Inc. n/k/a Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Martin, Steven, Mernyk, Paul A., Prasad, Bevra S., Salgado, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao H.
• Application Number:
  US09/106,154
• Time in Patent Office: 1,632 Days
• Field of Search: 345/333, 345/334, 345/335, 345/337, 345/339, 345/347, 345/338, 345/341, 345/353, 345/354, 345/369, 345/762, 345/763, 345/744, 345/707, 345/764, 345/808, 345/835, 345/839, 707/3, 707/4, 707/840, 707/314
• US Class Current: 715/835
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance

Abstract

In a graphical user interface for accessing a large number of files, such as text files, graphics files, or spreadsheets, a system allows quick glances of “thumbnails” or highly reduced versions of the files. When a folder is opened, every file in the folder is opened as a background operation and thumbnail data, such as a reduced image or text summary of the file, is derived and retained in a cache folder for quick access. When a cursor is touched, without a mouse-click, to a particular icon in the opened folder, the thumbnail for the file identified by the icon is accessed from the cache folder and displayed.

Claims

1. A method of displaying a thumbnail for at least one electronically-stored file in an electronically-stored folder, comprising:

determining the appearance of at least one icon for at least one file in the folder based on at least one of file name or file type;

displaying the at least one icon for the at least one file in the folder to permit a first identification of data in the at least one file;

deriving thumbnail data from the file in the folder, the thumbnail data being a reduced derivative of at least a portion of the data in the at least one file;

storing the thumbnail data for the file in a cache;

associating the file in the folder with its stored thumbnail data in the cache; and

when a cursor is positioned to hover over the icon displayed for the file, displaying the thumbnail data associated with the file to permit a second identification of the data in the at least one file in greater detail than the first identification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data includes a reduced version of an image in the file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data includes a subset of text data in the file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data includes data derived from only a first page of the file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data is derived upon opening the folder.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data is displayed by touching the cursor to the icon without a mouse-click.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the thumbnail data is derived from the file by opening the file as a background operation.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for files containing multiple pages of data, initially deriving the thumbnail data from only a first page of the file;

when the thumbnail data for the file is displayed, displaying a button for retrieving thumbnail data derived from further pages in the file;

when the button is activated, deriving from the file subsequent thumbnail data, the subsequent thumbnail data being derived from at least one further page in the file; and

storing the subsequent thumbnail data in the cache.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

erasing at least a portion of the cache when the folder is closed.

10. A method of displaying a thumbnail relating to an electronically-stored file in an electronically-stored folder, comprising:

determining the appearance of at least one icon for at least one file in the folder based on at least one of file name or file type;

displaying the at least one icon relating to the file to permit a first identification of data in the file; and

when a cursor is positioned to hover over the icon without a mouse-click, displaying the thumbnail relating to the file, the thumbnail being a reduced derivative of at least a portion of the data in the file, to permit a second identification of the data in the file in greater detail than the first identification.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail data includes a reduced version of an image in the file.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail data includes a subset of text data in the file.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail data includes data derived from only a first page of the file.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail data includes a summary of data in the file.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

for files containing multiple pages of data, when the thumbnail data for the file is displayed, displaying a button for retrieving thumbnail data derived from further pages in the file;

when the button is activated, deriving from the file subsequent thumbnail data, the subsequent thumbnail data being derived from at least one further page in the file.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

for each file in the folder, deriving thumbnail data from the file;

storing the thumbnail data for each file in a cache;

associating each file with the thumbnail data relating to the file in the cache.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the deriving step is initiated by opening the folder.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the thumbnail data from a file is derived by opening the file as a background operation.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

erasing at least a portion of the cache when the folder is closed.