Method and system for optimizing a visual display for handheld computer systems

• US 6,642,945 B1
• Filed: 05/04/2000
• Issued: 11/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sharpe, Timothy David
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cao (Kevin)
• Application Number:
  US09/564,962
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 345/784, 345/785, 345/786, 345/787, 345/973, 345/864, 345/764, 345/766, 345/788, 345/121, 345/156, 345/157
• US Class Current: 715/788
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

A system and method for displaying lists of items, such as documents or email messages, wherein the method displays size information without displaying the textual column for this property. The method converts the size information into a percentage of the space in the row. Next, the method shades, in a light color, the calculated percentage of the background space in the row for that item. The shading may begin at the left-hand boundary and continue towards the right-hand boundary. Tick marks and/or values may be displayed in the column headers to indicate the relative sizes based on the shaded background. The shading may otherwise be fixed or relative to the largest item in the list or the both the largest and the smallest items in the list.

Claims

1. A method of displaying property information for an item in a graphical user interface on a computer system, the method comprising;

calculating a percentage of background space to shade;

shading the background space according to the percentage; and

displaying the item in combination with the shaded background space indicating size information.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the calculating operation utilizes more than one property column as available background space.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the shading operation shades the available space from the left to the right.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the shading operation shades the available space from the right to the left.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the shading operation shades the available space from lower boundary of an item row towards the upper boundary.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the percentage is converted to a gradient value and the shading operation shades the entire background with a color based on the gradient value.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising the following step:

displaying a maximum size value indicating relative sizes for the shaded portions.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 further comprising:

displaying intermediate tick marks to allow the user to more readily determine the size of an item based on the shaded background.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the percentage is calculated to indicate size of an item relative to the largest item in the list.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein the percentage is further calculated to indicate size of an item relative to the smallest item in the list.

11. A system for displaying size property information for items in a list, the system comprising:

a memory unit storing an item wherein the item has a size property characteristic;

a processing unit calculating a percentage of background space to shade based on the size property characteristic;

a display unit displaying the item in combination with the shaded background space according to the calculated percentage.

12. A system as defined in claim 11 wherein the percentage of background space is based on a predetermined static width/size relationship.

13. A system as defined in claim 12 wherein the static width/size relationship is configurable by a user of the system.

14. A system as defined in claim 11 wherein the percentage of background space is based on a dynamic width/size relationship.

15. A system as defined in claim 14 wherein the list of items has a largest item and a smallest item and the dynamic width/size relationship is based on the largest and the smallest item in the list.

16. A system as defined in claim 15 wherein the width/size relationship is automatically updated as the list is modified.

17. A computer program product readable by a computer, the product encoding instructions for executing a computer process for displaying size information using non-textual characteristics, said process comprising:

determining the size information for an item;

translating the size information into a percentage of background space to shade; and

displaying the size information by shading the percentage of background space for the item.

18. A computer program product as defined in claim 17 wherein the percentage of background space is calculated relative to other items in the list.

19. A computer program product as defined in claim 18 wherein the product is adapted to automatically update the percentage when the list is modified.

20. A graphical user interface for a computer system, the graphical user interface having a display module for displaying a list of items, said graphical user interface comprising:

a list view having a plurality of columns and rows, wherein one of each column or row displays at least one predetermined property type and the other of each row or column lists properties for an item;

a calculation module that calculates a width/size relationship based on the relative sizes of the items in the list;

a conversion module that converts size information for each item into a percentage value based on the width/size relationship, the percentage value related to an amount of background space to be tinted; and

a display module that displays the list view in accordance with the percentage values.

21. A graphical user interface as defined in claim 20 further comprising:

an update module that updates the width/size relationship as the number of items in the list changes;

the conversion module converting the property information for each item according to the updated width/size relationship value; and

the display module displaying the items in response to the new variable visual indicators.