Task-sensitive methods and systems for displaying command sets

• US 7,624,356 B1
• Filed: 06/21/2000
• Issued: 11/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Perlow, Jonathan D., Jacobs, Nancy E., Erickson, Paul R., Westreich, Daniel J., Rockey, Eric S., Kelly, Gavin M., Hopcroft, Michael J., Talbott, Shannon P.
• Primary Examiner(s): BONSHOCK, DENNIS G
• Application Number:
  US09/599,086
• Time in Patent Office: 3,443 Days
• Field of Search: 345/828, 345/834, 345/861, 345/711, 345/779, 345/845, 345/705, 715/828, 715/834, 715/862, 715708-713, 715/779, 715/845, 715/705, 715/826, 715811-813
• US Class Current: 715/811
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems

Abstract

Methods and systems present commands to a user within a software application program by determining the user'"'"'s context within the application program and automatically presenting in a user interface commands that pertain to the user'"'"'s current context. When the user'"'"'s context changes, the context-sensitive commands are automatically removed from the user interface. In one implementation context blocks and context panes are employed to present the commands.

Claims

1. A method of exposing commands in a document-centric application program executed by a computer, the method comprising:

automatically displaying, by the computer, a window on a display device, the window generated by the document-centric application program, the document-centric application program operating at the computer, the window containing a work area and a controls area, the work area containing a document, the controls area not initially containing a context block;

storing, by the computer, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of the context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

storing a tree data structure, the tree data structure stored at the computer, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a value, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expressions associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node and a second leaf node;

ascertaining, at the computer, whether a change has occurred to a position of a cursor, the cursor being controlled by a user, the cursor being within the document, the document being worked on by the user;

ascertaining, at the computer, whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected by the user using the cursor;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the position of the cursor, making, at the computer, a change to the value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, making, by the computer, a change to the value associated with the second leaf node;

in response to a change to the value associated with any non-root node, using, at the computer, the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the value associated with the parent node, changing, at the computer, the value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically causing, at the computer, the controls area of the user interface to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, the context block not obscuring the document, at least one command in the set of commands selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document; and

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically causing, at the computer, the user interface not to contain the context block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one command is displayed in a modeless fashion in which the user is able to continue to work within the document while said at least one command is displayed.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising after automatically causing the user interface to contain the context block, executing the at least one command without requiring any action from the user other than selecting the at least one command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said tree data structure pertains to a task the user is attempting to accomplish.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein said set of leaf nodes includes a third leaf node, the value associated with the third leaf node dependent on one or more of the following:

a type of the document and a state of the document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the user interface to contain the context block comprises causing, by the computer, the user interface to contain the context block independent of the user selecting any displayed menu item.

7. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

automatically displaying, by the computer, a window on a display device, the window generated by the document-centric application program, the document-centric application program operating at the computer, the window containing a work area and a controls area, the work area containing a document, the controls area not initially containing a context block;

storing, by the computer at one or more computer-readable storage media, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of the context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

store a tree data structure at the computer, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a value, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expressions associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node;

ascertain whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected using a cursor, the cursor being controlled by a user, the document being a document in which the user is working;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, make a change to the value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to a change to the value associated with any non-root node, use the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the value associated with the parent node, change the value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically cause the controls area of the user interface to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, the context block not obscuring the document, at least one command in the set of commands of the context block being displayed in a modeless fashion in which the user is able to continue to work within the document while said at least one command is displayed, and wherein said at least one command in the set of commands of the context block is selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document; and

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically cause the user interface not to contain the context block.

8. The computer-readable storage media of claim 7,

wherein the set of leaf nodes includes a second leaf node;

and

wherein the instructions further cause the computer to;

ascertain whether a change has occurred to a position of the cursor; and

in response to making ascertaining that the change has occurred to the position of the cursor, making a change to the value associated with the second leaf node.

9. A method of exposing commands in a document-centric application program executed by a computer, the method comprising:

automatically displaying, by the computer, a window on a display device, the window generated by the document-centric application program, the document-centric application program operating at the computer, the window containing a work area and a controls area, the work area containing a document, the controls area not initially containing a context block;

storing, by the computer, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of the context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of command executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

storing a tree data structure at the computer, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a value, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expressions associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node;

ascertaining, at the computer, whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected using a cursor, the cursor controlled by a user, wherein the document is a document in which the user is working;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, making, at the computer, a change to the value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to a change to the value associated with any non-root node, using, at the computer, the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the value associated with the parent node, changing, at the computer, the value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically causing, at the computer, the controls area of the user interface to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, the computer causing the user interface to contain the context block independent of the user selecting any displayed menu item, the context block not obscuring the document, each command in the set of commands of the context block being selectable by the user, at least one command in the set of commands of the context block being selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically causing, at the computer, the user interface not to contain the context block.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each value associated with each node in the overall set of nodes is a Boolean value.

11. The method of claim 9,

wherein the set of leaf nodes includes a second leaf node, the value associated with the second leaf node being based on one or more of the following:

a type of the document, a state of the document, and objects within the document that are selectable by the user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein automatically causing the user interface to contain the context block comprises causing the context block to contain a title bar area, the title bar area containing the title of the context block.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the title bar area is configured to enable the context block to be toggled between expanded and collapsed states.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the title bar area comprises a menu display button, the menu display button being configured to enable a menu, the menu associated with the context block.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the menu contains links to one or more context panes, each of the context panes comprising additional context-sensitive commands, each of the context panes being modeless.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the context block includes a command area that exposes the set of commands of the context block to the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a command display within the command area is defined in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

18. The method of claim 9, wherein automatically causing the user interface to contain the context block comprises displaying said context block in a modeless fashion.

19. A method of exposing commands in a document-centric application program executed by a computer, the method comprising:

automatically displaying, by the computer, a window on a display device, the window generated by the document-centric application program, the window containing a work area and a controls area, the work area containing a document, the controls area not initially containing a context block;

storing, by the computer, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of the context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

storing a tree data structure at the computer, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a value, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expression associated with each node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node;

automatically ascertaining, at the computer, whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected by the user using a cursor the cursor being controlled by a user, where the document is a document the user is working in;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, making, at the computer, a change to the value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to a change to the value associated with any non-root node, using, at the computer, a Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a value associated with the parent node, the Boolean expression associated with the parent node taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the value associated with the parent node, changing, at the computer, the value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically causing, at the computer, the controls areas to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, the context block not obscuring the document;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically causing, at the computer, the controls area not to contain the context block; and

while the controls area contains the context block, enabling, with the computer, the user to select and apply various commands in the set of commands of the context block to the document multiple times.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising applying, by the computer, one or more selected commands when selected by the user, without further user interaction, the selected commands being in the set of commands of the context block.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein automatically causing the controls area to contain the context block comprises causing, at the computer, the controls area to display the context block responsive to the user selecting a menu item, the menu item being in a menu, the menu supported by the context block.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein causing the controls area to contain the context block comprises displaying, by the computer, the context block in a modeless manner.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein automatically causing the controls area to contain the context block comprises displaying, by the computer, the context block within a context pane, the context pane having a title bar and a controls area, the title bar of the context pane labeling the context pane, the controls area of the context pane including the set of commands.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the context pane is not collapsible.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the context pane must be closed by the user.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the user must request the context pane to be displayed.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein some commands in the set of commands are disabled.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the context pane includes a context-sensitive help feature, the context-sensitive help feature displaying help information, the help information contextually related to the context pane.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the context-sensitive help feature is accessible via an icon on the title bar.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the context-sensitive help feature is displayed in a modeless manner.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein multiple context panes are stackable in a queue.

32. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 19.

33. An electronic computing system comprising:

one or more processing units;

a display device; and

a system memory storing;

Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of a context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

a tree data structure, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a Boolean value, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expression associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the Boolean values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node, a second leaf node and a third leaf node; and

a single document-centric application program, the single document-centric application program being configured to;

cause the display device to display a single navigable window, the single navigable window containing a work area, the work area containing a document that a user is working in;

provide a plurality of functionalities, the user being able to navigate the single navigable window to each functionality in the plurality of functionalities;

cause the single navigable window to contain at least one context-sensitive command area, the context-sensitive command area not obscuring the document, the context-sensitive command area not initially containing the context block,

ascertain whether a change has occurred to a position of a cursor, the cursor being controlled by the user, the cursor being within the document;

ascertain whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected by the user using the cursor;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the position of the cursor, make a change to the Boolean value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, make a change to the Boolean value associated with the second leaf node;

change the Boolean value associated with the third leaf node when the user changes between functionalities in the plurality of functionalities;

in response to a change to the Boolean value associated with any non-root node, use the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a Boolean value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the Boolean value associated with the parent node, change the Boolean value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically cause the context-sensitive command area to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, at least one command in the set of commands being selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document; and

in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically cause the context-sensitive command area not to contain the context block.

34. The computing system of claim 33, wherein the single document-centric application program is configured to cause the single navigable window to contain navigation instrumentalities, the navigation instrumentalities being configured for use by the user to navigate the single navigable window to different functionalities in the plurality of functionalities.

35. The computing system of claim 34, wherein one of the navigation instrumentalities comprises links, each of the links being associated with a functionality in the plurality of functionalities.

36. The computing system of claim 34, wherein one of the navigation instrumentalities comprises browser-like navigation buttons, the browser-like navigation buttons being usable by the user to navigate the single navigable window between different functionalities in the plurality of functionalities.

37. The computing system of claim 33, wherein each functionality in the plurality of functionalities comprises document-centric functionalities.

38. An electronic computing system comprising:

a processing unit;

a display device; and

a system memory storing;

Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of a context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by the document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

a tree data structure, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a value, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expressions associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node;

a single document-centric application program, the single document-centric application, when executed at the processing unit, cause the processing unit to;

display, on the display device, a single navigable window, a user being able to use the single navigable window in navigating between multiple different functionalities provided by the single document-centric application program;

display a document in a work area of the single navigable window;

display at least one context-sensitive command area in the single navigable window, the context-sensitive command area not obscuring the document, the context-sensitive command area not initially containing the context block;

ascertain whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected using a cursor, the cursor being controlled by the user,

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, make a change to the value associated with the first leaf node;

in response to a change to the value associated with any non-root node, use the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change a value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the value associated with the parent node, change the value associated with the parent node;

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically cause the context-sensitive command area to contain the context block, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, at least one command in the set of commands being selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document; and

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically cause the context-sensitive command area not to contain said context block.

39. The computing system of claim 38, wherein the single document-centric application program is configured to cause the processing unit to provide navigation instrumentalities associated with the single navigable window, the navigation instrumentalities being configured for use by the user to navigate the single navigable window to the different functionalities.

40. The computing system of claim 39, wherein one of the navigation instrumentalities comprises links associated with each of the multiple different functionalities to which the single navigable window can be navigated.

41. The computing system of claim 39, wherein one of the navigation instrumentalities comprises browser-like navigation buttons that can be used to navigate the single navigable window between the different functionalities.

42. A computing method comprising:

storing, by the computer, at one or more computer-readable storage media, Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that a title of a context block and a set of commands of the context block, the set of commands executable by a document-centric application program, the title identifying a task, the set of commands useful to a user in accomplishing the task;

storing a tree data structure, the tree data structure being stored at a computer, the tree data structure comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a Boolean value, each node in the overall set of nodes being associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expressions associated with each of node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the Boolean values associated with each child node of the node, the set of leaf nodes including a first leaf node and a second leaf node;

displaying, on a display device, a user interface, the user interface comprising a single navigable window capable of being navigated between multiple different functionalities provided by the single document-centric application program, the single navigable window containing a word area and a controls area, the work area containing a document, the controls area not initially containing a context block;

receiving, at the computer, user input that indicates selection of a particular one of the functionalities;

responsive to receiving said user input, navigating, at the computer, the single navigable window to the particular one of the functionalities and displaying in said single navigable window indicia of said particular one of the functionalities, said particular one of the functionalities enabling a user to accomplish a task associated with the particular one of the functionalities;

in response to receiving said user input, changing, at the computer, the Boolean value associated with the first leaf node;

ascertaining, at the computer, whether a change has occurred to selected text portions of the document, the selected text portions of the document being portions of the document selected by the user using a cursor;

in response to ascertaining that the change has occurred to the selected text portions of the document, making, at the computer, a change to the Boolean value associated with the second leaf node;

in response to a change to the Boolean value associated with any non-root node, using, at the computer, the Boolean expression associated with a parent node to make a determination whether to change the Boolean value associated with the parent node, the non-root node being in the set of child nodes, the parent node being a parent of the non-root node;

in response to making a determination to change the Boolean value associated with the parent node, changing, at the computer, the value associated with the parent node; and

in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the root node has changed from a first value to a second value, automatically displaying, by the computer on the display device, the context block in the controls area, the context block containing the title of the context block and the set of commands of the context block, the context block not obscuring the document, the computer displaying the context block independent of the user selecting any displayed menu item, at least one command in the set of commands selectable by the user to perform an action on the selected text portions of the document; and

in response to determining that the value associated with the root node has changed from the second value to the first value, automatically causing, by the computer, the user interface not to contain the context block.

43. A method of exposing commands in a document-centric application program, the method comprising:

storing, at a system memory, a table containing a plurality of entries, each entry in the plurality of entries specifying a context block in a plurality of context blocks and a visibility expression in a plurality of visibility expressions, each visibility expression in the plurality of visibility expressions represented as a tree data structure in a plurality of tree data structures, each tree data structure in the plurality of tree data structures comprising an overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes being an independent data structure, the overall set of nodes including a root node and a set of child nodes, each node in the set of child nodes being a child of one other node in the overall set of nodes, the overall set of nodes comprising a set of leaf nodes and a set of non-leaf nodes, no node in the overall set of nodes being a child of any node in the set of leaf nodes, each node in the set of non-leaf nodes having at least one child node in the overall set of nodes, the root node not being a child of any node in the overall set of nodes, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean value, each node in the overall set of nodes associated with a Boolean expression, the Boolean expression associated with each node in the set of non-leaf nodes taking as operands the Boolean values associated with each child node of the node,

storing, at the system memory. Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) code that specifies a title of each context block in the plurality of context blocks and a set of commands of each context block in the plurality of context blocks. the sets of commands of the context blocks executable by the document-centric application program, the titles of the context blocks identifying individual tasks in a plurality of tasks, the sets of commands of the context blocks useful to a user in accomplishing the tasks identified by the titles of the context blocks,

wherein at least one tree data structure in the plurality of tree data structures includes a leaf node associated with a Boolean expression dependent on a selected text portion of a document, the selected text portion of the document being a portion of the document selected by a user of a computer;

display, by the computer, a single navigable window containing a document area and a command area, the command area not initially containing a context block in the plurality of context blocks, the document area containing the document, wherein the user is working on the document;

evaluating, at the computer, each tree data structure in the plurality of tree data structures by repeatedly;

selecting, at the computer, a current tree data structure in the plurality of tree data structures; and

after selecting the current tree data structure, evaluating, at the computer, each leaf node in the set of leaf nodes of the current tree data structure, wherein evaluating one of the leaf nodes of the current tree data structure comprises;

selecting, at the computer, an unevaluated leaf node in the set of leaf nodes of the current tree data structure as a current node;

after selecting the unevaluated leaf node as the current node, evaluating, at the computer, the Boolean expression associated with the current node;

after evaluating the Boolean expression associated with the current node, determining, at the computer, whether the Boolean value associated with the current node has changed;

(a) in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the current node has changed, determining, at the computer, whether the current node is the root node of the current tree data structure;

(b) in response to determining that the current node is not the root node of the current tree data structure, setting, at the computer, a parent of the current node as the current node;

(c) after setting the parent of the current node as the current node, evaluating, at the computer, the Boolean expression associated with the current node;

(d) after evaluating the Boolean expression associated with the current node, determining, at the computer, whether the Boolean value associated with the current node has changed;

(e) in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the current node has not changed, completing, at the computer, evaluation of the unevaluated leaf node;

(f) in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the current node has changed, performing, at the computer, steps (a)-(f) again;

in response to determining that the current node is the root node of the current tree data structure, determining, at the computer, whether the Boolean value associated with the current node is changed and is a first Boolean value;

in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the current node is changed and is the first Boolean value, automatically displaying, by the computer on the display device, a given context block in the plurality of context blocks, the given context block displayed in the command area, the given context block containing the title of the given context block and the set of commands of the given context block, the table containing an entry specifying the given context block and the visibility expression represented by the current tree data structure, the given context block containing at least one command selectable by the user to perform an action on the document; and

in response to determining that the Boolean value associated with the current node is changed and is not the first Boolean value, hiding, by the computer, the given context block from the command area.