Address bar user interface control

• US 7,853,890 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2005
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Odins-Lucas, Zeke, Cummins, Charles, Miner, Patrice L., De Vorchik, David G., Gusmorino, Paul A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CAO H
• Application Number:
  US11/111,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246648A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,062 Days
• Field of Search: 715/810, 715/855, 715/829, 715/847, 715853-854, 715/828, 715751-759, 715778-779, 715782-783, 715792-796, 715/800, 715/764
• US Class Current: 715/778
• 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 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

An address bar user interface control includes a plurality of interactive segments, each segment including one or more filters or selection criteria for selecting content from physical and/or virtual locations. A segment may include two or more filters or selection criteria which are logically combined such as by a logical “OR” operation. A user may select a child control associated with an interactive segment, i.e., a parent segment, to provide a list of selectable child filters or selection criteria. In response to selection of a child filter or selection criteria, an interactive segment representing the child filter or selection criteria is added to the address bar succeeding the parent segment and the interactive segments subsequent to the parent segment are removed.

Claims

1. An address bar user interface control for selecting content accessible to a computer system for display, the address bar comprising:

a plurality of interactive segments;

a control associated with each of the plurality of interactive segments, the control being selectable to identify at least one additional selectable selection criteria for selecting file content stored in a virtual location not defined by a file system hierarchy;

a list of selectable selection criteria, wherein selecting the control associated with an interactive segment causes the list of selectable selection criteria to be displayed; and

wherein the plurality of interactive segments includes at least two selection criteria which are logically combined for selecting content for display.

2. The address bar user interface control of claim 1, further comprising an interactive segment corresponding to a selection criteria, wherein selecting the selection criteria from the list of selectable selection criteria causes the interactive segment corresponding to the selection criteria to be displayed succeeding at least one interactive segment.

3. The address bar user interface control of claim 2, wherein selecting the selection criteria from the list of selectable selection criteria further causes each interactive segment subsequent to at least one interactive segment to be removed from the address bar.

4. The address bar user interface control of claim 1, wherein if the interactive segment associated with the selection criteria has an immediate ancestor selection criteria and the immediate ancestor selection criteria is not displayed, selecting the control associated with the interactive segment further causes an ancestor list for the interactive segment to be displayed.

5. The address bar user interface control of claim 1, further comprising type identifiers associated with each of the selection criteria in the list of selectable selection criteria.

6. An address bar user interface control for selecting content accessible to a computer system for display, the address bar comprising:

a first interactive segment including at least two selection criteria, including selection criteria for selecting file content stored in a virtual location, logically combined for selecting file content for display, wherein the virtual location is not defined by file-system hierarchy;

a second interactive segment including at least one selection criteria, the second interactive segment preceding the first interactive segment wherein that at least two selection criteria of the first interactive segment further restart the file content selected by that at least one selection criteria of the second interactive segment; and

a third interactive segment including at least one selection criteria succeeding the first interactive segment wherein selecting the first interactive segment in the address bar causes the third interactive segment to be removed from the address bar.

7. The address bar user interface control of claim 6, wherein the at least two selection criteria are logically combined according to a logical OR operation.

8. The address bar user interface control of claim 6, wherein at least one selection criteria includes selection criteria for selecting content stored in a physical location.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for performing the method comprising the steps of:

displaying an address bar comprising a plurality of interactive segments, each interactive segment including at least one selection criteria for selecting file content to be displayed on a display device irrespective of the file content'"'"'s location in a file system hierarchy, wherein the address bar selects content for display on a display device according to the at least one selection criteria of each of the plurality of interactive segments, and a control for a first interactive segment, the control being selectable to identify selectable selection criteria;

detecting user actions on the address bar; and

upon detecting a user action on the address bar, updating the address bar according to the detected user action; and

wherein the detected user action is a selection of the control, and wherein updating the address bar according to the detected user action comprises displaying a list of selectable selection criteria in response to selection of the control.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the detected user action is a selection of the control, and wherein updating the address bar according to the detected user action comprises displaying a list of selectable selection criteria in response to selection of the control.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising causing a second interactive segment corresponding to a selection criteria to be displayed succeeding the first interactive segment in response to a user selection of the selection criteria.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising causing each interactive segment subsequent to at least one interactive segment to be removed from the address bar in response to the user selection of the selection criteria.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein displaying further comprises displaying a second interactive segment including at least two selection criteria which are logically combined for selecting content for display.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the at least two selection criteria are logically combined by applying a logical OR operation.