System and method for scrolling among categories in a list of documents

• US 8,732,608 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2010
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilcox, Eric M., Coppinger, Jodi L., Kerr, Bernard J., Moody, Paul B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stevens, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIENER, ERIC A
• Application Number:
  US12/981,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: 715/712, 715/772, 715/776, 715/784, 715/822, 715/823
• US Class Current: 715/784
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

A system and method is provided to assist a user in selecting, identifying, and handling email messages. A selection color module may provide for the display of color coding and selection highlighting. The selection color module may provide a secondary highlighting color to indicate messages related to a selected message. A category navigation module may provide one or more of the following: an indicator that provides the user with a number of items that are off the screen for a particular category, a command that causes the first entry for a category to be scrolled into view, a label to indicate the number of items in a particular category matching a particular criteria, and/or a control for scrolling between next or previous categories.

Claims

1. A display device comprising a processor for displaying a for presenting categories of related items to a user via a display, the display having a plurality of display lines and the graphical user interface comprising:

a list comprising;

a plurality of related items separated into different categories, the related items for each of the different categories being consecutively grouped together; and

a plurality of category separators, each category separator (i) pertaining to and positioned in the list adjacent to one of the categories of consecutively-grouped related items and (ii) having a separate displayed area when presented;

a separate scroll mechanism positioned inside the displayed area of each corresponding presented category separator that is configured for automatically scrolling directly, via a single user-action, to another category separator that pertains to another category of consecutively-grouped related items; and

wherein, in response to user-selection of a presented scroll mechanism, the display is configured to automatically scroll directly to another category separator such that the another category separator is displayed on the same display line where the presented category separator associated with the user-selected scroll mechanism was previously displayed.

2. The display device of claim 1, wherein the scroll mechanism comprises:

a first mechanism configured for automatically scrolling directly to a category separator that pertains to a previous category of related items; and

a second mechanism configured for automatically scrolling directly to a category separator that pertains to a next category of related items.

3. The display device of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises a mechanism for contracting the category of related items for which it pertains to.

4. The display device of claim 3, wherein the category separator further comprises a mechanism for expanding the category of related items for which it pertains to.

5. The display device of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises indicia corresponding to a number of items in the category for which it pertains to that correspond to a particular criteria.

6. The display device of claim 5, wherein the number of items in the category for which it pertains to that correspond to a particular criteria includes at least one of a number of items in the category, a number of the items in the category having a particular status, or a number of items in the category having a particular level of importance.

7. The display device of claim 1, wherein the items are electronic messages.

8. The display device of claim 1, wherein the display is configured to maintain a presented category separator at a predetermined position on the display in response to one or more actions by the user once the category separator reaches the predetermined position of the display.

9. The display device of claim 8, wherein the predetermined position is the top line of the display.

10. The display device of claim 8, wherein the display is configured to remove the category separator from the display when none of related items thereof are currently presented.

11. The display device of claim 1, wherein the category separator includes indicia corresponding to a number of items in the category that are not currently presented.

12. The display device of claim 11, wherein the display is configured such that if a first item of a presented category is not currently presented,

a mechanism configured for automatically scrolling the first item of the presented category into view is displayed;

and

in response to user-selection of the mechanism, the display is automatically scrolled such that the first item of the presented category is in view.

13. The display device of claim 1, wherein the display is configured such that the presented categories remain in their positions relative to one another in the list, in response to changing the presented category to another category.

14. The display device of claim 1, wherein the display is configured such that only the presented category is scrolled, in response to scrolling the presented category to another category, such that other presented categories remain presented.

15. The display device of claim 1, wherein the single user-action comprises a single click of a mouse from the user.

16. The display device of claim 1, wherein related items are grouped together by category according to:

date, author, subject matter, or importance.

17. The display device of claim 1, further comprising:

a scroll bar in the display that is configured to enable a user to manually scroll the list.

18. A system for presenting categories of related items to a user via a display, the display presented using a display device and having a plurality of display lines, the system comprising:

a processor configured to;

present at least a portion of a list, the list comprising;

a plurality of related items separated into different categories, the related items for each of the different categories being consecutively grouped together; and

a plurality of category separators, each category separator (i) pertaining to and positioned in the list adjacent to one of the categories of consecutively-grouped related items and (ii) having a separate displayed area when presented;

provide a separate scroll mechanism positioned inside the displayed area of each corresponding presented category separator that is configured for automatically scrolling directly, via a single user-action, to another category separator that pertains to another category of consecutively-grouped related items; and

in response to user-selection of a presented scroll mechanism, automatically scroll directly to another category separator such that the another category separator is displayed on the same display line where the presented category separator associated with the user-selected scroll mechanism was previously displayed.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed by a processor are configured to execute a method for presenting categories of related items to a user via a display having a plurality of display lines, the method being executed by the instructions comprising:

presenting at least a portion of a list, the list comprising;

a plurality of related items separated into different categories, the related items for each of the different categories being consecutively grouped together; and

a plurality of category separators, each category separator (i) pertaining to and positioned in the list adjacent to one of the categories of consecutively-grouped related items and (ii) having a separate displayed area when presented;

providing a separate scroll mechanism positioned inside the displayed area of each corresponding presented category separator that is configured for automatically scrolling directly, via a single user-action, to another category separator that pertains to another category of consecutively-grouped related items; and

in response to user-selection of a presented scroll mechanism, automatically scrolling directly to another category separator such that the another category separator is displayed on the same display line where the presented category separator associated with the user-selected scroll mechanism was previously displayed.