Reordering nodes in a hierarchical structure

• US 8,799,325 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Callens, Adam Spencer, Norelius, David Nelson, Marshall, James Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Chbouki, Tarek
• Application Number:
  US12/723,127
• Publication Number:
  US 20110225548A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,607 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/802
• 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 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

This disclosure describes a user interface and methods for quickly and easily modifying graphical content. Specifically, content having a hierarchical format may be received in a content pane. The hierarchical format may include one or more hierarchical levels and a plurality of content portions occupying one or more hierarchical positions within each of the one or more hierarchical levels. Further, a graphical definition may be applied to the content creating graphical content. As will be appreciated, the graphical content may comprise a hierarchical structure corresponding to the hierarchical format of the content. The hierarchical structure may include a plurality of nodes occupying one or more node positions within each of one or more node levels. A content portion occupying a hierarchical position may be reordered within a hierarchical level and may automatically cause a corresponding node in a corresponding node position to be reordered within a corresponding node level.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for editing graphical content that when executed by a processing unit cause a computing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

accepting content in a content pane, wherein the content comprises a plurality of content portions displayed in a hierarchical format comprising two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more hierarchical levels comprises a plurality of hierarchical positions, and wherein a first content portion occupies a first hierarchical position and a second content portion occupies a second hierarchical position of the plurality of hierarchical positions;

receiving a selection of at least one of a plurality of graphical definitions, wherein the at least one selected graphical definition comprises a layout and a style for presenting the content;

applying the at least one selected graphical definition to the content to produce graphical content;

simultaneously displaying the graphical content in a graphics pane separate from the content pane, wherein the graphical content comprises a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical diagram corresponding to the hierarchical format, wherein the hierarchical diagram comprises two or more node levels corresponding to the two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more node levels comprises a plurality of node positions corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical positions, wherein a first node corresponds to the first content portion and occupies a first node position corresponding to the first hierarchical position, and wherein a second node corresponds to the second content portion and occupies a second node position corresponding to the second hierarchical position;

receiving a change to the content in the content pane, wherein the change includes reordering the first content portion from the first hierarchical position to a different hierarchical position within the at least one of the two or more hierarchical levels; and

automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to a different node position in the graphics pane, wherein automatically reordering comprises changing a position of the first node within one of the two or more node levels of the hierarchical diagram, and wherein automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to the different node position corresponds to the reordering of the first content portion from the first hierarchical position to the different hierarchical position in the content pane.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of content portions in the content pane for reordering, wherein the selected content portion further comprises a child content portion.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the first content portion of the plurality of content portions in the first hierarchical position within a first hierarchical level of the two or more hierarchical levels of the content;

displaying a menu comprising options for reordering the selected first content portion; and

upon receiving a selection of an option for reordering the selected first content portion, reordering the selected first content portion from the first hierarchical position to the different hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 3, further comprising:

determining that the first hierarchical position is a highest hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level; and

only displaying an option for reordering the first selected content portion down within the first hierarchical level.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the first content portion of the plurality of content portions in a last hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level of the two or more hierarchical levels of the content;

determining that the last hierarchical position is a lowest hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level; and

only displaying an option for reordering the selected first content portion up within the first hierarchical level.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein when the selected content portion is reordered the child content portion is reordered along with the selected content portion.

7. The computer storage medium of claim 6, wherein a child node corresponding to the child content portion is customized, and wherein the child node remains customized when the child node is reordered with a node corresponding to the selected content portion.

8. The computer storage medium of claim 6, wherein a child node corresponding to the child content portion is customized, wherein a new selection of the plurality of graphical definitions is received, and wherein the child node does not remain customized when the child node is reordered with a node corresponding to the selected content portion.

9. A computer system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and containing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method for editing a hierarchical diagram, the method comprising;

accepting content in a content pane, wherein the content comprises a plurality of content portions displayed in a hierarchical format comprising two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more hierarchical levels comprises a plurality of hierarchical positions, and wherein a first content portion occupies a first hierarchical position and a second content portion occupies a second hierarchical position of the plurality of hierarchical positions;

receiving a selection of at least one of a plurality of graphical definitions, wherein the at least one selected graphical definition comprises a layout and a style for presenting the content;

applying the at least one selected graphical definition to the content to produce the hierarchical diagram;

simultaneously displaying the hierarchical diagram in a graphics pane separate from the content pane, wherein the hierarchical diagram comprises a plurality of nodes in an arrangement corresponding to the hierarchical format, wherein the hierarchical diagram comprises two or more node levels corresponding to the two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more node levels comprises a plurality of node positions corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical positions, wherein a first node corresponding to the first content portion occupies a corresponding first node position of the plurality of node positions, and wherein a second node corresponding to the second content portion occupies a corresponding second node position of the plurality of node positions;

selecting the first content portion of the plurality of content portions in the first hierarchical position within a first hierarchical level of the two or more hierarchical levels of the content;

displaying a menu comprising options for reordering the selected first content portion;

upon receiving a selection of an option for reordering the selected first content portion, reordering the selected first content portion from the first hierarchical position to a different hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level; and

automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to a different node position in the graphics pane, wherein automatically reordering comprises changing a position of the first node within the first node level of the hierarchical diagram, and wherein automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to the different node position corresponds to the reordering of the first content portion from the first hierarchical position to the different hierarchical position in the content pane.

10. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of content portions in the content pane for reordering, wherein the selected content portion further comprises a child content portion.

11. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

determining that the first hierarchical position is a highest hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level; and

only displaying an option for reordering the selected first content portion in the first hierarchical position down within the first hierarchical level.

12. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of content portions in a last hierarchical position within a first hierarchical level of the one or more hierarchical levels of the content;

determining that the last hierarchical position is a lowest hierarchical position within the first hierarchical level; and

only displaying an option for reordering the selected first content portion up within the first hierarchical level.

13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein when the selected content portion is reordered the child content portion is reordered along with the selected content portion.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein a child node corresponding to the child content portion is customized, and wherein the child node remains customized when the child node is reordered with a node corresponding to the selected content portion.

15. The computer system of claim 13, wherein a child node corresponding to the child content portion is customized, wherein a new selection of the one or more graphical definitions is received, and wherein the child node does not remain customized when the child node is reordered with the selected content portion.

16. A computer-implemented method for editing a graphical content, the method comprising:

accepting content in a content pane, wherein the content comprises a plurality of content portions displayed in a hierarchical format comprising two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more hierarchical levels comprises a plurality of hierarchical positions, and wherein a first content portion occupies a first hierarchical position and a second content portion occupies a second hierarchical position of the plurality of hierarchical positions;

receiving a selection of at least one of a plurality of graphical definitions, wherein the at least one selected graphical definition comprises a layout and a style for presenting the content;

applying the at least one selected graphical definition to the content to produce graphical content;

simultaneously displaying the graphical content in a graphics pane separate from the content pane, wherein the graphical content comprises a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure corresponding to the hierarchical format, wherein the hierarchical structure comprises two or more node levels corresponding to the two or more hierarchical levels, wherein at least one of the two or more node levels comprises a plurality of node positions corresponding to the plurality of hierarchical positions, and wherein a first node corresponds to the first content portion and occupies a corresponding first node position of the plurality of node positions, and wherein a second node corresponds to the second content portion and occupies a corresponding second node position of the plurality of node positions;

receiving a change to the graphical content in the graphics pane, wherein the change includes reordering the first node from the first node position to a different node position within the at least one of the two or more node levels; and

automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to a different node position in the graphics pane, wherein automatically reordering comprises changing a position of the first node within one of the two or more node levels of the hierarchical diagram, and wherein automatically reordering the first node from the first node position to the different node position corresponds to the reordering of the first content portion from the first hierarchical position to the different hierarchical position in the content pane.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting one of the plurality of nodes for reordering, wherein the selected node comprises a child node.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting the first node of the plurality of nodes in the first node position in a first node level of the two or more node levels of the graphical content;

displaying a menu comprising options for reordering the selected first node; and

upon receiving a selection of an option for reordering the selected first node, reordering the selected first node from the first node position to the different node position within the first node level.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein when the selected node is reordered the child node is reordered along with the selected node.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the child node is customized, and wherein the child node remains customized when the child node is reordered along with the selected node.