Automatic content expansion indicators

• US 9,128,917 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2005
• Issued: 09/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Blas, Joaquin C. Jr., Skidgel, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Rutten, James D
• Application Number:
  US11/210,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20140250362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,668 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for providing automatic expanding and collapsing of a portion of visual content on a screen including expanding the portion of visual content, and providing a visual cue alerting a user that the portion is automatically expanded from a collapsed state.

Claims

1. A method for providing automatic expanding and collapsing of a portion of visual content on a screen, said method comprising:

providing, by a computing system, an interface displaying visual content, wherein at least some of the visual content is represented in a collapsed state, wherein the interface supports an expand command to expand content represented in a collapsed state, a collapse command to collapse content represented in an expanded state, and at least one selection command which, in response to input identifying content of interest, searches for the content of interest and automatically expands content represented in the collapsed state if the content represented in the collapsed state comprises the content of interest, the selection command invocable independently from the expand or collapse command;

receiving, by the computing system, input invoking the selection command and identifying content of interest;

determining, by the computing system that the content of interest is included in a portion of the content that is represented in the collapsed state;

automatically expanding, by the computing system, said portion of the visual content; and

providing, by the computing system, output to display a visual cue on a display device, the visual cue associated with the portion that was automatically expanded and configured to indicate that said portion was automatically expanded from a collapsed state in response to invoking the selection command,

wherein the visual cue distinguishes said automatically expanded portion from other content represented in the expanded state alongside the automatically-expanded portion, and wherein the other content represented in the expanded state is expanded in response to an event other than the input invoking the selection command and identifying the content of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the visual content comprises text, source code, or a visual element.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said visual cue comprises at least one of hash marks in a gutter of a code view indicating lines containing expanded collapsed code or highlighting expanded collapsed code.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said expanding includes expanding nested collapsed sections of said visual content.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said method is performed by one of:

an Integrated Development Environment (IDE);

a word processing program;

or a text editor.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising recollapsing said portion and removing said visual cue.

7. A method for providing an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), said IDE including a code view depicting source code content and a design view depicting a graphically laid-out version of a document defined by source code in the code view, said method comprising:

receiving user input selecting at least a portion of visual representation of a component in said design view, said component defined by source code in said code view;

expanding a section of said source code in said code view from a collapsed state in response to said receiving;

providing one or more visual cues indicating that said section of said source code defines said component and was expanded in response to said user input in said design view selecting said portion of said visual representation of said component; and

removing said one or more visual cues and recollapsing said section of said source code.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said expanding said section of said source code in said code view comprises:

marking a beginning point and an ending point of a portion of said source code corresponding to said at least a portion of said visual representation of said component; and

determining that one or more of said points is within said section of said source code.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said removing said one or more visual cues and recollapsing said section of said source code is in response to receiving user input in said design view removing selection of said portion of said visual representation of said component.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said removing said one or more visual cues and recollapsing said section of said source code is in response to receiving user input in said design view selecting at least a portion of visual representation of a different component in said design view, said different component defined by different source code in said code view.

11. A method for providing automatic expanding and collapsing of portions of visual display, said method comprising:

providing, by a computing system, a code view depicting source code content and a design view rendering a graphic layout of elements defined by the source code, at least a first portion of the source code content represented in a collapsed state in the code view and at least a second portion of the source code content represented in an expanded state;

automatically expanding the first portion of the source code content represented in the collapsed state in response to user input identifying an element rendered in the design view and defined by source code included in the portion;

providing indicators in the code view that the first portion is automatically expanded from a collapsed state, the indicators distinguishing the automatically expanded first portion from the second portion, wherein the second portion is expanded in response to an event other than the user input identifying the element rendered in the design view; and

recollapsing said first portion and removing said indicators from said screen in response to further user input.

12. The method set forth in claim 11, wherein the indicators comprise at least one of hash marks in a gutter of said code view indicating lines of code defining the identified element and a change in the appearance of lines of code defining the identified element.

13. The method set forth in claim 11, wherein the code comprises source code defining a word processing document, a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) document, or a Rich Internet Application (RIA).

14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying program code, the computer program product comprising:

program code for providing a first interface and displaying content in the first interface, the first interface supporting an expand command to expand content represented in a collapsed state and a collapse command to collapse content represented in an expanded state;

program code for collapsing at least a portion of the content in response to the collapse command and rendering a collapse indicator in place of the collapsed content in the first interface, the collapse indicator rendered alongside other content represented in the expanded state;

program code for providing a second interface and receiving a selection command identifying content of interest via the second interface;

program code for determining, in response to the selection command, if the content of interest is included in the collapsed content; and

program code for expanding at least the portion of collapsed content including the content of interest and providing an indicator, the indicator visually distinguishing the portion that has been automatically expanded from a collapsed state in response to the selection command from the other content represented in the expanded state, wherein the other content represented in the expanded state is expanded in response to an event other than the selection command.

15. The computer program product set forth in claim 14, wherein the second interface comprises a search interface configured to receive one or more search terms identifying the content of interest.

16. The computer program product set forth in claim 15, further comprising:

program code for identifying when use of the search interface is complete; and

program code for re-collapsing the expanded portion of the content after use of the search interface is complete.

17. The computer program product set forth in claim 14, wherein content in the first interface comprises source code and the second interface comprises a design view rendering elements defined by the source code in the first interface, wherein the selection command identifying content of interest comprises selection of one or more elements rendered in the second interface.

18. The computer program product set forth in claim 17, further comprising:

program code for re-collapsing the expanded portion of the content after the selected one or more elements are de-selected.

19. The computer program product set forth in claim 14, wherein the visual indicator visually distinguishes the portion that has been automatically expanded by using at least one of:

a color or highlighting different from a color or highlighting associated with the other content already represented in the expanded state;

or

hash marks different from hash marks or annotations associated with the other content already represented in the expanded state.