Tab management in a user interface window

• US 9,430,124 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Schreiner, Tony E., Epling, Jeremiah S., Drislane, Helen E., Ens, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, RUAY L
• Application Number:
  US14/153,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20140173497A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 715/777, 715/738, 715/764, 715/767, 715/816, 715/817, 717/174, 709/224, 705/37, 439/152, 345/753
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor

Abstract

Techniques to facilitate finding a tab or tabs in a user interface window are described. Various embodiments present tabs, individual tabs being associated with an opened document such as a web page or an activity, in a user interface window and automatically group at least some of the tabs together in a visually distinctive way. In at least some embodiments, this grouping is performed in response to a user interacting with the tabs in a particular way. For instance, a user may cause a tab to be created or moved within the user interface window such that the tab is grouped with a tab group or ungrouped from a tab group. Furthermore, one or more embodiments provide for certain tab-related actions, such as selecting an active tab and changing a display of a title of a tab, which can be performed in a manner based at least in part on this grouping.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to cause the system to perform operations including;

presenting a user interface having a plurality of tabs that are individually associated with one or more of applications or activities that have been opened;

responsive to a user interaction with one or more of the plurality of tabs, automatically grouping multiple tabs of the plurality of tabs together in a tab group;

receiving an indication that a current active tab of the multiple tabs is closed, the current active tab being a rightmost tab in the tab group and not a rightmost tab in the plurality of tabs; and

responsive to receiving the indication, automatically selecting a new active tab from the tab group by selecting as the new active tab a tab that is positioned to the left of the current active tab of the multiple tabs.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatically grouping is performed by grouping tabs using a visually distinctive color.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatically grouping is performed by grouping tabs using a visually distinctive pattern.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatically grouping is performed by grouping tabs using a visually distinctive color and pattern.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatically grouping is performed by grouping one or more of the multiple tabs adjacent to at least one other of the multiple tabs in the tab group.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said user interaction comprises creating a new tab by opening a web page, an application page, or an activity from within a tabbed page or respective activity associated with a parent tab.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise one or both of:

ungrouping a tab responsive to a user moving a tab to be ungrouped outside of a tab group; and

changing a display of a title of a tab based at least in part on a grouping.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise limiting a number of tab groups, including the tab group, that are permitted to be created in the user interface window based on a predetermined threshold.

9. A method comprising:

presenting multiple tabs in a user interface, at least some of the multiple tabs having an associated document or activity;

associating a subset of tabs of the multiple tabs together in a tab group, the multiple tabs including one or more other tabs that are not included in the tab group;

visually distinguishing individual tabs of the tab group from the one or more other tabs that are not include in the tab group;

receiving, by one or more processors, an indication that a current active tab of the tab group is being closed, the current active tab being a rightmost tab in the tab group and not a rightmost tab of the multiple tabs; and

responsive to receiving the indication, automatically selecting, by the one or more processors, a new active tab from the tab group, the new active tab being part of the tab group and positioned to the left of the current active tab.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said associating is performed responsive to a new document or activity being opened from a document or respective activity associated with one of the multiple tabs.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said associating is performed responsive to one of the multiple tabs being moved to within the tab group.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising depicting the individual tabs of the tab group with one or more visual indicia indicative of the tab group, the individual tabs of the tab group sharing one or more common visual indicia.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising truncating a portion of a tab'"'"'s displayed title based on one or more criteria.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more criteria comprise at least one of:

whether a tab is an active tab in the user interface;

whether a tab belongs to the tab group;

or

whether a tab'"'"'s title contains a pattern that indicates a portion of the title is displayed on another tab in the tab group.

15. A system comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to cause the system to perform operations including;

automatically grouping two or more of a plurality of tabs that are presented via a user interface into a tab group and in a visually-distinctive way, each tab being associated with a corresponding opened document or application;

receiving an indication that a current active tab is closed, the current active tab being a rightmost tab in the tab group and not a rightmost tab in the plurality of tabs presented in the user interface; and

responsive to the indication that the current active tab is closed, selecting as a new active tab an adjacent tab that is positioned to the left of the current active tab and based on the new active tab being part of the tab group.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the said automatically grouping comprises depicting two or more tabs with a common color.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein said automatically grouping the two or more of the plurality of tabs comprises depicting two or more tabs with a common pattern.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the two or more of the plurality of tabs are automatically grouped responsive to one or more of the following:

a tab being opened in the user interface based on a web page, an application page, or an activity being opened from within an opened tabbed page or respective activity associated with a parent tab;

or

moving one or more of the plurality of tabs within the user interface window.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further include, responsive to one or more of the plurality of tabs being moved within the user interface:

maintaining the one or more of the plurality of tabs as part of the tab group when the one or more of the plurality of tabs is moved to a position that is adjacent to at least one other tab in the tab group;

or

joining the one or more of the plurality of tabs to a different tab group when the one or more of the plurality of tabs is moved to a position that is between two tabs in the different tab group.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further include changing a display of a title of a tab based on one or more of:

whether a tab is an active tab in the user interface;

or

whether a tab is grouped with one or more other tabs.