OPTIMAL DISPLAY AND ZOOM OF OBJECTS AND TEXT IN A DOCUMENT

• US 20130106907A1
• Filed: 11/02/2011
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Tristan, Taleghani, Ali, Olsen, Alyshia Marie, Robins, David Benjamin
• Granted Patent: US 9,489,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• 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 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures

Abstract

An object is zoomed upon selection. A scaling factor is calculated for zooming the object based on current viewing properties of a document and properties of the object as well as the current size of the application window and device. The scaling factor to zoom the object is calculated such that after the object is zoomed, viewing the object is similar to a viewing experience for the rest of the document. Text of the document may be displayed to increase the readability of the document. For example, the text may be displayed such that each line of displayed text averages out to a predetermined number of characters (e.g. 50-75 characters) per line. A display size and width of an average character are determined and used to calculate how many columns of text to display within the display. When the zoom level of the text changes, the text is redisplayed.

Claims

1. A method for zooming an object, comprising:

receiving a selection of an object to zoom;

determining a viewing property relating to a current display of content displayed with the object;

determining an object property relating to a current display of the object before zooming;

calculating a scaling factor that is used to zoom the object based at least in part on the viewing property and the object property;

zooming the object using the scaling factor; and

displaying the zoomed object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the zoomed object in a zoom window above a display of the object.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the viewing property is a size of a font displayed within a document that includes the object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining an amount the object needs to be scaled such that text within the object after zooming is approximately the same size as a font size used within the document for text.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying a comments box near a display of the zoomed object.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on a single dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on a height dimension and a width dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying two zooming options within the zooming window that adjusts the scaling factor to no more than a predetermined number of additional zoom levels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises calculating the scaling factor differently for image objects and non-image objects.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for zooming an object, comprising:

receiving a selection of an object to zoom within a document;

determining a viewing property relating to a zoom level of text displayed outside of the object;

calculating a scaling factor that is used to zoom the object to a zoom level that is similar to the zoom level of the text that is displayed outside of the object current viewing;

zooming the object using the scaling factor; and

displaying the zoomed object within a zoom window.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein determining the viewing property relating to the zoom level of text displayed outside of the object comprises determining a font size of the text.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising determining a window characteristic, a device characteristic, a font size of text within the object and using the window characteristic, the device characteristic and the font size of text within the object when calculating the scaling factor.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on at least a single dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on a height dimension and a width dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising displaying two zooming options within the zooming window that adjust the scaling factor to either a larger zooming level or a smaller zooming level.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises calculating the scaling factor differently for image objects and non-image objects.

17. A system for zooming an object, comprising:

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor; and

an zoom manager operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to;

receiving a selection of an object to zoom within a document;

determining a viewing property relating to a size of content displayed outside of the object;

calculating a scaling factor that is used to zoom the object to a zoom level corresponds to a zoom level of the content that is displayed outside of the object;

zooming the object using the scaling factor; and

displaying the zoomed object within a zoom window.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on at least a single dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein calculating the scaling factor that is used to zoom the object comprises determining the scaling factor based on a height dimension and a width dimension of the object fitting within the zooming window after zooming the object.

20. The system of claim 17, further comprising displaying two zooming options within the zooming window that adjust the scaling factor to either a larger zooming level or a smaller zooming level.