Intuitive Workspace Management

• US 20150193100A1
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Published: 07/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Strode, Maureen Emily, Lerch, Ryan John
• Granted Patent: US 11,385,774 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• 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 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• 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

Abstract

A method performed by a computer processing system includes associating a first workspace with a first graphical object of a workspace widget, the workspace widget being provided to a user through a graphical user interface (GUI). The method further includes receiving an input from a user to switch to a second workspace, providing the second workspace to the user through the GUI, moving the first graphical object from a first position in the workspace widget to a second position in the workspace widget, adding a second graphical object to the workspace widget at the first position, the second graphical object being associated with the second workspace.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer processing system, the method comprising:

associating a first workspace with a first graphical object of a workspace widget, the workspace widget being provided to a user through a graphical user interface (GUI);

receiving an input from a user to switch to a second workspace;

providing the second workspace to the user through the GUI;

moving the first graphical object from a first position in the workspace widget to a second position in the workspace widget;

adding a second graphical object to the workspace widget at the first position, the second graphical object being associated with the second workspace.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of the first workspace includes a set of open applications.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the state of the first workspace includes files associated with the applications.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the workspace widget is a vertical widget and the second position is below the first position.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the workspace widget is a horizontal widget and the second position is to a right of the first position from a perspective of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving an additional input from a user to save a state of the second workspace.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

moving the first graphical object from the second position to a third position;

moving the second graphical object from the first position to the second position; and

adding a third graphical object to the workspace widget at the first position.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising, providing a third workspace to the user through the GUI, the third workspace being associated with the third graphical object.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first graphical object comprises a thumbnail image of the first workspace.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating a tag with the first workspace, the tag corresponding to a characteristic of the first workspace; and

searching, based on the tag, a plurality of workspaces associated with graphical objects of the workspace widget.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising, moving application objects between the first workspace and the second workspace through the workspace widget.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising, automatically generating a name for the first workspace.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the name is based on at least one of:

open applications within the first workspace, a history of user-defined names for workspaces that are similar to the first workspace, a file location of files associated with the open application objects of the first workspace and a category associated with the open application objects.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising, sharing the first workspace with another computing system operated by a different user.

15. A method for workspace management, the method performed by a computer processing system, the method comprising:

associating a first workspace with a first graphical object of a vertical workspace widget, the workspace widget being provided to a user through a graphical user interface (GUI);

receiving an input from a user to save a state of the first workspace, the state including a set of open applications within the workspace, the state further including files associated with the open applications;

providing a second workspace to the user through the GUI;

moving the first graphical object from a first position in the workspace widget to a second position in the workspace widget, the second position being below the first position;

adding a second graphical object to the workspace widget, the second graphical object being at the first position, the second graphical object being associated with the second workspace.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising,

receiving an additional input from a user to save a state of the second workspace;

moving the first graphical object from the second position to a third position;

moving the second graphical object from the first position to the second position; and

adding a third graphical object to the workspace widget, the third graphical object being added at the first position.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising, automatically generating a name for the first workspace, wherein the name is based on at least one of:

the open application objects within the first workspace, a history of user-defined names for workspaces that are similar to the first workspace, a file location of files associated with the open application objects of the first workspace and a category associated with the open application objects.

19. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the first graphical object comprises a thumbnail image of the first workspace.

20. The machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the workspace widget is a vertical widget and the second position is below the first position.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising machine readable instructions that when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the one or more processors to:

associate a first workspace with a first graphical object of a workspace widget, the workspace widget being provided to a user through a graphical user interface (GUI);

receive an input from a user to save a state of the first workspace;

provide a second workspace to the user through the GUI;

move the first graphical object from a first position in the workspace widget to a second position in the workspace widget;

add a second graphical object to the workspace widget at the first position, the second graphical object being associated with the second workspace.