System and method for displaying data items in a ticker display pane on a client computer

• US 5,959,621 A
• Filed: 12/06/1996
• Issued: 09/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Nawaz, Sabina, McLain, Jay Franklin, Tuchen, Michael H., Isaac, Steven Alfred, Jakstadt, Eric George
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAUTISTA, XIOMARA L
• Application Number:
  US08/761,664
• Time in Patent Office: 1,026 Days
• Field of Search: 345/326, 345/329, 345/330, 345/333, 345/335, 345/339, 345/340, 345/343, 345/347, 345/348, 345/962, 705/37
• US Class Current: 715/733
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units

Abstract

A system and method for dynamically displaying data items on a client computer. In one aspect of the invention, the client computer displays a graphical user interface having a windowing environment and a desktop. The desktop includes a ticker display pane for dynamically displaying the data items. The data items may contain hyperlinks so that a user has access to information on multiple server computers. The data items are displayed in a substantially continuous sequence and may be provided from Internet servers, Intranet servers, LAN servers, and/or the client computer itself.

Claims

1. A system for communicating between users on a computer network, comprising:

a computer workstation including a computer display, the computer workstation being one of a plurality of computer workstations on the computer network;

a graphical user interface for displaying a desktop and a ticker display pane on the computer display, the ticker display pane for displaying messages sent from other users on the network; and

a personal options page displayed on the computer display, the personal options page having user-selected criteria for controlling which messages posted on the computer network are displayed in the ticker display pane.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the ticker display pane integrates data items received from a remote computer workstation with messages sent from other users on the network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further including a posting options page having a plurality of fields associated with the user-selected criteria for allowing a user to control which other users on the computer network are sent a message.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the ticker display pane is part of the desktop.

5. A method of displaying data on a client computer having a graphical user interface including a desktop and a windowing environment, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a ticker display pane for displaying data in the graphical user interface;

connecting to a computer network including multiple users;

retrieving a plurality of discrete data items from at least one source computer; and

integrating the data items received from the source computer with messages sent from other users on the computer network.

6. The method of claim 5 further including setting a personal options page having user-selected criteria for controlling which discrete data items are displayed on the ticker display pane;

and

sequentially displaying the plurality of discrete data items in the ticker display pane in accordance with the personal options page.

7. The method of claim 5 further including:

connecting to the computer network from the client computer, the computer network having a plurality of server computers, wherein the source computer is a server computer on the network.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the source computer is the client computer itself.

9. The method of claim 5 further including:

connecting to the computer network from the client computer, the computer network having a plurality of server computers;

retrieving a first data item from a first server computer connected to the computer network;

retrieving a second data item from a second server computer connected to the computer network; and

integrating the first and second data items into a sequential display of data items displayed on the ticker display pane.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the computer network is a first computer network and the method includes connecting to a third server computer on a second computer network and retrieving a third data item from the third server computer for integration into the sequence of data items.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one of the data items in the sequence includes a hyperlink referencing a document for retrieving and displaying the document upon activation of the hyperlink.

12. The method of claim 5 further including displaying a source identifier for displaying an image indicating the source of a currently displayed data item in a sequence of data items.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the source identifier includes a hyperlink referencing a document for retrieving and displaying the document upon activation of the hyperlink.