System for providing a category separator in a list of documents

• US 7,917,867 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Issued: 03/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Loverin, Darrell J., Moody, Paul B., Wattenberg, Martin M., Coppinger, Jodi L., Kerr, Bernard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh; Ba
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIENER, ERIC A
• Application Number:
  US12/166,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20080270935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,000 Days
• Field of Search: 715/784, 715/787, 715790-797, 715/817, 715/775, 715/752, 715/521, 715/973, 715/520, 715/712, 715/772, 715/776, 715/777, 715821-824, 715/828, 715/829, 715853-856, 709/206
• US Class Current: 715/823
• 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

Abstract

A system is provided to assist a user in selecting, identifying, and handling email messages. A selection color module may provide for the display of color coding and selection highlighting. The selection color module may provide a secondary highlighting color to indicate messages related to a selected message. A category navigation module may provide one or more of the following: an indicator that provides the user with a number of items that are off the screen for a particular category, a command that causes the first entry for a category to be scrolled into view, a label to indicate the number of items in a particular category matching a particular criteria, and/or a control for scrolling between next or previous categories.

Claims

1. A graphical user interface displayed on a display device for presenting one or more categories of related items to a user via a display, the display having a plurality of display lines, the graphical user interface comprising:

at least a portion of a first category of related items;

at least a portion of a second category of related items, wherein each item is presented to the user on at least one display line on the display;

a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items;

a scroll control for scrolling the first category of related items, the second category of related items, and the category separator in response to one or more actions by the user,

wherein the category separator is maintained at a predetermined position on the display in response to further of said one or more actions by the user once the category separator reaches the predetermined position of the display; and

a displayed value displayed with the category separator that indicates a number of related items in the second category of related items that have been scrolled out of view of the display, wherein the displayed value is updated in response to said scrolling.

2. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator is displayed on one of the plurality of display lines.

3. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator is displayed on a display line used to display a first item of the second category of related items.

4. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator is displayed on a display line used to display a last item of the first category of related items.

5. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a first line of the display.

6. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a last line of the display.

7. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator is displayed only when there is at least one of the second category of related items displayed.

8. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the items comprise documents.

9. The graphical user interface of claim 8, wherein the documents comprise messages.

10. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the messages include email messages.

11. The graphical user interface of claim 8, further comprising:

a first related document of the first category of documents displayed at a predetermined position of the display in response to one or more actions by the user.

12. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the first related document of the first category of documents is displayed on the first line of the display.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the first related document of the first category of documents is displayed on the second line of the display;

and

the category separator is displayed on the first line of the display.

14. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises one of a control that presents a previous category by scrolling to the previous category or a control that presents a subsequent category by scrolling to the subsequent category.

15. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises a control that presents a previous category by scrolling to the previous category and a control that presents a subsequent category by scrolling to the subsequent category.

16. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises a control that displayed the first item of a category of related items when no item of the category of related items is presented above the category separator.

17. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises a control that collapses a category of related items by reducing the number of related items displayed.

18. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the category separator comprises a control that expands a category of related items by increasing the number of related items displayed.

19. A system for presenting one or more categories of related items to a user comprising:

a display device having a plurality of display lines and configured to;

present at least a portion of a first category of related items, and

present at least a portion of a second category of related items, wherein each presented item is presented to the user on at least one display line on the display;

present a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items;

scroll the first category of related items, the second category of related items, and the category separator in response to one or more actions by the user;

maintain the category separator at a predetermined position on the display in response to further of said one or more actions by the user once the category separator reaches the predetermined position of the display;

associate the category separator with the second category of related items, the category separator including a displayed value that indicates a number of related items in the second category of related items that have been scrolled out of view of the display; and

update the displayed value in response to said scrolling.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein, in presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items, the display is configured to present a category separator that substantially includes one of the plurality of display lines.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein, in presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items, the display is configured to present a category separator in conjunction with a display line used to display a first item of the second category of related items.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein, in presenting a category separator disposed between or in connection with the portion of the first category of related items and the portion of the second category of related items, the display is configured to present a category separator in conjunction with a display line used to display a last item of the first category of related items.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a first line of the display.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined position of the display comprises a last line of the display.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the display is configured to remove the category separator from the display once none of the second category of related items are presented.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the category separator is configured to present a previous category or a subsequent category.