Active Z order manipulation of a popup window in multimonitor systems

• US 8,850,334 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2006
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Heritage Union, LLC, Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Dorn, Karlheinz, Graf, Oliver, Scharf, Christian, Von Stockhausen, Hans-Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Amy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Muhebbullah, Sajeda
• Application Number:
  US11/373,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206825A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,123 Days
• Field of Search: 715/761, 715/781, 715/788, 715790-791, 715794-796, 345/1.1
• US Class Current: 715/761
• 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 method and apparatus are disclosed for controlling positioning for a child window, produced by a main window, on at least one monitor in a multimonitor computer system, where a first and a second positioning mechanism control the positioning of the child window on the monitors such that the child window is positioned at the topmost position and fully visibly on all monitors.

Claims

1. A method of controlling positioning for a first child window in a multimonitor computer system, in which a plurality of applications are running in parallel, wherein each of the plurality of applications includes a main window respectively associated with at least one of a plurality of monitors, and wherein the first child window is produced by a respective main window and the first child window is displayed at a topmost position on a first monitor of the plurality of monitors that produces the first child window based on a first positioning mechanism, the method comprising:

accessing, via a control for the positioning of the first child window, a second positioning mechanism that is configured to control the positioning of a second child window so that the second child window is displayed on at least one another monitor of the plurality of monitors that is separate from the first monitor displaying the first child window;

wherein

the main window producing the first child window is not associated with the at least one another monitor and the main windows do not overlap,

the second positioning mechanism positions at least one main window associated with the at least one another monitor respectively at the bottommost position on the at least one another monitor, so that the second child window is positioned on the at least one another monitor and is completely visible at the topmost position,

the first child window visibly overlaps a plurality of the main windows, and

the second positioning mechanism manipulates an original positioning for the at least one main window on the at least one another monitor by positioning all full screen main windows of the at least one another monitor at the bottommost position on the at least one another monitor, the second child window being a duplicate of the first child window.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control for the positioning takes place centrally.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first child window is displayed at least one of partly and fully at the topmost position on the first monitor.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first child window is positioned at the topmost position regardless of whether the associated main window has been activated.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and the second positioning mechanisms are based on a Z order arrangement.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second positioning mechanism is activated on the at least one another monitor as soon as a change of position for at least one of the main windows positioned on the at least one another monitor has been detected.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the control, the first positioning mechanism and the second positioning mechanism are executed automatically.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first child window includes all subsequent windows produced by the respective associated main window.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of main windows are positioned on at least one of the plurality of monitors so as not to overlap.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing accesses the second positioning mechanism to control the positioning of the second child window so that the second child window is displayed fully on the at least one another monitor.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first child window is displayed at least one of partly and fully at the topmost position on the first monitor.

21. A computer program product, including a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, adapted to, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method as claimed in claim 1.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program segments for, when executed on a computer, causing the computer to implement the method of claim 1.

11. An apparatus that controls positioning for a child window in a multimonitor computer system, in which a plurality of applications are running in parallel, wherein each of the plurality of applications includes a main window respectively associated with at least one of a plurality of monitors, and wherein the first child window is produced by a respective main window and the child window is displayed at a topmost position on a first monitor of the plurality of monitors that produces the first child window based on a first positioning module, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to access a memory device and control the positioning of the first child window; and

a second positioning module, a control for the positioning of the child window accessing the second positioning module which controls the positioning of a second child window so that the second child window is displayed on at least one another monitor of the plurality of monitors;

wherein

the main window producing the first child window is not associated with the at least one another monitor and the main windows do not overlap,

the second positioning module positioning at least one main window associated with the at least one another monitor respectively at the bottommost position on the at least one another monitor, so that the second child window is also positioned on the at least one another monitor fully visible at the topmost position,

the displayed first child window visibly overlaps a plurality of the main windows, and

the second positioning module manipulates an original positioning for the at least one main window on the at least one another monitor by positioning all full-screen main windows of the at least one another monitor at the bottommost position, the second child window being a duplicate of the first child window.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the apparatus operates centrally.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the first child window is positioned at the topmost position regardless of whether the associated main window has been activated.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein at least one of the first and the second positioning module is based on a Z order arrangement.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the second positioning module is activated on the at least one another monitor as soon as a change of position for at least one of the main windows positioned on the at least one another monitor has been detected.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein at least one of the control and the positioning modules are executed automatically.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the first child window includes all subsequent windows which are produced by the respective associated main window.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein a plurality of main windows are positioned on at least one of the plurality of monitors so as not to overlap.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second positioning module controls the positioning of the second child window so that the second child window is displayed fully on the at least one another monitor.