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Offenlegung:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF
THE INVENTION
The method of this invention can
work in conjunction with the prior art techniques, described
above, providing still more savings in screen real estate when
floating palettes are employed. Briefly, the method of this
invention for displaying on a computer screen multiple sets of
information needed on a recurring basis comprises the
following steps: (1) establishing an area on the computer
screen in which the multiple sets of information are to be
displayed, the area haying a maximum size which is
substantially less than the entire area of the screen; (2)
providing within that area a plurality of selection
indicators, one for each of the multiple sets of information;
and (3) selecting one of the multiple sets of information for
display within the established area by pointing to one of the
selection indicators within the established area, whereby the
selected set of information will be substituted within the
same area for the set of information which previously had been
displayed within the established area. When the user no
longer wants the sets of information to be combined, he or she
may point to one of the selection indicators within the
selected area and move or drag one of the selected sets of
information away from the established area.
Using
the method of this invention, the same screen area can be used
for these multiple sets of information, thereby freeing up
more area of the document for user access. Alternatively, this
space saving technique can be employed to make available more
floating palettes than were previously possible with prior art
techniques.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 illustrates the use of pull-down menus in a
computer program;
Fig. 2 illustrates a typical dialog
box in a computer program;
Fig. 3 illustrates the use
of floating palettes in a computer program;
Fig. 4
illustrates the use of re-orientable palettes in a computer
program;
Fig. 5 shows an arrangement of floating
palettes of the invention with one palette overlapping
another;
Fig. 6 shows two separate combinable palettes
of the type used in the invention before they are combined;
Figs. 7 and 8 show two examples of combined floating
palettes in accordance with the invention; and
Fig. 9
illustrates the control flow for the combinable palettes of a
preferred embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED
EMBODIMENT
The invention works with floating
palettes that may be used in accordance with prior art
techniques. For example, the "Scratch", "Swatches" and
"Picker" palettes, shown in Fig. 5 as palettes 10, 12 and 14,
respectively, are three different sets of controls used for
selecting colors in the Adobe Photoshop program. As with
typical prior art floating palettes, they can be moved
anywhere on the screen. They can be overlapped, as is shown in
Fig. 5, where "Picker" palette 14 is partially overlapped onto
"Swatch" palette 12. And they can be hidden by clicking on the
"close boxes" 16, 18 and 20, respectively located in the upper
left corner of each of the three palettes 10, 12 and 14 in
Fig. 5. Once hidden, a palette is re-activated, as is well
known in the art, by choosing an appropriate menu command
which designates the hidden palette. As with normal Macintosh
TM software, clicking on any of boxes 16, 18 or 20 totally
removes the palette containing that box from the screen. In
accordance with this invention, any hidden palettes underneath
the top one would also be removed.
The technique of
the invention departs from prior art solutions to the screen
real estate saving problem by allowing multiple palettes to be
combined so that they occupy the same screen real estate and
move as a combined unit. In accordance with the invention, by
clicking on the title control tabs 22, 24 or 26 of one of
palettes 10, 12 or 14, respectively, shown as folder tabs
entitled "Scratch", "Swatches" and "Picker" just under the top
left corner of each of these palettes 10, 12 and 14, a
particular palette is selected. For example, in Fig. 6, if
"Scratch" palette 10 is selected (by clicking on the "Scratch"
tab) and dragged to the left so as to partially overlap the
"Swatches" palette 12, as shown by the dotted box 11 in Fig.
6, instead of the palettes remaining partially overlapped, as
shown by the dotted box 11 in Fig. 6, they will be physically
combined in area 40, as shown in Fig. 7.
In their
combined state, shown as screen area 40 in both Figs. 7 and 8,
the "Scratch" and "Swatches" palettes 10 and 12 move as one
and occupy the exact same physical screen space 40 as a single
palette. Screen area 40 in Fig. 7 shows the "Scratch" palette
10 selected and visible, the "Swatches" palette 12 being
hidden behind it with only its control tab 34 visible. The
same screen area 40 in Fig. 8 shows the "Scratch" palette 10
hidden with only its control tab 36 visible and the "Swatches"
palette 12 is selected and fully visible. It is important to
note that the tab controls of both palettes always remain
accessible, as shown. When combined, the palette control tabs
of the two unified palettes assume one of two states: active,
as shown by "Scratch" tab 30 in Fig. 7 and "Swatches" tab 32
in Fig. 8, or inactive, as shown by "Swatches" tab 34 in Fig.
7 and "Scratch" tab 36 in Fig. 8. Only the active palette is
displayed, not the inactive one. Clicking on an inactive
palette control tab, which always remains displayed, makes
that palette the active one, and makes the formerly active
palette inactive. By clicking on tab 34 in screen area 40 in
Fig. 7, for example, the inactive "Swatches" palette 12 will
replace the active and visible "Scratch" palette 10 as the
palette in view, as shown in screen area 40 in Fig. 8.
Virtually any number of palettes can be combined,
one behind the other, by this same technique, not just two.
The only requisite is that the tabs of the hidden palettes
always be visible so an inactive palette can be identified and
retrieved. Combined palettes may easily be separated by the
same technique as used for combining them, as illustrated in
Fig. 6. Clicking on the title control tab 34 in Fig. 7 of the
inactive "Swatches" palette and dragging it outside of the
combined screen area 40 will liberate the hidden "Swatches"
palette 12 and place "Swatches" palette 12 in an area of the
screen where it can be viewed.
The method of the
invention is described in more detail using the flow chart of
Fig. 9. The method starts at box 50 where the user clicks the
pointer on the floating palette control tab. At step 52 a
determination is made whether the mouse button has been
released. If the answer is yes, a second determination is made
at step 54 as to whether the selected palette control tab was
behind other tabs. The tab will be "behind" other tabs when it
belongs to an inactive palette which is combined with an
active palette. If the answer to that question is yes, the
selected tab is made active, the other tabs with which it is
combined are made inactive and its palette contents are made
visible. If desired, the palette indicated by the selected tab
also may be resized, as is well known in the art, for example,
in Microsoft "Windows". The palette options are brought to
the foreground at the same time. On the other hand, if the
selected tab was determined at step 54 not to be combined with
other tabs, or is already active, then nothing further need be
done.
If it was determined at step 52 that the mouse
button had not been released, a determination is made at step
56 whether the selected tab was dragged past the edge of the
screen area of the palette controlled by the selected tab
(such as screen area 40 in Figs. 7 and 8). If not, nothing
further is done. If so, however, at step 58 a determination is
made whether the selected palette is currently combined with
any others. If so, the selected palette is highlighted.
Moreover, the palette associated with the selected tab is
separated from the inactive palettes in the selected palette
group.
If the selected palette was determined in
step 58 not to be combined with any others, then a
determination is made at step 60 whether the tab is now on top
of another palette. If so, the palette which the selected tab
is on top of is highlighted. In addition, the palette
associated with the selected tab is combined with the palette
that it is on top of. If the determination in step 60 finds
that the tab is not now on top of another palette, the
selected palette is merely moved the distance that the tab was
dragged, as was determined at step 56.
The technique
of the invention provides a way of combining palette controls
to allow multiple sets of controls to occupy the same screen
space. The invention allows any number of palettes to be
combined or separated at the user's discretion.
A
general description of the device and method of the present
invention as well as a preferred embodiment of the present
invention has been set forth above. For example, the palettes
could be somewhat different from each other in area, and a
smaller one may be placed on top of a larger one (or
vice-versa), where either the smaller one would expand to fill
the space of the larger, or the larger one shrink to conform
to the smaller, taking into account any size limitations
imposed upon one or more palettes by the underlying program.
One skilled in the art will be able to practice variations in
the methods described which fall within the scope of the
teachings of this invention, which should only be limited as
set forth in the claims which follow.
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![[GIMP: Palette mit Reitern]](gimp-palette.png)