Patent Application
20120324396
1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to assigning attributes between two windows in a graphical interface. Specifically, the invention relates to detecting a predetermined proximity between two windows and transferring attribute settings of one window to the other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical user interface systems allow sets of similar windows to coexist simultaneously. For example, a desktop session displayed on a monitor may have multiple windows that each represent an instance of the same application. That is, a desktop session may have multiple windows of the same application open at one time. In general, an application is any program that runs on a computer system, for example, a text editor, instant-chat messenger, internet browsers, and the like. The computer system could be a personal computer, server, tablet, cell phone, etc.
Each window typically has multiple attributes associated with the application—e.g., font, color, text size, toolbars, etc. Many applications permit the user to customize the settings of the attributes. However, there is no easy way of changing the attribute settings when there are multiple windows of the same application running during a desktop session. To change the attribute settings for all the windows, a user must either change the attributes for each window individually or close the active windows, reconfigure the default settings for the application, and restart the windows.
Currently, there is no convenient method of transferring the settings of an attribute of one window to another window.
Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product that transfer an attribute setting from a first window to a second window. The method, system and computer program output a first window and a second window for display on a display device where the first and second windows each have a defined boundary on the display device and an attribute with a default setting. Moreover, the attribute is user-customizable. The method, system and computer program set the first window as a model window and, upon determining that at least one reference point of the model window is located within a predetermined distance from a reference point of the second window on the display device, assign a setting of the user customizable attribute of the model window to the user customizable attribute of the second window.
So that the manner in which the above recited aspects are attained and can be understood in detail, a more particular description of embodiments of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to the appended drawings.
It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.
A display device may permit a user to open multiple windows at one time. Further, at least two windows may be separate instances of the same application. For example, a user may have two documents of the same word processing application open in separate windows. Each window has certain attributes that are customizable by the user, such as the type of font, the color of the text, or which toolbars to display. With many applications, however, changing the attributes of one window or instance of that application does not change the attributes of another active window of that same application.
In embodiments of the present invention, a user designates one of the windows as a model window. This designation permits the user to grab a window using an I/O device and move it near or overlapping with other windows. Once the model window comes within a certain distance of a window of the same application, the attribute settings of the model window are assigned to the attributes of the other window. For example, if the font (i.e., an attribute) of the model window was set to Times New Roman (i.e., a setting of the attribute), the font of the other window is also set to Times New Roman.
In one embodiment, the assigned settings may revert after a timer expires if, for example, the user wants the assignment to be temporary. The window whose attributes were changed may then revert back to either the default settings or the settings before the attributes were changed by moving the window within a predetermined distance of the model window. In another embodiment, the computer system may alert the user when settings are changed.
In one embodiment, attribute settings of the model window are transferred to another window on the display device even if the windows are not separate instance of the same window. After determining which attributes the windows have in common, only the settings for those common attributes are transferred from the model window to the other window. For example, if the model window is instance of a text editor and the other window is an instance of an instant messenger, then the settings for the attributes the two applications have in common, such as font type and size, may be transferred when the two windows come within a certain distance of each other on the display device.
In the following, reference is made to embodiments of the invention. However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination of the following features and elements, whether related to different embodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice the invention. Furthermore, although embodiments of the invention may achieve advantages over other possible solutions and/or over the prior art, whether or not a particular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s). Likewise, reference to “the invention” shall not be construed as a generalization of any inventive subject matter disclosed herein and shall not be considered to be an element or limitation of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The I/O device 150 is any device that enables the user to interact with the computer system 105. Example I/O devices 150 include mice, keyboards, motion sensors, eye-trackers, or scroll-balls. Like the display device 170, the I/O device 150 may be integrated within the computer system 105 (e.g., a scroll-ball on a cell phone). Moreover, the I/O device 150 and the display device 170 may be integrated together such as in a touch screen for a cell phone, MP3 player, or tablet computer. Conversely, the I/O device 150 and the display device 170 may not be directly connected to the computer system 105 but may use a network (e.g., a LAN or WAN) to communicate with the computer system 105. A person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize the different ways of combining the display device 170, the I/O device 150, and the computer system 105.
The computer system 105 includes a processor 107, a storage device 109, and memory 111. The processor 107 may be any processor adapted to support the methods of the invention. Storage 109 includes hard-disk drives, flash memory devices, optical media and the like. The memory 111 is any memory sufficiently large to hold the necessary programs and data structures. Memory 111 could be one or a combination of memory devices, including Random Access Memory, nonvolatile memory, or backup memory (e.g., programmable or Flash memories, read-only memories, etc.). In addition, memory 111 and storage 109 may be considered to include memory physically located elsewhere from the computer resource 100, for example, on another computer coupled to the computer system 105 via a network.
The memory 111 includes an application 113 and an attribute assignor 115. The application 113 is any software or hardware application 113 that may have more than one instance of the application 113 represented by a window in a display device 170. Even though a window is a graphical representation of an instance, the “instance” of an application and the “window” of an application may be considered synonymous terms and are used interchangeably. Applications 113 include word processors, instant-messaging systems, internet browsers, and the like.
The attribute assignor 115 includes attribute tracker 117, window tracker 119, and timer 121. The attribute tracker 117 maintains a record of the attributes and their accompanying setting for each window of an application 113. The window tracker 119 records the location of windows currently being displayed on the display device 170 and determines distances between the boundaries of the respective windows. The timer 121 records the amount of time that has elapsed since the attributes of one window have been assigned to another or the time that has elapse since a window was designated as the model window. The timer 121 alerts the attribute assignor 115 when assigned attribute settings should be reverted back to the prior settings.
At step 210 the attribute tracker 117 records the attributes of the windows. The attribute tracker 117 may record any changes to attributes regardless of whether the windows are currently displayed in the display device 170. That is, a user or application 113 may change the setting of an attribute when the window is not displayed.
With many applications 113, when a window is first opened or created the attributes are assigned default settings. For example, all windows of an instant-messaging system may default to a type size of 14 when the windows are created. Moreover, a default setting for an attribute may set the attribute as inactive. For example, the default setting may be to disable a plug-in when a window starts or not to display a toolbar in the window. The user may then customize the attribute setting using an I/O device 150. In general, an attribute is any feature of an application that is customizable by a user. Once the user changes the setting of the attribute, the attribute tracker 117 records this change. In one embodiment, each application 113—instead of the attribute tracker 117—may track and record the attributes for each currently active window of that application 113.
Attributes may be categorized into multiple types. One type of attribute may be attributes affecting the cosmetic appeal of the window. Example of this type include font style, font size, font color, size of the window, color scheme of the window or other similar features. A second type of attribute may be attributes that affect the displayed structure of the window. This type may include rearranging portions of the window and adding or deleting toolbars. A third type includes functional settings of a window. This type consists of security settings, networking settings, or shortcuts/hotkeys. These attributes may run in the background (i.e., are not displayed) but still have unique settings for each window or instance of the application 113. For example, internet browsers allow a user to either accept or reject cookies from visited sites. In some browsers (i.e., applications 113) a user must either change the security setting for each window or change the default setting and then restart all of the windows. The present invention streamlines this lengthy process.
At step 215, the user sets a window as the model window. In general, the model window has the attribute settings that the user desires to transfer or assign to other windows of the same application 113. Although the present embodiments assume that the multiple windows are instances of the same application 113, the windows may be instances of separate applications 113 so long as at least one of the windows' attributes are the same. For example, a first window may be an instance of an instant-messaging system while a second window is an instance of a text editor. If both the first and second windows have an attribute that permits the user to customize the font, then the setting for the font for the first window may be transferred to the second window using the method disclosed herein. The attribute assignor 115 may determine the attributes shared between the two windows and only transfer the settings for the attributes that are the same.
In one embodiment, the attribute may be defined by the user. For example, a user having a chat conversation with a first person may define the chat history (i.e., context) as an attribute. Once the attribute is defined, the attribute assignor 115 may move the chat history (i.e., the attribute) to a second chat window of the chat application once the windows are within the predefined distance. In this manner, a second person associated with the second chat window may see the conversation that the user had with the first person. In addition to viewing the original conversation, transferring the attribute may allow the second person to be included in all future correspondence between the user and the first person. An application 113 may display a graphical user interface that permits a user to select what information is labeled as an attribute. A user-defined attribute provides freedom to the user to identify an attribute beyond the attributes established by the application 113.
In one embodiment, the distance between the first and second windows 300 is the defined by a distance between two points of reference each on the respective windows 300. For example, the window tracker 119 may place a reference point at the center of the bodies 305 for each of the windows 300. As a user or application moves the center of the windows 300 closer together, the windows tracker 119 measures the distance between the reference points and determines if they are within a predetermined distance.
In one embodiment, the distance between the first and second windows 300 is the length of a line that is defined by a reference point on the boundary 310a of the first window 300a that is closest to the second window 300b and a reference point on the boundary 310b of the second window 300b that is closest to the first window 300a. In this manner, the window tracker 119 records the current distance between each window 300.
The windows 300 also include a font type attribute 315 and a font size attribute 320. For the first window 300a, the setting of the font type attribute 315a is Calibri while the font size attribute 320a is 11. For the second window 300b, the setting of the font type attribute 315b is HANA and the font size attribute 320b is 10. The settings for the attributes 315b, 320b for the second window 300b may be, for example, the default settings for the application 113. The user may desire that the settings of the attributes 315b, 320b for the second window 300b match the settings of the attributes 315a, 320a for the first window 300a. The user then sets the first window as the model window using the model designator 325. The model designator 325 may be a activated by selecting an option in a drop-down menu or a toolbar, hitting a hotkey, moving the window to a particular location on the display device 170, a sequence of mouse clicks and the like. In
In one embodiment, the attribute assignor 115 may automatically choose the model window without the user selecting the window. For example, the attribute tracker 117 may detect when a user changes an attribute from a default setting and automatically set the associated window as the model window. The user would then be able to change the model status of the window if she did not want to attribute setting to be shared with other windows.
Although the windows 300 are shown as being instances of the same application, because the windows 300 share similar attributes (i.e., font type and size), the windows 300 may be instances of two separate applications and still perform the method described herein.
In one embodiment, the window 300a selected as the model window may have a model status 505 that informs the user that the window has been selected as the model window. For example, the model status 505 may appear on the display device 170 to alert the user that the window may now be used to assign attributes to other windows. The model status 505 is not limited to appearing within the boundary 310a of the model window. Instead, the model status 505 may appear in a corner of the display device 170 when the model window is “in focus”. The model window is “in focus” if, when multiple windows 300 occupy the same portion of the display device 170, the model window is displayed on the top of the stack. In another embodiment, the model status 505 may be an audio alert rather than a graphical display.
The UI 400 may also include a tool for setting the timer 121 associated with the attribute assignor 115. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the timer 121 instructs the attribute assignor 115 when to revert or rollback changes made to the settings of a target window.
Returning to
A user may move a window by any means known by a person of ordinary skill in the art, for example, by using an I/O device 150 such as a mouse. Moreover, the user may manipulate a position of a window 300 when the I/O device 150 and display device 170 are integrated in a touch screen. In one embodiment, a window 300 is moved simply by resizing the boundary 310. As long as some portion of the body 305 or boundary 310 of the window 300 is located in a different area of the display device 170, then the window tracker 119 may recalculate the distance between the windows 300 to ascertain whether the windows 300 are within the predetermined distance. If the user has yet to designate a model window, then moving the windows 300 within a predetermined distance does not transfer the attribute settings.
In
In one embodiment, the attribute assignor 115 may not automatically transfer the attribute settings of the model window 300c to the second window 300b once the two windows 300 are within the predetermined distance. Instead, the attribute assignor 115 may cause a UI (not shown) to be displayed on the display device 170. Using the UI, the user may select which attribute settings to assign to the second window 300b. In this manner, the UI presents all of the attributes in a concise list which the user may use to quickly choose the settings to assign. The UI also may be used to ensure the user wants to transfer the attribute. For example, the user may have mistakenly moved the windows 300 within the predefined distance and does not want the attributes to transfer. The UI may include accept/reject buttons that enable the user to stop the transfer.
In one embodiment, the attribute assignor 115 may provide an alert 510 to indicate when the assignment of settings between a model window 300c and a second window 300b has occurred. The alert 510 may be especially helpful when the attribute assignor 115 transfers settings that do not have a graphical effect on the second window 300b, e.g., security settings or assignments for hotkeys. The alert 510 may be either graphical or audio and continue for a specified amount of time.
In one embodiment, before the attribute assignor 115 transfers the settings of the model window 300c to the second window 300b, the attribute tracker 117 saves the current settings of the attributes of the second window 300b. In this manner, the attribute settings of the second window 300b are preserved. Once the timer expires, the attribute assignor 115 uses the saved settings to roll back the attribute settings of the second window 300b.
As shown in
In one embodiment, when the timer 121 expires, the attribute assignor 115 may roll back the settings of the second window 300b to the default settings that were assigned to the second window 300b by the application 113. This embodiment ignores any changes made to the attribute settings of the second window 300b before the attribute assignor 115 assigned the attribute settings of the model window 300c to the second window 300b. Stated differently, after the timer 121 expires, the attribute assignor 115 assigns the settings of attributes 315b, 320b to the same settings that were assigned to the window 300b when the window 300b was created. If the default settings assigned by the application 113 changed before the timer 121 expires, the attribute assignor 115 may roll back the attribute settings of the second window 300b to the new default settings.
In one embodiment, the user may save the second window 300b before the timer 121 expires. Doing so prevents the settings of the attributes 315b, 320b from reverting once the timer 121 expires. A window may be saved accordingly to any method known to a person skilled in the art.
In one embodiment, the display device 170 may show a graphical alert 510 to indicate that the attribute settings of the second window 300b have reverted—e.g., when the timer 121 expires. This graphical alert 510 may flash or move around the screen of the display device 170 to attract the user's attention. The computer resource 100 may also use an audio alert 510 such as a beep.
By maintaining a record of the location and attribute settings of the windows 300 in a display device 170, a user may select a model window and pass the attribute settings of that window to other windows in the display device 170. Doing so permits the user to pass on the settings of attribute shared by the windows without having to manually customize those settings in each of the windows.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
