Apple Inc.

Gregg S Foster

Stephen P Capps

Benjamin W Sharpe

Ernest H Beernink

Frederich N Tou

John R Meier

A gesture sensitive button for graphical user interfaces characterized by a digital computer, a screen coupled to the digital computer, a pointer mechanism used for pointing locations on the screen, a 'button' image displayed on the screen, and a gesture recognizer for detecting gestures made on the screen by the pointing mechanism. The button is responsive to at least two different button gestures made on the screen on or near the button. A process implementing the gesture sensitive button of the present invention includes: providing a button image on a computer screen; detecting a gesture made on the screen by a pointer such as a stylus, mouse, or trackball; determining whether the gesture is associated with the button image; and initiating one of at least two processes if the gesture is associated with the button image. The gesture sensitive button conserves real estate on the computer screen by permitting a single button to control multiple functions and processes.

Gesture sensitive buttons for graphical user interfaces

A method and apparatus are provided for routing information with a pointer-based computer such as a pen-based computer. The routing actions may be faxing, printing, mailing (electronically), and beaming (by infrared light). The routed information may be document or other item produced by or associated with a particular application running on the computer. Routing actions that send items out of the computer system preferably are processed according to the following steps. First one or more menus or windows associated with the application of the document being routed are displayed on a display screen of the computer. At least one of these menus or windows contains a list of routing actions available to the application. The user selects one of these routing actions and, in some cases, provides additional information pertaining to the destination, format, etc. of the document being routed. Then the document or item being routed is transferred to an out box which resides, at least in part, in the memory of the computer system. The out box is communication with a plurality of ports such as a modem, an IR beam transceiver, etc. From the out box, the item is routed out of the computer system and through one of the ports and the process is concluded.

Method for routing items within a computer system

A status bar characterized by a template generated independently of an application program and displayed on a computer screen in contact with an application window. The template carries at least one active area that can include an icon for controlling the application program or an area which displays information generated by the application program. Alternatively, or additionally, the active area can include 'global functions' of the computer system. A method for providing a status bar is characterized by the steps of creating a status bar template having at least one area to be activated, activating at least one area to create a status bar, and displaying the status bar on a computer screen in contact with an associated application window displayed on the computer screen. The step of creating a status bar template can include the steps of creating a plurality of status bar templates, one of which is chosen to be attached to a particular application window.

Status bar for application windows

A method for synchronously sharing data among a plurality of computer systems includes the step of determining the initiation of a shared space session. Upon initiation, a message is transmitted to remote computer systems to announce the initiation. A shared space view is then displayed on a screen of the computer system. The input into the shared space view of data is then determined and this data is shared among the computer systems in the shared space session. The method further includes determining whether a message has been received from remote computer systems and incorporating these messages into the shared space view. A further method of the present invention resynchronizes a participant into communication with a shared space session. The method includes the steps of selecting a close box in the shared space view, closing the view to terminate participation in the session and reinitiating participation to reestablish synchronous communication. Contents of the session are saved upon the termination of participation so that sessions can be recreated. An apparatus for performing the methods of the present invention is further disclosed. Included in the apparatus is the mechanisms for determining the initiation of a shared space session and for synchronously sharing data among a plurality of computer systems once initiation has occurred.

Method and apparatus for synchronously sharing data among computer

A method and apparatus for setting the case of text in a pen-aware computer system is described. In general, the case of one or more letters of a designated text object can be changed with a convenient and simple input gesture. The case resetting gesture takes the form of a substantially vertically extending line that overlies a textual object that includes a character or characters that are intended to have their case reset. The direction and position of the case setting gesture are used to determine which characters are to be affected and whether the designated case is upper or lower case.

Resetting the case of text on a computer display

A method for managing a computerized database characterized by the steps of: a) providing a collection of view styles including a card view and a list view; b) selecting an initial view from the collection of view styles; c) determining an initial record index; d) deriving information from at least one record of a computerized database indicated by the record index; e) displaying the information in the selected view style; f) detecting a user input indicating a view style, an index selection, or both; and g) repeating steps d, e, and f in response to the detected user input. The method also includes displaying a card area on a screen of a pen-based computer system which depicts structured information concerning an entity, and displaying a free-form area on the screen depicting unstructured information concerning the entity. A computerized database of the present invention includes a digital computation system having a central processing unit (CPU), memory coupled to the CPU, a display coupled to the CPU, and a mechanism for pointing to selected positions on the display. A card area on the display depicts structured information retrieved from a database stored in the system memory.

Interface for a computerized database having card and list views

Text, graphics, or other selected objects of a computer screen are selected and converted into a 'visual clipboard' which is attached to a convenient boundary of the screen. The visible clipboard is preferably implemented on a pen-based computer system where the object is selected by a stylus, is dragged to a boundary, and is converted to a clipboard icon at the boundary. Multiple clipboard icons may be produced by the user, and can be moved from one boundary location to another. The contents of the clipboard can be inserted or 'pasted' into an application program by dragging the clipboard icon with the stylus to the desired insertion location. Preferably, each clipboard is provided with indicia representative of the contents of the clipboard.

Growing community of inventors

Woodside, CA, United States of America

Gregg S Foster