Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Kathryn G Rasmussen

Robert E Corrington

Song Zou

Seung Yang

Paul Cutsinger

Diane Shambaugh

Robert David Rugge

Thomas J Layson

Derek Richard Westcott

Eric S Askilsrud

Jalayne Taber Boni

Douglas Koenig

Nathan William Bower

Gamage I Viriththamulla

Mun (Scott) Ying Leong

Embodiments of the invention encompass a system for simplified implementation of adaptable/flexible user interfaces. The system may include: one or more frameworks; zero or more navigation modules; zero or more content modules; and a set of standardized flexible formatting specifications. The framework may include containers that zero or more navigation modules and/or content modules may be inserted into. The standardized formatting specifications may be used to specify how framework containers, and components inserted into containers, are to appear. The visual characteristics of the user interface may be changed by setting different attributes of the formatting specifications and/or inserting content and/or navigation modules into different framework containers.

Simplified implementation of adaptable user interfaces

Systems and methods for defining at least one visual-display characteristic of at least one user-interface control are disclosed. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention, a dialog template specifies at least one style selector for the at least one user-interface control. A transformation module extracts the at least one style selector from the dialog template. A style sheet defines at least one visual-display-characteristic value that is applicable to the at least one user-interface control and that is associated with the at least one style selector. A style sheet-parsing engine uses the at least one style selector to retrieve the at least one visual-display-characteristic value from the style sheet. And a user-interface-control-drawing module draws the at least one user-interface control in accordance with the at least one visual-display-characteristic value retrieved by the style sheet-parsing engine.

Defining the visual appearance of user-interface controls

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Edmonds, WA, United States of America

Kathryn G Rasmussen