International Business Machines Corporation

Michael Anthony Faoro

Lynn Cleveland Percival

Keith Allen Wells

Gregory F Bush

Carl T Anderson

Alberta Lee

Janet L Leskovec

Susan E Kahler

Susan E Liles

A method and system for providing user assistance in utilizing a computer program is disclosed that provides the capability for combining an active display of the past, current, and future steps in an ongoing process with a series of associated decision panels and forms to be completed in order to carry out the steps. A navigator bar, which is situated adjacent to and can be scrolled independently of information appearing in a client area of a computer screen display, provides a user of the computer program with a map of the steps already executed, the current step being executed, and the most likely steps to be performed based on the current step being executed. If the user selects a different step to be the current step, the display of most likely future steps to be performed changes, if appropriate.

User assistance system

A technique, system, and computer program for quickly and efficiently navigating through a comparison of different versions of a file. An abstract representation of the detected differences is provided in a separate navigation window or pane. This abstract representation is shown as one or more bars, which are formatted using one color for segments that are the same and a different color for those segments that are different. This allows the user to see, at a high level, the relative size of differences, the relative position of the differences, and how the differences are distributed throughout the files. The user can navigate through the differences using navigation controls that are synchronized between the navigation window (or pane) and a file comparison window. A novel use of hover help is defined. The navigation window and controls can be used with comparisons of any type of ordered data, such as text, audio, video, etc., and with comparisons of any number of versions of a file.

Method and apparatus for visually-oriented navigation of compared object versions

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Cary, NC, United States of America

Michael Anthony Faoro