Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Peter Faraday

Steven P Geffner

Imran I Qureshi

Elaine Y Law

Kenneth Lawrence Young

Joshua S Bell

Charles Robert Stoner

Bo Zhang

Kurt B Jacob

Devon Lyn Strawn

DoRon Banu Motter

Joseph Stephen Beda

Patrick G Mullen

A system and method for graphically showing the animation order of animated elements in a presentation program or other software. The invention consists of a User Interface (UI) widget which shows the order of the animation in the presentation. This UI employs an animation On Object User Interface (OOUI), or animation tag, that is preferably a rectangular control that encloses a number, and labels the order in which objects are animated. Each animation OOUI or animation tag is associated with an object on a display during creation and editing. The animation OOUI or tag is preferably placed in close proximity to the object it is associated with, rather than in a separate window or dialog box, and is hence termed 'On Object'. The animation tag is active and responds to computer input device selection actions. Each animation OOUI is typically associated with an animation list.

Animation on object user interface

Combined object level and property level key framing systems, methods, and user interfaces are provided in which a user can enter a mode where any change to a property is recorded as a key framing action (e.g., creation or edit) at the current time as indicated by a timeline. When a key frame is created in this mode, the surrounding object level key frames are inspected to ensure that the functionality that users expect from object level key frames is maintained. If a user explicitly creates an animation of an attribute that spans an object level key frame, then that span for the animation is maintained as the user edits.

Blended object attribute keyframing model

A system and method for graphically showing the order and timing of elements in a presentation program or other software. The sequence of events is shown in an event list, a list of events in sequence order, each event being associated with an event timeline bar and correlated with a universal timeline, in the editing window of an electronic presentation or other software that deals with the scheduling of events. In one embodiment, each item in the list represents an individual animation effect. Elements of the event list are logically related to each other and these logical relationships may be used in assisting a user to build a sequence of events (e.g., an animation sequence).

Integrated timeline and logically-related list view

Vector graphics may be flexibly resized. Pins are associated with vector graphics control points, and when a canvas is resized, the pin locations are scaled according to the canvas resizing, and the control points associated with the pin are scaled according to a different positioning scheme. Pins may be fixed in location relative to the pin location, or may scale only in one direction. Control points not associated with a pin are scaled according to the canvas resizing. Other embodiments allow regions to be defined, in which control points are governed by a different positioning scheme, or allow a grid lines to be drawn defining the canvas into slices, where each slice is assigned a specific positioning scheme.

Flexibly resizeable vector graphics

In order to work with user interface documents containing instances of reusable templates which describe both the appearance and behavior for a user interface element, editing functionality is provided. The user interface document can be edited by selecting items from a view of the user interface document and indicating an edit to be performed. Edits may be to an underlying template or templates, or to properties of selected items. The scope of the edit is determined by user indication and/or defaults of user preference. Locks are provided in order to prevent accidental editing of some locked element or template. A graphical tree view, a list view (text-based tree view), or an artboard view may be presented to a user in order to facilitate the selection and editing process.

In situ user interface template editing

A system and method for graphically showing the animation order of animated elements in a presentation program or other software. More particularly, the invention consists of a User Interface (UI) widget which shows the order of the animation in the presentation. This UI employs an animation On Object User Interface (OOUI), or animation tag, that is preferably a rectangular control that encloses a number, and labels the order in which objects are animated. Each animation OOUI or animation tag is associated with an object on a display during creation and editing. The animation OOUI or tag is preferably placed in close proximity to the object it is associated with, rather than in a separate window or dialog box, and is hence termed 'On Object'. The enclosed number represents the number in a sequence of mouse clicks or other computer input device selection actions which causes an animation effect on an associated object or element. The animation tag is active and responds to computer input device selection actions. Each animation OOUI is typically associated with an animation list, although it does not have to be.

Growing community of inventors

Bellevue, WA, United States of America

Peter Faraday