The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 29, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 13, 1994
Alan W Ezekiel, Bellevue, WA (US);
Bradford A Christian, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A processor (CPU) in the computer system executes an application program made up of a number of components, each associated with a set of commands. While the program is executing, a current operating mode of the program is selected. The processor automatically constructs a dynamic menu for the selected operating mode by determining which of the program's components are active in the current operating mode, merging the commands sets of these active components to form an active set of command for the current operating mode, and organizing the commands of the active set into a menu structure. The constructed, displayed menu items can be selected with an input device. Menu items contained in a displayed application menu bar are revised when one of a number of subwindows displayed by the application is selected. Displayed menu items pertaining to a particular subwindow are included in the menu bar when the subwindow is selected. Add-on software components provides additional menu items to those provided by the application program and their implementations without itself having to modify the application's menu bar to add those menu items or intercept and process user input for selecting these menu items.