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. 01, 2003
Filed:
May. 05, 1999
David P. H. Gorbet, San Francisco, CA (US);
Robert M. Nixon, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A facility for a presentation program displays unobtrusive, context-sensitive and customizable tips for a user of a program. Event and state are two types of tip conditions that will cause the facility to display a tip icon and/or a tip message window. Events are created by an action or series of actions. State conditions may be related to the state of the program and they are usually detected when the user has not used the application for a predetermined period of time. The tip icon is usually disposed adjacent to the object that triggered the tip condition. Generally, a tip message window (tip balloon) is only displayed if the user has selected the tip icon for the tip condition. However, if the tip condition has a high priority value, then the tip message window may be immediately displayed without the tip icon.