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:
Oct. 25, 2005
Filed:
Mar. 19, 2002
Timothy Rand Sullivan, Seattle, WA (US);
Justin Shane Mcroberts, Seattle, WA (US);
Victor Stone, Mercer Island, WA (US);
Craig Andrew Critchley, Fall City, WA (US);
Derek Edward Hoiem, Sammamish, WA (US);
Peter Loforte, Bellevue, WA (US);
Timothy Rand Sullivan, Seattle, WA (US);
Justin Shane McRoberts, Seattle, WA (US);
Victor Stone, Mercer Island, WA (US);
Craig Andrew Critchley, Fall City, WA (US);
Derek Edward Hoiem, Sammamish, WA (US);
Peter Loforte, Bellevue, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
An application and a context-based help system operate on a computer. The application includes a plurality of components that effectuate application functions, where each component of the application is constructed to describe a current context of the component representative of a current state of the component. At least some of the components are active at any one time. The help system includes a help engine that receives the current context from each active component, dynamically builds a current overall context of the application based on each received current context, locates help topics based on the current overall context, and filters and prioritizes the located help topics.