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:
Aug. 05, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 22, 2003
Steven P. Jobs, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Donald J. Lindsay, Mountain View, CA (US);
Tim Wasko, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Steven P. Jobs, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Donald J. Lindsay, Mountain View, CA (US);
Tim Wasko, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for providing menu tools directly from an operating system includes a computer system having a user interface including a display, a cursor, and a cursor control device, and an operating system. Menu tools are provided to one or more application windows. A menu item associated with a menu tool represents an available operating system function and an interactive icon associated with the menu item may be placed in a toolbar region in one of the application windows for access to the function. A special operating mode is activated for selecting menu items for use in the toolbar and making the function associated with the menu item available to the application by moving the menu item to the toolbar region. The menu item is represented as an interactive icon once the special operating mode is activated. The operating system function associated with the menu item is made available to the application window directly from the operating system by interaction with the icon. The menu item is further represented as an icon in regions of additional application windows which may either be active or subsequently instantiated through inheritance. The special operating mode is activated from a special key on an input device. Menu items are displayed along with menu tools corresponding to available operating system functions.