1. Technical Field
The present invention relates, in general, to an improved graphical user interface method and system. In particular, the present invention relates to an improved graphical user interface method and system having a cursor, scroll bar, and slider.
2. Background
A graphical user interface is a type of display format that enables a user to choose commands, start programs, and see lists of files and other options by pointing to pictorial representations and lists of menu items on a computer display screen. Choices can generally be activated by either a keyboard or a pointing device such as a mouse. A mouse is a commonly used pointing device, containing one or more buttons, that allows a user to interact with a product or operating environment such as a graphical user interface.
For application developers, a graphical user interface offers an environment that can handle direct interaction with the computer. Such environments free the developer to concentrate on a given application without becoming entangled in the details of a screen display or mouse and keyboard input. A graphical user interface also enables programmers to create programs to handle frequently performed tasks, such as saving a data file. The interface itself provides standard controlling mechanisms such as windows and dialog boxes.
Some conventional graphical user interfaces provide a cursor and scroll bar for scrolling through pages of a viewable object. A viewable object can contain multiple components such as spreadsheets, text, hotlinks, pictures, sound, and video objects. However, a viewable object is not limited to these components. In many types of graphical user interfaces, a vertical or horizontal bar at the side or bottom of a graphical user interface window can be utilized in conjunction with a pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, or stylus well-known in the art of graphical user interfaces for moving about in a viewable object. Scrolling permits viewing of any desired portion of a viewable object and is so named because it is the electronic equivalent of reading through a rolled (i.e., scrolled) viewable object rather than flipping through pages of a book. A vertical scroll bar is usually utilized to control movement or to scroll through lines and pages of a viewable object, while a horizontal scroll bar controls movement through words in a line.
Such conventional scroll bar systems usually comprise two arrows and a slider. Each arrow controls which direction a user desires to scroll through a viewable object. An arrow conventionally controls movement through a viewable object in small increments or small blocks of information, such as individual lines or a page of a viewable object, for example. Moreover, if an arrow points in the upward direction, the viewable object will be scrolled from its present position in the viewable object toward the first page. If an arrow points in the downward position, the viewable object will be scrolled from its present position in a viewable object toward the last page of the viewable object.
A slider is conventionally used to control movement through a viewable object in larger increments than when the arrows are used. A slider is one form of a graphical user interface icon. Instead of incrementing by small blocks of information, the slider typically controls movement through a viewable object in larger blocks, increments, or groups of information, such as two or more pages, for example. Therefore, when a user desires to go from the first page to the fiftieth page, the slider is usually selected and moved until page fifty is selected. The term "elevator" is also utilized to describe such a slider.
The foregoing noted methods (scroll bars and sliders) work when viewing relatively small viewable objects. However, when such methods are applied to relatively large viewable objects, deficiencies in the scroll bar and slider methods are noticeable.
When a very large viewable object, such as a list of items, is accessed by a user via a graphical user interface, the arrows in scroll mode generally move through the viewable object too slowly to be of significant use to the user. On the other hand, the discontinuous jumps through the viewable object that occur when the scroll bar is used to advance at a rate of, for example, a page at a time do not allow the user to smoothly view and comprehend the information in the viewable object.
When a very large viewable object, such as a list of items, is accessed by a user via a graphical user interface, the scroll bar slider often represents only a very small portion of such a viewable object. When the slider is grabbed and moved by the user utilizing, for example, a mouse cursor pointer, the viewable object will scroll too quickly even for small movements of the slider, making it difficult for the user to find a particular section within the viewable object. Even expert mouse users, for instance, can become frustrated when utilizing such a slider on a large viewable object. The problem increases for less adept users who try to scroll through viewable objects such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, phone books, or other viewable objects.
Thus, when the foregoing noted methods are applied to very large viewable objects, the methods are found to be deficient in that the arrows in scroll mode are too slow to be of satisfactory use, while use of the scroll bar in discontinuous mode presents the information in a jerky, discontinuous fashion which is difficult for a user to follow, and use of the slider is found to be unsatisfactory in that it moves through the viewable object too fast to be comprehended by the user. The foregoing deficiencies become particularly noticeable when the user wants to move through the relatively large viewable object in a fashion such that a user can easily comprehend his or her current position within the viewable object. The foregoing noted deficiencies give rise to several concomitant needs.
With respect to the foregoing identified needs, the inventors are aware of no attempts to date which have been directed toward satisfying the foregoing identified needs. Thus, it is apparent that a need exists for a method and system which will allow scanning through a viewable object which smoothly and predictably transitions from a very slow rate of scrolling through the viewable object to a very rapid rate of scrolling through the viewable object.