Discoverability and navigation of hyperlinks via tabs
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsJoseph Paul-Emile Pierre Cote, John P. Cordell, Christopher R. Brown
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A user may discover and navigate among hyperlinks through the use of a keyboard. For example, a user may press a tab key to discover and navigate to a first hyperlink that is part of a hypertext document. The first hyperlink is, in response, given focus and a focus shape is drawn around the text or graphics for the hot region of the hyperlink. If the user again presses the tab key, the next hyperlink is given focus and a focus shape (i.e., an outline that surrounds the next hyperlink) is drawn around the next hyperlink. A user may also tab to a placeholder for an image in order to make a decision whether the image should be downloaded or not.
Claims38
In a computer system having an output device and a document having at least one hyperlink, a method of navigating to a hyperlink in the document, comprising:
- (a) displaying the document on the output device;
- (b) receiving a tab request;
- and
- (c) in response to receiving the tab request, giving focus to the hyperlink in the document.
In a computer system having a video display and a hypertext document having a plurality of hyperlinks, a method comprising:
- (a) displaying a visual representation of at least one hyperlink in the hypertext document on the video display;
- (b) in response to a tab command, determining a next hyperlink in the document;
- (c) giving focus to the next hyperlink;
- and
- (d) drawing a non-rectangular focus shape around the visual representation of the next hyperlink to indicate when the next hyperlink is given focus.
In a distributed system having a server and a client, wherein the client includes a display device and a keyboard device having at least one key, a method comprising:
- (a) providing an image map at the client from the server wherein the image map includes a plurality of hyperlinks, each hyperlink being associated with a particular portion of the image map;
- (b) displaying the image map on the display device;
- (c) in response to actuating a selected key of the keyboard device, determining a next hyperlink associated with a particular portion of the image map, wherein the determination of the next hyperlink is executed on the client;
- and
- (d) displaying a visual indication of the presence of the next hyperlink in the image map.
In a computer system having a server for downloading a hypertext document to a client computer system having a display device and a keyboard, a method comprising:
- (a) when a hypertext document is downloaded, displaying the hypertext document with a placeholder associated with each image in the hypertext document that is not yet downloaded;
- and
- (b) in response to selecting the placeholder by actuating the keyboard, not downloading an image associated with the placeholder.
In a computer system having an output device and a document having at least one hyperlink, a computer-readable medium holding computer executable instructions for performing a method of navigating to a hyperlink, comprising:
- (a) displaying the document on the output device;
- (b) receiving a tab request;
- and
- (c) in response to receiving the tab request, giving focus to the hyperlink in the document.
In a computer system having a display and a hypertext document having a plurality of hyperlinks, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:
- (a) displaying a visual representation of at least one hyperlink in the hypertext document on the display;
- (b) in response to a tab command, determining a next hyperlink in the document, wherein the determination of the next hyperlink is based on an element list comprising information describing a type of the next hyperlink and the relative location of the next hyperlink;
- (c) giving focus to the next hyperlink;
- and
- (d) drawing a non-rectangular focus shape around the visual representation of the next hyperlink to indicate that the next hyperlink is given focus.
In a distributed system having a server and a client, wherein the client includes a display device and a keyboard device having at least one key, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:
- (a) providing an image map at the client from the server wherein the image map includes a plurality of hyperlinks, each hyperlink is associated with a particular portion of the image map;
- (b) displaying the image map on the display device;
- (c) in response to actuating a selected key of the keyboard device, determining a next hyperlink associated with a particular portion of the image map, wherein the determination of the next hyperlink is executed on the client;
- and
- (d) displaying a visual indication of the presence of the next hyperlink in the image map.
In a computer system having a server for downloading a hypertext document to a client computer system having a display device and a keyboard, a computer-readable medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising the steps of:
- (a) when a hypertext document is downloaded, displaying the hypertext document with a placeholder associated with each image in the hypertext document that is not yet downloaded;
- and
- (b) in response to selecting the placeholder by actuating the keyboard, not downloading an image associated with the placeholder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.