Navigational, scalable, scrolling ribbon

#The present invention relates to the field of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Specifically, embodiments relate to a graphical user interface that may be used in one implementation to facilitate the selection of available software application options from a display screen of an electronic device.

#There exist today many software applications operating on electronic devices with display screens that allow users to interface with the software by means of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). One tool that exists for aiding a user of graphical user interfaces is a list of descriptive titles of information or options from which to select the information the user requires. In the case of software applications with numerous options, this list is often quite extensive.

#One example of a graphical user interface with selectable options is illustrated in FIG. 1. GUI 100 is shown in which tabs 110 may contain the names or descriptive titles of available options. The width of the tabs and, therefore, the number of tabs that may be displayed on a single line is variable, based on the length of the descriptive title that they contain. Some languages typically use longer words (e.g., German) than others, so the width of the tab may also be dependent upon the language of the GUI.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a display screen showing a graphical user interface for navigating within a software application according to the prior art.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system upon which an embodiment of the present invention may be practiced.

#FIG. 3 is an exemplary screen shot illustrating a display window of a user interface with a scrolling navigational ribbon according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the present invention.

#Notation and Nomenclature

#Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented in terms of procedures, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. In the present application, a procedure, logic block, process, or the like, is conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic information capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these information as transactions, bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, fragments, pixels, or the like.