Cascading menu with selectable offset
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsBrian David Nelson, Michael William Panico, Hypatia Rojas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A GUI is configured to give a user a selectable option to choose a preferred amount of offset for cascading menus. The user can manually input an offset of any value and in a preferred embodiment the offset is selectable from 1-100%, and presets can be made available from a drop-down menu (e.g., in 10% increments, i.e., 10%, 20%, 30%, etc.) for selection. This allows the user to minimize the need to move the mouse pointer horizontally to access a cascading menu and thus reduces the inadvertent selection of an incorrect menu item.
Claims19
A method of enabling user-control of the location of cascading menus invoked by
- a parent menu in a Graphical User Interface (GUI), comprising the steps of:
- determining if a parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- if said parent menu invokes a cascading menu, obtaining an offset value selection for said cascading menu;
- and
- displaying said cascading menu in accordance with said obtained offset value selection.
A system for enabling user-control of the location of cascading menus invoked by a parent menu in a Graphical User Interface (GUI), comprising:
- means for determining if a parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- means for obtaining an offset value selection for said cascading menu if said parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- and
- means for displaying said cascading menu in accordance with said obtained offset value selection.
A computer program product recorded on computer readable medium for enabling user-control of the location of cascading menus invoked by a parent menu in a Graphical User Interface (GUI), comprising:
- computer readable means for determining if a parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- computer readable means for obtaining an offset value selection for said cascading menu if said parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- and
- computer readable means for displaying said cascading menu in accordance with said obtained offset value selection.
A Graphical User Interface (GUI), comprising:
- selection means for enabling a user of said GUI to specify an offset value for cascading menus;
- determining means for determining if a selection from a parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- offsetting means for offsetting said cascading menu by said offset value if said determining means determines that said selection from said parent menu invokes a cascading menu.
A method of reducing the amount of mouse movement required to access selections from a cascading menu invoked by a parent menu, comprising the steps of:
- providing one or more selectable offset values for cascading menus, said one or more offset values each being less than 100%;
- determining that a parent menu invokes a cascading menu;
- displaying said cascading menu relative to said parent menu offset by one of said selectable offset values.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.