Methods and apparatus for placing and interpreting reference marks on scrollbars

A computer system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• a display;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the display allowing communication there between;
• wherein the memory is encoded with a reference marking application, that when executed in the processor, provides a reference marking process that places a reference mark for a document on a scrollbar, by causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• receiving a selection of a portion of the document;
• receiving a command to mark the selection of the portion of the document with the reference mark;
• placing the reference mark in the scrollbar, the scrollbar associated with the document, wherein the reference mark indicates the selected portion of the document, and wherein a graphical placement of the reference mark in the scrollbar corresponds to a relative position of the selection of the portion in the document;
• receiving a selection of a first reference mark located on the scrollbar,
• wherein the selection of the first reference mark is made with an input device;
• changing a display of the document in a window on a display device so that at least a beginning of a first portion of the document indicated by the first reference mark is displayed in the window on the display device;
• receiving a selection of a second reference mark with the input device at a time of selection of the first reference mark, the second reference mark located on the scrollbar, the second reference mark indicating a second portion of the document that is not contiguous with the first portion of the document indicated by the first reference mark;
• making the indicated portions of the document available for editing operations according to an order that the selected reference marks were selected from the scrollbar, without making available for editing operations portions of the document in between the indicated portions;
• receiving, in a particular order, a selection of multiple reference marks located on the scrollbar associated with the document, at least two of the selected reference marks indicating portions on the document that are not contiguous with each other, wherein the selection of multiple reference marks is made with the input device;
• and
• in response to receiving the selection of multiple reference marks in the particular order, selecting contents of each portion of the document indicated by the selected reference marks for a copy operation of the selected contents, wherein the copy operation simultaneously copies the contents of each indicated portion of the document in the particular order without copying content from the document located in between the indicated portions of the document.

A computer program product, stored on computer readable medium, to place a reference mark for a document on a scrollbar associated with the document, the document displayed in a window on a display device that is part of a computer system, the computer program product comprising:

• computer program code for receiving a selection of a portion of a document from an input device, wherein the input device is part of the computer system;
• computer program code for receiving a command to mark the selection of the portion of the document with the reference mark, wherein the command is received from the input device;
• computer program code for placing the reference mark in the scrollbar, the scrollbar associated with the document, wherein the reference mark indicates the selected portion of the document, and wherein a graphical placement of the reference mark in the scrollbar corresponds to a relative position of the selection of the portion in the document;
• computer program code for receiving a selection of a first reference mark located on the scrollbar, wherein the selection of the first reference mark is made with an input device;
• computer program code for changing a display of the document in the window on the display device so that at least a beginning of a first portion of the document indicated by the first reference mark is displayed in the window on the display device;
• computer program code for receiving a selection of a second reference mark with the input device at a time of selection of the first reference mark, the second reference mark located on the scrollbar, the second reference mark indicating a second portion of the document that is not contiguous with the first portion of the document indicated by the first reference mark;
• computer program code for making the indicated portions of the document available for editing operations according to an order that the selected reference marks were selected from the scrollbar, without making available for editing operations portions of the document in between the indicated portions;
• computer program code for receiving, in a particular order, a selection of multiple reference marks located on the scrollbar associated with the document, at least two of the selected reference marks indicating portions on the document that are not contiguous with each other, wherein the selection of multiple reference marks is made with the input device;
• and
• computer program code for, in response to receiving the selection of multiple reference marks in the particular order, selecting contents of each portion of the document indicated by the selected reference marks for a copy operation of the selected contents, wherein the copy operation simultaneously copies the contents of each indicated portion of the document in the particular order without copying content from the document located in between the indicated portions of the document.

A method of placing reference marks for a document on a scrollbar, and of interpreting the reference marks on the scrollbar, the method comprising:

• receiving multiple selections of portions of a document, each selected portion being different from other selected portions;
• receiving a command to mark each of the multiple selections of portions of the document with a reference mark;
• placing reference marks in a scrollbar, the scrollbar associated with the document, wherein each reference mark in the scrollbar indicates a corresponding selected portion of the document,
• receiving, in a particular order, a selection of multiple reference marks located on the scrollbar associated with the document, at least two of the selected reference marks indicating portions on the document that are not contiguous with each other, wherein the selection of multiple reference marks is made with an input device;
• in response to receiving the selection of multiple reference marks in the particular order, selecting contents of each portion of the document indicated by the selected reference marks for a copy operation of the selected contents, wherein the copy operation simultaneously copies the contents of each indicated portion of the document in the particular order without copying content from the document located in between the indicated portions of the document;
• and
• changing a display of the document in a window on the display device so that at least a beginning of contents of the portion of the document indicated by a first-selected reference mark is displayed in the window on the display device.