US 8,146,010 B2Granted

Combinable tabs for a tabbed document interface

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsMatthew R. Scott, Chen Zhao, Gonglue Jiang, Fang Zou

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Abstract

A method and system for combining tabs of a tabbed document interface (“TDI”) is provided. A combinable TDI system allows tabs of a TDI to be combined to form a single tab of the TDI. To combine tabs, the combinable TDI system generates a combined tab name from the tab names of the tabs to be combined and combined tab content from the content of the tabs to be combined. If the width of the content is greater than what can be currently displayed in the window, the combinable TDI system may add a scroll bar to the TDI so that the user can scroll and make visible portions of the content that were previously not visible. The combinable TDI system then displays the combined tab and removes the tabs that have been combined. The combinable TDI system may also allow a user to split a combined tab into separate tabs.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method in a computing system for combining tabs of a tabbed document interface portion of a display page, the method comprising:

providing a tab definition store that defines, for each tab of the tabbed document interface portion, a tab definition that defines one or more sub-tabs of the tab, each sub-tab having a tab name and tab content, the tab content of a sub-tab of a tab being derived from a web page that is augmented with alignment information indicating how to align that tab content with the tab content of another sub-tab of that tab;
generating the tabbed document interface portion by, for each tab definition, generating a tab name for that tabbed document interface portion that is derived from the tab names of the sub-tabs of the tab and a tab window of the tabbed document interface portion that combines the tab content of the sub-tabs in accordance with the alignment information of the tab definition;
displaying the tabbed document interface portion having the generated tab name and tab window;
when a user indicates to split a combined tab,
updating the tab definition store to indicate that the sub-tabs of the combined tab have been split;
and
regenerating and redisplaying the tabbed document interface portion to display the split tabs;
and
when a user indicates to combine tabs,
updating the tab definition store to indicate that the tabs have been combined as sub-tabs of a combined tab;
and
regenerating and redisplaying the tabbed document interface portion to display the combined tabs.

9 more elements

A computer-readable storage device encoded with computer-executable instructions for controlling a computing system to combine tabs of a tabbed document interface portion of a display page, by a method comprising:

providing a tab definition store that defines, for each tab of the tabbed document interface portion, a tab definition that defines one or more sub-tabs of the tab, each sub-tab having a tab name and tab content, the tab content of a sub-tab of a tab being derived from a web page that is augmented with alignment information indicating how to align that tab content with the tab content of another sub-tab of that tab;
generating the tabbed document interface portion by, for each tab definition, generating a tab name for that tabbed document interface portion that is derived from the tab names of the sub-tabs of the tab and a tab window of the tabbed document interface portion that combines the tab content of the sub-tabs in accordance with the alignment information of the tab definition;
displaying the tabbed document interface portion having the generated tab name and tab window;
when a user indicates to split a combined tab,
updating the tab definition store to indicate that the sub-tabs of the combined tab have been split;
and
regenerating and redisplaying the tabbed document interface portion to display the split tabs;
and
when a user indicates to combine tabs,
updating the tab definition store to indicate that the tabs have been combined as sub-tabs of a combined tab;
and
regenerating and redisplaying the tabbed document interface portion to display the combined tabs.

9 more elements

A computing system for combining tabs of a tabbed document interface portion of a display page, comprising:

a tab definition store that defines, for each tab of the tabbed document interface portion, a tab definition that defines one or more sub-tabs of the tab, each sub-tab having a tab name and tab content, the tab content of a sub-tab of a tab being derived from a web page that is augmented with alignment information indicating how to align that tab content with the tab content of another sub-tab of that tab;
a memory storing computer-executable instructions of:
a component that generates the tabbed document interface portion by, for each tab definition, generating a tab name for that tabbed document interface portion that is derived from the tab names of the sub-tabs of the tab and a tab window of the tabbed document interface portion that combines the tab content of the sub-tabs in accordance with the alignment information of the tab definition;
a component that displays the tabbed document interface portion having the generated tab name and tab window;
a component that, when a user indicates to split a combined tab,
updates the tab definition store to indicate that the sub-tabs of the combined tab have been split;
and
regenerates and redisplays the tabbed document interface portion to display the split tabs;
and
a component that, when a user indicates to combine tabs,
updates the tab definition store to indicate that the tabs have been combined as sub-tabs of a combined tab;
and
regenerates and redisplays the tabbed document interface portion to display the combined tabs;
and
a processor that executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.