Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ICONIC GROUPS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Technical Field:
The present invention generally relates to computer desktop management, and
more
particularly to management of graphic objects in a graphical user interface.
Still more particularly,
the present invention relates to means for grouping icons according to
application type, function, or
any other user-defined way, so that any specific icon can be easily located by
enabling the
application group or groups to which that icon belongs, and screen clutter is
significantly reduced.
Description of the Related Art:
In recent years, virtually all personal computers and workstations have
adopted a graphical
user interface (GUI) environment, which allows the user to manage the system
and execute
applications using a "point-and-click" method on objects shown on the computer
display. The main
GUI background is commonly referred to as the "desktop", and these objects
typically include
graphic icons, which represent some software application or function, and
windows, which divide
the desktop into different areas on the display for different applications.
As computer memory and storage capacity have both increased and become more
affordable,
2 0 the number of software applications residing on a system (or available to
that system over a network)
has increased dramatically. Each of these applications will typically be
represented by its own icon,
and many of these icons will typically be displayed on the desktop.
As a result, many desktops are becoming too cluttered with icons to be
effective. It is often
difficult to locate a specific icon among dozens of others, and this problem
is more acute when
2 5 various icons are "hidden" behind active windows, and cannot be seen until
the window is moved
or minimized.
Moreover, there is currently no efficient system for icon management. Typical
systems allow
icons to be manually arranged on the desktop, which can be a very time
consuming process.
Alternatively, the system can attempt to automatically arrange the icons in a
number of ways,
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including by type, name, or date. Arranging icons by "type," in conventional
systems, simply means
that system icons are grouped together, application icons are grouped
together, etc., but no
distinction is made between different application icons and the types of
applications they represent.
None of these arrangements is very practical, since they do not (and cannot)
take into account the
nature of the software application represented by the icon.
Therefore, there exists a need for a more robust means to manage a GUI
desktop, and in
particular the icons on a desktop, in such a way that the icons are both
readily accessible and easily
found. Further, there is a need for a means to reduce the "clutter" of icons
on GUI desktop without
sacrificing the convenience of access to those icons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved
computer desktop
management system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved system
for the
management of icons in a graphical user interface.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a means for
grouping icons
according to application type, function, or any other user-defined way, so
that any specific icon can
be easily located by accessing the application group or groups to which that
icon belongs, and so that
screen clutter is minimized.
2 0 The foregoing objects are achieved as is now described. An icon management
system allows
a user to create and manage application groups. Each application group will be
represented by a
single icon, and will represent icons for software applications which relate
to each other in a user-
defined manner. For example, a "Word Processing" group may contain icons for
various word
processing applications, or a "Quick Access" group may contain icons for
various applications
2 5 unrelated to each other in function, but which the user frequently
executes. Each group contains
multiple icons, and any icon can belong to multiple groups.
The above as well as additional objectives, features, and advantages of the
present invention
will become apparent in the following detailed written description.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in
the appended
claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use,
further objects and
advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following
detailed description of an
illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
Figure 1 is a block diagram of a computer system in which a preferred
embodiment of the
present invention may be implemented;
Figure 2 depicts an exemplary computer display showing an Application Groups
Panel in
accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a "Create Group" dialog box in accordance with a preferred
embodiment of the
present invention;
Figure 4 depicts a "Delete Group" dialog box in accordance with a preferred
embodiment
of the present invention;
Figure 5 is a "Show Members" dialog box in accordance with a preferred
embodiment of the
present invention;
Figure 6 depicts a "Delete Members" dialog box in accordance with a preferred
embodiment
of the present invention;
Figure 7 is an exemplary computer system display showing grouped icons in
accordance
with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
2 0 Figure 8 depicts a high level flowchart for a process to determine which
icons are shown in
the main background desktop in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The following description details the operation and features of several
preferred embodiments
2 5 of the present invention, but it will be understood by those of skill in
the art that the scope of the
invention is defined only by the issued claims, and not by any description
herein.
With reference now to the figures, and in particular with reference to Figure
1, a block
diagram of a data processing system in which a preferred embodiment of the
present invention may
be implemented is depicted. Data processing system 100 may be, for example,
one of the desktop
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models of personal computers available from International Business Machines
Corporation of
Armonk, New York. Data processing system 100 includes a processor 102, which
in the exemplary
embodiment is connected to a level two (L2) cache 104, which is connected in
turn to a system bus
106. In the exemplary embodiment, data processing system 100 includes graphics
adapter 118
connected to system bus 106, receiving user interface information for display
120.
Also connected to system bus 106 is system memory 108 and input/output (I/O)
bus bridge
110. I/O bus bridge 110 couples I/O bus 112 to system bus 106, relaying and/or
transforming data
transactions from one bus to the other. Peripheral devices such as nonvolatile
storage 114, which
may be a hard disk drive, and keyboard/pointing device 116, which may include
a conventional
mouse, a trackball, or the like, are connected to I/O bus 112.
The exemplary embodiment shown in Figure 1 is provided solely for the purposes
of
explaining the invention and those skilled in the art will recognize that
numerous variations are
possible, both in form and function. For instance, data processing system 100
might also include
a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or digital video disk (DVD) drive, a
sound card and
audio speakers, and numerous other optional components. All such variations
are believed to be
within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Data processing system
100 and the particular
Application Group Panel display examples below are provided solely as examples
for the purposes
of explanation and are not intended to imply architectural limitations.
The preferred embodiment provides an icon management system which allows a
user to
2 0 better manage icons by grouping them together according to function or use
(or any other convenient
criteria). Instead of showing each individual icon on the desktop, the
preferred embodiment shows,
in a separate icon manager window, icons representing application groups,
where each application
group contains a list of its member icons. When an application group is
selected (activated) in the
icon manager window, the member icons of that group are displayed on the
desktop.
2 5 The application groups are, in the preferred embodiment, managed by an
Application Groups
Panel. This icon managent panel is preferably an extension of the operating
system window
manager, and is therefore integral with the windowed display. The application
group panel is
customized by each user, and the user is able to create, delete, and modify
the contents of active
application groups.
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The Application Group Panel icon manager is started with the operating system,
and follows
the process shown in Figure 8. When the icon manager is started, it first
composes a list of all main
background (desktop) icons, but does not at this time display any of them
(step 810). Next, the icon
manager processes each of these icons, to determine if they belong to an
application group (step
820). If an icon does not belong to a group, it is considered active and
displayed on the main
background (step 830). If it does belong to a group, the icon manager then
determines whether that
group is currently selected (step 840). If that group is currently selected,
then the icon is considered
active and is displayed on the desktop (step 830). If the group is not
currently selected, then the icon
is not displayed. The icon manager then determines if there are any icons left
to process (step 850),
and either continues processing the remaining icons (at step 820), or exits to
standard window
manager processing (step 860).
In use, the application groups allow the user to easily locate the icon for a
specific software
application by simply selecting or activating its associated group. For
example, instead of having
dozens of icons all showing on the desktop, these might be replaced with five
or six application
group icons in the application groups panel, each of which represent a group
of related software
applications. A typical computer system might contain several different text
editors, for example,
including Microsoft Word~, Wordpad~, and Lotus Word Pro~. Instead of having
three icons, for
these three applications, always on the desktop, they might be grouped
together and represented by
an "Editors" icon, as shown, e.g., as 240 in Figure 2. When the user wishes to
start one of these
2 0 editors, instead of searching for the appropriate icon among many others
on the desktop, she would
merely select the Editors group, displaying the three editor icons on the
desktop, and start the desired
application. In this manner, the number of icons displayed on the desktop is
significantly reduced,
since the icons belonging to any group that is not active will not be
displayed.
This approach also provides significant improvements over the conventional
approach of
2 5 grouping several related icons together in a seperate "folder." In common
GUI systems, a user can
typically define a "folder" which contains icons or links to several different
applications. When this
"folder" is selected, a new window opens on the desktop containing each of the
individual icons.
The great disadvantage to this approach is that it exchanges an icon
management problem for a
window management problem; e.g. since the "grouped" icons must appear in the
window
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representing the group folder, in order to access these icons, each folder
window must remain open,
cluttering the desktop. The presently disclosed method avoids this problem by
allowing icons
belonging to selected groups to be displayed directly on the main background,
without requiring
each group of icons to be displayed in individual folders.
According to the preferred embodiment, there are several basic functions ofthe
icon grouping
system. Of course, in alternate embodiments, one or more of the functions
described below may not
be present, or other functions may also be included, within the spirit and
scope of the invention.
Startup of the Application Groups Panel
A sample application groups panel is shown in Figure 2. This panel shows the
current set
of application groups on a given system that exists at any given time. The
panel also allows the user
to manage group membership and group activation and deactivation. By default,
the first time this
panel is started on a given computer system (or on a given desktop if the
operating system supports
independent user desktops), no application groups exist. These groups must be
created by the user.
Alternatively, if a computer system is marketed and shipped with pre-loaded
software, certain
application groups can be pre-defined to allow easy access to the pre-loaded
applications.
In Figure 2, a sample Application Groups Panel 210 is shown on a desktop 200.
Three
sample group icons are shown in the panel workspace 220, including the
Browsers group 230, the
Editors group 240, and the Tools group 250. In the menu bar are shown
different application group
2 0 management options, including Create Group 260, Delete Member 270, Delete
Group 280, and
Show Members 290. The operation of these management options is described
below.
Figure 3 is a "Create Group" dialog box. Here, the user is prompted for a name
for the new
Group. This dialog box would appear after clicking on menu option 260 in
Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a "Delete Group" dialog box; the user here would select the groups
to be deleted.
2 5 This dialog box would appear after clicking on menu option 280 in Figure
2.
Figure 5 is a "Show Members" dialog box, which allows the user to see the
application icons
which are present in each group. This dialog box would appear after clicking
on menu option 290
in Figure 2.
Figure 6 is a "Delete Members" dialog box, which allows the user to delete
specific member
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application icons from a group. This dialog box would appear after clicking on
menu option 270
in Figure 2.
Figure 7 is an exemplary computer system display showing grouped icons. Here,
the dotted
lines, which are shown in the Figure for illustrative purposes but which would
not actually appear
on the display, indicate groups of icons, the "Editors" group 720 and the
"Browsers" group 730
respectively, as the would be shown on the desktop 710. If the Editors group
is activated, for
example, its member icons would be displayed on the main background. In this
figure, sample editor
icons for "Wordpad~" 721, "Microsoft Word~" 722, and "Lotus Word Pro~" 723 are
shown.
Conversely, if the Editors group is not selected, then these icons would not
appear on the desktop.
The exemplary Browsers group is shown with sample member icons for "Netscape
NavigatorC~" 732
and "Internet Explorer" 731.
If a given application icon has not been assigned to any application group, it
is considered
"uncategorized," and is not managed by the icon manager. An uncategorized
icon, in the preferred
embodiment, is always considered "active" and is always displayed on the main
desktop. In an
alternate embodiment, the user can select whether uncategorized icons, by
default, are or are not
displayed.
CreatinE/Deleting/Showin~ an Application Grouu_
The Application Group Panel allows users to fully manage their application
groups. To
2 0 create a new group, the user selects the "Create Group" menu option from
the menu bar of the Panel,
as shown in Figure 2, and selects a name and icon, in a dialog box as shown in
Figure 1, to represent
the application group in the Panel work area. A newly created group initially
contains no application
icons.
Conversely, a user can delete an icon group by selecting "Delete Group" from
the menu bar
2 5 shown in Figure 2, selecting the application group to delete from a dialog
box as shown in Figure
4, then clicking on the "Delete" button. All icons belonging to the deleted
group automatically revert
back to "uncategorized" status and appear on the desktop.
To show all of the members that belong to a particular application group, the
user selects
"Show Members" from the menu bar shown in Figure 2, selects an application
group from a dialog
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box as shown in Figure S, and clicks the "Show Members" button. This action
will open a separate
window which contains all of the application icons which belong to that
application group.
Assisnin~/Removing an Icon to/from a Group
To assign an icon to an existing application group, the user simply drags the
icon from the
main background desktop and drops it on the icon in the work area that for a
given application group.
This action assigns that icon to that application group. Note that an icon can
belong to more than
one application group. A browser icon, for example, can belong both to a
"browsers" group and a
"tools" group.
To remove an icon from an application group, the user selects "Delete Member"
from the
menu bar, then selects the group from which the icon will be deleted. This
action brings up a dialog
box as shown in Figure 6, and the user then selects the icon or icons to be
deleted from the group,
then clicks the "Delete Member" button. When an icon is removed from an
application group and
no longer belongs to any application group, its status reverts to
"uncategorized," and it is displayed
on the desktop.
Activate/Deactivate an Application Group
All of the member icons of an "active" application group are displayed on the
desktop.
Conversely, all icons which belong to only "inactive" application groups are
not displayed at all.
2 0 If an icon belongs to both an active and an inactive group, it is
displayed. If an icon belongs to no
groups, it is "uncategorized", treated as active, and displayed.
An application group is activated and deactivated by clicking the application
group icon in
the Application Groups Panel of Figure 2. When the application group icon is
"selected" it is
activated, and when it is not selected it is deactivated. In the Application
Groups Panel, selected
2 5 icons are shown normally, while unselected icons are shaded. Multiple
groups can be active at the
same time, and each time a user clicks on a group icon, it toggles between
activated and deactivated.
If all group icon are simulaneously selected, then all of the member icons
will be shown on the main
desktop, as they would appear if the present grouping system were not used at
all.
The innovative techniques of the preferred embodiment work well with present
systems.
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For example, present icon management functions, such as the "Arrange Icons"
and "Auto Arrange"
functions of Microsoft Windows~ systems, are still available. According to the
preferred
embodiment, these functions would operate on all active icons at any given
time, including
uncategorized icons and icons belonging to an activated application group.
Icons which are not
shown, since they are part of a deactivated application group, are not
affected by these functions at
all. If an "auto arrange" option is set, when an application group is
activated and the member icons
are placed on the desktop, these icons would then be automatically positioned
in a conventional
manner.
Of course, the innovative techniques described above can be modified and
varied by one
skilled inn the art in any number of ways without departing from the spirit
and scope of the
specification and claims. For example, the application group icons above can
also be displayed as
"tray" icons in a Microsoft Windows~ based operating system, and still
maintain the same
fundamental function and advantages as placing those icons in the Applications
Group Panel,
allowing groups to be activated and deactivated by clicking a tray icon. Also,
the application group
icons can be displayed on the main desktop itself, instead of or in addition
to the Application Groups
Panel. Further, these techniques are not limited to icons representing only
software applications, but
apply equally well to any object or process which can be represented by an
icon; for example, a
"Documents" group can be formed containing shortcuts to word processing
documents, which
would then be opened by the default word processor. Further, these techniques
apply well to any
2 0 number of GUI interfaces, including Microsoft Windows~ systems, Apple
Macintosh~ systems,
and other systems such as those running X-Windows/Motif and variants.
Other modifications and improvements may be made to this innovative system,
and are well
within the abilities of one skilled in the art. For example, the system can be
configured to do some
of the grouping automatically. One way to do so would be to group most icons
by cross-referencing
the filetype associations, or just by including a tag in the shortcut, e.g.,
marking each icon as
refernng to an editor or browser. These and other improvements are well within
the scope and spirit
of this improved icon management system.
It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in
the context of
a fully functional data processing system and/or network, those skilled in the
art will appreciate that
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the mechanism of the present invention is capable of being distributed in the
form of a computer
usable medium of instructions in a variety of forms, and that the present
invention applies equally
regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used to actually
carry out the distribution.
Examples of computer usable mediums include: nonvolatile, hard-coded type
mediums such as read
only memories (ROMs) or erasable, electrically programmable read only memories
(EEPROMs),
recordable type mediums such as floppy disks, hard disk drives and CD-ROMs,
and transmission
type mediums such as digital and analog communication links.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference
to a preferred
embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various
changes in form and detail
may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention.
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