Explicit touch selection and cursor placement

摘要

A system and method for implementing an efficient and easy to user interface for a touch screen device. A cursor may be placed by a user using simple inputs. The device operates places the cursor coarsely and refines the cursor placement upon further input from the user. Text may be selected using a gripper associated with the cursor. The user interface allows text selection without occluding the text being selected with the user's finger or the gripper. For selecting text in a multi-line block of text, a dynamic safety zone is implemented to simplify text selection for the user.

主权项

1. A method for placing a cursor on a display screen of a computing device displaying a string of characters comprising a plurality of lines of text, each line of text extending in a first direction and the plurality of lines of text being offset from one another in a second direction, the method comprising:
displaying a portion of the plurality of lines of text as selected text, the portion having a beginning location and an ending location; and based at least on user input indicating updates to the ending location of the selected text, wherein an initial line includes the ending location prior to the updates and wherein a current line is initially the initial line, interactively adjusting the portion of the plurality of lines of text displayed as the selected text while updates to the ending location are still being received, by: updating the ending location along the current line of the text based on a position in the first direction indicated by the user input; and updating the ending location based on a position in the second direction indicated by the user input, updating the ending location in the second direction comprising:
while the computing device is operating in a first mode and the user input indicates an updated ending location that is less than a first threshold distance away from the initial line in the second direction:
maintaining the ending location in the current line;while the computing device is operating in the first mode and the user input indicates an updated ending location that is greater than the first threshold distance away from the initial line in the second direction:
changing the ending location to an adjacent line, the adjacent line being adjacent to the initial line and offset in the second direction, andentering a second mode after setting the current line to be the adjacent line; andwhile the computing device is operating in the second mode, using a second threshold distance in the second direction from the current line, wherein the second threshold distance is less than the first threshold distance, to determine whether to change the ending location of the selected text to a different line from the current line.