Expandable and collapsible arrays of documents

摘要

An embodiment provides a product comprising a machine-readable medium and machine-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform a method comprising providing a first array of information elements adapted to be expanded into at least one other array of information elements on a display. Another embodiment provides a method of displaying information elements on a display of a computer system with arrays of information elements, the method comprising displaying a first array of information elements, expanding the first array of information elements into at least one other array of information elements, wherein the first array of information elements and the at least one other array of information elements have a commonality. A system and a graphical user interface providing same are equally provided herein.

主权项

1. An apparatus for implementing a user interface adapted to display a plurality of substantially rectilinear arrays of user-selectable elements on a display, the apparatus comprising:
a memory module; and
a processing unit in communication with the memory module, the processing unit being operative for executing computer readable program code stored on a non-transient computer readable medium for implementing
a method comprising,displaying a first expandable array of user-selectable elements displaying a plurality of user-selectable elements along a substantially rectilinear orientation on the display, each user-selectable element of which array is associated with one or more attributes, all user-selectable elements of which array share in common one or more attributes,displaying an expansion actuator with the first expandable array, andin response to selection of the expansion actuator by a user, displaying a first additional array of user-selectable elements displaying a plurality of user-selectable elements along a substantially rectilinear orientation on the display, the first additional array of user-selectable elements being adjacent and parallel from the first expandable array of user-selectable elements, wherein all user-selectable elements of the first additional array that is displayed in response to the selection of the expansion actuator share in common one or more attributes, and wherein each user-selectable element of the first additional array that is displayed in response to the selection of the expansion actuator comprises a user-selectable element of the first expandable array of user-selectable elements, andin further response to selection of the expansion actuator, displaying a second additional array of user-selectable elements displaying a plurality of user-selectable elements along a substantially rectilinear orientation on the display, the second additional array of user-selectable elements being adjacent and parallel from the first additional array of user-selectable elements, wherein all user-selectable elements of the second additional array that is displayed in response to the selection of the expansion actuator share in common one or more attributes, and wherein each user-selectable element of the second additional array that is displayed in response to the selection of the expansion actuator is a user-selectable element of the first expandable array,whereby the first expandable array is expandable by selection of the expansion actuator to display subsets thereof, each of which subsets is based on commonality of one or more attributes.