METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTINCTIVELY DISPLAYING WINDOWS ON A COMPUTER DISPLAY SCREEN

摘要

A method and apparatus for distinctively displaying windows on a computer display screen is disclosed. The amount of time each of the windows presented to the display screen is active (also known as "in focus") is monitored. Upon receipt of a command from the user, the windows that were active a longer length of time are displayed more distinctively than windows that were active a shorter length of time. Active windows can be displayed more distinctively in many different ways. One such way is by placing the most active window in the upper left corner of the screen and placing the rest of the windows in a descending order of activity from left to right and top to bottom on the screen. Another way is to cascade the windows, where the windows are cascaded in a descending order of activity from the front to the back of the window stack. Yet another way is to generate a list of window titles associated with each window, in a descending order of activity from the top of the list to the bottom of the list. Still another way of distinctively displaying more active windows is to put the most active window in focus, and then put the remainder of the windows in focus in descending order of activity in a toggle sequence of windows.