USO05786818A
Contents
1. 345 327 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Computer Dictionary Second Edition 1994 published by Microsoft Press pp cover copyright page and 75 amp 132 Microsoft Mouse User s Guide Version 8 2 1984 92 pp i ii 29 36 Microsoft WINDOWS User s 1990 92 pp i xvii and 15 Microsoft Ships Its First Broad Release of Windows Upgrade for a Test Run Wall Street Journal 3 Star Eastern Edition 21 Jun 1994 p B9 Microsoft Office Getting Started MS Corp 1992 93 pp 1 and 10 Guide Version 3 1 Primary Examiner A Katbab Attorney Agent or Firm Ratner amp Prestia 57 ABSTRACT A system and method for minimizing clicks in the operation of a graphical user interface such as the WINDOWS oper ating environment is disclosed Provided for minimizing the need for clicking to operate a graphical user interface is a Focus feature which essentially eliminates the need to click In particular the Focus feature eliminates the need to single click on predetermined windows and applications in order to establish a focus That is as a user moves a pointer around the screen in Windows the Focus feature essentially follows the pointer and the equivalent of a single click is sent to objects such as icons or system menus for the desktop environment such as file manager and program manager in the explorer window of version 3 1 or such as to system menus when the pointer passes over them 11 Claims2. 624 which essentially parallel the functionality of steps 614 and 616 of waiting for some activity e g mouse movement or button activity If eventually mouse movement occurs over a new window step 626 then at step 628 it is determined whether the new window can accept the object being dragged If the new window cannot accept the object the process loops back to step 622 If on the other hand the new window can accept the object the process continues to step 630 where the focus is set to the new window consequently bringing that window to the foreground At this point the user has the option to complete the drag and drop by dropping the object 5 786 818 7 being dragged into the new foreground window or continu ing the drag to another new window FIG 7 shows an exemplary computer system 710 suitable for use with the present invention In the exemplary embodi ment of the present invention the necessary WINDOWS software could be executed and displayed on computer system 710 In particular computer system 710 includes of a personal computer 712 having several peripheral devices including monitor 714 keyboard 716 mouse 718 resting on mouse pad 720 sound card 722 including a CODEC 724 plugged inside of computer 712 and a speaker 726 Com puter system 710 also includes a CD ROM drive 730 for retrieving information stored on CD ROM As understood by those skilled in the art the present invention is not limited to th
3. With the Focus feature activated however a user is able to drag and drop objects onto targets where only a small portion of the target is visible That is as a user moves the pointer around the screen in WINDOWS the focus follows the pointer so whatever a user is pointing at can be easily recognized When dragging and dropping the user need only stop moving when posi tioned over the target on which the drop is desired whether the actual target group file service etc is visible and focus shifts to that window and allows the operation to complete FIG 6 is a high level flow chart illustrating the drag and drop application of the Focus aspect of the present invention As seen in FIG 6 first the process waits for a primary button to be depressed step 610 At step 612 the position of the pointer is saved at the point where the button depression occurred At step 614 the process waits for either mouse movement primary button release or secondary button depression If before mouse movement occurs the primary button is released or the secondary button is depressed step 616 the process waits for all buttons to be released step 618 and returns to step 610 Step 620 checks to see if the mouse has moved more than a predetermined amount designated as DELTA If the mouse has not moved more than DELTA the process loops back to step 614 If the mouse has moved a distance greater than DELTA the process moves forward to steps 622 and
4. receiving position data for a mouse pointer and b setting focus without clicking to an icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon which is within a program group 11 A method for interpreting data according to claim 10 comprising the further step of c placing the program group into the foreground of the graphical user interface based on the position data of the mouse pointer
5. 7 Drawing Sheets SET FOCUS TO MENU ITEM BEING POINTED AT U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 1 of 7 5 786 818 ENABLE CLICK SAVER FEATURE WAIT FOR PRIMARY BUTTON CLICK 112 GET WINDOW CLICK HAPPENED ON IS WINDOW A CONTROL MENU YES EMULATE DOUBLE CLICK OF PRIMARY BUTTON IS WINDOW AN ICON 124 NO 122 USING DDE 126 DETERMINE YES ICON IN PROCRAMER WAS CLICKED IS WINDOW A PROGRAM MANAGER ON NO SEND MDI COMMAND TO RESTORE WINDOW REPRESENTED BY ICON FIG U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 2 of 7 5 786 818 l POINTER SPEED e THESE OPTIONS LET YOU ADJUST THE SPEED OF THE POINTER RELATIVE TO THE SPEED THAT YOU MOVE YOUR MOUSE OVERALL POINTER SPEED TH HORIZONTAL ACCELERATION LOW WITH THIS OPTION AS YOU MOVE YOUR MOUSE MEDIUM FASTER YOUR POINTER O HICH ACCELERATES O UNACCELERATED DOUBLE CLICK SPEED sow Jel HH 2i FIG 2 U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 3 of 7 5 786 818 210 THE POINTER INFORMATION IS CAUGHT IN A SIMPLE WH_MOUSE HOOK DISTRIBUTED VI SETWINDOWSHOOKEX AND CLICKSAVER IS ON NO 212 BECAUSE THE USER MAY BE 214 HOLDING DOWN THE CTRL OR SHIFT KEY THUS INDICATING THAT THEY WISH TO TEMPORARILY YES SUSPEND THE CLICKSAVER SERVICES GETKEYSTATE IS USED TO DETERMINE IF EITHER OF THESE KEYS ARE BEING PRESSED WHEN THE MOUS
6. is provided by a WINDOWS operating environ ment 3 A method for interpreting data according to claim 1 comprising the further step of c placing at least one of i the menu item ii the icon and iii the program group into the foreground of the graphical user interface based on the position data of the mouse pointer 4 A system for interpreting data corresponding to position data of a mouse pointer to eliminate the need for clicking when setting focus within a graphical user interface com prising means for receiving without clicking position data for a mouse pointer 10 15 25 35 45 8 means for setting the focus to a menu item from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is point ing at the menu item within a menu box means for setting the focus to an icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon and means for setting focus to the icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon within a program group S The system of claim 4 wherein the graphical user interface is provided by a WINDOWS operating environ ment 6 A computer implemented method for interpreting data corresponding to position data of a mouse pointer to elimi nate the need for clicking w
7. of graphical user interfaces which also require double clicking FIG 1 shows a high level flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of the ClickSaver feature of the present inven tion As shown in FIG 1 first the ClickSaver feature is enabled at step 100 In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention after the ClickSaver feature is enabled if the control or shift keys are held down ClickSaver is disabled and allows normal object selection activities to occur Moreover ClickSaver remains disabled until the operation is complete i e a drag and drop occurs or a single file is clicked on to remove the multiple file selection Continuing with FIG 1 the ClickSaver process in step 110 waits for a primary button click or equivalent signal from a mouse It should be noted that many currently available mice include two buttons which can be config ured by way of mouse setup software as primary and secondary buttons for various applications Additional detail on this point can be found in Windows 3 1 DDK Chapter 8 and Windows 3 1 Guide to Programming Chapter 20 Next at step 112 the ClickSaver process gets the window on which the single click occurred Because the windows can be clicked on or selected using a pointing device such as a mouse the windows must have a known location on the display screen so that the user can align the mouse pointer also referred to a pointer or cursor with the window The window identification and
8. which window the pointer is currently pointing In the exemplary embodiment the value returned by DefWindowProc indicates the type of window at which the pointer is pointing Next at step 520 a special case filter is performed to disallow Winfile MDI children from getting the focus In particular the GetClassName API is used to determine if the object is a Winfile MDI child This was done to deter errors caused when Focus passed between these windows The class name of WinFile MDI window is WFS Tree Finally at step 522 the appropriate API is used to place focus on the window under the pointer In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention the appropriate API for Win16 is SetActiveWindow and for Win32 the appro priate API is SetForegroundWindow A particularly useful application for the Focus feature is what is known in the art as a drag and drop As described in the BACKGROUND an instance where not having to click is useful is when a user desires to drag and drop an object into a window which is currently not in the fore ground This can occur for example when several windows have been opened and are available in an overlap manner on the display However if an object is selected for dragging and dropping from the window under focus with its dropping destination in a window currently in the background in the past there has been no convenient way to focus or bring the destination window to the fore ground
9. 2 If however the button is held down longer than the double click time and range then a single primary click is passed to the object In this case the object responds normally for example by popping up a system menu by dropping down a system menu etc It should also be noted that if the secondary mouse button is not redefined a single primary click on the secondary mouse button is sent as a single primary click to pop up or drop down system menus If at steps 114 and 116 the window clicked on is neither a control window nor an icon at step 122 the process determines if the window is a program manager If the object is not a program manager the ClickSaver process returns to step 110 to wait for the next primary button click If the window is a program manager however using dynamic data exchange DDE it is determined if an icon in the program manager window was clicked on as shown in step 124 as shown in step 126 the window is an icon then an MDI command is sent to restore the window represented by the icon step 128 If not the ClickSaver process returns to step 110 to wait for the next primary button click FIG 3 is a flow chart which includes additional detail including exemplary names for APIs used to retrieve and process information for the ClickSaver process In particular at step 210 pointer information indicating that the user desires to enable the ClickSaver feature is retrieved by a programming hook WH_ MOU
10. E IS CLICKED NO 216 NO 220 218 SIMILARLY GETTICKCOUNT IS USED TO DETERMINE THAT THE USER HAS COMPLETED THE CLICK WITHIN THE ALLOWED TIME FRAME CLICKS NOT COMPLETED WITHIN THE SYSTEMS DOUBLE CLICK TIME WILL DISABLE CLICKSAVER SERVICES YES 222 HAVING PASSED THIS FILTER THE POINT INFORMATION DRAWN FROM THE HOOK IS THEN PASSED TO DEFWINDOWPROC WITH THE ASSOCIATED WINDOW HANDLE EXTRACTED VIA WINDOWFROMPOINT AND THE MESSAGE WM NCHITTEST FIG 3A 5 786 818 Sheet 4 of 7 Jul 28 1998 U S Patent ge ol SI 13980 139142530 V N3HM QNOO3S JHL 30IAOMd OL 0350 SI ZENIM NI IN3A3 TISNOW IN3A3 3SNOW gct IN3W3OVNVN NOLY NddY 19345 ANINY3LJQ 01 035 SI a 3JMYNSSVY19139 TI3HS OMIHL Sdfi0M2 W39VNvVW MWvsoONd 500 JHL 803 9NISVO t 914 NOOSE 01 51903 135 NOI 1V ONLLNIOd 3I 3NIN233130 01 300 35 9 4 Y MOGNIM V MOGNIM SI IV Q31NIOd ONE OL Sh203 135 9NIINIOd SI YaINIOd MOGNIM OL 310NVH 39V5S3M 3SnOM 139 3401v34 00 0203 NAVNI U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 5 of 7 5 786 818 THE POINTER INFORMATION IS CAUGHT IN A SIMPLE MOUSE HOOK DISTRIBUTED VIA SETWINDOWSHOOKEX AND FOCUS IS ON NO A FILTER IS PLACED VIA DEFWINDOWPROC TO DETERMINE IF THE US
11. ER COMPLETED THEIR CLICK WHILE ON THE MENUBARSERVICES GETKEYSTATE IS USED TO DETERMINE IF EITHER OF THESE KEYS ARE BEING PRESSED WHEN THE MOUSE IS CLICKED NO 514 TO DETERMINE IF A MENU HAS BEEN ACTIVATED A SECONDARY WH_CALLWNDPROC HOOK ALSO DISTRIBUTED VIA SETWINDOWSHOOKEX IS USED TO CATCH THE WM_INITMENU MESSAGE MOUSE_EVENT ENTERS A WM_LBUTTONDOWN THEN WM_LBUTTONUP WHEN USER THE POINT INFORMATION IS THEN PASSED FROM THE HOOK TO DEFWINDOWPROC TO DETERMINE WHAT OBJECT THE POINTER IS OVER 520 IN 10 0 AND GREATER GETCLASSNAME IS USED TO SPECIAL CASE WINFILE MDI CHILDREN TO DISALLOW SETACTIVEWINDOW AND SETFOREGROUNDWINDOW ARE USED TO PLACE FOCUS ON THE WINDOW UNDER THE POINTER IN WINI6 AND WIN32s RESPECTIVELY FIG 5 U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 6 of 7 5 786 818 610 WAIT FOR PRIMARY MOUSE BUTTON TO BE PRESSED SAVE MOUSE POSITION WAIT FOR MOUSE MOVEMENT PRIMARY BUTTON RELEASE OR SECONDARY BUTTON PRESS 612 614 NO HAS MOUSE MOVED MORE THAN DELTA SINCE PRIMARY BUTTON RELEASED PRIMARY BUTTON RELEASE OR SECONDARY BUTTON PRESS 618 YES 822 WAIT FOR MOUSE MOVEMENT F PRIMARY BUTTON RELEASE OR SECONDARY BUTTON PRESS PRIMARY BUTTON RELEASE OR SECONDARY BUTTON PRESS OVER NEW WINDOW 630 SET FOCUS TO WINDOM YES WILL BRINGING IT TO THE FOREGROU
12. GetClassName is used to handle special cases such as when a DOS box a Program Manager Group or third party shell application management are the windows clicked on A timer of one second is used to filter out any additional clicks This was done to deter any triple click conditions Finally at step 226 if all filters have been passed the Mouse Event API provides a second click thereby emu lating a double click when a desired target is hit Focus Another aspect of the present invention referred to as the Focus feature also eliminates a need to click under certain 5 786 818 5 circumstances but for a different purpose in particular the Focus feature eliminates the need to single click on prede termined windows and applications in order to establish a focus That is to say as a user moves the mouse pointer around the screen in WINDOWS the Focus feature essen tially follows the pointer and the equivalent of a single click is sent to windows such as icons or system menus in the desktop environment to windows such as file manager and program manager in Version 3 1 in the explorer window or to system menus when the pointer passes over them For example if several windows have been opened the window under focus is the window in the foreground of the display The other windows not under focus are represented in an overlapped manner with at least a portion of each background window exposed Prior to implementa
13. ND FIG 6 U S Patent Jul 28 1998 Sheet 7 of 7 5 786 818 FIG 7 5 786 818 1 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ACTIVATING FOCUS This application is a division of application Ser No 08 417 078 filed Apr 5 1995 U S Pat No 5 611 040 status allowed FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention generally relates to actions requested using a graphical user interface and more particularly it relates to the interpretation of data signals based on a mouse pointer position relative to the graphical user interface BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Many computer programs including multimedia applications use a graphical user interface such as the WINDOWS Operating System version 3 1 by MICROSOFT Corporation WINDOWS Applications using graphical user interfaces such as WINDOWS provide a user with several ways of executing or carrying out commands such as restoring a window or launching an application Pop up menus are one type of tool by which a user can execute a command In WINDOWS a pop up menu may be associated with for example an icon representing a mini mized application In this case the menu can be selected by performing a single click on the icon It should be noted that the terms used throughout this application which have particular significance to a graphical user interface and the operation thereof such as click and double click are being used consistent with the definition provided in Com puter Dicti
14. SE and consequently the ClickSaver feature is enabled As mentioned above the ClickSaver feature may be temporarily disabled by holding down the control or shift keys thus an API GetKeyState is used to determine if either of these keys is depressed step 212 after a single primary click is received If one of the designated keys is depressed the ClickSaver process is exited path 214 if neither of the keys is depressed then the ClickSaver process continues path 216 Also mentioned the ClickSaver feature in the exemplary embodiment is limited in time by the duration set for a double click Thus in step 218 an API GetTickCount is used to determine if the user completed the click i e up and down activation of the mouse button within the defined time frame If the received primary click is within the double click time the ClickSaver process continues otherwise the process exits path 220 Once the click is determined to have happened without a control or shift key depressed and within the double click time the window on which the click occurred is identified At step 222 the mouse pointer location i e coordinates of the mouse pointer are passed to a procedure DefWindowProc with an associated window handle and the message WM NCHITTEST Once executed the procedure DefWindowProc returns a value which identifies the type of window on which the click occurred In the exemplary embodiment at step 224 an additional API
15. United States Patent Brewer et al US005786818 11 Patent Number 5 786 818 45 Date of Patent Jul 28 1998 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ACTIVATING FOCUS 75 Inventors Timothy T Brewer Bellevue Daniel S Hoeger Woodinville Lora McCambridge Bellevue Teresa L Kelsey Seattle Anthony R Claflin Bellevue Kenneth R Robertson Redmond Michael W Van Flandern Seattle all of Wash 73 Assignee Microsoft Corporation Redmond Wash 21 Appl No 770 226 22 Filed Dec 19 1996 Related U S Application Data 62 Division of Ser No 417 078 Apr 5 1995 Pat No 5 611 51 52 58 Field of Search 345 340 348 345 352 333 334 339 343 344 345 349 353 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 866 602 9 1989 Hal 5 125 077 6 1992 Hall 5 437 014 7 1995 Busboom et al 5 502 459 3 1996 Marshal et al 5 530 865 6 1996 Owens et al 5 564 004 10 1996 Grossman et al 5594856 1 1997 Girard ies ENABLE FOCUS FEATURE GET MOUSE MOVE MESSAGE AND HANDLE TO WINDOW POINTER IS POINTING AT 5 WINDOW MENU BOX USE DDE TO DETERMINE IF POINTING AT 1CON SET FOCUS TO ICON 5 598 524 1 1997 Johnson Jr et al 345 348 5 621 878 4 1997 Owens et al 345 326 5 687 331 11 1997 Volk et al
16. e configuration for computer system 710 shown in FIG 1 Other configurations which can operate the present method and system will be understood by those skilled in the art Although illustrated and described herein with reference to certain specific embodiments the present invention is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown Rather various modifications may be made in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims and without departing from the spirit of the invention What is claimed 1 A computer implemented method for interpreting data corresponding to position data of a mouse pointer to elimi nate the need for clicking when setting focus within a graphical user interface comprising the steps of a without clicking receiving position data for a mouse pointer b setting the focus to a menu item from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the menu item within a menu box c setting the focus to an icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon and d setting focus to the icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indi cates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon which is within a program group 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical user interface
17. he mouse is pointing at an icon As shown if it is an icon the focus is set to the icon at step 422 otherwise the Focus process exits path 428 As FIG 3 provides additional details for the high level flowchart of FIG 1 FIG 5 shows additional details includ ing exemplary names for APIs used to retrieve and process information for the Focus process shown in FIG 4 As shown in FIG 5 at step 510 pointer information indicating that the user desires to enable the Focus feature is retrieved by a programming hook WH MOUSE and consequently the Focus feature is enabled Step 512 indi cates that a filter is placed by way of DefWindowProc to determine if the user completed a click while on a menubarservices The GetKeyState API is used to determine if either of these keys are depressed when the mouse is clicked If they are the Focus process exits otherwise the Focus process continues to step 514 At step 514 it is determined if a menu has been activated In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention this is accomplished via a secondary hook WH CALLWNDPROC such that the INITMENU message is detected If a menu has been activated at step 516 Mouse Event sends a button down button up sequence to emulate a single click If a menu has not been activated the Focus process continues to step 518 10 15 45 55 65 6 At step 518 the pointer information is passed to DefWin dowProc in order to determine at
18. hen setting focus within a graphical user interface comprising the steps of a yreceiving position data for a mouse pointer and b setting the focus without clicking to a menu item from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the menu item within a menu box 7 A method for interpreting data according to claim 6 comprising the further step of c placing the menu item into the foreground of the graphical user interface based on the position data of the mouse pointer 8 A computer implemented method for interpreting data corresponding to position data of a mouse pointer to elimi nate the need for clicking when setting focus within a graphical user interface comprising the steps of a receiving position data for a mouse pointer and b setting the focus without clicking to an icon from a background portion of the graphical user interface if the position data indicates that the mouse pointer is pointing at the icon 9 A method for interpreting data according to claim 8 comprising the further step of c placing the icon into the foreground of the graphical user interface based on the position data of the mouse pointer 10 A computer implemented method for interpreting data corresponding to position data of a mouse pointer to elimi nate the need for clicking when setting focus within a graphical user interface comprising the steps of a
19. icular window allowing a user who has switched applications to return to the point in the original application where process ing had been taking place prior to the switch to the other application WINDOWS operation and WINDOWS programming including the use of DLLs and APIs are well known by those skilled in the art The Microsoft WIN DOWS Software Development Kit Guide to Programming Volumes 1 3 available on the Microsoft Developers Network January 1995 is herein incorporated by reference It is available and used by WINDOWS programmers and provides reference information for many of the DLLs and APIs which are available to WINDOWS programmers SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In another aspect of the present invention a process which interprets position data received for a mouse pointer is used to set focus and minimize the need for clicking First the process receives position data for the mouse pointer con trolled by the mouse Next the type of window at which the pointer is pointing is determined If the window is a menu box and the pointing device is further pointing at a menu item within the menu box the focus is set to the menu item If the window is an icon the focus is set to the icon Or if the window is a program group and the pointer is also pointing at an icon within the program group the focus is set to the icon BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The aspects features and advantages of the present inven tion will be mo
20. location information is of course available to the ClickSaver process which uses it to interpret the input signals from the pointing device In the exemplary embodiment the window location and identification infor mation is returned by a procedure call It should also be noted that in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention windows eligible for receiving an emulated double click signal based on a single click when the ClickSaver feature is enabled include that subset of windows or objects which would benefit from this feature such as system control menus desktop icons explorer icons and application windows For simplicity of description this subset of windows are referred to generally as control menus or icons Returning to FIG 1 as shown in decision steps 114 and 116 if the window clicked on is a control menu or icon a double click is emulated and sent to the object step 120 The double click signal prompts the appropriate behavior to occur such as launching an application restoring a window closing an application etc In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention for the single click i e button down then up to be interpreted as a double click the single click should occur within a preset double click time and range As mentioned in the BACKGROUND this time and range have default 20 25 55 65 4 settings but can also be updated by a user via a mouse control window as shown in FIG
21. onary 2nd edition 1994 published by MICROSOFT Press The Computer Dictionary is herein incorporated by reference Once the pop up menu is presented or displayed a item in the menu can be selected with a another single click Users familiar with WINDOWS know that rather than wait for the menu to pop up a double click can be used to accomplish the same result As mentioned in WINDOWS double clicking to achieve a desired result is well known as described in the Computer Dictionary as well as the explanation and use in the MICROSOFT MOUSE User s Guide Version 8 2 1984 92 which is also herein incorporated by reference To accomplish a double click however the sequence of two back to back clicks must be accomplished within a preset time and range defined for double clicking The method of setting the time and range for a double click as well as other relevant information is described in detail in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS User s Manual Version 3 1 1990 92 which is herein incorporated by reference Sometimes however having to double click to accom plish a result can be troublesome or inconvenient Therefore if a single click could be used for various instances where a double click is now required user operation in the Windows environment could be further optimized Another instance where not having to click is a desirable goal is when for example as user desires to drag and drop an object into a window which currently is no
22. re readily understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG 1 is a high level flow chart of the click saver aspect of the present invention FIG 2 is a flow chart providing additional detail regarding the operation of the click saver aspect of the present inven tion FIG 3 is a flow chart providing additional detail regarding the operation of the click saver aspect of the present inven tion FIG 4 is high level flow chart illustrating the focus aspect of the present invention FIG 5 is flow chart providing additional detail regarding the operation of the focus aspect of the present invention FIG 6 is a high level flow chart illustrating the drag and drop focus aspect of the invention 5 786 818 3 FIG 7 shows a personal computer on which an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be executed DETAILED DESCRIPTION Clicksaver One aspect of the present invention which emulates a double click also referred to as the ClickSaver feature virtually eliminates the need to double click in for example the WINDOWS operating environment thereby making WINDOWS easier for both the novice and experienced WINDOWS user Although the WINDOWS operating envi ronment is a popular example of a graphical user interface it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the ClickSaver feature of the present invention can be used with other types
23. t under focus Focus is where a window is essentially placed in the foreground which in a multitasking environment refers to the process program that has control of the console and responds to commands issued from the mouse or keyboard For example this may occur when several windows have been opened and are available in an overlap manner on the 15 20 25 35 45 55 2 display however if an item is selected for dragging and dropping from the window under focus with its dropping destination in a window which is currently in the background there is no convenient way to focus or bring the destination window to the foreground Working with the above described features may require basic use and knowledge of the WINDOWS software and its operation Generally a software program written for WIN DOWS operation uses dynamic link libraries DLLs which contain a plurality of application programming interfaces APIs The APIs are used to carry out various WINDOWS functions For example if a software program requires a dialog box displayed on a computer monitor to prompt a user for a command or data entry the software program would make a call to the DialogBox API which brings up a dialog box on the computer monitor The contents of the dialog box are local to or associated with the particular application which made the call Another example of a WINDOWS API is the SetWin dowLong API This API associates data with a part
24. tion of this feature a user would have to click on a background window to bring the window to the foreground With the Focus feature enabled the user simply has to place the cursor on the exposed portion of a background window to change the focus to that window and place it in the foreground FIG 4 is high level flow chart illustrating the Focus aspect of the present invention As shown first at step 400 the Focus feature is enabled Next at step 410 the pointer position is periodically monitored and when the pointer position changes i e the mouse is moved it is determined at what the mouse is pointing If at step 412 the pointer is pointing at a menu box the Focus process next determines at step 414 if the pointer is pointing at a menu item within the menu box If a menu item is being pointed at the focus is set to the menu item step 416 otherwise the Focus process exits path 418 If however at step 412 the pointer is not pointing at a menu box the Focus process checks whether the pointer is pointing at an icon step 420 If an icon is being pointed at the focus is set on the icon step 422 If however at step 420 the Focus process determines that the pointer is not pointing at an icon then at step 424 it determines if a program group is being pointed at If it is not then the Focus process exits if it is then the Focus process continues to step 426 where it uses DDE to determine if within the program group t
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