Patent ID: 6734883
Filing Date: 2004-05-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for interfacing with a user of a computer system having a graphical user display, said graphical user display having a pointer element on the graphical user display with a user pointer controller, the pointer controller having position and selection status responsive to operation by a user, the method comprising the steps of:displaying on said graphical user display in a static position a spinner control having one or more action areas, a topic label area and a current selection dialog box; responsive to movement of said pointer element to a position near one of said action areas, altering the appearance of said spinner control to change said dialog box to display an item in sequence from a list of possible selections, and to display a pop-up preview list and a drop-down postview list adjacent to and on opposing sides of said static position of the dialog box, each of said preview and postview lists displaying a plurality of possible selection items in a sequential order; responsive to selection of an action area, further modifying the spinner control appearance to provide scrolling through said sequentially ordered list such that a currently selectable item is moved from the preview list or the postview list to the statically positioned selection dialog box, and the item formerly shown in the current selection dialog box is moved to the preview or postview list, according to a direction of scrolling indicated by said selected action area such that the user may operate the spinner control to review items from the list of possible selections in two directions, one towards the preview list and one towards the postview list; and responsive to final selection by said user, automatically generating a signal to said computer system indicative of the list item currently shown in the selection dialog box as being the user's desired input, and removing the pop-up preview list and drop-down post view list from the display to return to said non-activated state.