Patent ID: 7665043

Claim:
A portable computing device comprising: a housing; a display accessible on a panel of the housing; a multi-directional input mechanism that includes one or more of a button feature, protruding pad, or protruding member; and a processor coupled to the display and to the multi-directional input mechanism, the processor being configured to: detect an input signaled from the multi-directional input mechanism corresponding to a menu request; activate a first menu on the display in response to the menu request, the activated first menu displaying a menu bar and one or more menu items, wherein the menu bar corresponds to a portion of the first menu that provides an identifier of the first menu when the first menu is both active and inactive, and wherein when the first menu is active, each of the one or more menu items is associated with an action; process navigation input signaled from the multi-directional input mechanism to navigate vertically from one of the one or more menu items in the active first menu to the portion of the active first menu that corresponds to the menu bar of the active first menu, so that the menu bar of the active first menu to be selectable; process selection input signaled from tile multi-directional input mechanism for when the menu bar is selectable; and cancel activation of the first menu from the display in response to (i) the menu bar of the first menu being selectable and (ii) the selection input for the menu bar being processed.