Patent ID: 7562085

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of displaying linked information in a sorted context comprising the steps of: determining an initial set of display elements in a document; selecting a display element from the initial set of display elements; determining a display characteristic associated with the initial set of display elements; identifying an additional set of display elements in the document that are each linked to the selected display element, comprising: selecting at least one similarity measure comprising a computed relatioship shared by the selected display element and the additional set of display elements; and quantitatively comparing the at least one similarity measure to a threshold; and creating a combined set of display elements comprising the initial and the additional sets of display elements when the at least one similarity measure exceeds the threshold; preserving spatial relationships between the initial and the additional sets of display elements in the document, wherein the spatial relationships comprise each initial set of display elements sharing its row with neither more nor less than the same set of initial set of display elements as before; sorting the initial and the combined sets of display elements into sections based on spatial distortion rules for each section; and displaying the sections comprising the combined set of display elements with the initial set of display elements in a single composite sorted display.