Patent ID: 7913183

Claim:
A method for managing at least two software applications on a display of a computer system comprising: instantiating a first software application on the computer system; instantiating an other than a first software application on the computer system; rendering the first software application in a first graphical window on a first portion of the display and in a first graphic control on a second portion of the display as a result of the instantiation of the first software application; rendering the other than the first software application in an other than the first graphical window on the first portion of the display and in an other than the first graphic control on the second portion of the display as a result of the instantiation of the other than the first software application; forming a group of software applications in the first graphical window, the group comprising the first software application and the other than the first software application, the forming comprising: obtaining an indication to organize the first graphic control and the other than the first graphic control in a group, wherein obtaining the indication includes rendering a set of guides representing inclusion or exclusion from one or more possible groupings in the second portion of the display; grouping the first and the other than the first graphic controls on the second portion of the display according to the obtained indication; and rendering the grouping in a bordered group in the second portion of the display, the bordered group including the first and the other than the first graphic controls and a graphic group control; receiving a single user action to act upon the group; and performing, upon the receiving, the single user action to each of the software applications in the group substantially simultaneously without a user applying a sequence of user actions to each of the software applications individually in the group.