Patent ID: 7716587

Claim:
An information handling system comprising: one or more processors; a memory accessible by the processors; a display device; a pointing device; one or more nonvolatile storage devices accessible by the processors; and a node selection tool for highlighting one or more related nodes, the node selection tool comprising software code effective to: receive a primary node selection corresponding to a primary node; set a branch counter to one and a level counter to one in response to receiving the primary node selection; identify one or more related nodes corresponding to the primary node, the identifying further comprising software code effective to: select a first branch that corresponds to the primary node; select a first level that corresponds to the primary node; identify nodes that correspond to the first branch and the first level; store one or more node identifiers that correspond to both the first branch and the first level; in response to determining that there are additional levels, increment the level counter to a next level; identify additional nodes that correspond to both the first branch and the next level; store one or more relationship node identifiers that correspond to both the first branch and the next level; in response to determining that there are additional branches, increment the branch counter to a next branch; identify additional nodes that correspond to both the next branch and the first level; store one or more relationship node identifiers that correspond to both the next branch and the first level; receive a related nodes selection corresponding to one of the relationship level identifiers, wherein an intermediate node level exists between the primary node and the node selection level, the intermediate node level including a plurality of intermediate nodes; and highlight the primary node and the related nodes that correspond to each node level up to and including the related nodes selection level, which includes each of the plurality of intermediate nodes.