Patent ID: 7877708

Claim:
A method of displaying messages on a display of a handheld device, the display including a scrollable viewport for displaying the messages, each message having an associated date, a group of messages associated with a same associated date comprising a first associated message and other associated messages, the viewport being divided into a plurality of fields arranged in a vertical list including a topmost field and a second field, the second field being immediately below the topmost field in the vertical list, wherein the number of messages exceeds the capacity of the scrollable viewport to display all of the messages at one time, the method comprising: identifying one of said other associated messages for display in the second field; displaying a date separator item in said topmost field, wherein said date separator item is based upon said same associated date of said one of said other associated messages; receiving a scroll command, wherein the scroll command is a request to move the vertical list up or down by one message; identifying a next message for display in the second field after scrolling is applied and determining whether the next message is associated with the same associated date as the date separator item, and if so, maintaining display of the date separator item in the topmost field, and if not, displaying a new date separator item in said topmost field, wherein said new date separator item is based upon a date associated with said next message.