Patent ID: 8024667

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: displaying at least a portion of an electronic document in a first mode, the portion of the electronic document comprises a plurality of floating objects, the portion of the electronic document has a z-order stack, each floating object has an x-y location in the portion of the electronic document and has a position in the z-order stack, in the first mode the floating objects are displayed in an x-y plane based on the z-order stack; displaying the portion of the electronic document in a second mode, in the second mode the electronic document is depicted as a plurality of x-y plane slices, each x-y plane slice corresponds to one position on the z-order stack and depicts the floating object that is associated with that position on the z-order stack, each x-y plane slice having a number indicator that specifies the position on the z-order stack that the floating object for that x-y plane slice is in, the x-y plane slices are displayed partially overlapping in a particular order to depict the position of the floating objects on the z-order stack, displaying the portion of the electronic document in a second mode includes displaying only a subset of the floating objects that are included in the portion of the electronic document; receiving a request to re-order the x-y plane slices when in the second mode, receiving the request to re-order includes receiving a request to move a first x-y plane slice relative to the other x-y plane slices; displaying a re-ordering of the x-y plane slices based on the request to re-order, the displaying a re-ordering includes displaying the first x-y plane slice moving relative to the other x-y slices, the displaying includes decreasing the amount of overlap displayed between neighboring x-y plane slices that the first x-y plane slice is near as it is being moved, the displaying including updating the number indicator on the first x-y plane slice that indicates the current position on the z-order stack for the first x-y plane slice, the number is updated as the first x-y slice is being moved to specify the relative position of the first x-y plane slice to the other x-y plane slices; and displaying the portion of the electronic document in the first mode based on the re-ordering of the x-y planes slices.