Patent ID: 6990638

Claim:
A method of displaying layered data, said method comprising: identifying a plurality of shading colors, each of the shading colors corresponding to a different data layer; identifying a plurality of data items to be displayed in a display window; for each data item: determining one of the data layers corresponding to the data item; selecting a shading color from the plurality of shading colors, wherein the shading color corresponds to the determined data layer; formatting the data item using the selected shading color; and displaying the formatted data item and an alphanumeric level identifier in the display window, wherein each formatted data item is positioned with a left margin substantially similar to a left margin corresponding to the other data items, and wherein the alphanumeric level identifier identifies the data layer corresponding to the formatted data item; and superimposing a level indicator bar with each formatted data item, wherein one margin of the level indicator bar indicates a data level corresponding to the formatted data item.