Patent ID: 7334185

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of interactively managing information correlating a list of items and a list of attributes which are external to, and independent of, the items but which at least some attributes being selectively allocated to the items, comprising: displaying the list of items as a column of rows, each row displaying the name of an item in the list of items; displaying to the side of the column a set of vertical strips extending the length of the column, each strip being associated with a different attribute of the list of attributes; and displaying markers in the strips at selected positions where the strips cross rows, said positions being selected in accordance with whether the item named in the crossed row has the attribute associated with that strip; wherein the vertical strips extend beyond the column of rows of items and have horizontal extensions themselves forming a column of rows, each row displaying the name of an attribute in the list of attributes; wherein the method further comprises storing the name of each item in the list of items and information identifying the attributes of each item; wherein the horizontal extensions of each attribute strip further displays a filter option indicator; and wherein the method further comprises receiving user input to select at least one filter option, storing the selected filter options and displaying the or each corresponding filter option indicator; filtering the list of items according to the or each filter option selected by the user; redisplaying the filtered list of items in the column of rows and the associated markers in the selected positions of the strips.