Patent ID: 8146016

Claim:
A method for providing a gallery of formatting options in an improved user interface, the method comprising: receiving an indication of an insertion of a first object; in response to receiving the indication of the insertion of the first object, providing a gallery of formatting controls associated with editing the inserted first object, wherein each of the formatting controls contained in the gallery of formatting controls is associated with formatting attributes configured to be applied to the first object; displaying, in the user interface, a second object for illustrating how the first object will be formatted if the formatting attributes associated with any one of the formatting controls are applied to the first object; receiving a first type of selection of an image formatting control of the gallery of formatting controls, the first type of selection corresponding to a mouse over on the image formatting control; in response to receiving the first type of selection, dynamically applying image formatting attributes associated with the image formatting control to the first object, wherein dynamically applying the image formatting attributes associated with the image formatting control to the first object comprises temporarily editing the first object with the image formatting attributes associated with the image formatting control; receiving a second type of selection of the image formatting control of the gallery of formatting controls; and in response to receiving the type of second selection, applying the image formatting attributes associated with the image formatting control to the first object.