Patent ID: 6963878

Claim:
In a system that includes a data set that includes lines that have information that is relevant to a user and wherein the lines are dispersed among a plurality of extraneous lines in the data set, a method for processing the data set to identify and display the lines to the user without losing a context of the lines with respect to other lines in the data set, the method comprising: a step for providing a plurality of filters at an analysis module, wherein the filters include at least one inclusive filter and at least one exclusive filter; a step for processing the data set through the filters to create a focused data set that satisfies the filters; a step for generating the focused data set by (a) applying the at least one inclusive filter to the data set to identify focused lines of data that comprise the focused data set, and (b) after applying the at least one inclusive filter, applying at least one exclusive filter to the data set to identify data that is to be excluded from being displayed with the focused data set and without removing the data identified by the at least one exclusive filter from the data set, such that the exclusive filter identifies lines of the data set that are to be excluded from the focused data set in such a way that the exclusive filter further focuses data to be displayed in the focused data set; and a step for displaying the focused data set to the user by visually isolating the focused lines included in the focused data set, and wherein lines that are excluded by the at least one exclusive filter from being displayed to the user with the focused data set are indistinguished from the focused data set in such a way that they are effectively excluded from being displayed without being removed from the data set.