Patent ID: 8185839

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, using one or more processing units, a request to generate a content preview for each file in a plurality of files stored in a folder, wherein each file has an associated file type, and wherein at least two files are of a different file type; determining, using the one or more processing units, the associated file type for each file in the folder; matching, using the one or more processors, the determined file type for each file with a plug-in capable of processing content in the file associated with that file type; using, using the one or more processing units, the plug-in for each file to process the content for that file and dynamically generate a content preview for that file, wherein the content preview includes a display of the content of the file or an icon representing the content of the file; and causing, using the one or more processing units, the content previews for the plurality of files stored in the folder to be animated, wherein the animation includes changing the display of the content previews in the folder over a period of time.