Patent ID: 8584036

Claim:
A method of resizing and/or repositioning an object, comprising: providing targetable and related objects selectable from among container and contained objects laid out on a computer user interface, a targeted container object is selectable as a target object without selecting a related object comprising a contained object wholly or partially contained by the targeted container object, and a targeted contained object is selectable as a target object without selecting a related object comprising a container object that wholly or partially contains the targeted contained object; detecting an operation on a target object; maintaining an independent relationship between the target object and a related object during the operation by permitting movement of the target object independent of the related object; and maintaining a dependent relationship between the target object and the related object during the operation by: storing an original size and/or position of the related object prevailing upon the detection of the operation; and during the operation, calculating an impact on the related object based upon a change from the stored original size and/or position, thereby permitting non-destructive experimental operations that do not destroy a relationship between the target and related objects existing before the operation.