Patent ID: 7373592

Claim:
A method in a computer system for displaying modeless windows, the computer system running an application, the method comprising: displaying an application window having a client area; within the client area, displaying a document window; displaying a first modeless window and a second modeless window both wholly within the document window and anchored to an edge of the document window, the anchored first and second modeless windows having collapsed and expanded states; and when the first modeless window is in the collapsed state, displaying its identifier in a first visible region without displaying its contents; when the second modeless window is in the expanded state, displaying its contents in a second visible region; and when user input is received proximate to the first visible region of the first collapsed modeless window, determining a preferred position of the first collapsed modeless window based upon its size in an expanded state, the preferred position calculated to prevent the first modeless window in the expanded state from overlapping the second visible region of the second modeless window; expanding the first collapsed modeless window so that it is in the expanded state and anchored to the edge of the document window based on the preferred position; displaying information associated with the document within the expanded modeless window; and when user input is received that is not proximate to the expanded first modeless window, collapsing the expanded first modeless window so that it is in the collapsed state.