Patent Document ID: 9483239
Application ID: 14011724

Base Claim:
1. A method that facilitates development of a graphical user interface (GUI) for an executable application, the method comprising: providing a user interface design tool to design a user interface (UI) control of a GUI, the UI control having a multiple layer model referred to as an active design-time object model comprising, a base layer displays the UI control with runtime appearance and handling events for runtime actions, a border layer comprising a border design-time adjustment indicator, the border layer handles events for design-time actions to adjust design-time properties of the UI control, and an anchor layer comprising an anchor design-time adjustment indicator which serves as another design-time adjustment indicator, the anchor layer handles events which are defined to be handled by the anchor layer for design-time actions to adjust design-time properties of the UI control, wherein the anchor layer overlays the border layer and the border layer overlays the base layer, the layers are depicted as overlapping layers on a two-dimensional display, and wherein the UI control is presented on the base layer; and performing, by a user, a UI interaction, the UI interaction includes a performed event on the UI control, the performed event corresponds to one of the events, wherein in design-time, the performed event causes performance of a corresponding design-time action, and if the performed event occurs at the anchor design-time adjustment indicator, the anchor layer handles the performed event if the performed event is one of the events defined for the anchor layer, and the anchor layer passes the performed event to the border layer for handling if the performed event is not one of the events defined for the anchor layer, if the performed event occurs at the border design-time adjustment indicator, the border layer handles the performed event, and if the performed event occurs at the UI control other than the anchor and border design-time adjustment indicators, the base layer handles the performed event as if during runtime.

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Claim 7:
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the design-time action of the UI control comprises: selecting the UI control; resizing the UI control; repositioning the UI control; re-orienting the UI control; and reformatting the UI control.