Patents by Inventor Steven J. Sinofsky

Steven J. Sinofsky has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8171394
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a user interface. The disclosed systems and methods may include receiving a request to initiate an application program configured to generate a data file. Furthermore, the disclosed systems and methods may include displaying, by the initiated application program, a property panel in response to the request. The property panel may be configured to receive meta-data to be associated with the data file generated by the application program. Also, the property panel may be configured to provide the only place to receive the meta-data by the application program. Moreover, the disclosed systems and methods may include receiving the meta-data in the property panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Brandon V. Taylor, Brian M. Jones, Hani Saliba, Jeffrey J. Johnson, Lauren N. Antonoff, Michael B. Christiansen, Raj Merchant, Steven J. Sinofsky
  • Patent number: 7231597
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer readable medium for creating asides within an electronic document are provided. The keystroke combination is defined for creating an aside with an electronic document. If the keystroke combination is received, a location is identified within the electronic document for an aside object. Once the location for the aside has been determined, an outline object is created at the location. The outline object holds text or other contents for the aside. An insertion point is then placed within the object. The user may then enter keystrokes or other data into the second object. If the keystroke combination is again entered, the insertion point is returned to its location immediately prior to moving the insertion point to the aside object. The keystroke combination for creating an aside and the keystroke combination for returning from the aside may be identical. Asides may also be created in various portions of an electronic document, such as a title portion, in a similar manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Owen C. Braun, Christopher H. Pratley, Peter L. Engrav, Mark Yalovsky, Steven J. Sinofsky, Alex J. Simmons
  • Patent number: 5664178
    Abstract: A method and system for storing data in a file is provided. The present invention provides for data to be organized within a compound document as a file bundle. A file bundle is a file system file that contains sub-files, which may be organized hierarchically. The data within a file bundle file is preferably stored in a format defined by the program that generates the data. The program that generates the data can open the file bundle created by another program and directly access the data within the file bundle file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: September 2, 1997
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Steven J. Sinofsky
  • Patent number: 5442793
    Abstract: A mechanism for locating and calling an appropriate member function to process a message or command in an event-based system is provided. An object data structure contains data members and a pointer to a virtual function table. The virtual function table contains pointers to member functions associated with the object. The virtual function table contains a pointer to a member function that returns the address of a message map. The message map contains two entries: a pointer to a base message map and a pointer to an array of message map entries. The array of message map entries contains the addresses and parameters of member functions. A default window procedure member function searches the array of message map entries to locate a desired member function. If the desired member function is not located in the array of message map entries for the derived class, then the window procedure member function searches the array of message map entries for the base class of the derived class.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 15, 1995
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Bradford A. Christian, Scott A. Randell, Steven J. Sinofsky