Abstract: Some embodiments of the invention provide a method that assists in the installation of an asset in a graphical user interface for a computer system. The method receives a selection of the asset that has not yet been installed on the computer system. It then responds to the selection of the asset by displaying a preview of the asset without installing the asset on the computer system. In some embodiments, the method receives a modification of an attribute of the asset. It then responds to the modification of the attribute of the asset by displaying a preview of the modification of the attribute of the asset without installing the asset on the computer system. In some embodiments, the preview of the asset is used to assist in the determination of whether to install the asset.

Abstract: A system for providing a visual representation of electronic, on-line journals, such as those generally referred to as “Weblogs” or “Blogs”, that uses a treemap display object in a graphical user interface to represent social networking characteristics discovered in, and aggregated from a set of on-line journals. The generated display object includes on-line journal representations shown within the social network communities to which they belong. This visual organization is provided through a treemap representation, in which an enclosing region for a set of journals is broken up into sub-regions corresponding to social network communities. Representations of individual on-line journals are provided as inner regions within the sub-regions for the communities. The enclosing region, sub-regions and inner regions may be rectangular, or any other specific geometric shape as appropriate for a given application.

Abstract: A computer implemented method and computer program product for protecting a pre-filled user input field on a returned webpage from an accidental overwrite. The method identifies the pre-filled input field by detecting a mouseover. In response to a user command to change the state of the pre-filled input field, the method changes an initially unlocked pre-filled input field to a locked state or changes an initially locked pre-filled input field to an unlocked state.

Abstract: A system receives a selection of a portion of digital content within a graphical user interface. The system traverses the entire digital content to identify a plurality of components associated with the portion of digital content, and applies at least one policy to each of the plurality of components to select those components necessary to recreate the portion of digital content. The system exports the portion of digital content and the plurality of selected components necessary to recreate the portion of digital content. The system then recreates the portion of digital content using the plurality of selected components necessary to recreate the portion of digital content.

Abstract: A system is provided which utilizes a threading service to offer enhanced features for a document management system including an email system. Various enhanced email features may be provided through one or more of the following components: a delete module, a reply module, a profile module, and a search module. The delete module enables a user to delete a selected message, a set of related messages, or the whole set except for the selected message. The reply module enables a user to send a reply message to all addresses associated and involved with an entire set of related messages. The profile module enables a dynamic interest profile to contain all relevant information from an outgoing message and a set of messages related to the outgoing message. The search module enables search results to include documents which match the user's query as well as documents related to the documents which match the user's query.

Abstract: Described is a method and system a unified mechanism for storing device, application, and service state, as well as a rich notification brokerage architecture. Clients register with a notification broker to receive notifications for changes to state properties. When a registered state property changes, a notification broker determines which clients to notify of the state change and provides the client with a notification regarding the change. Clients may be notified whenever a state changes, when a state change meets a predetermined condition, or based on a schedule. An application may also be launched in response to a state change. An application programming interface (API) is provided that provides a unified way of accessing state change information across different components within the device.

Abstract: The hotkey conflict avoidance program identifies a set of hotkeys in a first application and a second set of hotkeys in a simultaneously running second application, compares a first hotkey in the first set of hotkeys to a second hotkey in the second set of hotkeys and returns an error if the first hotkey conflicts with the second hotkey. Each hotkey in the first set of hotkeys is compared to each of the hotkeys in the second set of hotkeys. Other features of the hotkey conflict avoidance program include suggesting alternative hotkeys when a conflict is found and saving identified hotkeys and the corresponding actions to a persistent list. In a preferred embodiment, the first application is a screen reader for use by the visually impaired, and the simultaneously running second application is an application with which the screen reader interacts.

Abstract: Information is visually presented to a computer user by receiving, in a computer system, a request to present a first visual item representing a first information portion selected from an information collection available in the computer system. It is determined, in response to the request: (i) which of several predefined categories the first information portion is associated with, and (ii) which of several predefined generality levels the first information portion has. A presentation that includes an area divided into segments extending between a center and a periphery of the area is generated on a display device. The segments correspond to the respective predefined categories and the area is concentrically divided into levels corresponding to the respective predefined generality levels. The first visual item is placed in one of the segments and at one of the levels according to its determined category and generality level. Item distribution effectively uses available space.

Abstract: A computer-readable recording medium is disclosed that stores a workflow function addition program for causing a computer to execute a method including the steps of (a) displaying a list of work items on a screen related to an e-mail program and (b) changing the display state of the list displayed in step (a).

Abstract: Method in a mobile communications device comprising a display unit and an input unit, the method comprising: in a first navigation mode displaying, on said display unit, an image comprising at least one application icon, said application icon being selectable and representing an application executable on said mobile communications device, receiving selection data from the input unit, said selection data indicating a selection of a second navigation mode, in a transfer mode, between the first and second navigation modes, reducing the size of said image on said display unit, in the second navigation mode displaying a selected data subset in one ore more graphic frames on said display unit, the selected data subset being a subset out of data, being provided by a selected user application in a displayable format, the user application running under supervision of an operating system of the mobile communications device. Also disclosed is a mobile communications device.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, display a graphical representation of data that changes over time, create a region in the graphical representation, retrieve data from a database based on the region, and create a graphical representation of the retrieved data. In various embodiment, a profile is created and the data is retrieved based on the profile. The profile may include a schedule for retrieving the data, an identification of the region, an identification of a key, an identification of an x-axis, and an identification of a y-axis. In an embodiment, an union of multiple profiles is created, and data in the database that is not represented by the union is deleted. In another embodiment, regions that are adjacent in time are concatenated. In another embodiment, the creation of the graphical representation may be separated into multiple units of work for execution in a network if a workload at a computer exceeds a threshold.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for visually indicating the last line(s) of text on a page displayed in a window so that the user can see this visual indication as they are scrolling the text. The user also has the ability to specify a hard stop for the scrolling once the visual indication has reached a desired position.

Abstract: A method is provided which utilizes a threading service to offer enhanced features for a document management system including an email system. Various enhanced email features may be provided through one or more of the following components: a delete module, a reply module, a profile module, and a search module. The delete module enables a user to delete a selected message, a set of related messages, or the whole set except for the selected message. The reply module enables a user to send a reply message to all addresses associated and involved with an entire set of related messages. The profile module enables a dynamic interest profile to contain all relevant information from an outgoing message and a set of messages related to the outgoing message. The search module enables search results to include documents which match the user's query as well as documents related to the documents which match the user's query.

Abstract: A Web browser is augmented with collaborative features to support community aware browsing sessions. The augmentation provided includes a data mining plug-in for the browser to establish collaborative context based on Uniform Resource Locator (URL) meta data keywords, or mined topics, and a collaboration co-browser (explorer bar) which displays a collaboration space, called CollabSpace, corresponding to the document that is displayed in the main browser. With this augmented browser, a user can perform various collaboration functions from the collaboration explorer bar, including viewing the online status of members of the CollabSpace, communicate with members of the CollabSpace via electronic mail (e-mail), instant messaging or discussion threads, and register as a member of the CollabSpace. CollabSpaces can be established and associated with one or more Web documents, meta data keywords or topics.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a visual representation of electronic, on-line journals, such as those generally referred to as “Weblogs” or “Blogs”, that uses a treemap display object in a graphical user interface to represent social networking characteristics discovered in, and aggregated from a set of on-line journals. The generated display object includes on-line journal representations shown within the social network communities to which they belong. This visual organization is provided through a treemap representation, in which an enclosing region for a set of journals is broken up into sub-regions corresponding to social network communities. Representations of individual on-line journals are provided as inner regions within the sub-regions for the communities. The enclosing region, sub-regions and inner regions may be rectangular, or any other specific geometric shape as appropriate for a given application.

Abstract: The present invention provides a user interface that includes a first column for chronologically displaying a set of messages (objects) in a conversation, and a second column for displaying a branch of messages (objects) corresponding to a message (object) selected in the first column. The user interface further includes, among other things, a list of participants to the conversation, a vertical index (time line), a list of related conversations and a conversation map that illustrates a hierarchy of the conversation. Each message (object) in the first column can have an associated indicator for indicating a quantity of predecessors and successors to the set of messages (objects), as well as an in-line reply button for replying to the set of messages. Each of the messages displayed of the second column can have one or more associated navigation buttons for navigating adjacent hierarchical levels.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for displaying chat messages in selectable balloon styles. In one aspect of the present invention, a method to display a chat message includes: receiving a chat message and a balloon style; and displaying the chat message in a balloon of the received balloon style. In one example, the chat message and the balloon style are received from a network connection; and, the balloon style is selected by a user who sent the chat message. In one example, the chat message and the balloon style are received from input devices for user interaction; and, the chat message and the balloon style is also transmitted to a remote device for display. In one example, the balloon style indicates an emotional state (e.g., happy, angry) associated with the message. In another example, the balloon style indicates a predetermined message (e.g., the user is in the process of preparing a message). In one example, the balloon style is user customized (or user defined).

Abstract: There is disclosed a method and system for presenting hierarchical objects in a linear view, in which each open container object is split into a pair of bracketing ends, the bracketing ends brackering therebetween any lower level objects contained in the container object. A multi-level hierarchical arrangement of container objects may be represented by multiple pairs of such bracketing ends arranged in a nested configuration. Both bracketing ends of each pair may be configured with a navigation control to close a corresponding container object. The linear hierarchical view may be placed in either a horizontal orientation or a vertical orientation, depending on the nature of the data. A visual characteristic may be used to identify and distinguish between hierarchical levels within the linear hierarchical view. To make more efficient use of available screen space, container objects in the linear hierarchical view may be dynamically collapsible.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and a data processing system for activating a screensaver in a data processing system is provided. A timeout value that defines an idle interval after which a screensaver is to be activated is set. An analysis of contents of a video memory is performed. The timeout value is adjusted responsive to the analysis.

Abstract: Pop-up display information is created and displayed in a dynamic manner even without establishing settings in advance related to pop-up display for an anchor or an icon or the like, and implementing simple and efficient browsing by a user of linked contents by varying the display size in accordance with the display region. Mouse events of a mouse cursor upon a screen of an information device by the user are observed, and the fact that the mouse cursor has entered into a region of an object which has a linked destination is detected from the mouse events; a new window is displayed upon the screen; linked contents which are connected to the object are acquired; contents for presentation are created based upon the linked contents which have been acquired; and they are displayed within the new window which has been displayed upon the screen.