New Apple patent: ‘computer interface with single window mode’
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 20, 2005 at 5:00pm
A new Apple patent ) (number 6,957,395) is dated Oct. 18 and filed at the U.S. Patent Office. It concerns a computer interface with a single window mode of operation.
According to the Apple abstract accompanying the patent: “A computer-human interface manages the available space of a computer display in a manner which reduces clutter and confusion caused by multiple open windows. The interface includes a user-selectable mode of operation in which only those windows associated with the currently active task are displayed on the computer monitor. All other windows relating to non-active tasks are minimized by reducing them in size or replacing them with a representative symbol, such as an icon, so that they occupy a minimal amount of space on the monitor’s screen. When a user switches
from the current task to a new task, by selecting a minimized window, the windows associated with the current task are automatically minimized as the window pertaining to the new task is displayed at its normal size. As a result, the user is only presented with the window that relates to the current task of interest, and clutter provided by non-active tasks is removed.”
And here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “It is an objective of the present invention, therefore, to provide a computer-human interface which includes a mechanism to manage the available space of a computer display in a manner that reduces clutter and confusion caused by multiple open windows. In accordance with the invention, this objective is accomplished by means of a user-selectable mode of operation in which only a single window, or at most a few windows, associated with the currently active task is displayed on the computer monitor. All other windows relating to non-active tasks are minimized by reducing them in size or replacing them with a representative symbol, such as an icon or a menu item, so that they occupy a minimal amount of space on the display screen. When a user switches from the current task to a new task, for example by selecting a minimized window, the window associated with the current task is automatically minimized as the window pertaining to the new task is returned to an enlarged state. As a result, the user is only presented with the window that relates to the current task of interest, and clutter provided by nonactive tasks is removed.
“In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, every task window displayed on the display screen includes a control element, such as a button, that can be used to toggle the single window mode of operation on and off. When the mode is toggled on, it affects all windows that are displayed on the monitor, so that only a single task window is displayed. If desired, however, the mode of operation can be selectively disabled on a per-window basis, to permit two or more windows to be displayed simultaneously, for instance to permit content in one window to be dragged to a specific location in the other window.
“Since only one window of interest is presented to the user while the single window mode of operation is in effect, the open window is preferably located at a central position on the display screen. In a preferred embodiment, the window is horizontally centered, at a known offset from the top of the available screen area. If the user repositions the window during this mode, the new position becomes the stored position for the window when the single window mode is subsequently disabled.”
The inventors of the patent are Steve Jobs and Donald J. Lindsay. (Thanks to Macsimum Contributing Editor Neo for his help with this report.)
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Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Apple patent ) (number 6,957,395) is dated Oct. 18 and filed at the U.S. Patent Office. It concerns a computer interface with a single window mode of operation.
According to the Apple abstract accompanying the patent: “A computer-human interface manages the available space of a computer display in a manner which reduces clutter and confusion caused by multiple open windows. The interface includes a user-selectable mode of operation in which only those windows associated with the currently active task are displayed on the computer monitor. All other windows relating to non-active tasks are minimized by reducing them in size or replacing them with a representative symbol, such as an icon, so that they occupy a minimal amount of space on the monitor’s screen. When a user switches
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
