Hierarchical Control Galleries for Office UI Organization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional menu and toolbar structures in office applications become cumbersome due to the large number of commands, making it difficult for users to find and organize controls effectively.
Innovation Solution
A computing system displays a graphical user interface with hierarchically-organized control galleries, featuring a document area and a control ribbon that includes class control galleries and variation control galleries, allowing users to select and execute commands more efficiently by categorizing commands into classes and sub-classes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional menu structures are used to organize commands, then all commands can be accessed, but the menus contain too many controls making it difficult to find specific commands
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the control interface into multiple tabs, each containing a subset of controls related to a specific task or function. This segmentation allows users to access only relevant controls for the current task without being overwhelmed by the entire command set, directly resolving the contradiction between comprehensive command access and ease of finding specific controls.
2Ease of operation
If traditional toolbar structures are used to organize commands, then commands are easily accessible, but the toolbars occupy too much of the user's visible screen area
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic toolbars that can be automatically adjusted based on the user's current task, document type, and usage patterns. The toolbars can expand to show additional controls when needed and collapse to minimize screen occupation during normal editing, resolving the contradiction between command accessibility and screen space utilization.
3Adaptability or versatility
If office applications continue to add new commands to increase functionality, then the application becomes more versatile, but the number of commands increases making organization more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal tabbed interface framework that can accommodate any type of control or command while maintaining a consistent organizational structure. Each tab serves multiple purposes by dynamically displaying different controls based on the current context, allowing the application to provide versatile functionality without increasing the complexity of control organization.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing system provides a graphical user interface having hierarchically-organized control galleries. The computing system displays the graphical user interface on a display device. The graphical user interface contains a document area and a control ribbon. The document area contains at least a portion of a document that a user is editing. The control ribbon includes a class control gallery. The class control gallery includes a plurality of class controls associated with different classes of related commands. The computing system displays a variation control gallery containing variation controls in a class associated with a selected one of the class controls. In response to a selection of a variation control in the variation control gallery, the computing system applies a command associated with the variation control to a document in the document area.