Unified Settings Dialog for Cross-Application Configuration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face inefficiencies in customizing and managing settings across multiple computer programs and devices, requiring labor-intensive adjustments and excessive processing resources due to the need for separate settings dialogs in each application and device.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that allow users to modify settings across multiple applications and devices through a single dialog, with settings aggregated and stored remotely, enabling propagation with reduced processing and memory usage, utilizing a client machine, rights server, and application host for centralized management and synchronization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users modify settings application by application and device by device, then each program can be customized independently, but user effort and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate settings dialogs across different applications into a single unified settings dialog. This unified interface aggregates settings from word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and other office applications, allowing users to modify all settings in one location rather than navigating through each application separately, thereby significantly reducing user effort and time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The settings dialog is designed to be universal across multiple applications and device types. It can display and modify settings for desktop applications, mobile applications, and web applications simultaneously, and can be accessed from any device (desktop, mobile, tablet) to manage settings across the entire application ecosystem, providing multi-functional capability in a single interface.
2Reliability
If settings are managed locally in each application, then each program has full control over its settings, but processing resources and memory usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the settings management functionality from individual application contexts and consolidates it into a separate, centralized settings dialog. This extracted dialog independently manages settings for multiple applications without requiring each application to maintain its own settings infrastructure, reducing redundant processing resources and memory usage while maintaining full settings control.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified settings dialog acts as an intermediary between the user and multiple applications. Instead of users directly interacting with each application's settings system, the mediator dialog aggregates all settings and communicates changes to the appropriate applications, reducing the processing burden on individual applications and the overall system while maintaining reliable settings control.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate settings dialogs are provided for each program, then each application can be configured independently, but device complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The settings management system is segmented into modular components: a central dialog framework that handles UI presentation, an aggregation layer that collects settings from multiple applications, and application-specific setting handlers that process individual configuration items. This segmentation allows the system to manage complex multi-application settings through a simplified unified interface, reducing perceived device complexity while maintaining application-specific configuration capabilities.
4Reliability
If settings are stored locally on each device, then each device has full access to settings, but synchronization across devices requires additional processing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-aggregating settings from multiple applications and devices into a centralized storage location before user access. When settings are modified in the unified dialog, the changes are immediately propagated to all connected devices and applications in advance, eliminating the need for complex real-time synchronization protocols and improving overall settings propagation efficiency while maintaining reliable settings access across all devices.
Data Source
AI summary
Changing user settings across applications and/or across devices via a dialog within one application is provided herein. The systems and methods discussed herein provide for an improved user experience and fewer computing resources to be expended when changing user settings by aggregating the changeable settings, allowing for their modification via a single dialog, and distributing settings changes to remote hosts, which in turn provide consistent settings across devices. The settings available to the user may be governed in association with the user's licenses to access programs and may be affected by domain level controls by an administrator.