Apple to optimize screen space with "multi-panel scrolling"

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
An Apple Computer patent filing revealed this week by the United States Patent and Trademark Office describes a single scroll bar user interface for controlling windows with more than one scrollable panel.



"Panels move in lock-step with one another at certain times, but not at other times, depending on whether the lock-step scrolling would cause blank areas to be displayed," Apple said in the filing.



"If the user's scroll commands would result in a blank area of a panel being displayed, the scroll command is not performed; rather, the panel remains frozen in its current position, even while other panel(s) do scroll."



In other words, a user needs only to manipulate one set of scroll controls to navigate a window with multiple content panels -- similar to the way Spotlight search result windows operate under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Each panel would scroll in response to the user's scroll commands normally, except when the scrolling operation would cause a blank area to be displayed in any of the panels.



If the user's scroll command would result in a blank area in any one panel, that panel would freeze in its current position, even while other panels scroll.



Thus, Apple said, the invention ensures that useful content is displayed at all times in all panels, and no screen real estate is wasted.



"In addition, the present invention allows the user to scroll useful information in the shorter panel back into view faster, since he or she is not forced to wade through a long blank area before getting back to a section where content is displayed," Apple explained.







The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said the multiple-panel scrolling could be implemented in a "conventional personal computer system, such as a Macintosh, running an operating system such as Mac OS X."



It added, "the invention may be embodied in software that runs on the personal computer" or "the invention may be included as add-on software, or it may form part of the operating system itself, or it may be a feature of an application that is bundled with the computer system or sold separately."



The April 13, 2005 filing, first published Thursday, is credited to eight Apple employees, including David Hyatt -- a member of the Safari / WebKit team and frequent contributor to the group's Surfin' Safari website.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    crees!crees! Posts: 501member
    Scroll panel? Do you mean a contextual menu? What's this about? Lock-stepping.. are they waltzing? Jibberish I say, jibberish!
  • Reply 2 of 25
    I am a bit unsure how this would actually work, but something inside me thinks it could be cool, I just can't really imagine it. Sort of like 4d, I know it exists hypothetically, but I can't really wrap my mind around the implications.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    There is no need for scrolling to be this complicated. But this is in patent speak, prolly will be a nice feature.\
  • Reply 4 of 25
    buckbuck Posts: 293member
    Somebody should put this into laymans terms.
  • Reply 5 of 25
    Minority Report 1.0
  • Reply 6 of 25
    Open a Spotlight window. Notice there are two panes...left and right panes. Right now, if you resize so that both the contents in the left pane and the right pane need scrolling if you want to view everything, this patent explains a method to scroll the left pane and keep the right pane locked when there's no more content to scroll, or vice versa...or scroll both if there's content.



    Check it out in the Spotlight panel, they both scroll at different speeds and then one pane stops scrolling when it has nothing else to display.



    Pretty simple really (and somewhat lame.)
  • Reply 7 of 25
    seems to me like web frames. not sure what the "invention" is ...
  • Reply 8 of 25
    Right, this is simply describing what the Spotlight window and Safar RSS view's do.
  • Reply 9 of 25
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    What this means is you can't drag a window bigger than its white space.
  • Reply 10 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Placebo


    What this means is you can't drag a window bigger than its white space.



    No...it just means you won't be stuck looking at white empty space when scrolling two (or more) panes.
  • Reply 11 of 25
    mmmm...Spaces anyone?
  • Reply 12 of 25
    heyjpheyjp Posts: 39member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Buck


    Somebody should put this into laymans terms.



    A good example of this would be the "new releases" view in the iTunes Store. When you go to the iTunes Store, click the NEW RELEASES link at the top of the NEW RELEASES area. In the resulting page, select ROCK for the genre.



    You are presented with 4 columns of new releases: this week, last week, 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago. All scroll together as you drag the vertical scroll bar down.



    If you do it today, you'll notice that this week is a dry week: You hit the last new release of the week in the "W's" while the rest of the weeks are still in the "H's" and heck, 3 weeks ago was a prolific week and it's only in the C's. As you continue to scroll down, the first column is now empty and by the time you reach the bottom of the 4th column, the first three columns are empty. As you scroll back up, the bottom of the first column is "3 feet away".



    In Apple's patent, this window could be created so that (seamlessly) the 4 columns would actully be in 4 "lock step" scrolling panels, still with the same single scroll bar on the right. The window would look identical as it does today. As you scroll down, all would scroll together as today, until column one hits the last entry. It would stop scrolling with the "W" entry at the bottom left. The others would continue to scroll, each locking when the bottom of each column is hit. When you reach the bottom of column 4 you would be looking at the bottom entries of all 4 columns. And all 4 columns would be full of data.



    Very cool.



    You never have empty columns displayed on the screen.



    I've been runnnig through the new releases view every week for the last year or so and always noted how awkward it was to have each run out of gas at different times.



    Very cool again.



    Jim
  • Reply 13 of 25
    heyjpheyjp Posts: 39member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol


    Open a Spotlight window. Notice there are two panes...left and right panes.





    I feel REALLY stupid. I've only been a mac user since 1984, but what "spotlight window with two panes" are you talking about. I don't see two panes in the spotlight dropdown from the menu bar, and I don't see two panes if I open a Finder window and start spotlight searching.



    Help me!
  • Reply 14 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nay_acharya


    mmmm...Spaces anyone?



    They are trying to get around the Creative license settlement for future products... I think.
  • Reply 15 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heyjp


    I feel REALLY stupid. I've only been a mac user since 1984, but what "spotlight window with two panes" are you talking about. I don't see two panes in the spotlight dropdown from the menu bar, and I don't see two panes if I open a Finder window and start spotlight searching.



    Help me!



    option-command-[space bar]
  • Reply 16 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by heyjp


    I feel REALLY stupid. I've only been a mac user since 1984, but what "spotlight window with two panes" are you talking about. I don't see two panes in the spotlight dropdown from the menu bar, and I don't see two panes if I open a Finder window and start spotlight searching.



    Perform a Spotlight search and select "Show all" from the top of the list. A Spotlight window will open, with - you got it - panels! And if you make the window small enough, the intelligent scrollilng happens indeed. I never noticed before today.
  • Reply 17 of 25
    heyjpheyjp Posts: 39member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol


    option-command-[space bar]





    Wow!! Never knew that. Thanks, Kim.
  • Reply 18 of 25
    plusplus Posts: 54member
    This patent concept sounds to me like something built on the nifty UI of the "FileMerge" command included in the Xcode Tools (/Developer/Applications/Utilities/FileMerge, *if* you have Xcode installed). There, the upper part of the window is divided into 3 columns, with File1 on the left, File2 on the right, and a center column showing graphically how the text displayed in the left panel relates to that in the right. Anyway, when scrolling through the file, these upper columns scroll at *variable* rates in order to stay in sync. Probably something you have to see (and play with a bit, using two files that are close to each other) - worth trying out, just to feel your mind bend.
  • Reply 19 of 25
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mayosolo


    Perform a Spotlight search and select "Show all" from the top of the list. A Spotlight window will open, with - you got it - panels! And if you make the window small enough, the intelligent scrollilng happens indeed. I never noticed before today.



    This and many other subtle details are what make the Mac what it is. We don't notice these details right away but they're there and losing them would make the experience much less enjoyable.



    If I had to explain what the biggest difference between Windows and OS X is, it would have to be the details. Of course, because these details are small and somewhat insignificant when taken individually, it's understandable that people don't actually 'get it'. It's really hard to explain it to someone and have them understand what you're saying. It's the sum of these details that makes Mac OS amazing and Windows very much the opposite.



    Another interesting attention to detail is the date formats in certain apps such as Mail which change depending on the width of the column.
  • Reply 20 of 25
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kim kap sol


    No...it just means you won't be stuck looking at white empty space when scrolling two (or more) panes.



    Can't say I've ever had that happen to me.



    Anyways, I thought of a great idea when I saw this thread: Why not eliminate individual scrollbars and put semi-transparent scrollbars to the right and bottom of the screen, that scroll the current window? Eliminate clutter just like the menubar is better than the per-window menus Windows uses.
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