Details for Patent: 7,475,360

Title:	Method for dynamically providing scroll indicators
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.
Inventor(s):	Keohane; Susann M. (Austin, TX), McBrearty; Gerald F. (Austin, TX), Mullen; Shawn P. (Buda, TX), Murillo; Jessica (Round Rock, TX), Shieh; Johnny M. (Austin, TX)
Assignee:	International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)
Filing Date:	Aug 11, 2005
Application Number:	11/201,650
Claims:	1. A method of scrolling information displayed within a window, the method comprising the steps of: selecting by a user soft anchor points or hard anchor points to be created within a window that includes a scroll bar, wherein a soft anchor point is a visual indication within displayed information where one or more selected lines of the displayed information reside within the window and is not a physical stopping or pausing point for user scrolling, and wherein a hard anchor point is a visual indication within the scroll bar where the one or more selected lines of the displayed information reside within the window and is a physical stopping point within the scroll bar for the user scrolling; activating creation of the soft anchor points or the hard anchor points automatically when the user opens the window that includes the scroll bar; initiating a timer, wherein the length of the timer is user definable; determining whether the timer has expired; determining whether the user is viewing the displayed information within the window by detecting that the user has spent a predetermined amount of time without moving the displayed information, wherein the predetermined amount of time is user definable; responsive to determining that the timer has expired and that the user is viewing the displayed information within the window, determining whether the user selected the soft anchor points or the hard anchor points to be created within the window; selecting one or more lines of the displayed information as a scrolling endpoint, wherein the one or more selected lines of the displayed information are located at the bottom of the window; responsive to determining that the user selected the hard anchor points to be created within the window after determining that the timer expired and the user is viewing the displayed information, creating the hard anchor point for the scrolling end point within the scroll bar for the one or more selected lines of the displayed information; stopping the user scrolling of the displayed information automatically when the hard anchor point within the scroll bar is reached; dissolving the hard anchor point automatically after the user scrolling is stopped when the hard anchor point within the scroll bar is reached; and detecting that the user is scrolling the displayed information within the window.