Friday, August 22, 2008

Microsoft wins a patent on Page Up

By Mass High Tech Staff

Microsoft Corp. has been awarded a patent for one of the most basic functions on a computer — the Page Down and Page Up concept.

Specifically, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office awarded the Redmond, Wash., software giant a patent covering the “method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments,” a refinement to the current way the Page Up and Page Down buttons on a keyboard work, according to company officials.

The patent application states that “pressing the Page Down or Page Up keyboard buttons to navigate content provides sometimes unexpected results for many viewers.” The Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) patent applicants say that such things as how much a web page is zoomed into can affect whether a Page Down command moves a full page or not.

In the new patent, Microsoft proposes a system of discrete jumps whenever Page Up or Page down is struck, based on such things as specific row heights and a specific number of rows to move across. According to the application, “When an incremental scroll command (e.g., Page Up or Page Down) is received, the document viewing control recalculates its current vertical offset, e.g., by adding exactly the row height for a Page Down or subtracting the row height for a Page Up.”

Microsoft reported a profit of $17.7 billion for fiscal 2008, on revenue of $60.4 billion. The company employs more than 90,000 workers worldwide.