Scrollbar having system or user provided information

Claim 2

Method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the indicia is selected from the group consisting essentially of alphanumeric characters, symbols, colors, graphical images, audio information and combinations thereof.

Claim 3

Method as set forth in claim 1 or 2 and, in response to a user positioning the moveable indicator to a position associated with the at least one indicia, including a step of re-positioning the view window to provide a view of a second position of the presentation space, the second position including the feature of interest.

Claim 4

Method as set forth in anyone of claims 1 to 3 wherein the step of displaying at least one indicia is initiated by an application program running on the data processihg system or by a user of the system.

Claim 5

Apparatus for use in a data processing system (20) having display means, comprising: means (22) for providing on a display means (26) a view window (2) for providing a view into a first region of a presentation space; means (24a, 24b) for displaying on the display means at least one scrollbar (5, 9) having a moveable indicator for indicating a position of the view window within the presentation space; means (6) for displaying within the scrollbar at least one indicia for indicating a relative location of a feature of interest within the presentation space; and means (22), response to a user positioning the moveable indicator to a position associated with the at least one indicia, for re-positioning the view window to provide a view of a second region of the presentation space, the second region including the feature of interest.

Claim 6

Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein the indicia is selected from the group consisting essentially of alphanumeric characters, symbols, colors, graphical images, audio information and combinations thereof.

Claim 7

Apparatus as set forth in claim 5 or 6 wherein the means for displaying at least one indicia is responsive to an application program running on the data processing system, or to input from a user of the data processing system.

Claim 8

Apparatus as set forth in claim 5, 6 or 7 wherein the data processing system further includes user activated pointing means and wherein the re-positioning means is response to the user activating the pointing means to position the moveable indicator for re-positioning the view window to provide a view of the second region of the presentation space.

Claim 9

Apparatus as set forth in anyone of claims 5 to 8 wherein the moveable indicator within the at least one scrollbar indicates movement along a horizontal dimension of the presentation space, and/or along a vertical dimension of the presentation space.