Scrolling web pages using direct interaction

Abstract

Scrolling or dragging information on a display includes various elements. A panning tool is provided that may scroll information, such as a web page, on a display in tandem with movement of a cursor. If interactive elements are present on the page or document, an interactive element may be activated as desired. Scrolling may be accomplished with the panning tool either on non-interactive elements or interactive elements that are not required to be activated. Furthermore, inertia of movement of the information on a display is optimized and autoscrolling is provided in which a page or document may be scrolled without dragging.

Claimed are: 
     
         1 . A method of scrolling comprising:
 displaying information in a display area on a display device of the computing device;   detecting a drag over the information by a touch-sensitive surface of the display device, wherein detecting the drag includes detecting a length of a skew of the drag off from a reference orientation;   comparing the length of the skew to a threshold length;   scrolling the information in a biased direction when the length of the skew is less than the threshold; and   scrolling the information in the direction of the drag when the length of the skew exceeds the threshold.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information includes a web page. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reference orientation is a vertical reference. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the biased direction is vertical when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reference orientation is a horizontal reference. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the biased direction is horizontal when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the drag detected by the touch-sensitive surface includes detected movement of a user's finger in communication with the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         8 . Computer readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, perform scrolling operations comprising:
 displaying information in a display area on a display device of the computing device;   detecting a drag over the information by a touch-sensitive surface of the display device, wherein detecting the drag includes detecting a length of a skew of the drag off from a reference orientation;   comparing the length of the skew to a threshold length;   scrolling the information vertically in a biased direction when the length of the skew is less than the threshold; and   scrolling the information in the direction of the drag when the length of the skew exceeds the threshold.   
     
     
         9 . The one or more computer readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the information includes a web page. 
     
     
         10 . The one or more computer readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the reference orientation is a vertical reference, and wherein the biased direction is vertical when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         11 . The one or more computer readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the reference orientation is a horizontal reference, and wherein the biased direction is horizontal when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         12 . The one or more computer readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein the length of the skew is about 20 pixels. 
     
     
         13 . The one or more computer readable storage media of  claim 8 , wherein detecting the drag includes detecting movement of a user's finger in communication with the touch-sensitive surface. 
     
     
         14 . A computing device, comprising:
 a display device having a touch-sensitive surface;   one or more processing units; and   one or more computer readable storage media comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processing units perform operations comprising:
 displaying information in a display area on a display device of the computing device; 
 detecting a drag over the information by a touch-sensitive surface of the display device, wherein detecting the drag includes detecting a length of a skew of the drag off from a reference; 
 comparing the length of the skew to a threshold length; 
 scrolling the information in a biased direction when the length of the skew is less than the threshold; and 
 scrolling the information in the direction of the drag when the length of the skew exceeds the threshold. 
   
     
     
         15 . The computing device of  claim 14 , wherein the reference orientation is a vertical reference. 
     
     
         16 . The computing device of  claim 15 , wherein the biased direction is vertical when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         17 . The computing device of  claim 14 , wherein the reference orientation is a horizontal reference. 
     
     
         18 . The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the biased direction is horizontal when the length of the skew is less than the threshold. 
     
     
         19 . The computing device of  claim 14 , wherein the length of the skew is about 20 pixels. 
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 14 , wherein the drag detected by the touch-sensitive surface includes detected movement of a user's finger in communication with the touch-sensitive surface.