Importance

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Abstract

A system for use in a computer having a display for automatically configuring graphical user interface ("GUI") display panels comprising buttons for representing groups, or suites, of related items in a visually attractive manner. In a preferred embodiment, a panel creation engine processes a series of script files to determine, for each group of related items to be displayed as a single suite, an appropriate background template or preprocessed background bitmap and an appropriate button template to be used in representing the suite on the display, based on desired color depth. In particular, the panel creation engine processes a panel location script ("PLS") file to locate, for each suite, a panel configuration script ("PCS") file associated with the suite. Each PCS file is then processed to determine the number of items in the suite, and therefore the number of buttons to be displayed on the suite panel, as well as to identify the background template script file or preprocessed background bitmap file and the button template script file to be used in displaying the suite. Once the number of items has been determined, the appropriate button template script file is processed to determine the appearance and relative placement of each button to be displayed. In addition, if a background template script file, rather than a preprocessed bitmap file, is identified, the template file is processed to create an output bitmap for defining the appearance of the panel upon which the buttons are overlaid at runtime.

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First Claim