Efficient usage of screen real estate on an electronic device

1. A method of controlling the display of GUI objects on a display screen of an electronic device in response to user interactions performed by at least a first application program executing on a processor of the electronic device, the first application program having a first GUI object associated therewith displayed on the display screen, the method comprising:

identifying, by the first application program, a selected part of the first GUI object, in response to detection of a first predefined user interaction with the first GUI object;

creating, by the first application program, a second GUI object comprising a visual representation of the selected part of the first GUI object by,

assigning the first GUI object to a coordinate space that is outside the display screen when displaying the second GUI object, and

displaying the second GUI object on the display screen to automatically replace the first GUI object on the display screen; and

detecting user interactions with the second GUI object and mapping each detected user interaction to a location within the first GUI object's assigned coordinate space outside the display screen, such that said user interactions with the second GUI object are interpreted as an interaction with the first GUI object and control the first application program.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein mapping detected user interactions comprises rescaling at least some of the detected user interactions to take account of differences of scale between the first GUI object and the second GUI object.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

modifying the displayed second GUI object to reflect changes to the first GUI object.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second GUI object comprises an image of the selected part of the first GUI object.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

detecting user input that corresponds to a user instruction to resize the second GUI object; and

resizing the second GUI object using an image resizing algorithm.

6. An executable software product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing program instructions for controlling the display of GUI objects on a display screen of an electronic device in response to user interactions performed by at least a first application program executing on a processor of the electronic device, the first application program having a first GUI object associated therewith displayed on the display screen, the program instructions for:

Identifying, by the first application program, a selected part of the first GUI object, in response to detection of a first predefined user interaction with the first GUI object;

creating, by the first application program, a second GUI object comprising a visual representation of the selected part of the first GUI object by,

assigning the first GUI object to a coordinate space that is outside the display screen when displaying the second GUI object, and

displaying the second GUI object on the display screen automatically replace the first GUI object on the display screen; and

detecting user interactions with the second GUI object and mapping each detected user interaction to a location within the first GUI object's assigned coordinate space outside the display screen, such that said user interactions with the second GUI object are interpreted as an interaction with the first GUI object and control the first application program.

7. The executable software product of claim 6 , wherein mapping detected user interactions comprises rescaling at least some of the detected user interactions to take account of differences of scale between the first GUI object and the second GUI object.

8. The executable software product of claim 6 , further comprising program instructions for:

modifying the displayed second GUI object to reflect changes to the first GUI object.

9. The executable software product of claim 6 , wherein the second GUI object comprises an image of the selected part of the first GUI object.

10. The executable software product of claim 6 , further comprising program instructions for:

detecting user input that corresponds to a user instruction to resize the second GUI object; and

resizing the second GUI object using an image resizing algorithm.

11. A system, comprising:

a memory;

a display screen;

a processor coupled to the memory and to the display screen, the processor executing one or more application programs including a first application program having a first GUI object on the display screen associated therewith;

wherein the first application program is configured to:

identify a selected part of the first GUI object, in response to detection of a first predefined user interaction with the first GUI object;

create a second GUI object comprising a visual representation of the selected part of the first GUI object by,

assign the first GUI object to a coordinate space that is outside the display screen when displaying the second GUI object, and

display the second GUI object on the display screen to automatically replace the first GUI object on the display screen; and

detect user interactions with the second GUI object and map each detected user interaction to a location within the first GUI object's assigned coordinate space outside the display screen, such that said user interactions with the second GUI object are interpreted as an interaction with the first GUI object and control the first application program.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein mapping detected user interactions comprises rescaling at least some of the detected user interactions to take account of differences of scale between the first GUI object and the second GUI object.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the displayed second GUI object is modified to reflect changes to the first GUI object.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the second GUI object comprises an image of the selected part of the first GUI object.