FRICTION FIELD FOR FLUID MARGIN PANNING IN A WEBPAGE

A cursor in a viewable portion of a webpage, or pan region, visually encounters a friction field when the cursor enters a margin of the viewable portion. As a user moves the cursor into the margin of the viewable portion, the movement of the displayed position of the cursor is limited as if the cursor is being restricted by a friction field in the margin. Also, as the cursor enters the margin of the viewable portion of the webpage, the webpage scrolls in the opposite direction of movement of the cursor. The amount of scroll of the webpage is proportional to a distance the cursor is away from an inner edge of the margin. When a user no longer attempts to move the cursor in the margin, the cursor fluidly drifts back toward a center of the viewable portion and so that scrolling of the webpage pauses.