A graphical user interface has a display surface that is segmented into multiple regions. A set of unique, non-overlapping locations is associated with each region. A set of actions that can be performed by the graphical user interface is defined. A document to be displayed on the display surface is selected. The document is moved to a particular location, and a particular action of the set of actions is performed on the selected object according to the particular location of the object on the display surface to operate the graphical user interface in one of a plurality of modes for the particular action.