JP2001100886A - Multi-window display control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in which respective windows of multi-window display on the same picture cannot be operated easily with conventional techniques. SOLUTION: On a control window display part 1, the list of identification information of all activated windows (window list) is displayed on the basis of an instruction from an input device 22, and the list of identification information of control available to the window designated out of this window list by the input device 22 (control list) is displayed. In a data storage part 3, at least one window designated out of the window list is stored by corresponding to at least one kind of control designated to this window out of the control list and in a control data processing part 2, control with respect to the activated window is performed on the basis of these stored contents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-window display control technique for an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a workstation, and more particularly to a multi-window display control system suitable for facilitating multi-window display operations. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information processing apparatus having a multi-window function, a plurality of windows are displayed on a CRT (Cathode
The image is displayed in an overlapping state or a tile state on a screen of a display device such as a ray tube (LCD) or an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). However, the number of windows that can be displayed on one display screen has dramatically increased due to the progress of the processing capability of information processing devices (especially CPUs: Central Processing Units) in recent years, and display having a limited size has been achieved. At present, there are too many windows that cannot be displayed on the screen.

[0003] As described above, the display screen is a limited area, and as the number of displayed windows increases, the operator (user) arranges each window in an easy-to-view manner, closes unnecessary windows, and so forth. The work must be done to organize. However, since this operation is performed for each window, the operation efficiency of the operator is hindered.

[0004] For this reason, in the multi-window display device, a conventional technique for reducing the operation load on an operator for organizing unnecessary windows is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-66911. ing. In this technique, a plurality of windows that are currently open are automatically displayed in an arrangement with the least overlap, thereby improving the operability of a multi-window.

In the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-146748, means for specifying an arbitrary range on a display screen is provided, and windows within the specified range are grouped into one group. The display state of a plurality of windows can be controlled collectively.

However, the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-66911 is effective in the case of several windows,
As the number of displayed windows increases, the display area of each window becomes narrower, which cannot be handled in view of the processing capabilities of recent information processing apparatuses.

In the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-146748, in order to treat a plurality of windows in a designated area on a display screen as a group, it is necessary to gather related windows nearby. Therefore, for example, if an unrelated window is displayed between windows that are related to each other, it is necessary to perform an operation / operation such as moving the unrelated window away or bringing the related window closer.

[0008]

The problem to be solved is that, with the conventional technology, it is not possible to easily perform operations on each window displayed as a multi-window on the same screen with a small number of procedures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-window display control system which can solve the problems of the prior art and can improve the operation performance of an information processing apparatus having a multi-window function, such as a personal computer or a workstation. To provide.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a multi-window display control system according to the present invention provides a list (window list) of identification information of all active windows based on an instruction from an input device. A list of control identification information executable for the window specified by the input device in the window list (control list) is displayed, and one or more windows specified in the window list are displayed. 1 specified in the control list
The above control is stored in association with the control, and based on the stored contents, control is performed on the active window. Also, in the control list, identification information of a control for terminating the display of the window or a control for iconifying the window is provided, and when the display end designation or the iconification designation is designated in the control list, the window specified in the window list is designated. It is configured to be closed or iconified. Also,
Displays a list of execution start times (start time list) of the control specified in the control list, and displays the control (automatic end or iconization) specified in the control list for the window specified in the window list in the start time list. It is configured to be performed when the designated execution start time, for example, the unused state continues.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration according to the present invention of a multi-window display control system of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an example of a hardware configuration of a personal computer implementing the multi-window display control system in FIG. FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a CRT (Cathode Ra).
y Tube), LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and the like, 22 is an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, 23 is an external storage device such as a hard disk drive, and 24 is a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a main memory. An information processing device for performing computer processing according to a storage program method, an optical disk 25 on which a processing program, data and the like according to the present invention are recorded, and a driving device 26 for reading the optical disk 25

The processing programs and data recorded on the optical disk 25 are stored in an external storage device 23 and an information processing device 24.
By reading into the main memory in the
The control window display unit 1 and the control data processing unit 2 in the multi-window display control system shown in FIG.
And so on.

The configuration and operation of the multi-window display control system will be described below with reference to FIG. Input information from the input device 22 is processed by the input control unit 22a and is input to the control window display unit 1.

The control window display unit 1 has functions of a window list display unit, a control list display unit, and a start time list display unit according to the present invention, and a window setting screen 41 (window list) shown in FIG. 5 and 6
, And control time setting screens 71 and 81 (start time lists) shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 are controlled. The display control result by the control window display unit 1 is displayed on the display screen of the display device 21 via the display control unit 21a.

When the operator selects and designates a desired instruction using the input device 22 based on each list display on the display device 21, the designated result information is transmitted to the control window display unit via the input control unit 22a. 1, the control window display unit 1 switches the display of each setting screen according to the designated information.

The control window display section 1 has a control data setting section 1a. The control data setting section 1a allows the display position information and size information of each activated window, and the designation on each setting screen. Information data storage unit 3
The registration process is performed.

The data storage unit 3 is formed on the main memory shown in FIG.
The management data relating to the currently activated window output from a, that is, as shown in FIG. 3, the title (ID: identifier), the display position, the size, and the control data according to the present invention are stored. In this example, the data storage unit 3 stores management data of the first to Nth windows individually.

Based on the contents stored in the data storage unit 3,
The control data processing unit 2 controls each window, for example, if no operation is performed for a predetermined time, converts the window into an icon or closes and closes the window.

The operation of the window display control system having such a configuration will be described below. Each window stored in the data storage unit 3, that is, a list of active windows, is displayed on the control window display unit 1 as a window setting screen 41 shown in FIG. 4 based on an instruction from the operator via the input device 22. The display control unit 21a
Is displayed on the display device 21 via the.

In the window list displayed on the display device 21, when the operator specifies an arbitrary window via the input device 22, the control window display unit 1
A list of controls executable for the designated window is displayed on the display device 21.

Further, in the control list, when the operator designates an arbitrary control via the input device 22, the control window display unit 1 transfers the designated control to the designated window by the control data setting unit 1a. The association and the setting information are sent to the data storage unit 3 and stored in the data storage unit 3.

Based on the settings stored in the data storage unit 3, the control data processing unit 2 performs a process for each active window, for example, an end process and an iconization process.

Hereinafter, the operation related to such window control will be described with a specific example with reference to FIGS. When N windows are currently activated in the multi-window display control system, the data storage unit 3 stores various information for each window as shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of a data table of information stored in the data storage unit in FIG. In the data table 31 of the present example, data relating to each control to be executed for each window is stored together with the identification information (title), basic information such as the display position and size for each activated window. .

Each item relating to the control data in the data table 31 is set via the control window display section 1 by the input device 22 shown in FIG. 1, and the specific setting procedure is described below with reference to FIG. This is performed on the setting screen 41.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a window setting screen displayed on the control window display section in FIG. On the window control data setting screen 41 of the present example, the currently activated window is displayed in the form of a title, and the operator clicks on the title of the window specified by the cursor 42 by operating the mouse, so that an arbitrary window is displayed. Can be selected and specified.

In this example, two windows, "spreadsheet" and "mail", are selected and designated, and the respective portions are displayed with their brightness increased and distinguished from the other portions.

After the selection and designation of this window, the operator clicks a control button (described as "control" in the figure) 43 on the toolbar to display a screen for setting control data shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Is started.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory diagrams showing examples of the configuration of the control data setting screen displayed on the control window display section in FIG. In the control data setting screen 51 in FIG.
Control (end) is selected / designated, and control (iconization) is selected / designated from control 1 to control N on the control data setting screen 61 in FIG.

The contents of the control ("end", "iconify") selected and specified in this way are stored in the control data setting section 1a of the control window display section 1 of FIG. In the data table shown, the data is stored in association with each of “controls 1 to M”.

The control data processing section 2 in FIG. 1 reads the stored contents and performs the corresponding processing, that is, processing ("end" or "iconify") for the spreadsheet window and the mail window. The result is reflected on the display device 21 via the display control unit 21a.

In this manner, the window control process for an arbitrary one of the active windows can be performed by a slight operator operation.

In the window display control system shown in FIG. 1, the control selected and designated in FIGS.
As shown in the following FIGS. 7 and 8, further detailed window control can be set.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams showing examples of the configuration of the control time setting screen displayed on the control window display section in FIG. Control data setting screen 5 in FIG.
1a, the item of "time setting" is displayed in the control of "end", and the cursor 42 is displayed on the "end" control.
Is located, the control window display section 1 of FIG. 1 displays a control time setting screen 71.

On the control time setting screen 71,
Time items such as "after 10 minutes", "after 30 minutes", "after 1 hour", and "arbitrary setting" are set, and the operator can select and specify an arbitrary time item by using the cursor 42. . The value of the time item here is for automatically performing the control process when no change occurs in the window at that time.

That is, when the operator selects and designates, for example, "one hour later", the control window display unit 1 in FIG. 1 displays the selected and designated control information ("end the window after one hour") information. The data is sent to the data storage unit 3 in FIG.

In the data storage unit 3, the received control information is stored in the data table 31 shown in FIG.
1 to M ”and stored in the control data processing unit 2 in FIG.
Performs a corresponding process, that is, a process of closing the spreadsheet window and the mail window one hour later. The processing result is sent to the display control unit 21
This is reflected on the display device 21 via a.

Similarly, on the control data setting screen 61a in FIG. 8, the item of "time setting" is displayed in the control of "iconification", and when the cursor 42 is positioned on the "iconification" control, The control time setting screen 81 is displayed by the control window display unit 1.

Then, similarly to the operations on the control data setting screen 51a and the control time setting screen 71 in FIG. 7, the setting processing by the control window display unit 1 in FIG. Then, a control process by the control data processing unit 2, that is, a process of converting a spreadsheet window or a mail window into an icon after one hour is performed, and the processing result is reflected on the display device 21 via the display control unit 21 a. .

The control processing setting for such a window can be easily performed for each window as shown in FIGS. FIGS. 9 and 10 are explanatory diagrams showing examples of configurations of a window setting screen, a control data setting screen, and a control time setting screen displayed on the control window display unit in FIG.

In the window setting screen 91 in FIG. 9, a “spreadsheet” window 92 is selected and designated. A list of controls that can be set in the “spreadsheet” window 92 is displayed as a control data setting screen 93. This control data setting screen 93 is displayed, and the control of “end” is selected and designated.

By selecting / designating the "end" control, a control time setting screen 94 is displayed. On this control time setting screen 94, "1 hour later" is set / designated by the cursor 42. With such a setting, the spreadsheet window is automatically closed after one hour if no operation is performed.

Window setting screen 101 in FIG.
Also, the "spreadsheet" window 92 is selected and designated, and a list of controls that can be set in the "spreadsheet" window 92 is displayed as a control data setting screen 93.

However, in this example, on the control data setting screen 93, the control of “iconification” is selected and designated,
A control time setting screen 94a is displayed in accordance with the selection / designation of the "iconize" control.
On “4a”, “1 hour later” is set and designated by the cursor. With such a setting, if no operation is performed, the spreadsheet window is automatically iconified after one hour has elapsed.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing operation according to the present invention of the window display control system in FIG. Waiting for the operator to input a window list display instruction from the input device 22 (step 110)
1) If there is an instruction (step 1102), a list of all active windows is displayed on the window setting screen 4 in FIG.
It is displayed as 1 (step 1103).

Waiting for selection of an arbitrary window on the window setting screen 41 and input of an instruction to display a control list by the control button 43 (step 1104), and when the selection and instruction are made (step 1105), execution is performed in the window. A list of possible controls is displayed as control data setting screens 51 and 61 in FIGS. 5 and 6 (step 1106).

Waiting for selection / designation of any control (termination, iconization, etc.) on the control data setting screens 51 and 61 (step 1107), and if the selection / designation is made (step 1108), FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, a list of start times is displayed as control time setting screens 71 and 81 in a pop-up menu format (step 1109).

If a predetermined time is selected and designated on the control time setting screens 71 and 81 (steps 1110 and 11)
11), the display of each setting screen is canceled (step 111).
2) The presence or absence of an operation on the window at the designated time is monitored (steps 1113 and 1114).

If the designated time has elapsed without any operation on the window (step 1115), step 1
The control specified in 107 and 1108, for example, the iconization process is performed on the window, and the process ends (step 1116). If an operation is performed on the window within the designated time in step 1114, all settings for the window are canceled (step 1117).

As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11, the multi-window display control system of the present embodiment holds control data for each window that is being started, and allows the control data to be set. By processing the display state based on the control data,
Various controls of the display state, especially for multiple windows,
For example, automatic iconization processing and automatic end processing after a specified time can be performed by a slight operation of the operator.

The present invention is not limited to the examples described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof. For example, in the present embodiment, the window display control technology in the personal computer has been described, but the present invention can be similarly applied to the window display control technology in a workstation or the like.

[0053]

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily operate each window displayed in a multi-window manner, and to improve the operation performance of an information processing apparatus having a multi-window function, such as a personal computer or a workstation. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration according to the present invention of a multi-window display control system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a personal computer that implements the multi-window display control system in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration example of a data table of information stored in a data storage unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a window setting screen displayed on a control window display unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a control data setting screen displayed on a control window display unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration example of the control data setting screen displayed on the control window display unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a control time setting screen displayed on a control window display unit in FIG. 1;

8 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration example of the control time setting screen displayed on the control window display unit in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a window setting screen, a control data setting screen, and a control time setting screen displayed on the control window display unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the configuration of the window setting screen, control data setting screen, and control time setting screen displayed on the control window display unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing operation according to the present invention of the window display control system in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1: control window display unit, 2: control data processing unit,
3: data storage unit, 21: display device, 21a: display control unit, 22: input device, 22a: input control unit, 23: external storage device, 24: information processing device, 25: optical disk, 2
6: drive device, 31: data table, 41, 91, 1
01: window setting screen, 42: cursor, 43: control button (“control”), 51, 51a, 61, 61a,
93: control data setting screen, 71, 81, 94: control time setting screen, 92: "spreadsheet" window.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display control system for displaying a plurality of windows on a screen of a display device by computer processing, based on an instruction from an input device.
Window list display means for displaying a list (window list) of identification information of all active windows; and a list of control identification information (control list) executable for the window specified by the input device in the window list. ), One or more windows specified by the input device in the window list, and one or more controls specified by the input device in the control list for the window. A multi-window display control system, comprising: storage means for storing; and control means for controlling the active window based on the contents stored in the storage means. 2. The multi-window display control system according to claim 1, wherein the control list includes identification information of control for ending display of a window (display end instruction information).
The storage means stores the display end instruction information specified in the control list for the window specified in the window list, and the control means stores the display end instruction information stored in the storage means A multi-window display control system, characterized in that a window specified in the window list is closed based on the multi-window display. 3. The multi-window display control system according to claim 1, wherein the control list has identification information (iconization instruction information) of control for converting a window into an icon. The storage means stores the iconification instruction information specified in the control list for the window specified in the window list, and the control means performs the iconization instruction based on the iconification instruction information stored in the storage means. A multi-window display control system characterized by iconifying a window specified in a window list. 4. The multi-window display control system according to claim 1, wherein a list of control execution start times (start time list) specified by an input device in said control list is displayed. Start time list display means is provided, wherein the storage means stores the control specified in the control list for the window specified in the window list and the execution start time specified in the start time list, and the control means A multi-window display control system, wherein the specified control of the window specified in the window list is performed based on the specified time based on the storage content of the storage means. 5. The multi-window display control system according to claim 4, wherein the control means determines whether or not the unused state of the specified window has continued until a time specified by the input device in the start time list. A multi-window display control system, comprising means for judging whether or not the specified time window remains in an unused state when the unused state continues.