AU5501500A - Graphical user interface - Google Patents

Description

S&FRef: 519538

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

Name and Address of Applicant Canon Kabushiki Kaisha 30-2, Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ohta-ku Tokyo 146 Japan Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: John Mylordis Spruson Ferguson St Martins Tower 31 Market Street Sydney NSW 2000 Graphical User Interface Invention Title: ASSOCIATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION DETAILS [33] Country [31] Applic. No(s) AU PQ2559 [32] Application Date 31 Aug 1999 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- 3T ~5 'buuV ~i iC-" 5815c -1- GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces and, in particular, to a graphical user interface that includes summary information Background Art A graphical user interface (GUI) is typically a computer generated display that provides for the representation of information to a user in such a manner that the information, or functions related to the information, may be readily amended or S• implemented, as the case may be. GUI's exist in many different forms and one common 10 example is the interface provided by the WINDOWS (Registered Trade Mark) operating system manufactured by Microsoft Corporation. Such GUI's often have numerous graphical icons or text icons displayed simultaneously, many of which are user selectable, ••co generally using a pointing device such as a mouse, to permit the desired amendment of an attribute or initiating of a particular function.

Problems however arise with such arrangements in that often the graphical or text icon does not convey to the user sufficient information as to the function(s) that may result from selecting the particular icon. Traditionally, unless the user is has been previously informed of the function, the user must access the icon in order to make an informed decision as to whether function(s) provided by the icon are desired.

Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, one or more disadvantages of existing arrangements.

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding 519538.doc -2secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of the corresponding said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user manipulable field, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non-selected one of said portions comprises summary information related to the corresponding said at least one field.

Preferably, the indicia of each of said non-selected portions comprises corresponding said summary information.

";According to another aspect of the present invention, there is disclosed a computing system comprising a plurality of computer manipulable items, each said item 10 comprising a plurality of corresponding alterable attributes, and a graphical user interface arrangement providing for user manipulation of said items and corresponding attributes, said graphical user interface arrangement comprising means for generating, for selected ones of said items, a primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user manipulable field associated with corresponding said attributes, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non-selected one of said portions comprises summary information related to the corresponding said at least one field.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a computer readable medium comprising a computer program product for forming a primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user manipulable 519538.doc -3field, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non-selected one of said portions comprises summary information related to the corresponding said at least one field.

According to other aspects of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for generating the GUI, method for generating the GUI, and computer program product including a computer readable medium having recorded thereon a computer program for implementing the GUI.

Brief Description of the Drawings A number of aspects of the prior art and one or more embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 depicts a first prior art GUI; Fig. 2 depicts a second prior art GUI; Fig. 3 depicts a third prior art GUI; Fig. 4 depicts a GUI incorporating summary information; ""Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram representation of a general purpose computer upon the Guy's described can be practiced; and Fig. 6 represents the GUI of Fig. 2 modified to include summary information.

Detailed Description including Best Mode Figs. 1, 2 and 3 show prior art graphical user interfaces 100, 200 and 300 respectively typical of some displays that may be found when using the aforementioned WINDOWS operating system and application programs executing within such an operating system. The GUI's 100, 200 and 300 are presented to a user of a computer system 500 via a display device 514, details of which are now described with reference to Fig. The computer system 500 comprises a computer module 501, input devices such as a keyboard 502 and mouse 503, and output devices including a printer 515, a 519538.doc loudspeaker 517 and the display device 514. A Modulator-Demodulator (Modem) transceiver device 516 may be used by the computer module 501 for communicating to and from a communications network 520, for example connectable via a telephone line 521 or other functional medium. The modem 516 can be used to obtain access to the Internet, and other network systems, such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN).

The computer module 501 typically includes at least one processor unit 505, a memory unit 506, for example formed from semiconductor random access memory S* (RAM) and read only memory (ROM), input/output interfaces including an ••co 10 audio/video interface 507, and an I/O interface 513 for the keyboard 502 and mouse 503 and optionally a joystick (not illustrated), and an interface 508 for the modem 516. A storage device 509 is provided and typically includes a hard disk drive 510 and a floppy disk drive 511. A magnetic tape drive (not illustrated) may also be used. A CD-ROM *drive 512 is typically provided as a non-volatile source of data. The components 505 to 513 of the computer module 501, typically communicate via an interconnected bus 504 and in a manner which results in a conventional mode of operation of the computer system 500 known to those in the relevant art. Examples of computers on which the embodiments can be practised include IBM-PC's and compatibles, Sun Sparcstations or alike computer systems evolved therefrom.

Typically, the operating system and any application programs are resident on the hard disk drive 510 and read and controlled in execution by the processor 505.

Intermediate storage of the programs and any data fetched from the network 520 may be accomplished using the semiconductor memory 506, possibly in concert with the hard disk drive 510. In some instances, application programs may be supplied to the user encoded on a CD-ROM or floppy disk and read via the corresponding drive 512 or 511, 519538.doc or alternatively may be read by the user from the network 520 via the modem device 516.

Still further, such software can also be loaded into the computer system 500 from other computer readable medium including magnetic tape, a ROM or integrated circuit, a magneto-optical disk, a radio or infra-red transmission channel between the computer module 501 and another device, a computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card, and the Internet and Intranets including e-mail transmissions and information recorded on websites and the like. The foregoing is merely exemplary of relevant computer readable media. Other computer readable media may be used.

oooeo The GUI 100 of Fig. 1 is typical of a file system representation of the computer 10 system 500 which provides a tree representation 102 in one half 104 of a split screen format. An icon 106 denoted "My Computer" in the tree 102 represents the file arrangement within the computer module 501. As seen, an icon 108 denoted as drive "C" and representing the hard disk drive 510 has been selected using a mouse pointer 110.

This selection causes display, on the other half 112 of the split screen format, of a file structure 114 within the hard disk drive 510, which is seen to include a number of folders •oo.

(Folder 01 Folder mm) and files (File 01 File nn). By manipulation of a toolbar 116 provided in the GUI 100, some details or attributes 120 associated with each of the folders and files 114 may also be selectively displayed.

The GUI 200 of Fig. 2 is an example of a "display properties" GUI that may be accessed via a control panel icon 118 seen in Fig. 1. The GUI 200 includes a number of user selectable graphical tabs 202 respectively relating to "Background", "Screen Saver", Appearance" and "Settings". As will be apparent from Fig. 2 to those skilled in the art, the "Background" tab 204 has been selected, or has been displayed by default, which provides for a representation 206 of a selected "Pattern" 208 and "Wallpaper" 210, these collectively forming the specific "background" setting current in the computer 519538.doc -6module 501 and which may be edited or altered by the user. The "Pattern" and "Wallpaper" portions of the "Background" tab 204 represent further GUI's within the context of the GUI 200. Significantly, no information regarding the nature or settings of any of the non-selected tabs 202 (ie. "Screen Saver", Appearance" and "Settings") is available to the user. For example, it is not apparent that the "Settings" tab 212 may reveal details such as: Color Palette 256 color; Desktop Area 1024x768 pixels; and Font Size small fonts.

The GUI 300 of Fig. 3 is typical of a "properties" GUI, associated with a word •processing application program that may operate on the computer system 500, for one file oo stored or accessible therein (eg. the file, File 01 seen in Fig. The GUI 300 has a tab structure similar to that of the GUI 200, although the nature of each tab and the function performed thereby is different. Again no information as to the non-selected tabs is available to the user.

*In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the GUI is modified to provide summary information of the various settings, functions or attributes available via the GUI. Preferably, such modification is applied to each setting or function presented to the user at any time.

Fig. 4 shows an example of a GUI 400 developed to replace the GUI 100 of Fig. 1 and incorporating modifications foreshadowed above. The GUI400 includes a tree-depicted directory structure 402 formed within a first portion (in this example, a quadrant) of the GUI 400. The structure 402 includes various items such as folders, files, programs and the like, which are in some way manipulable by the computer, with or without user intervention. A second portion 406 (another quadrant of the GUI 400) includes a listing of various folders and files 408 from the structure 402 and which includes details 410 similar to the details 120 shown in Fig. I. However, in this example, 519538.doc -7an other portion 412 (in this case, a half of the GUI 400) provides a representation of details associated with a selected one (File 02b) of the files 408.

Like the prior art arrangements of Fig. 2 and 3, the portion 412 depicts a tabstructure representation incorporating tabs 412, 414, 416, 418 and 420, in this case, representing various "Indexing Properties" associated with selected File 02b. However, unlike Figs. 1,2 and 3, the tabs 414, 416, 418 and 420 are displayed in such a manner that each non-selected tab 414, 418 and 420 has a corresponding indicia including a title 422, displayed together with a summary representation 424 of details, settings or attributes ooooo S• associated with that tab. As shown, tab 416 has been selected and no corresponding oo 10 summary need be shown since the selected tab 416 provides a graphical editing module 426 having a number of graphical and user manipulable icons available for editing/modification. It will be apparent that the graphical editing module 426 represents a "secondary" graphical user interface associated with the tab portion 416 of the "primary" graphical user interface 400. Further, each of the other tabs 414, 418 and 420 are displayed simultaneously together with corresponding details/settings. For example, go• whilst editing the "Terms" tab 416, the user may readily see from the "General" tab 414 that File 02b is a Word97 document that was created on 01/09/97 and has "External" read-only access. The tabs 418 and 420 provide for further categorisation of indexing properties in this example. Specifically, as will be apparent from the "Notes" tab 420, the displayed summary information indicates that no notes have been entered, thus obviating any need for the user to select the tab 420 to review any notes that may have been entered, as would be required when using one of the prior art configurations. When the tab 416 is de-selected, corresponding summary information 424 may then be displayed, for example: "Division Administration" and "Department Finance". Further, it will be appreciated that the representation of Fig. 4 contrasts the representation of Fig. 3 (for 519538.doc -8the same document), not so much in the actual attributes/details, but in the manner in which they are summarised and presented to the user. Specifically, the arrangement of Fig. 4 has the specific advantage that the summary data for the item in question is all visible and may thus be readily and easily interpreted by the user. Having assessed the relevance of each item of summary data, the user can thus readily decide which item may require editing.

Fig. 6 shows the example of Fig. 2 modified as a GUI 600 using the principles foreshadowed herein, and from which it will be apparent that the user is presented at all 999**9 9 times with the details of all the display properties of the computer system 500.

10 Specifically, each non-selected tab 602 is provided to display its corresponding summary information 604.

As also seen in Fig. 6, scroll bars 606 and 608 may sometimes be used to provide for convenient selection from a large number of alternatives. In a further modification, rather than showing any one tab as selected by default as in each of Figs. 4 and 6, each tab may be provided in its corresponding summary form (eg. 414-420, 602) and a scroll •o bar used as required and determined by available display space to scroll between the various alternatives available for selection and editing. Further scroll bars may also be used to provide for convenient display of large amount of information from within a selected tab whilst still providing the advantage of displaying all summary information of any non-selected tabs, as seen at 610 in Fig. 6.

Variations on the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 may be made. For example, where there exist a number of user selectable icon portions such as the tabs, there need not be initially any tab with its corresponding GUI displayed. All tabs may be initially displayed in their summary form and such would require user selection of any one tab for 519538.doc -9the corresponding GUI to be displayed. Further, whereas Figs. 4 and 6 show the tabs 422 identified by text, such may be replaced with graphical icons as desired.

The GUI arrangements described above are preferably practiced using the general-purpose computer system 500 wherein the presentation of the summary information 424 may be implemented as software attached to, or integrated with, the operating system or application program, as the case may be. The software may be stored in a computer readable medium, including the storage devices described above, for ".example. The software is loaded into the computer 501 from the computer readable ooooo medium, and then executed by the computer 501. A computer readable medium having ee 10 such software or computer program recorded on it is a computer program product. The use of the computer program product in the computer preferably effects an advantageous apparatus in accordance with the embodiments of the invention.

Specifically, the summary information 424 may be extracted from the graphical editing module 426 as text which may then be formatted for appropriate representation alongside the tab title 422 by the GUI 400. Where desired, more than one of the tabs 422 may be edited in this fashion. Further, the summary information 424 is preferably selectable using the mouse pointer 1 10 and able to be copied us functions associated with the toolbar 116.

The principles of the preferred embodiment described herein have general applicability to computer operating systems, data bases, and files structures. For example, other embodiments of the invention may have application to networked databases and act to facilitate document searching and categorization through ease of access and reading of the text summary information.

Industrial Applicability 519538.doc Embodiments of the present invention are applicable to the computer and data processing industries and to the representation of data over extended networks..

The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention, and modifications and/or changes can be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In the context of this specification, the word "comprising" means "including principally but not necessarily solely" or "having" or "including" and not "consisting only o- Variations of the word comprising, such as "comprise" and "comprises" have corresponding meanings.

*o*oo 519538.doc

Claims (4)

1. A primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of the corresponding said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user manipulable field, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non- selected one of said portions comprises user manipulable summary information related to eoeee the corresponding said at least one field. 0

2. A primary graphical user interface according to claim 1 wherein said indicia of each of said non-selected portions comprises corresponding said summary information. to

3. A computing system comprising a plurality of computer manipulable items, each said item comprising a plurality of corresponding alterable attributes, and a graphical user interface arrangement providing for user manipulation of said items and corresponding attributes, said graphical user interface arrangement comprising means for generating, for selected ones of said items, a primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user manipulable field associated with corresponding said attributes, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non-selected one of said portions comprises summary information related to the corresponding said at least one field.

519538.doc -12- 4. A computing system according to claim 3 wherein said indicia of each of said non-selected portions comprises corresponding said summary information. A computer systems according to claim 4 wherein said primary and secondary graphical user interfaces are presented to a user of said system via a display device and said portions are selectable via user manipulation of a data entry device. A computer readable medium comprising a computer program product for ooooo forming a primary graphical user interface comprising a plurality of user selectable *r 10 portions each identified by corresponding indicia, each said portion having associated therewith a corresponding secondary graphical user interface operable from selection of said portion, each said secondary graphical user interface incorporating at least one user 9999 manipulable field, characterised in that said indicia of at least one non-selected one of said portions comprises summary information related to the corresponding said at least one field. 7. A graphical user interface substantially as described herein with reference to Fig.

4 or Fig. 6 of the drawings. 8. A computing system configured for the generation of a graphical user interface according to claim 7. 9. A computer readable medium incorporating a computer program product configured for the generation of a graphical user interface according to claim 7. 519S38.doc 13 A computing system configured for the generation of a primary graphical user interface according to claim 1 or 2. DATED this TWENTY-FOURTH Day of AUGUST 2000 CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON&FERGUSON 0 S too* sees 0 s S *00 S 51 9538.doc