JP2005011372A - Device and method for displaying - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To present information to be referred to in operating application by switching a window display mode. <P>SOLUTION: When display of reference information is instructed, window management data being used for current window management are transferred to a second window management data holding means 4b from a first window management data holding means 4a. At the time of displaying the reference information, the window management is performed on the basis of the window management data of the second window management data holding means 4b. The transferred window management data are changed into one more suitable for displaying the reference information. Information generated by reference application 6 is displayed to a part which is not hidden by a window out of a background part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a display device that performs display in a multi-window, and more particularly to a display device that is suitable for displaying reference information in the operation of an information processing device.

  In recent years, many information processing apparatuses capable of display using an overlap type multi-window method have been used. In an information processing apparatus that performs display using such a multi-window method, it is possible to open another window simultaneously with the window of the operation screen and use it as a reference screen.

  However, even though the size of the display and screen can be handled virtually infinitely, the information that can be displayed at one time is limited because it is physically limited. For this reason, there is a disadvantage that the reference information of the lower window is hidden by the overlap, and switching of the upper and lower relations has to be performed, resulting in poor operability.

  In addition, although it may be possible to increase the amount of information that can be displayed by reducing the characters and figures, the visibility will deteriorate, and if the reduced characters and figures are the object of operation, the mouse There is a drawback that the operability with a pointing device such as the above becomes worse.

On the other hand, in Patent Document 1, when a plurality of windows are overlapped, a character that can be read as a sentence by assigning the characters of the window under the other windows only to the visible part. Is disclosed. Patent Document 2 discloses a method of changing the size and position of a plurality of overlapping windows by a simple instruction and rearranging them so that they do not overlap. Patent Document 3 discloses a reference information display device that changes the position of a window hidden underneath when the window is newly opened to a position that does not overlap. Furthermore, Patent Document 4 discloses a reference information display device that restricts the operation of changing the size of the window on the operation screen side so that the reference screen is not hidden.
JP-A 63-262719 JP-A-1-76114 JP-A-2-28716 JP-A-7-244870

  However, in the conventional window display method, it is assumed that the reference information is displayed in the window. Therefore, the area where the reference information can be displayed is the display of additional information such as the shape and size of the window or the title bar of the window. If the size of the operation screen is not changed or reduced, the reference information display area cannot be taken as much as necessary, and the operability is poor.

  Therefore, the present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and is not limited to the display area of additional information such as the shape and size of the window, and as much reference information as possible without reducing visibility. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device that can display the display information and can minimize the loss of display information on the operation screen.

  According to this invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the configuration as described in the claims is adopted. Here, prior to describing the invention in detail, supplementary explanations of the claims will be given.

  That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-described object, on a display device: means for displaying an output of an application in a window; and when displaying information referred to in operating the application And means for switching the mode for displaying the window.

  In this configuration, when displaying information to be referred to when operating the application, the window display mode can be switched to make the information easy to see.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a display device for displaying an overlapped window: means for displaying an output of an application in the window; And means for preparing information related to the application; means for holding the first window management data and the second window management data, respectively; and when the information related to the application is not displayed, The window is managed using one window management data, and means for managing the window using the second window management data is provided when displaying information related to the application.

  Even in this configuration, when displaying information to be referred to when operating the application, the window display mode can be switched to make the information easy to see.

The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used to cause a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.
These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, information to be referred to when operating an application can be presented to the user in an easy-to-view manner by switching the window display mode.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of an information processing apparatus including a display device according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, an input unit 1 inputs and points data to an information processing apparatus, and includes an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, a light pen, a digitizer, and an image scanner. In this embodiment, input is performed using a keyboard and a mouse.

  The event management means 2 is an input from an input means such as a key down event, a state change inside the information processing apparatus, for example, an update event inside a window when a hidden part becomes visible due to the movement of the window, etc. Event management such as receiving each application.

  The reference application activation means 3 activates a reference application that outputs reference information such as online help. Note that the reference application activation unit 3 may be configured as a part of the event management unit 2 instead of as an independent unit as long as the activation event and the end event can be sent to the reference application.

  The window management means 4 manages the drawing of the outer frame of the window based on the settings of the window size, position, window type, etc., and displays them on the display means 7. The window management means 4 The window management data holding unit 4a and the second window management data holding unit 4b are configured. The first window management data holding unit 4a holds setting values such as a window size, a position, and a window type in a normal display state. The second window management data holding unit 4b holds setting values such as the window size, position, and window type in the display state of the reference information.

  The reference application starting unit 3 and the window management unit 4 described above execute a process of displaying reference information, and this part is indicated by a dotted line 10.

  The applications 5 are individual programs to be operated by the user, and a plurality of applications 5 may be activated. The reference application 6 is a program that outputs information that is referred to when operating the application 5 that is the operation target. For example, the reference application 6 corresponds to online help, and may be a program that displays the result of preprocessing. .

  The display means 7 comprises a CRT (cathode ray tube), a liquid crystal display device or the like, and displays outputs of various applications and system programs under the control of the window management means 4.

  Next, reference information display processing will be described. FIG. 2 illustrates an operation for displaying reference information. In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, when the reference information display processing is started by an instruction from the user using the input means 1 such as a help button, first, the second window management data holding is held from the first window management data holding means 4a. The window management data relating to the window currently displayed on the means 4b is copied (S1). Next, using the window management data on the second window management data holding means 4b, the window attributes are changed so that the margin of the window, that is, the background portion becomes a grouped area (S2). Next, an application that outputs reference information is started by the reference application starting means 3 (S3), and the output reference information is assigned to the margin of the window (S4). Subsequently, an operation input is received (S5), and it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to cancel the reference state (S6). If there is no instruction to cancel the reference state (NO), the process returns to step 5 to input the operation. Processing according to this is performed, and further operation input is accepted. When there is an instruction to cancel the reference state (YES), the reference application is terminated (S7), and the display is returned to the state according to the state before the reference information display process is activated (S8). The state according to the state before the reference information display process is activated is a state in which processing is performed so that the operation input received in the reference state is the operation received in the normal state.

  Next, the window attribute changing process (S2) in FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 3 shows the state of the screen before displaying the reference information. In the example of FIG. 3, three windows are displayed. In the following description, the upper left corner of the screen is the origin, the horizontal direction is the X axis, the vertical direction is the Y axis, the upper left coordinates of the screen are (0, 0), and the lower right coordinates are (1280, 800). .

  FIG. 4 explains the window attribute changing process (S2). In this figure, first, the number of windows is checked (S11). If there are a plurality of displayed windows (NO), window selection is performed. If there is only one window (YES), it is determined whether the window size exceeds the maximum value (S13), and if it exceeds (YES), the display range is determined. If it does not exceed (NO), the process returns to the main routine of FIG.

  The window selected in step S12 is a window that can be edited without changing its state, that is, an active window. For example, when three windows are displayed, immediately after the window management data is copied from the first window management data holding means 4a to the second window management data holding means 4b (S11), the second window management data holding means. A window management data table as shown in FIG. 5 is stored in 4b. Then, the active window is discriminated and only the window management data of the active window is left.

  The active window differs depending on how the window system is implemented. There are two main types of window system implementation methods. One of them is that editable windows are always in front, and active and inactive windows are displayed even if they do not overlap. The different one is that a caret (a pointer indicating a character editing position) is displayed only in an editable window. In either case, the active window can be easily detected by selecting the frontmost window as the active window and selecting the window in which the caret is displayed in the latter.

  In this embodiment, for example, it is assumed that the foremost window is the active window and is at the top of the window management data table. The window position indicates the coordinates of the upper left corner of the window.

  As a result of the window selection process, as shown in FIG. 6, a window management data table with only one line is obtained.

  Subsequently, in step S13, it is determined whether or not the window size is too large. If the window size is too large, the display range is determined in step S14. In this step, when the size of the window is, for example, the entire screen, there is no area for displaying the reference information. Therefore, the window size is changed and a process for creating an area for displaying the reference information is performed.

  In this embodiment (flowchart in FIG. 4), a method of limiting the number of windows to one is used. However, other than this method, the total area of the displayed window is obtained and an area for displaying reference information is secured. If possible, it is possible to adopt a method in which all windows are rearranged and reference information is displayed in the margin. In this case, when the total area is too large, in order to secure an area for displaying the reference information, first, the display is stopped from the rear window, and the window is too large only in the remaining one window, and the margin is left. When the reference information cannot be displayed, the size can be changed as in the case where the number of windows is limited to one from the beginning.

  FIG. 7 shows a display example when the size of the window is too large. In this case, as shown in FIG. 8, the user designates the display range (dotted line portion) or, for example, based on the position of the caret being edited, it is automatically determined so that the caret comes to the center. To display a specific range.

  When the former user designates the display range, there are a method of instructing a start point and an end point of a rectangle indicating the display range, a method of moving a frame indicating the maximum displayable range to a position desired by the user, and the like.

  Of these, in the method of specifying the start point and end point of a rectangle, for example, after specifying the upper left point as the start point, when specifying the lower right point as the end point, the mouse cursor does not move beyond the maximum displayable range. Add restrictions to The easiest way to add a limit is to set the maximum value for both the width and height of the window. In addition, the maximum area is set, and the product of the window width and height is the maximum area. There is a method of monitoring the movement of the mouse cursor so as not to exceed.

  The method of moving the frame can be realized by, for example, displaying a frame indicating the maximum displayable range with a dotted line and moving it to a desired position using a mouse cursor as shown in FIG.

  Further, when the determination is automatically made based on the position of the caret being edited, the display range is determined so that the center of the maximum displayable frame M and the center of the caret Ca coincide as shown in FIG. Here, as shown in FIG. 10, when the caret Ca is placed at the center, the maximum displayable frame M may exceed the end W of the content displayed in the window. In this case, the position of the maximum displayable frame M is aligned with the end W of the content so that the display area can be used effectively.

  FIG. 11 shows an example in which the window of FIG. 8 is changed to a partial display and the position of the window is changed. In order to unify the position of the window, there are a method of always moving to the same position, for example, the upper left, and a method of moving to the closest position of the four corners of the screen in order to reduce the movement of the line of sight. In the embodiment, the latter method is used.

  Specifically, the distance between the bottom right of the screen and the bottom right of the resized window, the top right of the screen and the top right of the resized window, the bottom left of the screen and the bottom left of the resized window, and Check the distance between the upper left corner of the screen and the upper left corner of the resized window that has the smallest distance, and the distance between the lower right corner of the screen and the lower right corner of the resized window is the smallest. It is the example which moved to the lower right of.

  Next, the background part allocation process in FIG. 2 will be described. When the reference information is allocated to the margin, as shown in FIG. 12, when the reference information is a character string, the reference information is allocated by performing a character insertion process according to the width of the margin. The character insertion process can be realized by a technique disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-122773. In the example in the figure, since there are two areas A and B having different widths, first, the character insertion process is performed on the area A, and after the area A is filled with characters, the character insertion process is also performed on the area B. .

  If the reference information includes a chart, as shown in FIG. 13, the allocation of the reference information can be easily realized by assigning the chart and then performing a character insertion process on the blank areas A, B, and C. can do.

  Further, FIG. 14 shows an example of the display screen in a state where the process of assigning the reference information to the margin is completed. In the figure, the upper right of the screen is a control bar for reference information, and includes a page feed button and scroll bar when the entire reference information cannot be allocated, a button for canceling the reference state, and the like. Here, when page feed is instructed, page feed is realized by performing a process of assigning reference information starting from the upper left of the margin from the first data that could not be assigned.

  In the case of scrolling, as shown in FIG. 16, the chart is moved up by one line, and scrolling is performed by assigning reference information starting from the top left of the margin from the first data in the second line. Is done.

  When the size of the window is changed with the reference information displayed, as shown in FIG. 15, the window frame or the like is indicated with the mouse cursor as in the normal display state, and the mouse button called drag is pressed. For example, the mouse cursor is changed by moving the mouse cursor in the direction of the dotted arrow. The movement range of the mouse cursor is limited so that the reference information cannot be displayed in the direction of expanding the operation screen. There is no special restriction on the direction of shrinking the operation screen, and the mouse should not be smaller than the minimum size of the window specified by the information processing device itself or the application processing the contents displayed in the window. What is necessary is just to restrict | limit the movement range of a cursor.

  When the size of the window is changed, the margin area changes, and therefore, the reference information is reassigned to the new margin area by the processing shown in FIGS. 12 to 14 described above.

  FIG. 17 shows an example in which a plurality of windows are involved in an operation for one application. In FIG. 17, two windows “palette” and “shell tool” are used as windows to assist the window “document”. it's shown.

  In this case, as shown in FIG. 18, the window belongs as application information to the window management data table stored in the second window management data holding unit 4b immediately after being copied from the first window management data holding unit 4a. By holding the application number, it is possible to easily determine the window involved. Further, as application information, data for distinguishing auxiliary windows such as a tool palette and a color palette may be added. In the example shown in the figure, the window titled “Palette” is at the front, and the window titled “Document” has the same application number as the window titled “Palette”, so these two windows are selected. The As a result, FIG. 19 shows an example in which these two windows are moved to the four corners of the screen, for example, upper left and upper right.

  FIG. 20 shows an example in which the window placed in front is switched in the example in which one window is left out of the three windows shown in FIGS. In this embodiment, the window title bar is a pop-up menu 8 which is a window switching means, and the window management data table stored in the first window management data holding means 4a which is the basis of the window management data table of FIG. Is read and displayed. The window switching can be easily realized by copying the window data of the selected title to the window management data table held in the second window management data holding means 4b.

  For example, when a window titled “Mail Tool” is selected by the pop-up menu 8, the state is switched to “Mail Tool” as shown in FIG. Reference information is assigned to the new margin as well.

  For the release of the reference state in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the data to be updated by the application is held by the address and directly rewritten, so the reference application is terminated and the first window management data holding means 4a It is possible to easily return to the original display state by redrawing the screen using the held window management data table.

  Note that the data to be updated by the application at the time of starting the reference information display process is held in the second window management data holding means 4b from the window management data table held in the first window management data holding means 4a in the actual form. When copying to the window management data table, the updated data is copied from the window management data table held in the second window management data holding means 4b to the window management data table held in the first window management data holding means 4a. Then, redraw the screen.

It is a block diagram which shows the basic composition of the information processing apparatus of the Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the outline of the reference information display process of the Example of this invention. It is a screen figure which shows the example of the screen before performing display of reference information. It is a flowchart which shows the outline of the window attribute change process of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the window management data table copied to the 2nd window management data holding means on the screen of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the window management data table of the 2nd window management data holding means when only one window is selected. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when the size of a window is too large. It is a figure which shows the example which a user designates a display range. It is a figure which shows the example which determines the display area of a window based on the position of a caret when a window is too big. In FIG. 9, it is a figure which shows the example in case the display area of a window exists outside the edge of the display content. It is a figure which shows the example which changed the window of FIG. 8 into the partial display, and changed the position of the window. It is a figure which shows the example of the process which allocates reference information to a margin. It is a figure which shows the example which performs a character insertion process to the margin after allocating a chart. It is a figure which shows the example of the state which the process which allocates reference information to the margin was complete | finished. It is a figure which shows the example which changes window size in the state which displayed the reference information. It is a figure which shows the example which scrolled the reference information in 1 line in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example in case a some window is concerned with operation with respect to one application. It is a figure which shows the example which hold | maintains the application number to which a window belongs to a window management data table. It is a figure which shows the example which left two windows and moved to the four corners of a screen. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which a pop-up menu is displayed so that windows can be switched in an example in which one window is left out of the three windows shown in FIGS. 3 and 5. In FIG. 20, it is a figure which shows the example switched to the window titled "Mail tool".

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Input means 2 Event management means 3 Reference application starting means 4 Window management means 4a First window management data holding means 4b Second window management data holding means 5 Application 6 Reference application 7 Display means

Claims (9)

Event management means for managing an event representing a change in the state of the information processing apparatus;
Window management means for saving the first window management data and the second window management data and switching which window management data to display the window according to a predetermined event Information processing device.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the difference between the first window management data and the second window management data is at least one of a window to be displayed, a size, a position of the window, and a window type.   3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising selection means for selecting a window set as a window to be displayed by the second window management data based on a user operation input. Means for displaying the output of the application in a window;
A display device comprising: means for switching a mode for displaying the window when displaying information referred to in operating the application. In a display device that displays an overlapping window,
Means for displaying the output of the application in a window;
Means for preparing information to be referred to in operating the application in response to an operation in the application window;
Means for respectively holding first window management data and second window management data;
When the information to be referred to when operating the application is not displayed, the window is managed using the first window management data, and the information to be referred to when operating the application is displayed. And a means for managing the window using two window management data.   6. The display device according to claim 5, wherein the second window management data includes management data relating to one or more windows for displaying the output of the application. A step in which the event management means receives an event representing a change in the state of the information processing apparatus;
The window management means storing the first window management data and the second window management data has a step of switching which window management data is used to display a window according to a predetermined event. A window management method for an information processing apparatus. Displaying the output of the application in a window;
And a step of switching a mode for displaying the window when displaying information to be referred to when operating the application. In a display method for displaying an overlap type window,
Displaying the output of the application in a window;
Preparing information related to the application in response to an operation in the application window;
Holding each of the first window management data and the second window management data;
When the information to be referred to when operating the application is not displayed, the window is managed using the first window management data, and the information to be referred to when operating the application is displayed. And a step of managing the window using two window management data.

Images