JP2010185994A - Operation manual display device and image forming apparatus including the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply display electronic data of an operation manual interlocked with user's operation, so that a user may easily understand it. <P>SOLUTION: In the image forming apparatus, if a copying magnification-setting key is depressed when a copying function is used, the electronic data (for example, a pdf file) of the operation manual correlated to the copying magnification-setting key prestored in a correlation table are read out from a hard disk. By using the electronic data, operation information is displayed in a manual display area as the image itself of the operation manual printed on a paper medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium (typically, paper) by an electrophotographic method or the like, and in particular, an operation for easily displaying a description of the operation so that a user can easily understand the operation. It relates to a manual display device. The present invention also relates to an image forming apparatus including an operation manual display device.

  Conventionally, in order to explain the installation method or operation method of the product to the user, the electrical appliance may be described as an installation manual or an instruction manual (hereinafter referred to as “operation manual” or “instruction manual”). The user who purchased the product is setting the device while reading the installation instructions, or performing various operations desired by the user while reading the instruction manuals.

  In recent years, an operation manual is sometimes stored and provided as electronic data in a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) from the viewpoint of reducing costs or reducing the amount of items included. There has also been proposed a device capable of displaying a simple explanation of an operation that the user intends to use on the operation screen of the device and selecting guidance related to the help function. As such a device, there is an electronic device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-140851 (Patent Document 1). This patent document 1 states as follows.

  When the help function is compared with the operation manual, the advantage of the help function is that “the user has very little effort to obtain necessary information”. In other words, the operation manual is necessary for the user to search for necessary information, while the help function is for the device to search for and present information on the operation currently being performed by the user.

  On the other hand, as an advantage of the manual, it can be pointed out that “the understanding of a large amount of information is high”. This advantage is influenced by the features of the manual, such as “Wide expression area and flexible information expression”, “Various tools for information expression”.

  The help function generally uses a display on the apparatus or an operation panel with a display as means for displaying information. Many of these display means have a small information display area and low information expressive power. The small information display area necessitates that when a large amount of information is displayed, the information is divided into a number of parts and sequentially displayed. Since this display method makes it difficult for the user to understand the information, the amount of information to be displayed cannot be increased so much in the help function. In addition, this display method has a low ability to express information, which makes it difficult for the user to understand the information.

  For this reason, the general method used to obtain an explanation of the operation currently being performed by the user uses the help function first, and if there is not enough explanation (the user cannot understand). In this case, a detailed explanation on the operation manual is searched. Such a method is intended to reduce the labor of the user.

  In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133620, under such a background, the task of searching for an explanation that could not be obtained by the help function is simplified and made efficient, and the explanation for the currently performed operation is smaller by the user. It is described that an electronic device that can be obtained with effort is provided.

  The electronic device disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes an operation unit having a display, a memory storing help function manual data, manual data, and help-manual link data indicating a relationship between the help function data and the manual data. Control means for controlling the acquisition of the operation manual, and when the help information is displayed on the display in response to an instruction from the operation means, the control means displays a link for displaying a related manual for obtaining information related to the help information. It is characterized by displaying the information and acquiring the contents of the linked related manual. Further, the control means instructs to display on the display the page number of the manual of the paper document in which the contents of the acquired related manual are described.

  According to this electronic device, since the device side records the link information to the manual data page related to the display contents of the help function, the user can efficiently display the contents of the manual related to the display contents of the help function. Can be acquired. In addition, since the device side can search for manual pages related to the display contents of the help function and display the page number itself, the user can display the manual contents related to it from the display contents of the help function. It becomes possible to obtain efficiently based on the page number.

JP 2007-140851 A

  In the electronic device disclosed in Patent Document 1, while displaying the help function, the page number of the operation manual related to the displayed help information can be displayed, or divided in units that can be displayed in the information display area, The information of the operation manual can be displayed.

  However, the electronic device disclosed in Patent Document 1 merely displays a manual page number, or, as shown in FIG. 6B of Patent Document 1, an operation manual corresponding to the operated key. The character information described in is merely displayed on the monitor. That is, there is a problem that the operation manual corresponding to the operated key cannot be directly confirmed visually, and the user has to take out the operation manual and view the page.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to display an operation manual so that the state printed on paper (the same state as the operation manual printed on paper when viewing the operation manual data displayed on the monitor for human vision) can be displayed. Is an electronic data, the operation manual display device which can easily display the information of the operation manual related to the user's operation so that the user can easily understand and the image provided with the operation manual display device A forming apparatus is provided.

  An operation manual display device according to an aspect of the present invention relates to an acquisition unit for acquiring electronic data of an operation manual, a detection unit for detecting input of an operation key, and an operation key and an operation manual item Related information storage means for storing the relevant information for display, display means for displaying information about the operation using the electronic data, and input from the acquired electronic data using the relevant information For controlling the display means so as to read the operation manual item associated with the operation key and display the operation-related information in the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium using the read electronic data. Control means. The operation manual display device further includes storage means for storing electronic data of the operation manual, and the acquisition means can be configured to include means for acquiring electronic data stored in the storage means. The operation manual display device further includes a communication unit for communicating with an external device, and the acquisition unit is configured to include a unit for acquiring electronic data of the operation manual from the external device via the communication unit. it can.

  According to this operation manual display device, the operation manual item associated with the operated key is displayed in association with the operation of the operation key by the user while maintaining the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. Display on means. That is, the information about the operation that the user wants to perform is displayed as the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. The operation manual data may be stored in storage means (for example, a hard disk device) of the operation manual display device and acquired by the acquisition means, or stored in an external device of the operation manual display device. It may be acquired by the acquisition means via the communication means (for example, the Internet). Since the operation manual is created so as to be visually easy to see, when the operation manual is displayed as an image of the operation manual, the user can easily understand the information related to the operation. Furthermore, since the operation manual item associated with the operation key is displayed, the operation manual can be displayed easily. As a result, it is possible to provide an operation manual display device that can easily display operation manual information related to the user's operation so that the user can easily understand it.

  The display means can be configured by a touch panel. In this case, the control means changes the display mode according to the request input to the touch panel, and displays the information related to the operation. It can be configured to include means for controlling. This change of the display mode can be configured such that the position of the operation manual displayed on the display means is changed. Further, the change of the display mode can be configured such that the operation manual displayed on the display means is enlarged or reduced.

  Information related to the operation, with the image of the operation manual printed on paper media, touching a specific part of the operation manual displayed on the touch panel with your finger, moving your finger while touching with your finger, When the finger is spread while touching with a plurality of fingers, the display mode can be changed so that the finger is enlarged, reduced or scrolled. Even if the display means has a small display area by displaying and enlarging the entire page of the operation manual, or displaying and scrolling a part of the page of the operation manual, the paper medium Since the image of the operation manual printed on the screen can be displayed as it is, information regarding the operation can be provided to the user in an easy-to-understand manner.

  Furthermore, the control means can be configured to include means for controlling the display means so that the information of the displayed operation manual is displayed in a manner recognizable by the user's vision. In addition, the control means can be configured to include means for controlling the display means so that the characters or figures of the displayed operation manual are displayed in a size recognizable by the user's vision.

  The display means displays an image of an operation manual printed on a paper medium, and displays characters or figures of the operation manual in a size that can be recognized by the user's vision. Information relating to operations can be provided in such a manner that the user can visually recognize the operation manual image printed on a paper medium.

  The display means can be configured to include information for displaying operation information and means for displaying operation keys.

  The display means displays operation keys and information about operations (operation manual). For this reason, when the user inputs an operation key, information about an operation related to the operation key operated by the user can be displayed as an image of an operation manual printed on a paper medium.

  Furthermore, the control means can be configured to include means for controlling the display means so as to switch and display information about the operation in conjunction with the input of the operation key.

  For example, when the enlargement / reduction key is operated while the operation key for the copy basic function is displayed, the information about the basic operation for copying is switched to the information about the enlargement / reduction operation for copying. For this reason, the information of the operation manual relevant to a user's operation can be displayed simply.

  An image forming apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention is an image forming apparatus including any one of the operation manual display devices described above.

  According to the operation manual display device provided in the image forming apparatus, the operation manual item associated with the operated image formation key is linked to the operation of the operation key by the user, and the operation manual is printed on the paper medium. The manual image is maintained and displayed on the display means. That is, the information about the image forming operation that the user wants to perform is displayed as the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. Therefore, it is possible to provide an operation manual display device that can easily display information of an operation manual related to the user's image forming operation so that the user can easily understand the operation manual.

  According to the present invention, the items of the operation manual associated with the keys operated by the user are displayed on the display means while maintaining the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. That is, information about the user's operation is displayed with the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. Since the operation manual is created so as to be visually easy to see, displaying the image of the operation manual allows the user to display information related to the operation in an easy-to-understand manner. Furthermore, since the operation manual item associated with the operation key is displayed, the operation manual can be displayed easily. As a result, the operation manual information related to the user's operation can be displayed easily and easily for the user to understand.

1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of an image forming apparatus 150 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a simplified internal configuration of an image forming apparatus 150 illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 150 illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows the structure of the correlation table memorize | stored in HDD shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a screen configuration of a display panel 172 of the image forming apparatus 150 illustrated in FIG. 1. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control structure of a program executed by the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on the display panel 172 shown in FIG. 3.

  In the following embodiments, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. Their functions and names are also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated. In the following, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus (multifunction machine) will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and any apparatus equipped with a display panel having a horizontal width capable of displaying an operation manual is preferable. However, as long as it has an enlargement function as will be described later, the width may not be limited.

[Image forming apparatus]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an external configuration of the image forming apparatus 150. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a simplified internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 150. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 150.

  Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the image forming apparatus 150 includes a document reading unit 152, an image forming unit 154, a paper feeding unit 156, and a paper discharge processing device 158.

  Here, the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 150 is described by describing the operation in the copy mode.

  In the image forming apparatus 150, a document placed on a document placing table is read as image data by the document reading unit 152, and the read image data is a CPU (Central Processing Unit) composed of a microcomputer or the like shown in FIG. 300, various image processing is performed on the image data, and the image data is output to the image forming unit 154.

  The image forming unit 154 prints an image of a document indicated by image data on a recording sheet. The image forming unit 154 includes a photosensitive drum 222, a charging device 224, a laser scan unit (hereinafter referred to as “LSU”) 226, and development. A device 228, a transfer device 230, a cleaning device 232, a fixing device 234, a static elimination device (not shown), and the like are provided.

  The image forming unit 154 is provided with a main transport path 236 and a reverse transport path 238, and the recording paper fed from the paper feed unit 156 is transported along the main transport path 236. The paper feeding unit 156 pulls out the recording paper stored in the paper cassette 240 or the recording paper placed on the manual feed tray 242 one by one and sends the recording paper to the main conveyance path 236 of the image forming unit 154.

  While the recording paper is being conveyed along the main conveyance path 236 of the image forming unit 154, the recording paper passes between the photosensitive drum 222 and the transfer device 230, and further passes through the fixing device 234 to be recorded. Printing on paper is performed.

  The photosensitive drum 222 rotates in one direction, and its surface is cleaned by the cleaning device 232 and the static eliminator and then uniformly charged by the charging device 224.

  The LSU 226 modulates a laser beam based on the image data to be printed, and repeatedly scans the surface of the photosensitive drum 222 in the main scanning direction with the laser beam to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 222. To do.

  The developing device 228 develops the electrostatic latent image by supplying toner to the surface of the photosensitive drum 222, and forms a toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 222.

  The transfer device 230 transfers the toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 222 onto a recording sheet that passes between the transfer device 230 and the photosensitive drum 222.

  The fixing device 234 includes a heating roller 248 for heating the recording paper and a pressure roller 250 for pressing the recording paper. The recording sheet is heated by the heating roller 248 and pressed by the pressure roller 250, whereby the toner image transferred onto the recording sheet is fixed on the recording sheet.

  A branching claw 244 is disposed at a connection position between the main conveyance path 236 and the reverse conveyance path 238. When printing is performed only on one side of the recording paper, the branching claw 244 is positioned, and the recording paper from the fixing device 234 is guided to the paper discharge tray 246 or the paper discharge processing device 158 by the branching claw 244.

  When printing is performed on both sides of the recording paper, the branching claw 244 is rotated in a predetermined direction, and the recording paper is guided toward the reverse conveyance path 238. The recording sheet passes through the reverse conveyance path 238, is reversed on the front and back, and is conveyed again to the main conveyance path 236. During the re-conveyance of the main conveyance path 236, printing on the back surface is performed and the recording paper is discharged. It is guided toward the paper tray 246 or the paper discharge processing device 158.

  The recording paper printed as described above is guided toward the paper discharge tray 246 or the paper discharge processing device 158 and discharged to the paper discharge tray 246, or on each paper discharge tray 168 of the paper discharge processing device 158. It is discharged to either.

  The paper discharge processing device 158 performs processing for sorting and discharging a plurality of recording papers to each paper discharge tray 168, processing for punching each recording paper, and processing for stapling each recording paper. For example, when creating a plurality of printed materials, each recording sheet is sorted and discharged to each paper discharge tray 168 so that a part of the printed material is allocated to each paper discharge tray 168. In addition, a punching process or a stapling process is performed on each recording sheet on the discharge tray 168 to create a printed matter.

[Hardware block]
Referring to FIG. 3, image forming apparatus 150 is further turned off from operation device 166 capable of setting each function relating to image forming processing, and ROM (Read Only Memory) 306 for storing programs and the like. A hard disk drive (HDD) 302 that is a non-volatile storage area capable of storing programs, data, and the like, and a random access memory (RAM) 308 for providing a storage area when executing the program, including. The image forming apparatus 150 further includes a bus 310 connected to the document reading unit 152, the image forming unit 154, the operation device 166, the ROM 306, the HDD 302, and the RAM 308, and a general image forming apparatus connected to the bus 310. CPU 300 for realizing the functional function.

  The ROM 306 stores programs, data, and the like necessary for controlling the operation of the image forming apparatus 150. The CPU 300 controls the image forming apparatus 150 according to the program and data stored in the ROM 306 and executes control related to each function of the image forming apparatus 150.

  The RAM 308 provides a function as a working memory that temporarily stores the results of calculation and processing by the CPU 300 and a function as a frame memory that stores image data.

  The CPU 300 controls the document reading unit 152, the image forming unit 154, the plate-like operation panel 170 and the display panel 172 of the operation device 166, and the ROM 306, HDD 302, and RAM 308 by executing predetermined programs.

  The operation device 166 includes a plate-like operation panel 170 provided with a hard key that is a start key and other operation buttons, which is disposed in the right end region of the surface of the operation device 166, and most of the operation device 166. And a display panel 172 including a touch panel integrated liquid crystal display device disposed in the area. The operation panel 170 and the display panel 172 are held in one housing, and the operation device 166 is configured to be integrated as a whole.

  In the operation device 166, the display panel 172 displays the status of the image forming apparatus 150, the destination designation status, the job processing status, and the like. A selection button is displayed on the display area of the liquid crystal display device of the display panel 172. When the area where the selection button is displayed is pressed with a finger, the touch panel detects the pressed position. By comparing the display position of the selection button with the position where the touch panel is pressed on the program, the function setting, operation instruction, and the like of the image forming apparatus 150 are performed.

  In the image forming apparatus 150, an operation manual converted into electronic data is stored in the HDD 302 as document data. There is a pdf (Portable Document Format) file format as a storage format of such an operation manual. The pdf file format is a file format related to a document converted into electronic data, and has a characteristic that a sentence, an image, and the like can be viewed in almost the same state in all environments without being influenced by a specific environment. Note that the present invention is not limited to such a file format, and is not particularly limited as long as the operation manual image printed on a paper medium can be displayed on the display panel 172.

  In the image forming apparatus 150, an association table used for reading out an operation manual corresponding to a key operated by the user from the HDD 302 is stored in the HDD 302. This association table includes fields shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4, this association table includes a field for storing the name of a key (selection button) displayed on the display panel 172 operated by the user and pressed, and an operation manual (instruction manual) related to the key. A field that stores the page related to the key of the operation manual, and a field that stores the name of the chapter to be displayed.

  The operation manual stored as document data in the HDD 302 uses the type of the operation manual (instruction manual), the page of the operation manual, and the chapter of the operation manual as search keys, and the electronic data of the operation manual is transferred from the HDD 302 to the CPU 300. Can be read.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the display panel 172 described above includes an operation area and an instruction display area for displaying an operation manual. At least the operation area is composed of a touch panel. When the operation manual is provided as a paper medium, the instruction manual display area has a width approximately equal to the width of the paper medium (for example, the width of A4 paper or the width of B5 paper). For this reason, in the manual display area, the user can visually recognize the operation manual without scrolling the operation manual in the horizontal direction.

  Further, when the operation manual is displayed on the display panel 172 using electronic data as an image of the operation manual as it is, it is displayed in a character size and a figure size that can be sufficiently recognized by the user's vision. There is a need. As long as it can be displayed in this way, the width of the instruction display area may be smaller than the width of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. If the size of the instruction display area is the size of an operation manual printed on a paper medium (for example, the size of A4 paper or B5 paper), vertical scrolling is not required.

  Further, one page (or one page spread) of the operation manual printed on the paper medium is displayed in the instruction manual display area (the size of the characters or the figure cannot be recognized by the user's vision). Assuming that, when the display is pressed or when two fingers are pressed and the fingers are spread, the character or figure at the pressed position is enlarged and displayed to the extent that the user can recognize it visually. It doesn't matter.

  In addition, one page (or one page spread) of the operation manual printed on the paper medium is displayed in the instruction display area to such an extent that characters or figures can be recognized by the user's vision, and the display is performed. If the finger is moved downward (or upward, leftward or rightward) while pressing, the operation manual may be scrolled downward (or upward, leftward or rightward). .

  In any of the cases described above, the instruction manual display area is displayed according to the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. This display mode may be left as it is, or it may be enlarged or moved (scrolled). Furthermore, enlargement or reduction and movement may be combined as appropriate.

  As described above, the image forming apparatus 150 according to the present embodiment is characterized in that an image is displayed in the instruction display area in accordance with the image of the operation manual printed on the paper medium. This feature is realized by software described below.

Software configuration
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control structure of a program executed by the image forming apparatus 150. In addition, the CPU 300 of the image forming apparatus 150 executes a program that realizes a general function as a computer or an image forming apparatus in parallel with a program that is displayed in the instruction display area in accordance with an image of an operation manual printed on a paper medium. Execute. However, since the program is not directly related to the essential part of the present invention, the details thereof will not be described here.

  Referring to FIG. 6, at step (hereinafter referred to as “S”) 100, CPU 300 (hereinafter simply referred to as “CPU 300”) of image forming apparatus 150 displays an initial screen on display panel 172. . In S110, CPU 300 determines whether a key has been selected or not. At this time, the CPU 300 determines whether or not a key (selectable button that can be pressed formed by the touch panel) is selected based on information input from the touch panel of the display panel 172 by the user. If it is determined that a key has been selected (YES in S110), the process proceeds to S120. If not (NO in S110), the process returns to S100 to display the initial screen until it is determined that a key has been selected.

  In S120, CPU 300 allows display panel 172 to be divided into an operation area and an instruction display area (an instruction manual display area). In S130, CPU 300 reads the association table from HDD 302. If the processing can be performed by reading from the HDD 302 to the RAM 308, the association table need not be read from the HDD 302.

  In S130, CPU 300 determines whether there is an instruction manual item associated with the key selected by the user. At this time, it is determined whether or not there is a key selected by the user in the field storing the key name in the association table shown in FIG. If it is determined that there is an instruction manual item associated with the key selected by the user (YES in S140), the process proceeds to S150. If not (NO in S140), the process proceeds to S170.

  In S150, CPU 300 reads document data of the instruction manual associated with the key selected by the user from HDD 302. At this time, document data of a predetermined chapter portion of a predetermined page of the instruction manual is read from the HDD 302. Note that the predetermined page and the predetermined chapter are the page and chapter defined in FIG.

  At S160, CPU 300 displays the document (document according to the image of the instruction manual printed on the paper medium) in the instruction display area. In S170, CPU 300 displays an operation screen corresponding to the selected key in the operation area.

[Operation]
An operation of the image forming apparatus 150 according to the present embodiment based on the above-described structure and flowchart will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 7A, when the initial screen is displayed in the operation display area of the display panel 172 of the image forming apparatus 150 (S100), when the “copy” key at the upper left corner is pressed (in S110). (YES), the association table shown in FIG. 4 is read (S130), and the “Copy” chapter on page 5 associated with the copy key is displayed in the instruction display area. (S160). This is the state of FIG.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the magnification key of the copy function is pressed, it is determined that the copy magnification setting is selected (YES in S110). When the association table shown in FIG. 4 is read (S130), the “Manually Select Magnification (Fixed Magnification / Zoom)” chapter on page 12 of the “Instruction Manual (Copy)” associated with the magnification key is displayed. It is displayed in the instruction manual display area (S160). This is the state of FIG.

  Furthermore, when the automatic magnification selection key of the copy function shown in FIG. 7B is pressed, the “chapter for automatically selecting magnification” of the instruction manual (copy edition) associated with the automatic magnification selection key is displayed. It is displayed in the theory display area (S160).

  In addition, the display content of the operation area is changed from FIG. 7A to FIG. 7B. In response to pressing the magnification key of the copy function, the screen is changed (switched) from the basic copy screen to the copy magnification setting screen (S170).

  As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, what is displayed in the instruction display area is information regarding the operation of the image of the operation manual itself printed on the paper medium. Since the instruction display area has a width approximately equal to the width of the paper medium when the operation manual is provided as a paper medium (for example, the width of the A4 sheet or the width of the B5 sheet), the operation manual is displayed in the instruction display area. The user can visually recognize the operation manual without scrolling in the direction. Moreover, the contents of the operation manual are displayed in the size of the figure and the size of the figure which can be sufficiently recognized by the user's vision. For this reason, the user does not have to take out the operation manual printed on the paper medium and refer to the operation manual printed on the paper medium.

  As described above, according to the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, the portion (chapter, item) of the operation manual that describes the operated key is linked to the operation of the key on the display panel. The image is maintained and displayed. That is, the information about the operation that the user wants to perform is displayed as it is in the instruction manual. The instruction manual is made visually easy to read. This is because the instruction manual has a size of at least about A4 to B5, so even a large amount of information is created so that it is easy to understand at a glance (by inserting a figure). . In the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment, a specific page or chapter of the operation manual is displayed as it is without having to scroll vertically to the instruction display area of the display panel. As described above, the image of the instruction manual that is visually easy to understand can be displayed so that the user can easily operate (simple) and the user can easily understand.

  In the above-described embodiment, the operation manual for the paper medium is converted into electronic data (for example, electronic data in the pdf file format) and stored in the HDD 302. However, the present invention is not limited to such a form. For example, the image forming apparatus 150 includes an Internet communication unit, and the image forming apparatus 150 is connected to an external device (for example, a server apparatus operated by the manufacturer of the image forming apparatus 150 or its affiliated company) via the Internet communication unit. Configure to be connected. In this external device, the operation manual of the paper medium is converted into electronic data (for example, electronic data in the pdf file format) and stored. The image forming apparatus 150 may not store such electronic data in the HDD 302 but may download the electronic data from an external device as necessary. Further, the image forming apparatus 150 may download only necessary electronic data (only a necessary manual portion) from an external device according to the operated state. That is, the electronic data (operation manual) displayed on the image forming apparatus 150 may be stored in the HDD 302 which is a storage unit of the image forming apparatus 150 or may be acquired through Internet communication. .

  The embodiment disclosed herein is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. The scope of the present invention is indicated by each claim in the claims after taking into account the description of the detailed description of the invention, and all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the wording described therein are intended. Including.

150 Image forming device 166 Operation device 170 Operation panel 172 Display panel 300 CPU
302 HDD
304 Non-volatile memory 306 ROM
308 RAM
310 bus

Claims (11)

A device capable of displaying an operation manual,
An acquisition means for acquiring electronic data of the operation manual;
Detection means for detecting an input of an operation key;
Related information storage means for storing related information for associating operation keys with items of the operation manual;
Display means for displaying information about the operation using the electronic data;
Using the related information, an operation manual item associated with the input operation key is read from the acquired electronic data, and an operation printed on a paper medium is performed using the read electronic data. An operation manual display device, comprising: control means for controlling the display means so as to display information relating to operation in a manual image. The operation manual display device further includes a storage means for storing electronic data of the operation manual,
The operation manual display device according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit includes a unit for acquiring electronic data stored in the storage unit. The operation manual display device further includes a communication means for communicating with an external device,
The operation manual display device according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit includes a unit for acquiring electronic data of an operation manual from the external device via the communication unit. The display means includes a touch panel,
The said control means includes a means for controlling the said display means to change the display mode according to the request input into the said touch panel, and to display the information regarding the said operation. 4. The operation manual display device according to any one of 3.   The operation manual display device according to claim 4, wherein the change of the display mode is that a position of an operation manual displayed on the display means is changed.   The operation manual display device according to claim 4, wherein the change of the display mode is that an operation manual displayed on the display means is enlarged or reduced.   The said control means contains the means for controlling the said display means so that the information of the displayed operation manual may be displayed in the aspect recognizable by a user's vision, The claim in any one of Claims 1-6 The operation manual display device described.   The said control means contains the means for controlling the said display means so that the character or figure of the displayed operation manual may be displayed by the magnitude | size which can be recognized visually by a user. The operation manual display device according to any one of the above.   The operation manual display device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit includes information for displaying the operation key and displaying the operation key.   The operation according to claim 9, wherein the control means includes means for controlling the display means so as to switch and display information about the operation in conjunction with input of the operation key. Manual display device. An image forming apparatus comprising the operation manual display device according to claim 1.

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