JP2723012B2 - Help information search method and information processing apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for retrieving help information and an information processing apparatus using the same, and more particularly, to an information processing apparatus such as a computer and a workstation and a method for retrieving help information used for the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, information processing apparatuses have been used by using software according to the needs of users. The user of the information processing apparatus had to learn how to use the software using printed materials such as manuals. However, learning using printed materials such as manuals is effective for early learning, but is complicated after understanding a certain software system.

[0003] Therefore, as a help information search method, when the operation method or data to be input is not known during execution of the software, the help key is depressed.
A method and an apparatus for displaying a necessary operation method or data to be input at the time of executing the software on a screen have been proposed. (For example, JP-A-2-17521,
In this method and the like, help information is displayed in accordance with the use condition of software, so that it is easier than searching for information from printed materials such as manuals, and the necessary information is quickly found. I was able to.

[0004]

However, with the recent increase in the number of functions and the functions of software, the amount of help information has become enormous. In the conventional help information search method, the target help information cannot be obtained. The inconvenience of not being able to search and not displaying, or having to take a number of steps before displaying the desired help information, which is more complicated than using printed materials such as manuals Had occurred.

A conventional help function, which displays an operation method corresponding to a software execution situation or data to be input by pressing a help key, displays an operation method required at that time. The problem is that the required information may not be displayed on the screen, and if the user is not operating and wants to know the operation method before starting the operation, the conventional example cannot cope properly. was there.

Further, in the conventional example, the method of searching for help information is not uniform, and the method of displaying help information itself must be checked for each software. There was a disadvantage that it was necessary to individually develop a means for searching and displaying help information as well as creating it.

[0007]

An object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the prior art. In particular, it is possible to quickly and properly retrieve only necessary help information from a large amount of help information, and to provide help information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a help information search method capable of reducing the burden of creating a help information and an information processing apparatus using the help information search method.

[0008]

According to the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first step of receiving an input of a keyword whose relation is defined in a logical search expression and a specification of a help information file to be searched. A second step of generating a search step from the logical relationship of keywords received in the first step, and a second step of generating a help information file based on the specification received in the first step in the second step. And a third step of searching for help information based on the steps. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software for controlling an operation of an information processing apparatus, a help information storage unit storing a help information file containing information for explaining the operation of the software, An information processing apparatus comprising: a help information search unit for extracting the help information from a storage unit; and an input unit having a help key for transmitting a help information search command to the help information search unit. In this information processing device, the help information search unit receives a keyword defined in relation to the logical search expression and specifies a help information file to be searched, and the search keyword analysis unit receives the search keyword input unit. Search keyword analysis means for generating a search step from a logical relationship between keywords, and help information is searched based on the step generated by the search keyword analysis means for a help information file based on the specification received by the search keyword input means. A help information searching means and a help information displaying means for externally displaying the help information searched by the help information searching means are provided. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0009]

When a user who does not know how to operate the software while using software for controlling the drive of a personal computer depresses a help key provided in an information processing apparatus, first, a search keyword input means is operated by a logical search formula. The input of the keyword including is accepted. For example,
A keyboard or the like included in an information processing apparatus for displaying an input screen including an OR input field for defining a logical sum relationship between a plurality of keywords and an AND input field for providing a logical product relationship between the plurality of OR fields; From the input unit of the keyword. Alternatively, a one-line input of a keyword including various operators defined for describing a logical search expression is accepted. The operator, for example, replaces “(A + B) * C” with “A or B”.
In the logical search expression of “including both or one of the above and including C”, “+” is an operator indicating OR and expressing a relation of a logical sum.

When the search keyword input means receives all the input of the keyword for which the logical relationship is defined, the search keyword analyzing means analyzes the logical relationship of the keyword and generates a search job step. The search keyword analysis means changes the logical relationship of the keywords to a search step (process). For example, if “(A + B) * C”, the first search step for holding the search result of A, the second search step for holding the search result of B, and the search for A held in the first search step A third search step of searching C for the result, a fourth search step of searching C for the search result of B held in the second search step, a search result of the third search step, and a fourth search step. To the fifth search step for synthesizing the search result of the search step.

[0011] Based on the search step generated by the search keyword analysis means, the help information search means executes a search on the specified file. Help information search means,
A buffer memory for holding a search result required in the search process is secured and released before and after the search is executed.

The result of the search by the help information search means is output to the help information display means, and the help information display means displays the search result together with the display means such as a CRT or a liquid crystal screen of the information processing apparatus or the information processing apparatus. Output to a printing device.

According to the search result, the search for the help information is repeated by the user of the software.

[0014]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the processing steps of the help information search method of the present invention. For help information search method,
First, an input of a keyword whose relationship is defined in a logical search expression (step S2) and a specification of a help information file to be searched are received (step S3). Next, a search step is generated from the logical relationship of the keywords received in step S2 (step S4). Further, the help information is searched for the help information file based on the specification received in step S3 based on the search process generated in step S4 (step S5). Next, the help information searched by the help information search means is externally displayed (step S6).

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the relevance of the functions of the information processing apparatus using the help information processing method, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus.

Here, an information processing apparatus using the help information search method will be described using a stand-alone personal computer as an example.

As shown in FIG. 3, a personal computer 10 as an information processing apparatus includes a CPU 11 and a CP.
A memory 12 such as a RAM used directly by the U11, an input unit 13 for inputting data such as a keyboard and a pointing device, a display unit 14 for displaying data such as a CRT and a liquid crystal display, A display memory 15 provided to speed up the display on the unit 14, a disk unit 6 composed of various disks for storing data as files, and a disk drive 7 for driving a floppy disk or a hard disk of the disk unit 6 And an interface such as a printer interface 18 including a connector and the like used for connection with peripheral devices, and are connected by a bus. Input unit 1
The keyboard No. 3 has a help key 13A.

Further, a printer 19 is provided in the personal computer 10.

The disk unit 16 stores operating system files. The operating system file is read into the memory 12 by the CPU 11 when the personal computer 10 is powered on, and controls the operation of the personal computer thereafter.
The operating system is basic software for efficiently using the personal computer 10, and implements task (process) management, job management, input / output management, and the like. The task management controls the allocation of the memory used directly by the CPU 2, the execution processing of the CPU 2, the task switching, and the like, and the job management monitors the job in which the function required by the user is the minimum unit so as to be normally executed. The input / output management controls transmission and reception of data with peripheral devices such as the input unit 3.

Depending on the type of operating system, the personal computer 10 has a task switching function, can transfer processing to another program without terminating one program, and can perform multi-process processing. Can be virtually simultaneously executed, and programs resident in the memory 12 are classified into those having a task switching function.

Various software program files 2
6A is stored in the disk unit 16, and the operating system that has received the signal from the input unit 13 starts the software 26. The software 26 is, for example, word processing software, spreadsheet software, database software, graphic software, or the like, and is selected and used according to the purpose of use of the computer.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of this embodiment from the viewpoint of functions. The help information search unit 20 starts the process when the user who has lost the information on the operation method of the software used or the data to be input presses the help key.
When the help information search unit 20 receives the signal of pressing the help key via the operating system, first,
The operation status of the software is grasped, and simple help information associated with the operation status is displayed as in the related art. When there is no description desired by the user in the displayed description, a specific key operation is performed to shift to a search for detailed help information according to the present invention. In this case, the help information search unit 20 first activates the search keyword input unit 22.

The search keyword input unit 22 outputs a keyword input screen as shown in FIG. 4 to the display unit 14 to prompt the user to input a keyword. The keyword input screen is
An OR input field 27A for defining a logical OR relationship between a plurality of keywords, a first OR input section 27 including a plurality of OR fields 27A, and a second OR input section including a plurality of OR fields 28A 28,
Similarly, a third OR in which a plurality of OR fields 29A are gathered
An input unit 29 is provided. Further, each OR input unit 27,
A logical AND relationship is given between 28 and 29.

Further, the search keyword input means 22 may receive a keyword including various operators defined for describing a logical search expression in one line. The operator, for example, replaces “(A + B) * C” with “A or B”.
In the logical search expression of “including C and including C”, “*” is an operator indicating AND and expressing a relation of a logical product.

When the example shown in FIG. 4 is expressed by this operator, the following equation 1 is obtained.

(Printer + Print + Print) * (Headline + Headline + Header) 1

Formula 1 is an example of a search formula for obtaining help information for printing a heading from a target help information file. Since it is not known what kind of expression the help information uses, a synonym of "heading" is input as a keyword together with a logical OR relationship. This is because, in the help information 21, "printer" or "print" or "print"
Use at least one of the keywords,
The intent is to search for items using at least one of the keywords “heading”, “headline”, or “header”. For example, an item of help information including a sentence “Print Header” is searched, but not an item of “Select Printer” alone. Such a logical search eliminates the need for the user to search for the part related to the heading from all the help information 21 relating to the printer while visually observing the help information. Therefore, the time and work required to obtain the desired help information are greatly reduced. It is reduced.

The search keyword input means 22 further includes:
When there are a plurality of help information files 21A, the designation 16b of the help information file 21A is received.

The help information search means 24 searches the help information file 21A based on the specification 16b received by the search keyword input means for help information based on the steps generated by the search keyword analysis means. Although there are various search methods, here, the following method is adopted in consideration of the specialty of the help information.

In a search for help information, it is desirable that the target to be expressed by a keyword is wider than an exact match with the keyword. For example, in the case of an English sentence, if the search for Print, Printing, Printer, and the like is performed simultaneously by absorbing the change in the ending and performing a search using "Print" as a keyword, the intention of the help information searcher is often met. . Also, in Japanese, it is better to ignore the distinction between full-width characters and half-width characters, which are two-byte codes, and to ignore the distinction between hiragana and katakana. Meets the intention of the information searcher. for that reason,
In the search for each keyword, a search module that allows ambiguity rather than exact match is initially set. A search method that allows such ambiguity is obvious, and is realized by a method of using a combination of codes to be identified and a method of using a buffer during the search, as in the related art.

The search keyword analysis means 23 generates a search step from the logical relationship of the keywords received by the search keyword input means. There are various full-text search methods based on this logical search expression, but here, the following method is adopted in view of the specialty of the help information as described below.

The software acts as a set of various functions for realizing the purpose of the user. For example, word processing software has a function of arranging a heading or the like in the center of one line, and this function is given a name such as "centering" or "center alignment" by the respective software. Also in the spreadsheet software, the names of functions for making predetermined changes to text are individually named by software such as "character data function" or "character string function". Therefore, for the help information 21 using the name given to each function of this software in the text, the search keyword analysis means 2
3 is registered in advance.

In the search keyword analysis means 23, since a set of items of help information including the names of the respective functions of the software is registered by, for example, file names and addresses, for example, "character data function" When the name of each function is input as a keyword, the help information 21
A set of registered items of help information specified by a file name and an address is output to the help information search means 24 together with other steps without generating a step of actually searching for. For this reason, the search for the help information 21 by the function name used for the seed can be performed at high speed.

The help information display means 25 externally displays the searched help information 21 in accordance with the search result of the help information search means 24. The external display is, for example, a print output using the printer device 19 and an output to the display unit 14 such as a CRT. When no help information 21 is searched, the fact is displayed. Help information 21
FIG. 5A shows an example of the display.

The specific execution procedure of the help information search unit 20 for searching the help information 21 by the logical search formula is actually an application software different from the software whose usage is unknown. It is provided as wear. Therefore, as described above, the task is switched according to the type of operating system to execute the logical search, and the search is executed in the background, and the software used is driven as usual even while the search is being executed A logical search can be executed in a multi-process environment, and a program related to the logical search is stored in the memory 1 in advance.
2, depending on the operating system, such as executing the software related to the logical search after terminating the software currently being used.

Next, a method of searching for help information in a personal computer used stand-alone will be described again with reference to the flowchart of FIG. here,
A description will be given of how a user uses the help information search method according to the present embodiment. Also, a personal computer of a type that uses software that executes the help information search method after ending the software currently being used will be described as an example.

When the software is being executed on a personal computer or the like (step S1), when an unclear point appears in the operation method, input data, etc. (step S2), when the help key 13A is depressed (step S3). Then, the help information search unit 20 displays simple help information as before (step S4). If the operation description, the input data, and the like are found in the displayed explanation (step S5), the operation is continued as it is (step S6). If there is no desired description in the displayed description, a specific key operation is performed (step S8), thereby terminating the software used (step S9). The search software for searching for is activated (step S10).

At this time, a keyword input screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. Here, the keywords on the same line are ORed, and the keywords input to the fields sandwiched by AND are ANDed. After inputting a keyword on this screen (step S11), a search is executed (step S12), and a help description including a keyword matching AND and OR of these keywords is displayed (step S13). Fig. 5 shows an example of this help description.
It is shown in (A). If there is a desired one in the displayed help description, the operation method is understood thereby (step S).
14). Thereafter, the software that has started the help information search unit 20 is terminated (step S15), the software that has been used again is started (step S15), and the operation is continued (step S16). If there is no desired explanation, the keyword is further changed and a search is executed (step S11).

If the desired help description is not found, the help information search software that drives the help information search unit 20 is terminated (step S19), and the use of the software used is terminated.

When the user wants to understand the operation method before operating the software to be used, the user presses the help key after starting the software to be used as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 (step S7), and then performs a specific key operation. As a result (step S8), the used software is terminated (step S9), and the help information search software is activated. The subsequent operation is as described above.

Next, a method of creating the help information 21 suitable for using the above-described help information search method will be described.

As a method for creating a help explanation database, a large number of explanation sentences of about 4 to 5 lines are created for each item, and keywords corresponding to these are mechanically extracted using a computer. This mechanical extraction, especially in Japanese,
With the current technology, it is difficult to automatically extract keywords composed of, for example, katakana and kanji, unless a special database is used. For example, if the automatic extraction is automatically performed on a sentence "Please note the following when using the color print function", "color" and "print function" are extracted as keywords. This is because the automatic extraction attempts to classify the words as words according to the range of the character code, and has a special feature that no space is inserted between words as in English. For this reason, the name representing each function of the software described above is explicitly specified as a keyword in advance, and the keyword is mechanically extracted to realize accurate keyword extraction.

FIG. 5B shows an example in which the keyword is extracted.
Shown in The help information search unit 20 may search the entire text of the help information file 21A. However, here, the help information search unit 20 performs a mechanical extraction in advance and searches for a keyword associated with an item and an address of the help information. , Help information retrieval speedup. Further, by using the above-described method, “color printing”, “printer output”, and the like are automatically extracted as keywords.

The index search function of the help information search unit 20 is a method of accessing the help information using the extracted keywords as an index, and as shown in FIG. 5B, for picking up the help information items. In the search, the search is performed not on the help information text but on the extracted keywords. By searching the index, the address where the item of the help information 21 is stored is obtained, and the item is called by this address. With this index search function, the actual search can be made very fast. Further, by performing a keyword search mechanically, it is possible to easily create help information while maintaining a high-speed search. Therefore, a large amount of practical help information can be easily created.

Further, since a search using a logical expression is made possible, even if the entire text of a manual used for printing is converted into the help information 21 as text data, for example, the keyword information is automatically extracted and the target information can be quickly searched by the logical search. And can be displayed. In this case, the operator and the search keyword analyzing means are strengthened, for example, by including NOT (search for a file not including a keyword) in the operator indicating the logical relationship.

[0046]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, in the second step, a help information search step is generated from the logical relationship defined in the keyword, so that the help information is logically converted. It is possible to search using an expression, and it is possible to quickly search and display appropriate help information. In addition, in order to provide this search method to the information processing apparatus, the help information and the help search unit are separated. It is only necessary to create help information for each software, and it is possible to greatly simplify creation of a large amount of help information. An information processing apparatus using the same can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram exemplifying a keyword input screen;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating help information;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing steps in the information processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 information processing device (personal computer) 11 CPU 12 memory 13 input unit 13A help key 14 display unit 15 display memory 16 disk unit 16A help information storage unit 17 disk drive 18 printer interface 19 printer device 20 help information search unit 21 help information 21A Help information file 22 Search keyword input means 23 Search keyword analysis means 24 Help information search means 24A Search step 25 Help information display means 26 Software

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A help information search method in an information processing apparatus, comprising: a first step of receiving an input of a keyword defined in a logical search expression and a specification of a help information file to be searched; A second step of generating a search step from the logical relationship of the keywords received in step 2, and help information based on the step generated in the second step for the help information file based on the specification received in the first step And a third step of searching for a help information. 2. The help information search method according to claim 1, wherein said third step searches for a keyword previously extracted from a help information file. 3. Software for controlling a predetermined operation,
A help information storage unit that stores a plurality of help information files containing help information (instruction information) of the software, a help information search unit that extracts the help information from the help information storage unit, and a help information search command. An information processing apparatus comprising: an input unit having a help key transmitted to the help information search unit; wherein the help information search unit inputs a keyword having a relation defined by a logical search expression and searches for a help information file to be searched. Search keyword input means for receiving a specification, search keyword analysis means for generating a search step from the logical relationship of keywords received by the search keyword input means, and a help information file based on the specification received by the search keyword input means In the step generated by the search keyword analysis means, And help information retrieval means for retrieving help information Zui, the information processing apparatus characterized by comprising a help information display means for externally displaying the help information the help information retrieval means searches. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the help information search unit has an index search function for searching for a keyword previously extracted from the help information file.