JPH03129466A - Guide information presenting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display a guide item starting from the one with high necessity corresponding to operating status when a guide request is inputted, etc., by deciding display order in item unit of a prepared guide text, and displaying the guide text according to decided display order. CONSTITUTION:The guide data storage part 210 of a controller, a control part 202, and a temporary storage part 208 comprise a guide text preparing means, and the status information analysis part 204 of the controller, an inference part 206, a rule storage part 207, the temporary storage part 208, and a knowledge storage part 209 comprise a guide display order decision means. When the guide text preparing means prepares the guide text in item unit of (summary), (method), and (caution), etc., based on the guide request inputted with an input means, the guide display order decision means decides the display order of the guide text prepared with the guide preparing means in item unit. In such a way, it is possible to display the guide item starting from the one with high necessity corresponding to the operating status at the point of time when the guide request is inputted to the guide text prepared in item unit.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a guide information providing method for providing appropriate guide information to a user operating a document creation device or the like.

(Conventional technology) Conventionally, in guide information provision methods such as online manuals, the guide information provided to users is the same as that written on a piece of paper, in which the necessary information is simply written side by side. For this reason, the same information is given in the same order for the same questions regardless of whether the user is a beginner or an expert, or even if the operating situation changes. Even when it is obvious that you want to know how to operate, such as when a request is made, the guide information provided will have a summary of the operation at the beginning, so you will not be able to skip the operation summary and perform the operation. I had to find a way to write it down.

In contrast, the guide information provides an overview of how to do this.

A method has also been considered in which the information is divided into items such as "Caution" and the user directly requests which item information is needed. However, this method has the problem that detailed instructions must be given at the time of requesting guide information even when it can be determined that the user clearly requests an operating method as described above. In addition, when requesting for each item,
There were a number of problems in usage, such as how to convey a request when you wanted to see other items as well, and when there was no guide text for the requested item.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, the method of providing guide information such as an online manual has the disadvantage that the necessary guide information cannot be obtained immediately. There is an inconvenience in that detailed instructions must be given to the device when requesting guide information.

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and when the guide information to be displayed in response to a user's request consists of multiple items, the degree of necessity is determined according to the operating status at the time the guide request is input. The purpose of this invention is to provide a guide information providing method that can display guide items starting from the highest guide items.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) The guide information providing method of the present invention includes an input means for inputting a guide request, and based on the guide request inputted by the input means, "outline", "method", " A guide sentence creation means for creating a guide sentence for each item such as Caution j, a guide display order determining means for determining the display order for each item of the guide sentence created by this guide sentence creation means, and a guide display order determination means for determining the display order for each item of the guide sentence created by this guide sentence creation means. The present invention includes a display means for displaying the guide sentences created by the guide sentence creation means in accordance with the display order determined by the guide sentence creation means.

(Operation) In the guide information providing method of the present invention, the guide sentence creation means creates guide sentences for each item such as "Summary", "Method", "Caution", etc. based on the guide request inputted by the input means. The guide display order determining means determines the display order of each item of the guide sentences created by the guide sentence creating means.

The display means displays the guide sentences created by the guide sentence creation means in accordance with the display order determined by the guide display order determining means. Therefore, guide sentences created for each item are displayed in order of necessity depending on the operating status at the time the guide request is input.

(Example) An example in which the present invention is applied to a Japanese word processor will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a device that implements the guide information providing system of the present invention. 1 is an input device for inputting characters, control codes, guide requests, etc., specifically a keyboard,
Microphones, tablets, mice, etc. Reference numeral 2 denotes a control device for controlling provision of guide information, and reference numeral 3 denotes an external storage device for storing knowledge, various rules, guide data, etc., specifically, a magnetic disk, a memory card, a ROM, etc. 4
is a display device that displays a question list, guide text, etc. as shown in Figure 3. Specifically, it is a display device such as a CRT, liquid crystal display,
Such as plasma display.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed example of the control device 2 shown in FIG. 1. The input unit 201 reads data input by the input device 1 shown in FIG. 1, and stores it in the temporary storage unit 208 as necessary. The display section 205 reads necessary data from the -time storage section 208 and the external storage device 3 and displays it on the display device 4 shown in FIG. The applied processing function unit 203 performs applied processing functions of the device in which this guide function is incorporated, such as document creation/editing functions in a word processor. The inference unit 206 reads the rules stored in the rule storage unit 207 according to each process of the guide function, and the read rules are used in the knowledge stored in the knowledge storage unit 209 and the situation information analysis unit 204 in the applied processing function. 203 and further evaluates using information stored in the situation information buffer 2081, and stores the results in the temporary storage unit 208. In addition, the guide data storage unit 210 has a text pointer corresponding to the guide data stored in the external storage device 3.
Overview'° Stored in relatively short items such as "Method" and "Notes". Rule storage unit 207, knowledge storage unit 2
09. Each data stored in the guide data storage section 210 is initially in the external storage section '13, and when the guide is activated, these data are read into the predetermined storage section.

Here, the input device 1 and the input section 201 and the control section 202 of the control device 2 function as input means, and the guide data storage section 210, control section 202 and -time storage section 208 of the control device 2 function as the guide sentence creation means. Situation information analysis section 204, inference section 206, rule storage section 207, and temporary storage section 208 of device 2
The knowledge storage section 209 serves as guide display order determining means, and the display section 205 and control section 202 of control device 2 and display device 4 serve as display means.

The details of FIG. 2 will be explained below with reference to the process flowchart shown in FIG. 4. Keys, commands, various data, etc. that are normally input to the input section 201 are passed to the applied processing function section 203 via the control section 202 and used for various processing (steps 401 to 403 in FIG. 4). The applied processing function unit 203 has a structure as shown in FIG. 5, and each time each process is performed, the applied processing function control unit 2031 writes the movement status to the applied processing function status information buffer 2032.

When a guide request is input from the user here, the control unit 2
02 first starts the status information analysis unit 204 and analyzes the operating status of the applied processing function unit 203 using the contents of the applied processing function status information buffer 2032. Situation information analysis section 2
The configuration of 04 is shown in FIG. When the situation information analysis unit 204 is activated, the situation information analysis control unit 2041 first reads the contents of the applied processing function situation information buffer 2032 and stores it in the situation information analysis buffer 2042. Next, the contents stored in the situation information analysis buffer 2042 are compared with a situation information analysis section 2043 as shown in FIG. 7, and the situation is analyzed. Assuming that the status information of the applied processing function unit is now given as a sequence of input keys, the status information analysis unit 2
043 is also shaped so that it can be drawn by key arrangement. Further, the situation information analysis result obtained from the situation information analysis unit 2043 is given in a form required by the guide system, and is obtained separately, for example, as the (editing) object of document editing and the (lIJ collection) operation. The obtained results are stored in the status information buffer 2081 (step 404 in FIG. 4).

The situation information buffer 2081 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 8, and the (edited) objects obtained by the situation information analysis unit 204 are stored in the situation information object buffer 20811, and the (m collections) of operations are stored in the situation information action buffer 20812. Each is stored. For the purposes of the following explanation, it is assumed that when a guide request is input, the Japanese word processor, which is an applied processing function, is in the process of setting an area, that is, the area key is pressed. Information target buffer 2081
1 stores "area", and the status information operation buffer 20812 stores "settings".

When the application processing function unit 203 finishes analyzing the situation information, the control unit 202 activates the item setting unit 2061 in the inference unit 206.

The item setting section 2061 has an item setting rule storage section 2071.
The item setting rules stored in the form shown in FIG. 9 are evaluated, and the items to be displayed in the question item table as shown in FIG. 3 are determined and stored in the display item buffer 2082 (
Step 405 in FIG. 4). When evaluating a rule, the knowledge stored in the knowledge storage unit 209 and the contents of the situation information buffer 2081 are referred to as necessary. In the following evaluation of each rule, the knowledge stored in the knowledge storage unit 209 and the contents of the situation information buffer 2081 are similarly referred to.

For example, when evaluating item setting rules m1 and m1+1, the contents of the situation information buffer 2081 are referred to, and when executing item setting rules m 1 + n 1, the 16th
Refer to the knowledge shown in Figure (a). When the evaluation of the item setting rules is completed and the question items as shown in FIG. 10(a) are set in the display item buffer 2082, the display section 2
05 reads this and displays it on the display device 4 (step 406 in FIG. 4). Display item buffer 20 in question item table
An example of displaying the contents of 82 is shown in FIG. 10(b).

Here, the user selects one of the items (step 407 in FIG. 4). The item selected by the user is stored in the selection item buffer 2083 by the input unit 201 (step 408 in FIG. 4), and then the auxiliary item setting unit 2062 is activated.

The auxiliary item setting section 2062 has a selection item buffer 2083.
Based on the contents of the auxiliary item setting rule storage unit 2072
As shown in FIG. 11, the stored auxiliary item setting rules are evaluated, and auxiliary items to be displayed on the question item table are determined and stored in the display auxiliary item buffer 2084 (step 409 in FIG. 4).

When the auxiliary item is set in the display auxiliary item buffer 2084, the display unit 205 is activated again, and its contents are read out and displayed on the display device 4 (step 410 in FIG. 4).For example, as shown in FIG. The user answered “1” in the question list.
．． When "area" is selected, the attribute of the selected "area" is found to be [object] from the knowledge shown in FIG. 16(b), and the auxiliary item setting rule m2 shown in FIG. 11 is applicable. , the display auxiliary item buffer 2084 contains the information shown in FIG. 12(a).
The auxiliary items are set as shown in FIG. 12, and the display unit 205 displays a question item table as shown in FIG. 12(b) on the display device 4.

Figure 16(b) shows the settings for ``ruled line'', ``underline'' and ``underline''.
``What kind of attributes does the deletion parameter... have, and what is the relationship between these [targets] and [actions]? (○ indicates that it is possible, × indicates that it is not possible. This diagram illustrates the knowledge that "5 is possible" in the question item table shown in Figure 10 (a). Examples of knowledge are easier to understand when presented in a table format like this. ．． If "move" is selected, the auxiliary item setting rule m2+1 is applied through the same reasoning process, and the auxiliary item is set in the display auxiliary item buffer 2084 as shown in FIG. 12 (
A question list as shown in d) is displayed.

Here again, the user is asked to select one of the auxiliary items (step 411 in FIG. 4). The auxiliary item selected by the user is stored in the selected auxiliary item buffer 2085 by the input unit 201 (step 412 in FIG. 4), and then the question text creation unit 2063 is activated.

The question text creation unit 2063 creates the question text creation rules stored in the question text creation rule storage unit 2073 as shown in FIG. Evaluate,
A question text is created from the user-selected item and auxiliary items and stored in the question text buffer 2086 (Step 4 in Figure 4).
13).

For example, in the state shown in Figure 12(b), the user selects the auxiliary item “
2. Consider the case where you select Delete ゛°. At this time, the attribute of the "area" stored in the selected selection item buffer 2083 is found to be "target" based on the knowledge shown in FIG. Since the attribute of "'delete゛°" stored in 2085 is known to be [action] from the same knowledge, the question text creation rule m3 shown in Fig. 13 corresponds to the question text creation rule, and the question text creation rule m3 shown in Fig. 14 corresponds to the question text creation rule. As shown in (a), the question text "I want to delete an area" is stored in the question text buffer 2086. Furthermore, if the auxiliary item "1. Ruled line" is selected in the state shown in Fig. 12(d), the question sentence creation rule m3 +1 applies based on the same inference assumption, and as shown in Fig. 14(b). A question text “I want to move the ruled line” is stored in the question text buffer 2086.

Next, the answer planning section 2064 is activated and evaluates the answer planning rules stored in the answer planning rule storage section 2074 based on the contents of the question text buffer 2086. For example, if the question text "I want to delete an area" is stored in the question text buffer 2086 as shown in FIG. 14 (a), the answer planning rule shown in FIG. 15 is changed to the answer planning rule shown in FIG. Answer planning rule m4 is evaluated by referring to the knowledge shown in
The answer planning rule nn4 + 1 and the answer planning rule m4 + 2 are successful, and the text pointer buffer 2087 contains ``Area deletion summary ``Pa area deletion method''
The text pointers for the three "Region deletion cautions" are stored as shown in Figure 17 (Step 41 in Figure 4).
4). The knowledge shown in FIG. 16(c) is knowledge representing what kind of guide data is stored in the guide data storage section 210.

When the text pointer is stored in the text pointer buffer 2087, the guide display order determination unit 2065 evaluates the guide display order determination rule stored in the guide display order determination rule storage unit 2075 and determines the order of items to be displayed as guide sentences. (Step 415 in FIG. 4). The guide display order determination rule is as shown in FIG. 18, and the result of evaluating this rule is stored in the guide display order buffer 2088.
is stored in

For example, if a guide request is currently being input in a mode other than "input mode;" and the contents of the question text buffer 2086 are
) as shown in FIG. 17, the text pointer buffer 2087 stores a text pointer as shown in FIG. Here, when the guide display order determination rule shown in FIG. 18 is evaluated, the guide display order determination rule m5+1 is applied, and as a result, a text pointer is stored in the guide display order buffer 2088 as shown in FIG. .

Finally, the text pointers stored in the guide display order buffer 2088 are sequentially transferred to the guide data storage unit 2088.
0 is converted into a guide sentence (step 416 in FIG. 14), and displayed on the display device 4 by the display unit 205 (step 417 in FIG. 14).
).

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, the items that make up the guide text are ``Summary°''.

In addition to "methods", there may also be prerequisites, appendixes, etc. Furthermore, in determining the guide display order, the error information of the application processing function section may be used to display the warning section first. In short, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

According to this embodiment, the guide sentence created for each item is
Since the most necessary items are displayed according to the operating status at the time the guide request is input, the user can immediately obtain the necessary guide request without having to perform detailed specifying operations, which improves the operability of the device. can be significantly increased.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the guide information providing method of the present invention, guide text created for each item in response to a simple guide request from a user is provided according to the operating status etc. at the time the guide request is input. can be displayed in order of necessity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a device that implements the guide information providing system of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed example of the control device shown in Fig. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the process flow of the control device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the application processing function section shown in FIG.
Figure 7 shows an example of the situation information analysis section, Figure 8 shows an example of the configuration of the situation information buffer, Figure 9 shows the opening of item setting rules, Figure 5, and Figure 10 shows the display. A diagram showing an example of an item buffer and a display example of a question item table corresponding to this display item buffer, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of an auxiliary item setting rule, FIG. 12 is an example of a display auxiliary item buffer,
Figure 13 shows an example of a question auxiliary item table corresponding to this display auxiliary item buffer, an example of a display auxiliary item buffer, and an example of a question auxiliary item table corresponding to this question auxiliary item table. Figure 14 shows an example of a question buffer, Figure 15 shows an example of answer planning rules, Figure 16 shows an example of knowledge, and Figure 17 shows an example of a question buffer. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a guide display order determination rule, and FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a guide display order buffer. 1... Input device 2... Control device 3... External storage device 4... Display device 201... Input section 202... Control section 203... Applied processing function section 204... Situation Information analysis section 205...display section 206...reasoning section 207...rule storage section 208...-time storage section 209...knowledge storage section 210...guide data storage section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An input means for entering a guide request, and based on the guide request entered by this input means "Summary", "
a guide sentence creation means for creating a guide sentence for each item such as "Method", "Caution", etc.; a guide display order determining means for determining the display order of the guide sentences created by this guide sentence creation means for each item; 1. A guide information providing method, comprising display means for displaying guide sentences created by the guide sentence creation means in accordance with the display order determined by the guide display order determining means.