JPH06290014A - Multi-window document preparing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a multi-window document preparing device capable of allowing an operator to optionally move/erase a tool box, automatically erasing the tool box when it is unnecessary and automatically displaying the tool box when it is necessary. CONSTITUTION:This multi-window document preparing device consists of a tool box 101 or 4 to be driven on an independent window different from plural application windows displayed on a screen and constituted as a group of tools for preparing or editing characters, graphics, table graphs, etc., and a tool display control means 15 for displaying the tool box 101 or 4 by a document constituting element preparing tool display means 111 or a document constituting element editing tool display means 13 when the display of the tool box 101 or 4 is necessary or erasing the tool box 101 or 4 by a toll erasing means 14 when it is unnecessay.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document creating apparatus having a multi-window function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 shows, for example, a magazine "Macintosh Techn".
ical File vol.1 Thorough Guide to Inside Mac "19
It shows the configuration of the conventional multi-window processing described in 1987 edition BNN company. In the figure, 1 is a figure creating means for creating a figure, 2 is a character inputting means for inputting characters, and 3 is a table graph creating means for creating a table / graph. Reference numeral 4 is a document editing means for editing document constituent elements such as figures, characters (columns), tables, and graphs created by the figure creating means 1, the character inputting means 2, and the table graph creating means 3. 5 is created by the graphic creation means 1, the character input means 2, and the table graph creation means 3,
A document storage unit for storing the document constituent elements edited by the document editing unit 4 and a collection thereof (hereinafter referred to as a document). Reference numeral 6 is a document display means for displaying the document stored by the document storage means 5. Reference numeral 7 denotes a document management unit that manages document attached information such as the date and time when the document was created, the document capacity, and the hierarchical relationship between a plurality of documents. Reference numeral 8 denotes a document printing unit that prints the document stored by the document storage unit 5. Reference numeral 9 is a document storage means for holding the document stored in the document storage means 5 in an external storage means such as a floppy disk.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a conventional multi-window document creating apparatus. 1 in the figure
8 is a character input device represented by a keyboard, 19 is a pointing device for pointing a point on the screen, 21
Is an internal storage device for storing the document components and the document, 22 is a display device for displaying the document components and the document, 23 is a printing device for printing the document, and 24 is an external storage for storing the document in a device other than the internal storage device. It is a device. Reference numeral 20 denotes the character input device 18, pointing device 19, internal storage device 21, display device 22, printing device 23, and external storage device 24.
Is a control device for controlling the.

The operator uses the figure creating means 1, the character inputting means 2, and the table graph creating means 3 to create document constituent elements such as figures, characters (columns), tables, graphs, etc. Edit the document component created by using. The created document is stored in the internal storage device 21 by the document storage means 5.
Memorized in. The document constituent elements and documents stored in the internal storage device 21 are displayed on the display device 22 by the document display means 6, and the operator can see the document constituent elements and the document displayed on the display device 22 as desired. Repeat the creation and editing of document components until a result is obtained. Internal storage device 2
The document constituent elements and documents stored in 1 are not only displayed on the display device 22 but also by the document printing means 8 by the printing device 2.
It is possible to print at 3 or to save in the external storage device 24 by the document saving means 9.

[0005]

The conventional document creating apparatus is configured as described above, and means for creating document constituent elements such as characters (rows), figures, and tables (hereinafter referred to as a tool box) is shown in FIG. As shown, it is associated with the application program. Therefore, if you want to erase the toolbox when you do not need it, you must terminate the application program. That is, not using the toolbox is equivalent to terminating the application program. Therefore, there is a problem that displaying / erasing the tool box is time-consuming with starting / terminating the application program. In addition, when the application program is started, multiple tool boxes remain displayed regardless of whether the operator uses it or not. Sometimes the box gets in the way, but there was a problem that you couldn't move or erase the toolbox alone.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides an environment in which a plurality of application programs can display respective work windows on a screen having a limited size. Also, by using this multi-window environment, the toolbox that acts on the application window is provided as a single window so that the operator can freely move the display position and the document is being created. However, for example, if you do not need a table creation tool while creating a figure and it is an obstacle to display it in the document window, you can delete only the tool box that you do not need. When switching to a window etc., the toolbox necessary for creating documents is displayed. Even it had, since it is clear that there is no need at the time of the document management application operation,
In such a case, the toolbox necessary for document creation is automatically deleted, and when switching to the document creation window again, document creation can be continued without restarting the document creation application, and the toolbox is automatically created. The purpose is to provide a device that is re-displayed in.

[0007]

A multi-window document creating apparatus according to the present invention has one window for each window.
To display / control an application window display means for displaying / controlling two independent application programs and a plurality of application windows in which a plurality of application programs displayed / controlled by the application window display means individually operate on one screen. Multi-window display management means and a document constituent element creating means which is a group of tools for creating document constituent elements such as characters (strings), figures, and tables displayed in individual application windows in which the application program operates. When,
A document component creating tool displaying means for displaying the document component creating means in a window different from the application window, and a group of tools for editing the document component created by the document component creating means. A document component editing means, a document component editing tool displaying means for displaying the document component editing means in an independent window other than the application window and the window for displaying the document component creating means, and Document storage means for storing the document created and edited by the document component creating means and the document component editing means, document display means for displaying the document stored by the document storage means in the application window, and the document The component creating means and the document component editing means The tool erasing means to be deleted, the document component creating tool display means, the document component editing tool display means, and the tool erasing means are controlled to correspond to active / inactive of the application window in which the document is displayed, And a tool display control means for automatically controlling display / erasure of the document constituent element creating means and the document constituent element editing means.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a plurality of application windows in which a plurality of application programs individually operate are simultaneously displayed on one screen, and one application program can be freely moved to and from another application program without ending. In a multi-window environment that allows users to provide input means such as figure creation and character input in a window as a toolbox, allowing the operator to freely move and display the display position in the same way as the document window or document management window. -Can be erased. Therefore, the operator can freely move and delete tool boxes that are not needed.
It is also possible to switch to another application without exiting the application program you are currently working on. At this time, the toolbox attached to the window you were working on is not required Automatically clear the toolbox so it doesn't get stuck. Also, when the tool box is switched again to an application program that requires it, the tool box is automatically displayed again.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention and is the same as the hardware configuration diagram of a conventional example. Therefore, the description of each device in the figure is omitted because it has already been described in the conventional example.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the toolbox is automatically erased when the application window on the screen becomes inactive according to the present invention.
(The application mentioned here has the same meaning as the application program.) In FIG. 5a, the window of the application program "New Japanese document" for document editing is displayed on the screen, and the toolbox 101 is displayed on the right side of this window. ing. Also, the "Address Book" window is hidden behind this window. That is, the "new document" window is active and the "address book" window is inactive. FIG. 5b shows the case where the “address book” window is activated from the state of FIG. 5a. The “address book” window is displayed in the foreground, and the inactive “new document” is displayed behind this window.
Windows are hidden. Also, the toolbox displayed on the right side of the window of the "new document" is automatically deleted. Further, when the "new document" window is activated from the state of FIG. 5b, this "new document" window is displayed in the foreground, and the toolbox 101 is displayed again. At this time, the inactive "Address Book" window is hidden behind the "New Document" window. Although not shown in the figure, this tool box operates in a window independent of the above application program, so that the operator can freely move the position of the tool box window.

FIG. 2 is a software configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, 1 to 9 are the same as the numbers shown in FIG. Reference numeral 101 is a document constituent element creating means composed of the graphic creating means 1, the character inputting means 2 and the table graph creating means 3, and 10 is the graphic creating means 1
Is displayed on the screen as a window, 11 is a character input tool display means for displaying the character input means 2 on the screen as a window, and 12 is a table / graph for displaying the table / graph forming means 3 as a window on the screen. A creation tool display means, 111 is a document component creation tool display means composed of a graphic creation tool display means 10, a character input tool display means 11, and a table / graph creation tool display means 12, and 13 is a document component edit means 4. A document component editing tool display means for displaying on the screen as a window, 14 is a document component creating tool display means 111,
A tool erasing means for erasing the tool displayed by the document component editing tool display means 13 is a tool display for controlling the document component creating tool display means 111, the document component editing tool display means 13, and the tool erasing means 14. Control means, 16 is an application window display means for displaying one application program for document creation or document management in each window, and 17 is a plurality of application programs individually displayed by the application window display means 16. It is a multi-window display management means for displaying and controlling a plurality of application windows to be displayed on one screen.

In the multi-window document creation apparatus configured as described above, the operator has a document component creation tool display means 111 and a document component edit tool display means 1
3. The tool erasing means 14 can be used to display or erase the tool box on the screen as needed.
Further, the apparatus is provided with a tool display control means 15, and when the operator switches from the document creation application window to, for example, the document management application window, the tool display control means 15 activates the tool deletion means 14 to Component creating means 10
1 and the document component editing means 4 which have already been displayed are automatically deleted. On the contrary, when switching to the document creation application window again, if at least one of the document component creating unit 101 and the document component editing unit 4 is still displayed by the tool display control unit 15, it is displayed. Automatically redisplay the toolbox that was used.

3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the procedure of the above processing. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the display processing procedure of the tool box when the document creation application window is deactivated, and the document creation application window is deactivated by step S21 in FIG. If the tool box belonging to the document creation application is found in step S22, the process proceeds to step S23, a display flag is set, and the tool box is closed in step S24. If there is no toolbox being displayed in step S22, the process waits until the document creation application window is switched and activated again without doing anything.

Contrary to FIG. 3, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a toolbox display processing procedure when the document creation application window is activated. When it is detected in step S31 that the document creation application window is activated (the other application program is terminated or interrupted and the document creation application is continued), in step S32, the tool box previously belonging to the document creation application is detected. Check if the display flag that one of the was displayed was set. If there is a toolbox for which a display flag is set, that toolbox is displayed in step S33, and the document creation application is continued. If the display flag is not set in step S32, the document creation application is continued without displaying the tool box.

In the above embodiment, the display control processing of the toolbox belonging to the document creation application by switching the document creation application to which it belongs has been described. It may be present, and the same effect as that of the above embodiment is produced.

[0016]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the operator can effectively use the limited screen according to the purpose, and the tool box suitable for the purpose can be freely arranged and once necessary. In this case, even if there is a movement between applications, the toolbox according to the operator's purpose is automatically displayed, and the unnecessary toolbox is automatically deleted, so the operator's extra load can be reduced. The effect is that you can do it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a multi-window document creation apparatus showing a conventional example and an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a software configuration diagram showing a document creating means by the multi-window document creating apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method of automatically deleting a tool box according to the present invention.
It is a flow chart which shows the procedure of automatic display.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a method of automatically deleting a tool box according to the present invention.
It is a flow chart which shows the procedure of automatic display.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the toolbox is automatically erased when the application window on the screen becomes inactive according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display state of a conventional tool box on a screen.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a document creating unit of a conventional document creating apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 graphic creation means 2 character input means 3 table / graph creation means 4 document component editing means 5 document storage means 6 document display means 7 document management means 8 document printing means 9 document storage means 10 graphic creation tool display means 11 character input tool Display means 12 Table graph creation tool display means 13 Document editing tool display means 14 Tool erasing means 15 Tool display control means 16 Application window display means 17 Multi-window display management means 18 Character input means 19 Pointing device 20 Control device 21 Internal storage device 22 display device 23 printing device 24 external storage device 101 document component creating means 111 document component creating tool display means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An application window display means for displaying and controlling one independent application program in each window, and a plurality of applications in which a plurality of application programs displayed and controlled by the application window display means operate individually. To create multi-window display management means for displaying / controlling windows on one screen and document constituent elements such as characters (rows), figures, and tables displayed in each application window in which the application program operates. A document constituent element creating means which is a group of tools, a document constituent element creating tool displaying means for displaying the document constituent element creating means in a window different from the application window, and the document constituent element creating means Edited document components Document component editing means, which is a group of tools for gathering, and a document component for displaying this document component editing means in a window independent of the application window and the window for displaying the document component creating means. Editing tool display means, document storage means for storing the document component creating means and the document created and edited by the document component editing means, and the document stored by the document storage means are displayed in the application window. Controls the document display means, the tool erasing means for erasing the document component creating means and the document component editing means, the document component creating tool display means, the document component editing tool display means, and the tool erasing means. , The activity of the above application window where the document is displayed Bed / inactive to correspond, multi-window document creating apparatus characterized by comprising and a tool display control means for automatically controlling the display / erasure of the document component creating means and the document component editing means. 2. The document component creating tool display means,
2. The multi-window document creating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the document constituent element creating means, the document constituent element editing tool display means, and the document constituent element editing means exist for each document constituent element.