JPH07271545A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To deal with such data that has the sequence relation among their internal data by means of a graphical user interface. CONSTITUTION:An information processor gives the instructions to the icons shown on a display by means of a mouse, etc., and carries out a prescribed processing. Then the information processor is provided with an internal data management means 6 which manages the unit data based on a prescribed relation and with mutual relations secured among these data, an icon display means 1 which shows the unit data on the display in icons, an icon selection means 2 which selects a desired icon by a first instruction given via the mouse, etc., and a data relation changing means 5 which gives the second instruction to the selected icon via the mouse, etc., and changes the prescribed relation that is managed by the means 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing device,
In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus provided with a graphical user interface (hereinafter referred to as “GUI”) using icons.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An information processing apparatus having a conventional GUI will be described by taking a file manager as an example. In the file manager, directories and files are displayed as icons. As shown in FIG. 22, on the display screen,
A portion 221 that displays the entire directory structure in a tree structure using icons (hereinafter referred to as "tree frame"), and a portion 222 that displays a list of directories and files in the directory selected in the tree frame.
(Hereinafter referred to as "list frame") exists. The user executes functions such as selection, opening, and moving of directories and files by operating the icons displayed on the screen with a mouse. Specifically, it is often as follows.

(1) A mouse is used to move the cursor over a file icon or a directory icon and press the mouse button once (hereinafter referred to as "single click") to select the corresponding file or directory.

(2) Using the mouse, move the cursor over the directory icon and press the mouse button twice (hereinafter referred to as "double click") to open the directory.

(3) As shown in FIG. 23, a cursor is moved to a file icon or a directory icon using a mouse, and this icon is moved to another directory icon together with the cursor while the mouse button is held down. Then (hereinafter, referred to as “drag”) and then the mouse button is released (hereinafter, referred to as “drop”), the corresponding file or directory is moved to the corresponding directory.

[0006] Since the operation itself can be visually expressed by operating the icon using the mouse as described above, the user can compare the operation with the so-called command line input in which a command composed of a character string is input from the keyboard. The advantage of conventional file managers is that they can provide a friendly interface.

By the way, an image filing system for reading each page and storing it electronically, magnetically and optically as image information is becoming widespread. Like many file managers, many image filing systems use a concept of "document (consisting of a set of meaningful images)" in a hierarchical directory structure to manage them in a organized manner.

Since the concept of "document" in this image filing system is remarkably different from the concept of "file" in general computers, the conventional GUI technology using icons cannot be applied to the image filing system. It was

That is, the difference between a "document" and a "file" is that it is composed of a unit called a page (corresponding to each image), and this page has an order relation. It means that there is. Therefore, a function request such as "changing the order of pages" is generated. However, if this is attempted by an icon operation, the order of the icons cannot be reflected in the operation in the above-mentioned conventional technique, and therefore these functions are not available. We were unable to meet the request.

[0010]

When there is an order relation between internal data such as the page in the above-mentioned image filing system, the system changes the order of the data or the order of the data. It will be necessary to provide functions such as inserting and adding new data to specific locations.

However, in a conventional information processing apparatus which can handle only a single click, a double click, and a drag / drop of the mouse by converting the internal data into icons, it is not possible to express those functions by operating the icons. could not.

According to the present invention, even if the internal data is iconized and arranged and displayed according to the order, the order of the data can be changed, and new data can be inserted or added into the order.
It is intended to be realized by operating the icon.

[0013]

The invention according to claim 1 is
In an information processing device that gives a desired instruction from a pointing device to an icon displayed on a display and performs a predetermined process on internal data according to the instruction, the internal data is divided into unit data, and the divided unit data is divided. An internal data management means for managing each other according to a predetermined relationship with each other, an icon display means for displaying unit data managed by this means as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship, and the pointing device. A first instruction by selecting the desired icon from the group of icons displayed on the display, and a second pointing device for the desired icon selected by this means. Give instructions and manage by the internal data management means. An information processing apparatus and a data relationship changing means for changing the predetermined relationship to be.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus for giving a desired instruction from the pointing device to the icon displayed on the display and subjecting the internal data to a predetermined process in accordance with the instruction, the internal data is stored. An internal data management unit that divides each unit data and manages the divided unit data in association with each other according to a predetermined relationship; and an icon data generation unit that generates icon data for the unit data managed by this unit. An icon display means for displaying unit data managed by this means as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship, and a group of icons displayed on the display by giving a first instruction by the pointing device. Selecting means for selecting a desired icon from among Second the desired icon selected by the means according to the pointing device
And moving the icon to another position on the display, and identifying whether or not the desired icon moved to another position by this means has been moved to a specific position on the display. Destination identification means,
Information processing including data relation changing means for changing the predetermined relation managed by the internal data managing means when the destination identifying means identifies that the desired icon has been moved to the specific position. It is a device.

Further, the present invention comprises means for re-displaying as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship changed by the data relationship changing means. Further, the changing means changes the relationship of the unit data managed by the internal data managing means based on the display information displayed on the display. Further, the internal data management means divides the internal data into page units and manages them in association with each other according to the page order.

[0016]

In the present invention, when there is an order between the internal data, attention is paid to the fact that there is a functional request such as changing the order of the data, inserting new data into the order, or adding the data. It is displayed as an icon so that it can be identified. Then, when the icon is moved by dragging and dropping with the mouse, the destination is identified and the functions such as insertion and addition are executed so that the order can be changed by normal icon operation. Functions such as insert, insert, and add will be realized.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention. The information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a keyboard 10 and a pointing device 11.
, Display 12, file 13, memory 14
And a CPU 15, which are connected by an I / O interface 16.

The keyboard 10 is used to input various commands and the like, and the various commands and the like input from the keyboard are sent to the memory 14 via the I / O interface 16. The pointing device 11 is composed of a mouse or the like, and by pointing a specific position of the screen information displayed on the display 12, the corresponding pointing information is sent to the memory 14 via the I / O interface 16. The display 12 has a memory 14
The above information is visually displayed to the user, and as described above, the user gives an instruction by the pointing device 11 based on the information displayed on the display 12. The file 13 stores programs and other various data, and is accessed with the memory 14 via the I / O interface 16. The memory 14 is composed of a RAM and a ROM and can store programs and various data. These are controlled and executed by the CPU 15.

The information processing apparatus according to the present invention configured as described above is realized by the function realizing means described below. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the function realizing means of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, the icon display means 1 iconizes the unit data and displays it based on the relationship between the data. Here, the unit data means, for example, data in a unit of one page at the time of image filing. The icon selection means 2 accepts an input event from the pointing device and identifies the selected icon. The icon moving means 3 receives an input event from the pointing device,
The movement position of the selected icon is identified. The destination identification means 4 identifies the destination (relationship with other icons) from the moving position. The data relationship changing means 5 is for selecting the selected icon and its destination (relationship with other icons).
Based on and, the rewriting operation of the relation of the data unit is performed. The internal data management means 6 expands the unit data on the memory and requests display of the result every time various operations are received.

Next, each function realizing means will be described.
3 to 7 are diagrams for explaining the processing of each function realizing means of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the icon display means 1. Upon receiving the display request event (STEP 31), the icon display means determines whether the request source is the internal data management means or the icon moving means. Then, if it is from the icon moving means, only the selected specific icon is re-displayed at the moving position (STEP32), and one process of icon display is terminated,
It waits to receive the display request event again. If it is from the internal data management means, the internal data management means is inquired of the internal data (STEP33), and as a result, the identifier of the unit data and the order relation between the identifiers and the parent-child relation are received (STEP34). . Then, the identifier is converted into an icon and displayed based on the relationship (STEP35),
After that, the display position of the icon (identifier) is transmitted to the icon selecting means and the movement destination identifying means (STEP 36), one process of displaying the icon is completed, and the display request event is waited again.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the icon selecting means. The icon selecting means first receives the display position of the icon (identifier) from the icon displaying means and stores it as data for identifying the icon selected later (STEP 41). When an input event from the pointing device related to icon selection is accepted (STEP 42), the selected icon is identified from the correspondence between the event occurrence position and the icon display position (STEP4
3) If identification is possible, the icon display means is requested to reverse display to clearly indicate that the icon has been selected (STEP 44). Then, when the continuous selection mode is "ON", the work from STEP 42 is arbitrarily repeated to select a plurality of icons at the same time, and finally the icon selected by the data relation changing means and the icon moving means is selected. Is notified (STEP45), the series of selection actions are terminated, and the system waits for an input event from the pointing device again. If the selected icon cannot be identified, the presence or absence of the already selected icon is confirmed. If there is no selected icon, it means that the selection actions up to that point have failed, and the input event is received again from the pointing device. I'll be waiting. Even if there is, it is assumed that the series of selection actions so far have failed, but at that time, the selection of the icon already selected is canceled (STEP 46), and the highlighted icon is normally displayed. After requesting the icon display means (STEP47), the system waits for an input event from the pointing device. During this time, if new data is received again from the icon display means regarding the display positions of all the icons (identifiers), STEP 41 is executed to correct the data stored to identify the selected icon. Then, it waits for an input event from the pointing device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the icon moving means. The icon moving means receives the identifier of the icon selected from the icon selecting means and grasps which icon is to be moved (STEP 51). When an input event from the pointing device related to icon movement is accepted (STEP52), the movement position is identified from the occurrence position of the event (STEP53), and the icon display means is displayed to redisplay the selected icon at the movement position. After the request is made (STEP 54), the movement position is transmitted to the movement destination identification means (STEP 55), and one process of icon movement is ended. After this, it again waits for reception from the icon selecting means.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the destination identifying means. The moving destination identifying means first receives the display positions of all the icons (identifiers) from the icon displaying means and stores them as data for later identifying the moving destination of the icons (STEP 61). When the moving position is received from the icon moving means (STEP62), the moving destination (relationship with other icon) is identified from that position (STEP63), and the moving destination (relationship with other icon) is identified by the data relation changing means. Relationship)
Is transmitted (STEP64), and one process of destination identification is completed. After this, it again waits for reception from the icon moving means. During this time, if new data regarding the display positions of all the icons (identifiers) is received again from the icon display means, STEP 61 is executed to correct the stored data for identifying the destination and then , Waiting for reception from the icon moving means.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the data relation changing means. When the data relation changing means receives the identifier of the icon selected from the icon selecting means (STEP71), the data unit corresponding to this identifier is identified from the internal data expanded on the memory (STEP7).
2). When the destination (relationship with another icon) is received from the destination identification means (STEP73), the operation of rewriting the relation of the data unit is executed (STEP74), and one process of changing the data relation is terminated. . After this, it again waits for reception from the icon selecting means.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the processing of the internal data management means. The internal data management means first reserves an area for internal data in the memory (STEP81),
The relationship between unit data is recorded in memory (STEP8
2). Then, if a display request event is transmitted to the icon display means (STEP83), and if an inquiry about internal data is received from the icon display means that has received the event (STEP8).
4), the identifier of the unit data and the order relation and parent-child relation between the identifiers are transmitted to the icon display means (STEP85). After that, the operation waits for acceptance of various operations (STEP86), but once the operation is executed, STEP83, STEP84, and STEP85 are repeated again to redisplay the icon.

Next, the operation of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention realized as described above will be described. In the present embodiment, a case where it is applied to an image filing system will be described. The initial state corresponds to a state in which the page that constitutes a certain document is displayed on the display by the icon display means, as shown in FIG.
Here, the square icon means a page. The page icons are arranged and displayed from the first page to the last page. When it is not possible to display all of them as icons on the display, such as when there are many pages, they are displayed by a display method that means that the pages are continuous by overlapping. To do.

First, the operation of changing the page order will be described. Suppose you want to swap pages 3 and 4, for example, in a document that consists entirely of 5 pages. (1) The operator selects an icon of page 3 from the page icons displayed on the display by operating the pointing device. (2) The icon selection means identifies the selected icon and requests the icon display means to reverse the icon, and the icon display means receives the request and reversely displays the icon as shown in FIG. (3) The icon selecting means notifies the icon moving means and the data relation changing means of the page identifier of the selected icon. (4) The operator moves the selected icon between page 4 and page 5 by operating the pointing device.
The icon moving means requests the icon displaying means to redisplay the icon at the moving position, and the icon displaying means receives the request and redisplays the icon as shown in FIG. (5) The icon moving means transmits the moving position to the moving destination identifying means. (6) The destination identification means is a destination (for example,
(Between pages 4 and 5). (7) The destination identifying means sends the destination to the data relationship changing means. (8) The data relation changing means receives the page identifier of the selected icon from the icon selecting means, and identifies the page record corresponding to this page identifier. (9) The data relation changing means receives the movement destination from the movement destination identifying means, and executes the rewriting operation of the internal data managed by the internal data management means, in this case, the page record. The page record is, for example, as shown in FIG. 13, a page identifier uniquely assigned to a page, a name of a corresponding image file, a document identifier of a document to which it belongs, a page identifier of a previous page, and a page of a subsequent page. It consists of an identifier. All pages of these records are expanded in the memory. In this example, page 3 is rewritten to fit between page 4 and page 5. That is, the order relationship that was initially written as shown in FIG. 14 is rewritten as shown in FIG. In the figure, the underline 151 indicates that the data is rewritten. (10) When the internal data is rewritten, the internal data management means sends a display request event to the icon display means. (11) Upon receiving this, the icon display means sends an inquiry about internal data to the internal data management means. (12) In response to this, the internal data management means displays “page identifier, page identifier of previous page, page identifier of subsequent page” on the icon display means.
Page information consisting of a set of (13) Icon display means, based on the page information sent, iconize the page identifier, according to the page order relationship,
The icon is displayed again as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of inserting and adding a new page will be described. In a document consisting of 5 pages, 4 pages and 5 pages
Suppose you want to insert a new image between pages. (1) When the image is read from the scanner, the internal data management means generates a page record corresponding to the image. Before reading, the internal data expanded on the memory was as shown in FIG. 14, but after reading, a new record 201 is added to the end as shown in FIG. (2) The internal data management means sends a display request event to the icon display means when the internal data is rewritten. (3) Upon receiving this, the icon display means sends an internal data inquiry to the internal data management means. (4) Upon receiving this, the internal data management means transmits the page identifier to the icon display means. (5) The icon display means converts the page identifier into an icon,
As shown in FIG. 16, the icon 161 is newly displayed on the CRT. (6) The operator selects the newly displayed page icon by operating the pointing device. (7) The icon selection means identifies the selected icon and requests the icon display means to invert the icon, and the icon display means receives this and inverts the icon as shown in FIG. (8) The icon selecting means notifies the icon moving means and the data relation changing means of the page identifier of the selected icon. (9) The operator moves the selected icon between page 4 and page 5 by operating the pointing device.
The icon moving means requests the icon displaying means to redisplay the icon at the moving position, and the icon displaying means receives the request and redisplays the icon as shown in FIG. (10) The icon moving means transmits the moving position to the moving destination identifying means. (11) The destination identification means is the destination from the destination (pages 4 and 5).
(Between pages). (12) The move destination identifying means transmits the move destination to the data relationship changing means. (13) The data relation changing means receives the page identifier of the selected icon from the icon selecting means, and identifies the page record corresponding to this page identifier. (14) The data relation changing means receives the movement destination from the movement destination identifying means, and executes the rewriting operation of the internal data managed by the internal data management means, in this case, the page record. In this example, the new page is rewritten to fall between pages 4 and 5. That is, the order relations initially written as shown in FIG. 20 are rewritten as shown in FIG. Underline 21 in the figure
1 indicates that the data is rewritten. (15) When the internal data is rewritten, the internal data management means sends a display request event to the icon display means. (16) Upon receiving this, the icon display means sends an inquiry about internal data to the internal data management means. (17) Upon receiving this, the internal data management means displays "page identifier, page identifier of previous page, page identifier of subsequent page" on the icon display means.
Page information consisting of a set of (18) Icon display means, based on the page information sent, iconize the page identifier, according to the page order relationship,
The icon is displayed again as shown in FIG. In addition, in the series of operations described above, the image is added especially when the page icon of the read image is moved after page 5.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When there is a sequence between internal data, the data is iconized and aligned so that the sequence can be identified.
When this icon is moved by dragging and dropping with the mouse, etc., the destination is identified and the functions such as insertion and addition are executed so that the order can be changed or changed with normal icon operations. It will be possible to implement functions such as insertion into and addition to. Therefore, the visualization of the operation by the icon display can be performed from the data such as the page in the image filing system, which has an order relation, from the file operation in the file manager, the execution button of a certain function, etc. to which the icon has been conventionally applied. It will be possible to expand to operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an icon display device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flowchart of icon display means.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of icon selecting means.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow chart of a destination identifying means.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flowchart of a data relationship changing unit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flowchart of internal data management means.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a screen in which pages constituting a document are displayed as icons.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a screen when an icon on page 3 is selected.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a screen when an icon on page 3 is selected.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a screen when an icon on page 3 is moved between pages 4 and 5.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a screen after a moving operation.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a page data structure.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing initial page data expanded in a memory.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing page data after a moving operation.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a screen immediately after reading an image.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a screen when a new page icon is selected.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a screen example when a new page icon is inserted between page 4 and page 5;

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a screen after an inserting operation.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing page data immediately after reading an image.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing page data after an inserting operation.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a display screen of a file manager.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing movement of files on the display screen of the file manager.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Icon display means 2 ... Icon selecting means 3 ... Icon moving means 4 ... Moving destination identifying means 5 ... Data relationship changing means 6 ... Internal data managing means 10 ... Keyboard 11 ... Pointing device 12 ... Display 13 ... File 14 ... Memory 15 … CPU 16… I / O interface

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for giving a desired instruction from a pointing device to an icon displayed on a display and subjecting internal data to predetermined processing according to the instruction, dividing the internal data into unit data, Internal data management means for managing the divided unit data in relation to each other according to a predetermined relationship, and icon display means for displaying the unit data managed by this means as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship. And giving a first instruction by the pointing device,
Icon selecting means for selecting a desired icon from the icon group displayed on the display, and giving a second instruction by the pointing device to the desired icon selected by this means to manage the internal data. An information processing apparatus comprising: a data relationship changing unit that changes the predetermined relationship managed by the unit. 2. An information processing apparatus for giving a desired instruction from a pointing device to an icon displayed on a display and subjecting internal data to predetermined processing according to the instruction, dividing the internal data into unit data, Internal data management means for managing the divided unit data in relation to each other according to a predetermined relationship, icon data generation means for generating icon data for the unit data managed by this means, and units managed by this means Icon display means for displaying data as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship, and giving a first instruction by the pointing device, and selecting a desired icon from the icon group displayed on the display Icon selection means to And an icon moving means for moving the desired icon to another position on the display by giving a second instruction by the pointing device, and the desired icon moved to another position by this means on the display. Of the moving destination identifying means for identifying whether or not the desired icon has been moved to the specific position, and is managed by the internal data managing means when the desired icon is identified by the moving destination identifying means. An information processing apparatus comprising: a data relationship changing unit that changes the predetermined relationship. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for re-displaying as an icon on the display based on the predetermined relationship changed by the data relationship changing means. 4. The changing means changes the relationship of the unit data managed by the internal data managing means on the basis of display information displayed on the display. 2. The information processing device according to 2. 5. The internal data management means divides the internal data into page units and manages them in association with each other according to the page order.
The information processing device described.