JPS63195727A - Menu display system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the operating distance of a mouse in a menu operation mode and simultaneously to perform the display of menus without affecting other displays, by enabling an operator to designate the menu position at an optional position within a display area. CONSTITUTION:The menu display position supplied from an operator is decided via the display area position/range memory part 2 of a menu display area deciding part 5. Based on the result of this decision, a menu selecting part 6 decides the area contents via an intra-area display contents memory part 3. Then the contents of the corresponding menu are selected out of the menus stored in a menu memory part 7. A menu display part 8 displays the selected menu at a position supplied from a menu display position input part 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to display and operation on a computer terminal, and particularly relates to a menu display method suitable for having a plurality of display areas.6 [Prior Art] ] Conventionally, menu display methods when displaying multiple display areas on one screen include (1) a method in which a menu common to multiple display areas is displayed at a fixed position on the screen (see Figure 2); (See (a)) (2) For example, as in the Hitachi workstation 2050, there was a method (see FIG. 2(b)) in which common menus were displayed at fixed positions within each display area.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The above conventional method has the following problems.

(1) Because the menu display position was fixed.
When operating a portion away from the menu display position, the distance the mouse used for menu operation has to be moved becomes long, and menu operation takes time.

(2) If the display object you want to refer to is located at the menu display position, the display object is not displayed on the screen while the menu is displayed.

Since a common menu was displayed for multiple display areas, (3) the menu contained operation items unrelated to the display area to be operated, making the menu difficult to understand.

The purpose of the present invention is to (1) shorten the mouse movement distance for menu operation when using the display area of Wl number'; and (2) to reduce the distance of mouse movement for menu operation. (3) To provide a menu display method that avoids the display of unnecessary menu items and makes the menu display easy to understand.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention is characterized by providing means for specifying a menu display position within one display area, and means for displaying a menu unique to the display area at the specified position.

[Function] Since the user can arbitrarily specify the menu display position in the display area to be operated, it is possible to shorten the distance of mouse movement during menu operation, and also to avoid other display items that need to be referenced. You can display the menu so that it does not overlap.

In addition, by displaying a unique menu for each display area, one displayed menu does not include unnecessary items that are not related to the display area to be operated, and the menu display is improved. It becomes easier to understand.

【Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using one embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram for realizing an embodiment of the present invention. The area display section 1 is stored in a 1 display area position/range storage section 2. The display position of each area on the screen,
Then, the boundaries of each area are displayed in the range, and the contents stored in the display content storage section 3 are displayed within these areas. The menu display position input section 4 inputs the position on one screen where the menu is to be displayed. At this time, the input menu display position is arbitrarily specified by the user. The menu display area determining unit 5 determines the area to which the input position belongs using the display area position/range storage unit 2. The menu selection unit 6 determines the contents of the area determined by the menu display area determination unit 5 using the area display content storage unit 3, and selects the contents of the corresponding menu from among the menus stored in the menu storage unit 7. Choose from. The menu display section 8 displays the selected menu at the position input by the menu display position input section 4.

An example of the area displayed by the area display section 1.

Shown in FIG. 3, (a) is an example of an area divided into two by one straight line, and (b) is an example of one display area consisting of two areas surrounded by two rectangular frames.

(c) shows area A surrounded by a rectangular frame.

An example in which area B outside the rectangular frame is used as the display area.

(d) shows two areas A and B surrounded by two rectangular frames, and a portion C excluding areas A and B.

This is an example of a display area. In (b) and (d),
Although the two rectangular areas partially overlap, that area is assumed to be the area B where all the rectangular frames are displayed. Therefore, (b).

In the case of (d), the area A is not exactly a rectangle, but is an area with a part of the rectangle missing.

FIG. 4 is an example of a screen in which one display area and a menu are displayed by the area display section 1 and menu display section 8 of FIG. 1. In this example, written by Yoshihiko Futamura.

``An area where a PAD known in programming technique J is displayed,
The example in (a) of Figure 0 in which two areas are displayed, the area displaying the table of variables used in the PAD, is an example in which a menu specific to that area is displayed in the PAD area, and (b)
) is an example in which a menu specific to the area is displayed in the area of the variable table used.

In each of (a) and (b), the contents of the area displaying the menu are different, so the displayed menu is also different.

FIG. 5 is an example showing a method of specifying a menu display position in the menu display position input section 4 of FIG. 1, and a menu display position in the menu display section 8. (a)
(b) shows a menu display example. In this example, the position input by the menu display position input section 4 (the tip of the arrow in (a)) is the top of the menu, and (b)
The menu is displayed as shown.

In FIG. 6, (a) is an example of a display area table that stores the position and range of each display area on the screen, which is stored in the display area position/range storage section 2 of FIG. (b
) is an example of a screen when an area is displayed by the area display section 1 of FIG. 1 according to the information in the table of (a). In this example, the display area is an area surrounded by a rectangular frame.

On the screen, take the coordinates on a fixed vertical and horizontal scale with the origin at the upper left corner of the screen, and use these coordinates.

It represents the position on the screen. In the display area table,
The position and range of the area are expressed by the coordinates of the upper left vertex of the area and the length and width of the rectangle surrounding the area.

When two or more rectangles enclosing an area partially overlap, the overlapped area is 1.

It belongs to one area, but in that case,
In the 0 display area table, in which areas are prioritized and determined to belong to the area with the highest priority, the display position and range of the 0 display areas, which are stored in order from the area with the highest priority, are variable.

FIG. 6(d) shows an example of a screen when the positions and ranges of the two display areas in FIG. 6(b) are changed, and FIG. 6(C) shows an example of a display area table corresponding to FIG. 6(d).

In addition, FIG. 7 shows a display area table and display example corresponding to the display area example in FIG. 3(d), where (a) is an example of a display screen, and (b) is a display corresponding to (a). This is an example of a region table. In this example, display area D3 is area D on the screen.
Although it is an area that includes all parts that do not belong to either 1 or D2, 1
In the display area table, the area is expressed by making the position and range of the area match the entire screen and giving it the lowest priority.

FIG. 8 is an example of a menu table stored in the menu storage section 7 of FIG. 1 in which all menus that can be displayed are stored in one-to-one correspondence with the contents of the areas.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of this embodiment using the tables shown in FIGS. 6 to 8.

This is a flowchart of the processing in the apparatus 4 to 8 in FIG. 1, and assumes that the area display unit 1 has already displayed areas on the screen according to the display area table. In process 9, the menu display position on the screen specified by the user is input, and in process 10, the display priority order i of the area is set to 1. Processing 11 determines whether or not there is an area number i in the 1 display area table, and if it is determined that there is, processing 12 determines whether or not the position input in process 9 is within the area number i. The determination is made by referring to the position and range of the area from the display area table. If it is determined that the area is within the area, the process 13 refers to the contents of the area and the menu table to obtain the menu to be displayed in the area, and the process 14
displays the obtained menu at the menu display position input in step 9. On the other hand, if it is determined in process 12 that the menu display position input in process 9 is not within the i-th area, 1 is added to i in process 15, and processes 11 and subsequent steps are repeated. If it is determined that the i-th area does not exist in the display area table, then in process 16, a process is performed for the case where the input menu display position does not belong to any area.

In this example, the display contents of the display area and the menu (
Since there is a one-to-one correspondence between the menu items and the order of the items, it is possible to display an easy-to-use menu in which the menu items and how the items are arranged match the display content. In each menu, by considering the frequency of use of each menu item in the corresponding display content area and arranging the frequently used items toward the top of the menu, mouse movement when selecting an item on the menu is made easier. The distance can be shortened.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the first feature of the present invention, the menu of the area to be operated can be displayed at any position within the display area, so the operating distance of the mouse when operating the menu can be shortened. , it is also possible to easily display a menu in a location where it will not block other displays. It also fit the display area. Since the necessary and sufficient menu can be displayed without waste, the menu becomes easier to understand.

The above has the effect of reducing the effort and time required for menu operations and improving the efficiency of menu operations.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an example of a screen showing a conventional menu display method. 3 is a screen example showing the display area displayed in FIG. 1, FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a display example of the menu displayed in FIG. 1, FIG. Examples of the screen at the time of input and the corresponding menu display screen according to FIG. 18, FIGS. 6 and 7 are the display area table stored in FIG. A display example of the display area, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a menu table stored in FIG. 1 and FIG. 7, and FIG. 9 is an operation flow diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. 1... A part that displays the boundaries and contents of each display area, 2
...The part that memorizes the position and range of each display area, 3...
- A part that stores the display contents of each display area, 4... A part that inputs the menu display position, 5... A part that determines which display area the input menu display position belongs to, 6... A part for selecting a menu specific to the display area determined in step 5, 7...a part for storing all menus that can be displayed, 8...a part for selecting the menu selected in step 6,
The part to be displayed at the display position entered in .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an information processing device having an interactive terminal and a computer having means for displaying a plurality of display areas whose positions and sizes are variable, a means for specifying an arbitrary position on the screen, and a display at which the specified position is A menu display method comprising means for determining whether the menu belongs to a region, means for selecting the contents of the menu according to the display region to which it belongs, and means for displaying the selected menu at the specified position.