JPH07281863A - Icon display and operation method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] A means for the user to arbitrarily set the size of the icon is provided, and A
To provide a user-friendly AP operating environment that facilitates icon operations by simplifying the P startup operation. An information processing apparatus comprising an input means, a display means, and an arithmetic means, wherein the arithmetic means is a CPU, a ROM, and an R for realizing a program for realizing the present invention.
It is realized by having AM and the like.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an icon display system and operation system in a window system of a personal computer or a workstation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a window system of a personal computer or a workstation, a user operates an application program (hereinafter abbreviated as "AP") by performing a specific operation on an icon representing a bitmap image of the application program. Can be activated.

For example, "Win of Microsoft"
In "dows," it is the "program manager" that plays the role of such a program starter.
Is. "Super ASCII Vol.1 Aug
ust 1990, p. 101, published August 1, 1990 by ASCII, the user must double-click the desired AP's icon (press the mouse button twice in succession) in the Program Manager window. The AP can be activated by doing so. It is also possible to activate a desired AP by moving the selection icon with the arrow keys and then pressing the return key without using the mouse. As for the selection icon, the title displayed below the bitmap image is highlighted, and it is emphasized that the title can be activated by the next operation. In this operating environment, the user needs to perform two operations to activate the AP regardless of whether the mouse or the keyboard is used.

Hitachi's word processor "wit" simplifies such a menu selection operation by the user.
It is a menu selection method by pressing the numeric keypad as seen in "h me". According to this method, a menu corresponding to the ten keys 1 to 9 can be selected by pressing the key once.

[0005]

As in the above-mentioned "program manager", in the program starter in the current window system, since the size of the icon is fixed, the user who is unfamiliar with the detailed operation of the mouse is required. It is difficult to give accurate instructions. Furthermore, in a system using a pen and a tablet, camera shake, tablet jitter and parallax occur, making it more difficult to indicate details on the screen.

In addition, the activation of the AP always requires two operations. When using a pen, double-clicking is a difficult operation for a beginner who taps the pen tip twice in a row, and is not easy to use. On the other hand, when the AP is activated by keyboard input, it is necessary to input the arrow key and the return key twice, and the movement of the selection icon by the arrow keys is restricted within the range of one row both vertically and horizontally. There is.

In the method of selecting a menu corresponding to a numeric keypad by pressing the key once such as "with me", the number of menus is limited to the same number as the numeric keypad. If menus of 9 or more are displayed, the key is pressed twice to input the corresponding 2-digit number.

It is also useful to provide a comfortable operating environment using voice data as the multimedia environment is improved in the future.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide means for the user to arbitrarily set the size of the icon, and
An object of the present invention is to provide a user-friendly AP operating environment in which an icon operation can be easily performed by simplifying an AP starting operation using a mouse, a pen, and a keyboard.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, the following means are considered.

An input means, a display means, and a calculation means are provided, and an icon representing an application program in a bitmap image is displayed on the display screen of the display means, and the input means indicates the icon. In the information processing device that processes the instruction of the icon by the calculating means and starts the application program, an icon display method realized by means for setting the size of the icon to an arbitrary size is conceivable.

When a pointing device such as a mouse or a pen is used as the input means, the icon underlying the cursor on the display means is set as a selected state, and the cursor is moved by operating the cursor of the input means. At the same time, the selected state can be moved to another icon, and means for enabling the application program to be activated by a single pointing operation with respect to the selected icon can be provided.

When a pointing device such as a mouse or a pen is used as the input means, the icon is set as a selected state only when the cursor is on the bitmap image not including the area near the icon,
It is also possible to provide a means for enabling the application program to be activated by the next input by a single pointing operation.

When a keyboard is used as the input means, pressing an arrow key can sequentially move the selected state of the icons in a predetermined order for each direction of the arrow, and the moving range thereof can be displayed. It is also possible to provide a means for setting all the icons on the means.

Further, when at least the speaker and the circuit and driver for controlling the speaker are provided, the operation for activating the application program is triggered to generate a voice peculiar to each application program to start the application program. It is also possible to provide a means for notifying the user what the application program of is.

[0016]

When the user activates the AP by instructing the icon in the above window system, the mouse, pen,
The information processing apparatus includes any one of a keyboard as an input unit, an input unit, a calculation unit, and an output unit. In this case, the calculation means is, for example, a CPU or RO.
It can be realized by M, RAM or the like.

Thus, the user can arbitrarily set the size of the icon that is the target of the AP activation operation. Furthermore, by moving the selected icon in accordance with the movement of the cursor, the desired AP can be activated in the next operation.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a standard system configuration for implementing the present invention. 1 is CPU, 2 is R
OM, 3 RAM, 4 disk, 5 display,
6 is a keyboard, 7 is a mouse, and 8 is a system bus.

Necessary software is stored in the ROM2, the RAM3, the disk 4, etc., and a predetermined function is performed according to the stored software.

FIG. 3 shows the module configuration of this program. 100 is the window system body,
Reference numeral 200 is a registered file management means, 300 is an icon display means, 400 is a mouse input processing means, 500 is a keyboard input processing means, 600 is a registered file management table,
700 is a selection icon movement management table.

The registration file management means 200, when newly registering an AP icon in the program starter,
Called when changing the attributes of an already registered icon. In this module, the data of the registered file management table 600 is initialized and changed, and the icon display means 300 is called. Registration file management table 6
00 will be described later.

The icon display means 300 refers to the registered file management table and displays the icon in either the selected or non-selected state.

The mouse input processing means 400 divides the user's mouse input into mouse movement and mouse button depression,
When the mouse is moved, the selected state of the icon is moved, and when the button is pressed, the AP is activated if the cursor is on the bitmap image of the icon.

The keyboard input processing means 500 moves the selected state of the icon when the arrow key is input, and activates the AP corresponding to the selected icon when the return key is input. Regarding the movement of the selected state, the selection icon movement management table 700 is referred to. Details of this table will be described later.

FIG. 4 shows the contents of the registration file management table 600 used in this program. Each element will be described below.

"Name" 610: A file name to be registered.

"Title" 620: The icon name displayed below the bitmap image of the icon.

"Zahyo" 630: coordinate data of the upper left corner of the bitmap image of the icon.

"Image" 640: A pointer to bitmap image data.

"Size" 650: A size for displaying bitmap image data.

"Number" 660: A serial number indicating the position on the program starter. In this embodiment, the icon in the upper left corner is 1, and the icon in the lower right corner is the number of icons.

"Sound" 670: A pointer to audio data.

"Selected" 680: A flag indicating whether or not an icon is selected. TRUE when selected, FAL when not selected
It is set to SE.

Next, a method of displaying an icon in an arbitrary size will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 5, 6, and 7.

FIG. 1 shows a display screen when the user sets the icon to an arbitrary size. 310, 31
Reference numerals 1, 312, 313, and 314 are icons that are enlarged as compared to the normal icons, and 315 is an icon having a normal size. In this way, the size can be displayed according to the user's preference and the usage frequency of each AP. 320 is a menu for newly registering an icon, and 321 is a menu for changing the attribute of an already registered icon. When starting the registration and change operations, these areas can be clicked to display the required data input windows. The data input window will be described later. Reference numeral 322 is a menu for ending the program starter.

Next, the operation of the user and the processing of this program when changing the size of the icon 315 will be described.

First, the user brings the icon 315 into the selected state by using the keyboard or the mouse. The method of selecting the icon will be described later. Next, when the change menu is selected from the menu bar, a window as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed.

FIG. 5 shows a data input window 210 displayed when changing the attributes of an already registered icon. Reference numerals 211 and 212 are data input frames for inputting or changing the title name of the icon and the file name of the AP to be activated. Reference numeral 213 is a rectangle indicating the size of the icon. The user has a rectangle 213
You can change the size by pointing the lower right corner of the cursor with the cursor and moving it while holding down the mouse button.
The size of the rectangle 213 becomes the size of the actual icon.
This allows the user to perform a change operation while checking the size by himself. Reference numeral 214 is an input frame for inputting numbers indicating the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the icon. You can specify the size of the icon by entering a numerical value in this frame. The change in size of the rectangle 213 is also reflected in the numerical value in this frame.
In this embodiment, the data input frames 211 and 212 display the title name of the icon 315 whose attribute is to be changed and the file name of the AP to be activated, and the rectangle 213 contains 3 characters.
32 is displayed in the numerical input frame 214, which is a rectangle of 2 × 32 pixels. Reference numeral 215 is a button for validating the set data and terminating the window 210, and 216 is a button for invalidating the set data and terminating the window 210. Now, using the rectangle 213 indicating the size of the icon, the new size of the icon 315 is set to 60 ×.
When the number is set to 60 and the button 215 is pressed, the registration file management means 200 is activated.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the registration file management means 200. First, the three data input in the window 210 are acquired (step 210
0), the data of the registered file management table 600 is updated (step 2200). Then, the icon 315 whose attribute is to be changed is erased (step 2300), and the icon display means 300 is activated (step 240).
0).

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the icon display means 300. The registration file management table 600 is referred to in order to acquire information such as a bitmap image, size, and position (step 3100). If the selected element of the table is TRUE, the icon is displayed in the selected state (step 3300),
If it is FALSE, it is displayed in a non-selected state (step 3).
400).

Through the above processing, the user can arbitrarily set the size of the icon.

Next, FIG. 8, FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG.
A method of activating the AP with a mouse, a pen and a keyboard will be described with reference to 2. The method of starting with the pen is the same as with the mouse, except that pressing the mouse button is an operation of pressing the pen tip against the tablet, and therefore description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the mouse input processing means 400. When the mouse is input, it is determined whether the mouse is moved or the mouse button is pressed (step 4011). If the mouse is moved and the mouse button is still pressed, the window system is activated to move the selected icon (step 4018). On the other hand, if the mouse button is not pressed, it is determined whether or not the cursor is on the bitmap image of the icon (step 4019). When the cursor is on the image, the icon already selected is deselected and the icon at the current cursor position is selected (step 4020). continue,
The icon whose selection state has changed is erased (step 402).
1), start the icon display means (step 402)
2). Returning to step 4011, if the input is a mouse button press, it is determined whether the cursor is on the selected icon (step 4012). If it is on the selected icon, it waits until the button is released (step 4013), activates the AP, and ends the process (step 4014).

In this embodiment, since the AP can be activated by one operation after selection, it is necessary to avoid the risk that the button is mistakenly pressed to activate the AP. FIG. 9 shows an example of a cursor position for selecting an icon.
Only when the cursor is exactly on the bitmap image as in A, the icon can be selected. Even if the icon image is inside the inscribed rectangle as in B, it cannot be selected unless it is on the image. This makes it possible to limit the operation of starting the AP when the user intentionally performs the operation.

By the above processing, the AP starting operation using the mouse or the pen can be easily performed.

FIG. 10 shows the keyboard input processing means 500.
2 shows the flow of the process. First, it waits for keyboard input (step 5100), and if it is an arrow key input, moves the selected state of the icon (step 530).
0). Then, the icon whose selection state has changed is erased (step 5400), and the icon display means is activated (step 5500). If the return key is input, it is determined whether there is an icon selected (step 57).
00), the corresponding AP if there is a selected icon
Is activated (step 5800).

Next, the process of moving the selected state by pressing the arrow keys will be described.

First, referring to FIG. 1, the moving order of the selected states corresponding to the four types of arrow keys will be described. Pressing the key pointing to the right will cause the icon 310, icon 31
1, icon 312, icon 313, icon 31
4, the selected state is moved in the order of icon 315. For example, if the key pointing to the right is pressed while the icon 312 is in the selected state, the selected state moves to the icon 313. In this way, the selection state can be moved without being limited to one line. For a key pointing to the left,
The selection state is moved in the order of icon 315, icon 314, icon 313, icon 312, icon 311 and icon 310. In the case of a key pointing up, the selection state is moved in the order of icon 315, icon 312, icon 314, icon 311, icon 313, and icon 310. In the case of a key pointing downward, the selection state is moved in the order of icon 310, icon 313, icon 311, icon 314, icon 312, and icon 315.

FIG. 12 is a table for managing the order of moving selected icons. Table 1 shows the correspondence between the icon in the currently selected state and the icon in the next selected state when the arrow key pointing to the right is pressed. Each element in the upper part of the table is the element “number” of the file management table 600 of the currently selected icon. Each element in the lower row is the icon "num" that should be selected next.
ber ”. Similarly, table2 is a key pointing to the left, table3 is a key pointing to the up, and table is the same.
e4 indicates the correspondence between the downward pointing key and the movement order.

FIG. 11 shows the processing for moving the selected state by pressing the arrow keys. If there is no selected icon, the icon to be selected next is "numb".
er "is set to the icon of" 0 "(step 531)
1). If there is a selected icon, the selected state of the icon is canceled (step 5312). Next, if it is the input of the key pointing to the right, table1 is referred to (step 5314). After that, the table corresponding to each arrow key is sequentially referred to, and the icon to be selected next is determined (step 5316, step 5318, step 5319).

With the above processing, the operation of moving the selection icon using the keyboard can be intuitively performed.

Next, in the information processing apparatus including the speaker and the circuit and driver for controlling the speaker, A
The use of voice data when P is started will be described.

In the mouse input processing means 400 and the keyboard input processing means 500, the voice data is referred to from the file management table 600 and delivered to the driver before the AP is started. This voice data needs to be registered as AP-specific data (for example, voice data in which a file name is pronounced) when the file is registered. This allows
In an information processing apparatus capable of generating a voice, when the AP is activated, it is possible to notify which AP is being activated by a voice unique to each AP.

[0055]

According to the present invention, it is possible to handle an icon of a size that is easy for the user to see.
It is possible to provide an icon operating environment in which an AP can be intuitively selected and activated using either a pen or a keyboard.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a screen display in which the size of an icon is changed and displayed.

FIG. 2 is a standard system configuration diagram for implementing the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a module configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a table for managing registration files.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a data input window for changing the attribute of an icon.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a registration file management means.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a processing flow of icon display processing means.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a mouse input processing means.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a selected / non-selected state of icons.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a keyboard input processing means.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a flow of a moving process in a selected state.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a correspondence between an icon in a currently selected state and an icon to be in a next selected state of four types of arrow keys.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU, 2 ... ROM, 3 ... RAM, 4 ... Disk device, 5 ... Display, 6 ... Keyboard, 7 ... Mouse, 8 ... System bus, 100 ... Window system, 200 ... Registered file management means, 210 ... Data Input window, 211 ... Title name input area, 212 ... File name input area, 213 ... Rectangle for changing icon size, 214 ... Numerical value input area for changing icon size, 215, 216 ... Data input, Window end button, 300 ... Icon display means, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 3
16 ... Icon, 320, 321 ... Menu for displaying data input window, 322 ... Menu for terminating program starter, 400 ... Mouse input processing means, 500 ... Keyboard input processing means, 600 ... Registration file management table , 700 ... Selection icon movement management table, 710 ... Table showing selection icon movement order when rightward arrow key is pressed, 720 ... Table showing selection icon movement order when leftward arrow key is pressed, 730 ... Selection when upward arrow key is pressed Table showing the order of moving icons, 740 ... Table showing the order of moving selected icons when the down arrow key is pressed.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kunihiro Katayama 1099, Ozenji, Aso-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Ltd. System Development Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A symbol comprising an input program for inputting an operation by a user, a display unit, and a calculation unit, the application program being represented by a bitmap image on the display screen of the display unit (hereinafter referred to as an icon). ) Is displayed, the icon is designated by the input means, the instruction for the icon is processed by the computing means, and the application program is started, and the size of the icon is set to an arbitrary size. Icon display method that can be set. 2. The pointing device according to claim 1, wherein when a pointing device such as a mouse or a pen is used as the input means, an icon under the cursor on the display means is set as a selected state and the input means An icon operation method characterized in that the selected state can be moved to another icon together with the cursor by a cursor moving operation, and the application program is started by a single pointing operation with respect to the icon in the selected state. 3. The icon according to claim 2, wherein when a pointing device such as a mouse or a pen is used as the input means, the icon is selected only when the cursor is on a bitmap image that does not include a region near the icon. An icon operation method characterized by setting and starting the application program with the input by the next single pointing operation. 4. The keyboard according to claim 2, wherein when a keyboard is used as the input means, when an arrow key is pressed, the selection state of icons can be sequentially moved in a predetermined order for each arrow direction,
An icon operation method, wherein the movement range extends to all the icons on the display means. 5. The device according to claim 1, wherein at least a speaker and a circuit and a driver for controlling the speaker are provided, a sound peculiar to each application program is triggered by an operation for starting the application program. By doing so, an icon operation method characterized by notifying the user what the application program being started up is.