JPH04262420A - Icon action defining apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the user who prepared a bit map image of icon possible to define a desired processing procedure or program through easy operation without conscious of a data structure of file. CONSTITUTION:When a user prepares a bit map image of icon in the icon editor screen of bit map display 14, a CPU 12 stores the bit map image as an icon file in a bit map format in a hard disk 18. Next, when the user makes the bit map display 14 display an icon information setting screen, and sets a functional action with which the already prepared icon should be equipped in a menu format, the CPU 12 stores this set content as menu file in the hard disk 18. Further, the CPU 12 uses an icon defining file to manage an icon file name and a menu file name.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an information processing device.
In particular, the present invention relates to an icon action definition device that defines a predetermined action to an icon visualized as a pictogram on a display screen.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In information processing devices such as word processors, it is common to use so-called icons so that various operations can be performed visually and easily. This icon is a symbol that visually represents a desk tool such as a document or a folder as a pictogram, and is associated with a predetermined action in advance. By selecting these icons displayed on the bitmap display with a graphic cursor, the user can perform corresponding processing.

By the way, when performing various document processing etc. with such a document processing device, depending on the content of the processing,
There are cases where a user wants to create a new icon and associate a pre-prepared processing procedure or a processing program created by the user with the new icon. Conventionally, this required the following operations.

■ Create a bitmap image of the icon. ■In order to associate the created icon with the desired processing procedure or the created program, change the icon-related portion of the basic document processing program or add a description of the newly defined icon behavior.

[0005]

By the way, since a conventional normal information processing apparatus is provided with a bitmap editor, it is relatively easy to create a bitmap image of an icon itself. however,
In order to associate the created icon with a desired processing procedure, it is necessary to directly modify the basic document processing program or file itself, and this cannot be done unless one is familiar with the data structure of the basic program. Therefore, such work is difficult for anyone who does not have sufficient knowledge, and is virtually impossible for ordinary users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable a user who has created a bitmap image of an icon to define a desired processing procedure or program as an icon operation using a simple menu format without being aware of the data structure of the file. The object of the present invention is to provide an icon behavior definition device that can perform the following functions.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides (i) a display that displays various information, and (ii) icons that visually represent desk tools such as documents and folders as pictograms on this display. (iii) icon image creation means for creating a bitmap image;
(iv) an icon image data storage means for storing the icon image data created by the icon image creation means in a bitmap format with a predetermined file name; and (iv) an icon created by the icon image creation means. (v) an icon action setting means for setting a series of functional actions in a menu format on a display; and (v) an icon action for storing the contents of the icon action set by the icon action setting means with a predetermined menu file name attached thereto. menu storage means, (vi
) The icon action definition device is provided with a management means for managing the contents of the icon image data storage means and the contents of the icon action menu storage means in association with each other.

[0008] In the present invention, the functions and operations to be provided to the created icon are set on the display in a simple menu format, and the contents of the set functions and operations are associated with the bitmap image data of the icon. Achieve the purpose by managing the information.

[0009]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples below. FIG. 1 shows an icon behavior definition device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This device has system bus 11
is provided, and various device circuits such as the following are connected to it.

(i) CPU (Central Processing Unit) 12: Performs information processing such as document creation and editing, and controls the operation of the entire apparatus.

(ii) Main memory 13: Consists of random access memory (RAM), hard disk 1
The control program read from 8, document data, etc. are stored therein.

(iii) Bitmap display 1
4: In addition to displaying various data input from the keyboard 16 or mouse 17 and document data read from the hard disk 18, various messages etc. from the CPU 12 are displayed.

(iv) Keyboard 16: Used to input commands, document data, etc. for executing various processes to the CPU 12.

(v) Mouse 17: It has a plurality of button switches and is used for moving a graphic cursor on the screen of the bitmap display 14, selecting processing items, etc.

(vi) Hard disk 18: A control program for this icon behavior definition device is stored, and this is stored in the main memory 13 to control each part of the device. Various document data and the like are also stored.

FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the icon action definition device shown in FIG. As shown in this figure, a bitmap display 14 is connected to the main body cabinet 19 by a dedicated cable 21. This main body cabinet 19 houses device circuits (FIG. 1) such as a CPU 12, a main memory 13, and a hard disk 18. Further, the keyboard 16 and mouse 17 are connected to the main body cabinet 19 through dedicated cables 22 and 23, respectively.

The operation of the icon motion definition device configured as above will be explained with reference to FIG. When the device is activated by a predetermined operation (step S101 in FIG. 3), a window 3 as shown in FIG. 4 appears on the bitmap display 14.
1 is opened, and a desktop screen is displayed here (step S102). At the top of this screen, a directory name 32 in which the desktop has been started is displayed, and at the bottom an "icon registration" command (button) 33 to be selected when registering an icon is displayed.

In this lower area, there is a hard disk 18 (
Various icons representing document files (hereinafter simply referred to as documents), folders, drawers, etc. stored in the computer (FIG. 1), and icons representing supported devices are displayed. These icons will be briefly explained below.

■Icons 34, 35: The icon 34 indicates that a shared remote printer connected to the network is supported, and the icon 35 indicates that a local printer dedicated to this device is connected.

■Icons 36 and 37: Indicates that two floppy disk drives 1 and 2 are supported.

[0021]Icons 41-43: Indicate programs 1-3 prepared or created in advance. By operating the mouse 17 to move the graphic cursor 38 to the position of these icons and pressing the click button, the program can be executed or copied.

■Icons 44 to 49, 51: Indicate various documents already stored on the hard disk 18. By selecting these icons with the graphic cursor 38, various operations can be performed on the document.

■Icon 52: Indicates that electronic mailboxes are supported on the communication network.

[0024]Icons 53 to 57: Indicate folders that store documents and other folders according to field or purpose. By selecting these icons, you can view their contents and perform other operations.

■Icons 58, 59: Indicates a drawer for sorting multiple folders. By selecting one of these icons, you can view the contents of that drawer and perform other operations.

■Icon 61: Indicates a list in which titles of all created and registered documents, folders, etc. are stored.

■Icons 62 to 64: Indicates emulators supported by this device.

Note that the arrow 6 in the right end area of the window screen
5 and 66 are designated when the window screen is scrolled up and down, respectively, and arrows 67 and 68 in the lower end area are designated when the window screen is scrolled left and right, respectively.

While this desktop screen is being displayed, the CPU 12 (FIG. 1) monitors whether any buttons on the mouse 17 are clicked. When the mouse button is clicked (step S103 in FIG. 3; Y), the CPU 12 determines the selected process. When the selected item is the "icon registration" command (button) 33 (step S104; Y), a list of already registered icons is read from a predetermined area of the hard disk 18 and loaded into the main memory 13. , is displayed on the icon registration screen as shown in FIG. 5 (step S105). On the other hand, if something else is selected (step S104; Y), other corresponding processing is performed.

The icon registration screen shown in FIG. 5 will be explained. At the top of this screen, "Icon Registration" 71, which is the name of the currently displayed screen, is displayed, and at the bottom, "New Registration" 72, which is a processing item that can be selected with the graphic cursor 38, is displayed. "end"
73 is displayed. In the lower area, a list of icons loaded into the main memory 13 is displayed.

[0031] In this list, the standard icon column 74 displays the normal size icons displayed on the desktop screen (FIG. 4), and the mini icon column 75 indicates the type of document, folder, etc. Therefore, a small icon is displayed at the beginning of the document name or folder name. Further, the icon information column 76 displays the type of icon displayed in the left area. Here, documents, folders,
and a drawer are displayed.

Now, the CPU 12 (FIG. 1) monitors whether the mouse 17 button is clicked (step S106).
), when "new registration" 72 is selected (step S10
7; Y), an icon editor screen as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed (step S108). Also, if you click on either the standard icon or the mini icon and select "Edit" from the menu (step S109; Y),
The bitmap image of the corresponding icon is displayed in the bitmap image editing area 77 of the icon editor screen in FIG. 6 (step S110).

Note that if another item is clicked (step S109; N), other corresponding processing is executed. For example, when the arrow 67 in the bottom area is clicked,
The icon registration screen is scrolled to the left to display icon detailed information in the right area (not shown) of the icon information column 76, and when the arrow 65 in the rightmost area of the screen is selected, the screen is scrolled upward. to display other standard and mini icons.

Next, the icon editor screen shown in FIG. 6 will be explained. At the top of this screen, "Icon Editor" 78, which is the name of the currently displayed screen, is displayed, and at the bottom, "Function" 81, "Grid" are the processing items that can be selected with the graphic cursor 38. ” 82 and “Type” 83 are displayed.

Among these, "Function" 81 is used to add and specify various editing functions necessary for actually creating and editing icon bitmap images in the bitmap image editing area 77 below. used. As these functions, for example, functions for rotating or reversing a specified area are provided. By clicking on "Function" 81 with the graphic cursor 38, these functions are displayed as a pull-down menu (not shown) in the lower area, from which the desired one can be selected.

Furthermore, "grid" 82 is used to display a grid at regular intervals within bitmap image editing area 77. In this case as well, by clicking on "grid" 82 with the graphic cursor 38, a pull-down menu (not shown) will be displayed in the area below, from which the desired grid spacing etc. can be selected. It has become.

"Type" 83 is for specifying the type of icon to be created or modified. By clicking this, various options for specifying the icon type are displayed as a pull-down menu. It is now possible to do so. This will be discussed later.

[0038] On the right side of this bitmap image editing area 77, various parameters indicating the editing work status are displayed. First, at the top, an icon type 84 indicating whether the icon to be edited is a standard icon or a mini icon is displayed. When creating a new icon, "standard icon" is displayed as the default value, but here we will create a standard icon as is.

The area below the icon type 84 is an icon pattern area 85 for displaying the icon image in the bitmap image editing area 77 in a reduced size. It is blank when creating a new item.

In the lower area of the icon pattern area 85, a currently drawn shape 86 is displayed. Here, a dot-by-dot drawing method is set as the default value, and "." is displayed. In addition, "─" is displayed when drawing a straight line, "○" when drawing a circle, and "□" when drawing a rectangle.

A fill-in pattern display area 87 is provided below the drawing shape 86 for displaying what pattern is to be used to fill in the icon pattern.

The contents of the drawn shape 86 and the filled pattern display area 87 are set in a property window opened separately from this window 31.

[0043]Using the functions described above, you can create a new icon (step S111) or modify it (step S111).
112). And when this is finished, CPU1
2 (FIG. 1) registers the bitmap image of the created icon in the hard disk 18 as an icon file for standard icons (step S113), and also saves the icon file name in the hard disk 18 (FIG. 1).
) in the icon definition file (step S11
4).

FIG. 12 shows an icon file stored in the hard disk 18. here,
For example, as a standard icon, bitmap data of this standard icon is stored in correspondence with the file name "wp.icon". The same applies to other types of icons.

FIG. 11 shows an icon definition file. As shown in this figure, for each icon, an icon file name that stores the bitmap image data of that icon is registered. As described above, there are four types of icon files: standard icons, mask standard icons, mini icons, and mask mini icons. Other items will be discussed later.

FIG. 7 shows the icon editor screen in a state where the drawing of the icon has been completed. As shown in this figure, the icon image 88 drawn in the bitmap image editing area 77 is displayed on the icon pattern area 85 in a reduced scale.

Now, the CPU 12 monitors the operation of the mouse 17 (step S115), and when the "type" 83 is selected (step S116), a pull-down menu 89 as shown in FIG. 8 is displayed in the lower area. (Step S1
17). In addition to "standard icon" and "mini icon," this menu includes the following options: "mask icon,""mask mini icon," and "icon information." Of these, the "mask icon" and "mask mini icon" are used to display the standard icon and mini icon in reverse, respectively, and the "icon information" is, as described later,
This is used when defining a predetermined processing operation for an icon pattern as a bitmap image.

At this stage, if you want to change the type of the created icon from a standard icon to, for example, a mini icon, you can select "mini icon" with the graphic cursor 38, but here the explanation will be based on the assumption that a standard icon will be created as is. do.

Next, when "icon information" is selected with the graphic cursor 38 (step S118; Y),
The screen will move to the icon information setting screen as shown in Figure 9 (
Step S119).

At the top of this screen, "icon information setting" 91, which is the name of the current display screen, is displayed, and at the bottom, "function" 92 and "function" 92 are displayed as processing items that can be selected with the graphic cursor 38. ``Type'' 93 is displayed.

[0051] Below this, there are an area 94 for inputting a ``generic name'' indicating the functions provided to the icon, an area 95 for inputting a ``receiving program name'', and a specific definition of each icon operation. Areas 96-1 to 96 for inputting "startup program name" corresponding to the processing item
-8 are provided, and each type can be typed in from the keyboard 16 (FIG. 1).

[0052] Here, the "receiving program name" will be briefly explained. Generally, when copying or moving one icon to another, both the sender and the receiver often need to send and receive in various ways. For example, even if the sending side sends documents such as text, graphics, and bitmap data all at once, the receiving side may want to receive only the text. Therefore, in this device, a program that specifies how to send data and a program that specifies how to receive data are linked to each icon. "Reception program name" is a program name for specifying how to receive the data.

[0053] In this "receiving program name" area 95, "
If you enter *, it is recognized that a standard receiving program name prepared in advance has been specified. In this embodiment, this standard receiving program is set to transmit and receive all data on both the sending and receiving sides.

[0054] Also, there is a "startup program name" input area 9.
6-1 to 96-8 are areas for inputting program names as shown below.

[0055] Input area 96-1: Input the name of a program for opening a document, folder, etc. and viewing its contents.

[0056] Input area 96-2: Input the name of a program for copying to create the same document or folder as the selected document or folder.

[0057] Input area 96-3: Input the name of a program for moving the selected document, folder, etc. to another location or into another folder or drawer.

[0058] Input area 96-4: Input the name of a program to be used, for example, when canceling some of the selected documents when copying a plurality of documents.

[0059] Input area 96-5: Input the name of the program used to delete documents, folders, etc.

[0060] Input area 96-6: Input the name of a program used to set various attributes related to documents, folders, etc. For example, enter the name of a menu program that manages a program that renames documents, folders, etc., and a program that specifies the sorting method for documents, folders, etc. in a folder.

[0061] Input areas 96-7, 96-8: Input the name of the program that executes the function added as an option. For example, this includes a print program for printing the contents of a document or a folder, a search program for searching a document for a predetermined item, or a folder for a predetermined document or folder. This option setting can be performed according to a predetermined procedure by clicking on "Function" 92 at the top of the screen.

[0062] Regarding the input areas 96-1 to 96-6, when "*" is input, it is recognized that a standard program name prepared in advance has been specified.

FIG. 10 shows an example of input on this icon information setting screen. In this example, since "*" is entered in the input area 95 and all of 96-1 to 96-6, a standard program provided in advance is set for each item. Furthermore, program names for "printing" and "searching" are input in input areas 96-7 and 96-8, respectively.

[0064] When the definition of the predetermined processing operation for the icon pattern as a bitmap image is completed in this way (step S120), the CPU 12 stores the setting contents in the hard disk 18 as a menu file with a predetermined file name. This menu file name is stored in the icon definition file (FIG. 11) (step S122).

FIG. 13 shows an example of a menu file registered in the hard disk 18. In this figure, the correspondence between the action items and programs set in FIG. 10 is registered under the menu file name "wp.menu."

[0066] In this way, it is possible to create a bitmap image of an icon and to set the functions provided to this icon using a simple menu format.

FIG. 11 shows the contents of the icon definition file when the icon creation and function settings are completed. As shown in this figure, icons with the generic name "Document" have an icon type ID of "01", a standard icon file name "wp.icon", a mini icon file name "wp.mini", and a menu. A file name “wp.menu” is defined. The icon name character string display position information is information indicating the number of characters and the starting position of the character string displayed in the icon.

Next, the operation when using the icon created and defined in this way will be explained. Here, as an example, the document icon 44 related to "human resources" on the desktop screen in FIG. 4 will be explained.

First, when the graphic cursor 38 is placed on the document icon 44 using the mouse 17 and the left button of the three mouse buttons is clicked, the document icon 44 is highlighted to indicate that it has been selected. If the right button is pressed here, a pull-down menu (not shown) will be displayed adjacent to this document icon 44. This pull-down menu displays definition items such as "open,""copy," and "move" in the menu file (FIG. 13) stored in the hard disk 18. If, for example, "Open" is selected here, the menu file is referenced, the "Open" startup program is executed, and the document named "Personnel Related" is opened and becomes editable. Note that when a folder or drawer is selected and "open" is specified, a list of stored documents, folders, etc. will be displayed.

[0070] When "Copy" is selected, a program for copying the selected document "Personnel related" is started, and the copying is executed according to a predetermined procedure. The same applies when other items are selected.

[0071] In this embodiment, a large number of icons can be created and defined, but when these are executed, the catalog file shown in Fig. 14 is referred to. In this catalog file, icon display positions, actual file names, and comment file names are associated with each icon type ID used in the icon definition file. Among these, the icon display position indicates the icon display position (x, y) on the desktop screen (Figure 4) in dot units, and the actual file name is
For example, a document icon indicates the file name of the document data itself. The comment file name indicates an annotation file that briefly explains the operation content of the icon.

[0072]

As explained above, according to the present invention, the functions to be provided to the created icon can be set in a simple menu format on the display, and the content of the set functions can be set on the icon. Since it is managed in association with bitmap image data, the user who created the bitmap image of the icon can easily control the desired processing procedure or program to operate the icon without being aware of the data structure of the file. This has the effect that it can be defined as

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an icon behavior definition device in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of this icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a desktop screen of this icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an icon registration screen of the icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an icon editor screen of the icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a bitmap image of an icon created on an icon editor screen.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a pull-down menu displayed when "type" is selected on the icon editor screen.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an icon information setting screen of the icon behavior definition device.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of input on an icon information setting screen.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of an icon definition file.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an icon file stored in bitmap format.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of a menu file.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of a catalog file.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 System bus 12 CPU 13 Main memory 14 Bitmap display 16 Keyboard 17 Mouse 18 Hard disk

Claims (1)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A display that displays various information;
On this display, there is an icon image creation means that creates a bitmap image of an icon that visually represents desk tools such as documents and folders as pictograms, and a predetermined icon image data created by this icon image creation means. icon image data storage means for storing in bitmap format with a file name;
icon operation setting means for setting a series of functional operations to be provided to the icon created by the icon image creation means in a menu format on the display; and a management means for managing the contents of the icon image data storage means and the contents of the icon operation menu storage means in association with each other. icon behavior definition device.