JPH06103018A - Display system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily discriminate which kinds of data formats are combined for a composite file, to help the comprehension of a user and to improve workability by displaying an icon working and combining icons expressing the formats of the file as combination sources. CONSTITUTION:When the file and the additional information are completely combined by a data combination part 2211, the icon for the composite file is continuously prepared. First of all, the file formats of plural basic files contained in this file are investigated based on information recorded in the file format field of the additional information, and the patterns of the corresponding icons are read from a system filing part 32. The plural read patterns of the file format icons are reduced into 1/4 by an icon reduction part 2212 and combined by an icon preparation part 2213, and the icon for the composite file fitted into the four relevant small squares on the icons is prepared.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

 [Object of the Invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention makes it easy for a multimedia information processing apparatus to easily determine what type of file is created when files of different file formats are combined. Regarding a display method of a file that can be recognized.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in information processing apparatuses, "file", "document", and "document" are used as concepts representing a set of data.
Etc. are used (hereinafter represented by files).

A file is composed of data in various formats such as document data and image data. Usually, the file type depends on the data format, and there are several "formats" for each information processing device.
Is set as. Files in the device are organized and standardized according to this "format", and it is possible to systematically organize a large number of files and to make only specific format files react to specific information processing. For convenience.

Initially, the contents and format of a file are treated as conceptual existence only, and the means for distinguishing and displaying each is, for example, the first 8 characters representing the individual contents of the file, and the last 3 characters. Represents the file format with
It was about 10 letters and numbers. However, with the expansion of the user base and the diversification of file contents, it has become difficult to recognize the file contents only by displaying with letters and numbers, so for the purpose of helping the user to understand,
Visual display methods that use icons, which are a type of pictogram or graphic symbol, have become popular.

Generally, the file format is an icon,
The contents of a file are often displayed in characters, but as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-282495, in an image editing system, an arbitrary image is cut out from the image data stored in the memory, and the cutout is made. There has been devised a technique for displaying an image as an icon for recognizing file contents by reducing or enlarging the image as it is.

[0006] In addition to the icons for displaying the contents of the file as described above, there are icons for indicating the state of the device, icons for indicating the operation to be executed, and icons for indicating the execution state of the operation. As the functions of the information processing apparatuses have improved, the states of these apparatuses and the operations that can be executed have increased, making it difficult to create and manage the corresponding icons. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-150624, therefore, a noun pattern representing an object such as “graphic” or “document” and a basic pattern for each verb pattern representing an execution operation such as “rotate” or “delete” are provided in advance. It is stored as an icon pattern, and a large number of icons are generated by combining basic icon patterns, for example, creating an icon representing “document deletion” by combining a document icon pattern and a delete icon pattern. The method is disclosed.

On the other hand, multimedia development is one of the development trends of information processing apparatuses. This is because the conventional information processing apparatus handles almost all documents and charts, but as shown in FIG. 11, more diversified data including voices and moving images can be used. It is a move to develop a device that can handle at least two or more different types of files as one file in a complex manner. An increase in the number of files or types of executable operations can be dealt with by increasing the number of icon designs by the conventional technique as described above. However, as described below, the conventional way of thinking cannot handle a plurality of files of different formats in a complex manner.

By handling a plurality of files in a composite manner, a file in which files of different formats are composited (hereinafter referred to as a composited file) is generated. This composite file does not belong to any format to which a file as a composite source (hereinafter referred to as a basic file) can belong. In the conventional display method, in such a case, "composite file"
Was simply interpreted as a file of a new format and the design of the icon representing the format was added.

[0009]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] A file having a single format as a proportion of the whole composite file (hereinafter,
If it is small compared to the ratio of non-composite file), the conventional method does not cause much problem in identifying the file format. However, it is expected that the percentage of composite files will increase as multimedia becomes more advanced in the future. At that time, regardless of the format of the basic file, if all the files are displayed with the icon of the same design that only indicates that they are composite files, the file of any format will be created. It is not possible to recognize whether or not the file is a wrong file, and the original purpose of helping the user to understand is lost.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above problems,
By reflecting the basic file format on the visual display using icons, it is possible to easily identify what kind of data format is a composite file, which helps users understand and improve workability. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display method in a multimedia information processing apparatus that operates. [Constitution of Invention]

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention represented below, files of different file formats are stored, and the multimedia information processing in which the file formats are displayed by icons. In the device, means for creating a new file by combining at least two or more files having different file formats among the files being created or the files stored in the device, and a file as a composite source of the new file An icon creating means for processing and combining icons representing formats is provided, and a display system for displaying the format of the new file by the icon created by this means is provided.

[0012]

According to the display method of the present invention, when files of different file formats are combined to create a composite file, the icons representing the file formats of the files used for the composite are reduced by pictograms or other patterns. It is processed by combining it and combined, and is displayed as an icon representing the file format of the composite file. As a result, it becomes possible to easily identify what kind of file format the combined file has, and the above-mentioned object is achieved.

[0013]

【Example】

[Embodiment 1] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a multimedia information processing apparatus capable of displaying the contents and format of a composite file on a display by means of a design icon reflecting the format of the basic file. The input device 1 is a device for inputting and outputting user instructions and data. For example, a keyboard is used for character data, an image scanner is used for still image data, a recorder is used for voice data, and an input device such as a video camera is used for moving image data. The control unit 2 that controls the entire multimedia information processing apparatus is a file that includes an input / output control unit 21 that controls the input device 1 and a file combining unit 221 that executes combining of files, as a main part regarding combining of files. It has a creation / editing unit 22, a storage control unit 23 that controls the storage device 3, and a display control unit 24 that controls the display device 4. The file combining unit 221 includes a data combining unit 2211, an icon reducing unit 2212, and an icon creating unit 2213. The input / output control unit 21 also controls an output device (not shown) such as a printer, a fax machine, a speaker, a television, or a screen.

The storage device 3 includes a data file section 31 for storing input data and additional information such as file size and format, creation date and time, and a design of a control program or icon and a definition corresponding thereto, that is, the icon. A temporary file for temporarily storing data by using a system file unit 32 for storing such a file format and what kind of operation program is executed, and a RAM. It is composed of a data storage unit 33. The data file section 31 and the system file section 32 are specifically a hard disk, a floppy disk, an optical disk, or an E disk.
A PROM or the like can be used regardless of the type, the internal mounting of the information processing apparatus, the external mounting, or the like.

Various data input through the input device 1 are temporarily stored in the temporary data storage unit 33 in the storage device 3 through the storage control unit 23 under the control of the input / output control unit 21, and, for example, document data. If so, a desired document file is created and displayed by the display control unit 24 on the display device 4 such as a display. After that, the input device 1
When the user issues an instruction to store the input data via the, the instruction is similarly transmitted to the file creation / editing section 22 by the input / output control section 21 and stored in the temporary data storage section 33. A file to which additional information indicating the format of the file is added is created using the existing data, and the storage device 3 is controlled by the storage control unit 23.
It is stored in the data file section 31 in the. Thereafter, according to a user's instruction, the file stored in the data file unit 31 is read out via the storage control unit 23 and output to the output device or the display device 4 not shown via the input / output control unit 21 and the display control unit 24. After being displayed and proofreading such as deletion / addition by the user as necessary, the data and additional information are updated by the file creation / editing unit 22 and similarly stored in the data file unit 31. In this way, the data file section 31 can store a large number of document format files, still image format files, audio format files, moving image format files, etc. that are not composited as basic files. It is also possible to store a composite file by associating a plurality of files.

FIG. 2 shows a pattern of icons stored in the system file section 32 and corresponding to the format of the non-composite file which is the basis of this embodiment.
Here, four types are used: document format, still image format, audio format, and moving image format. Depending on the case, for example, the document format can be classified into sentences only, those containing tables and figures, and they can be further classified into minutes, materials, memos, etc., and still image formats into pictures and photographs. , Audio format, music,
It may be set separately for voice or the like.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the composite file icon representing the composite file created by combining the basic files divides a square into two parts vertically and horizontally.
It has a basic shape divided into four equal parts. Each of the four small squares is assigned clockwise to a sentence format at the upper left, a still image format at the upper right, a voice format at the lower right, and a moving image format at the lower left. Then, as shown in FIG. 3B, the icon corresponding to the format of the basic file is reduced for each composite file, and the icon is inserted into the corresponding small square in the icon to create the composite file icon. Is displayed as.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing in detail the operation of the work of editing one new composited file using a plurality of non-composite files created in advance and stored in the data file section 31 as basic files. . In the initial state, it is assumed that five text format files, five audio format files, three still image format files, and one moving image format file are stored in the data storage unit 31, On the display screen, as shown in FIG. 5, an icon representing a file format and a file name below the icon are displayed in the file list space. Although details are omitted, icons for various operations including an icon for activating the composite editing program are displayed outside the space. It is possible to interpret such an operation icon as a program format file. In addition, an operation cursor represented by an arrow or the like is displayed corresponding to the operation of the input device for designating the coordinate position such as a mouse. First, when the operation cursor is moved to the position of the icon for activating the editing program and the instruction is given, the editing program stored in the system file section 32 corresponding to the icon is activated (a). First, a new file to be composited is created by the file creating / editing unit 22 (b), and the basic file stored in the above-mentioned data file unit 31 is directly input with a file name or a file list screen is called. The file is specified by moving the cursor to the position of the file and giving an instruction (c), and is read to the target location through the storage control unit 23 (d). Here, the moving page is created by loading the above-mentioned moving image format file on the first page. On each of the second and subsequent pages, sentences are read from five sentence format files into a body, and five types of voice corresponding to the body are also captured from the voice format file. In addition, the figures captured from the three still image format files are attached to the parts that are difficult to understand from the text alone. Other,
Icons and symbols representing various functions for facilitating the use of files such as page breaks and voice output instructions are appropriately arranged, and further edited as necessary (e). The composite file as shown in FIG. 6 is created and edited by such a procedure. In this embodiment, as described above, the flow of first creating a new file and then reading the basic file into it is adopted, but first, one basic file is read out, and the necessary files are sequentially read there. Other methods such as adding or reading the following basic file can also be adopted according to. The created / edited composite file is further added to the file composite section 2
In step 21, the following processing is performed (f).

Each file is composed of a set of records which are roughly divided into a data field for recording input data and an additional information field for recording additional information. The additional information field is a file name, size, It is subdivided into fields such as format, creation date, and update date. The files are combined by the data combining unit 2211 for each field of each record. For example, in the case of a composite of file format fields, information representing a moving image, a sentence, a sound, and a still image is recorded in the corresponding fields of each basic file, and the composite file created by combining these is All four types of format information are recorded in the corresponding fields.

When the data composition section 2211 completes the composition of the file and its additional information, the composite file icon is subsequently created. First, based on the information recorded in the file format field of the additional information,
The file formats of a plurality of basic files included in this file are checked, and the corresponding icon design is read from the system file section 32. The designs of the plurality of read out file format icons are the icon reduction unit 2212.
After being reduced to 1/4 in (g), it is combined in the icon combination unit 2213 to create a composite file icon fitted in four corresponding small squares on the icon as shown in FIG. (H) and stored as additional information of the file (i).

When listing the files stored in the data file section 31 (j), an icon representing the file format recorded in the additional information of each file is displayed in the storage control section 2.
It is read via 3 (k) and displayed on a display screen or the like (l).

When the pattern of the composite file icon to be used is obvious depending on the number of basic files and the like, it is possible to store them in the system file section 32 together with other types of icons in advance. In this case, the icon corresponding to the file format of the composite file may be called from the system file unit 32 through the storage control unit 23, similarly to the case of displaying the format of the non-composite file with an icon. Further, in reality, the basic files contained in one composite file do not always have all file formats. In that case, as shown in FIG. 8, in the composite file icon, a small square corresponding to a file format that does not correspond to any of the basic files is displayed blank. Naturally, the composite file is not created only by the composite of the non-composite files, but also by the composite of at least two or more composite files or the composite of the non-composite files and the composite files. Can be created. Also, various styles of icons representing this composite file can be considered. For example, instead of dividing the icon into equal parts, display the main format part in a large or emphasized manner, or using a blank in the icon when not compounding using all file formats. The icons may be equally divided according to the number of file formats, or other shapes such as circles or triangles may be used instead of squares, and the present invention is not limited to the format described in this embodiment. [Embodiment 2] FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing in detail the operation of the composite file creation work in another embodiment of the present invention.

The file created / edited in the same manner as the steps (a) to (f) of the first embodiment is stored in the data file section 31 as a composite file via the storage control section 23 ( i ').

When listing the files stored in the data file section 31 (j '), a pattern of an icon corresponding to the file format of the additional information recorded in the file format field is displayed from the system file section 32 (k). ´),
The name of the file recorded in the file name field is read from the data storage unit 31 via the storage control unit 23 and displayed on the display screen (l
´). When the composite file is stored as in this embodiment, the composite file icon creation program is automatically started (m). First, the file formats of a plurality of files included in this file are checked based on the additional information of the composite file, and the corresponding icon design is read. The read-out patterns of the plurality of file format icons are reduced to ¼ in the icon reduction unit 2212 (g ′), and then the icon combination unit 22.
13 are combined, and composite file icons are created (h ') and displayed (l'), which are fitted into four corresponding small squares on the icon as shown in FIG. [Example 3]

Similarly, FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing in detail the operation of the composite file creation operation in another embodiment of the present invention. In the case of the present embodiment, the file which is not yet stored in the data file section 31 and which is being created can be used as a basic file to be combined with other stored files, which is different from the case of the first embodiment. .

After starting the editing program (a), first, a basic file is designated, but if the file being created is not the basic file, each of (a) to (l) described in detail in the first embodiment will be described. Since it is similar to the step, it is omitted here.

When the file being created is designated as the basic file, first, regarding the file being created,
The additional information as detailed as that provided when the file is stored in the data file unit 31 is added (n) and stored in the temporary data storage unit 33 (o).

The subsequent steps are the same as in the first embodiment, and another file stored in the data file section 31 is read into an arbitrary location of the file being created as needed to create a composite file.

[0030]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
Since the composite file is displayed by the icon of the design that reflects the format of the basic file, even if there are many composite files, the contents can be easily visually identified, and the mental burden on the user is reduced. , Work efficiency is also improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a design of an icon representing a file format of a basic file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a composite file icon according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a file composite processing step in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a file list screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the contents of a composite file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a file list screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a composite file icon according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing a file composite processing step in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the steps of a file composite processing according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a composite file.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 input device 23 storage control unit 2 control unit 24 display control unit 21 input / output control unit 3 storage device 22 file creation / editing unit 31 data file unit 221 file combining unit 32 system file unit 2211 data combining unit 33 temporary data storage Part 2212 icon reduction part 4 display device 2213 icon creation part

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. In a multimedia information processing apparatus in which a plurality of files having different file formats are stored and each file format is displayed by an icon, at least two or more files having different file formats are combined to create a new file. If the format of the new file is
A display method characterized in that the icon representing the format of the original file is processed and displayed as a combined icon. 2. In a multimedia information processing device in which files of different file formats are stored and the file formats are displayed by icons, at least two or more of the files being created or the files stored in the device are stored. It has a file combining means for combining files of different file formats to create a new file, and an icon creating means for processing and combining an icon representing a format of a file as a composite source of the new file. A display method in which the format of the new file is displayed by the icon created by. 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for storing a file created by said file combining means, said means storing the icon created by said icon creating means together with said file. Display method described. 4. An input means for inputting data and an instruction from a user, file format information indicating a file format, and various icons corresponding to the state of the apparatus, the operation to be executed and the like, and a system. A first storage means for storing a program for controlling the operation of the second storage means, a second storage means for storing a file having a different file format, and additional information including the file format information is added to the file to store the second information. Storage control means for storing in the storage means, at least two or more files of different file formats among the file being created or the files stored in the second storage means, and the additional information given to each file are combined. And a file included in the additional information when storing the file combined by this means in the second storage means. And an icon creating unit for reading an icon stored in the first storage unit corresponding to the file format information, processing the combined icon to create an icon, and storing the icon in the second storage unit as additional information. And a means for reading out and displaying a corresponding icon stored in the first storage means when displaying or outputting the list of files stored in the second storage means. Display method. 5. An input means for inputting data and an instruction from a user, file format information indicating a file format, and various icons corresponding to the state of the apparatus, the operation to be executed and the like, and a system. A first storage means for storing a program for controlling the operation of the second storage means, a second storage means for storing a file having a different file format, and additional information including the file format information is added to the file to store the second information. Storage control means for storing in the storage means, at least two or more files of different file formats among the file being created or the files stored in the second storage means, and the additional information given to each file are combined. When displaying the list of files to be combined by this means and stored in the second storage means by this means, the additional information It is provided with means for reading out the icon stored in the first storage means corresponding to the included file format information, processing and combining the icon, and means for displaying the icon created by this means. Display method.