JPS62182913A - Help guide system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve and extract a help guide message most suitable for a user by narrowing down and displaying candidates of a question item table when help is requested and allowing the user to select proper one of carefully selected candidates. CONSTITUTION:A certain threshold is determined for a posibility list to select items having the number of points larger than the threshold, thereby selecting and displaying only candicates nearer to contents of question of the user. When the user selects such item, a request corresponding to the selected item is displayed under the table, and the question is analyzed on a basis of this interrogative sentence, and a help information retrieving function is executed on a basis of the obtained result, and a help network stored in an external storage part 4 is used to retrieve pertinent help information. Fractionized concrete help messages are extracted and retrieved and are displayed on an output part 2 to realize help for the user.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention provides a help system that provides appropriate help guide information to a user when the user issues a help request regarding how to use an information processing device, etc. Regarding the guide method.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

In information processing devices such as computer systems, word processors, information retrieval devices, fax machines, and telephones, the meaning of each key or button on the keyboard, such as (correction) or (insert), is clearly labeled to make it easier for users to understand. or display a diagram (icon) representing the function on the screen for selection. However, preparing function keys and icons for every case is not possible due to the limitations of keyboards and screens. Therefore, in an information processing device,
Only a limited number of function keys and icons are considered, and a desired function request is made using a combination of these keys and icons.

In this case, since one function is generally performed by operating a plurality of keys, it is an important issue in the user interface to provide help guides to make the functions as simple as possible and to meet the user's needs.

However, the conventional help guide method was limited to a help guide on how to use each function's keys and individual icons. In addition, as another help guide method that improves this,
The help guide system consists of several steps: first, basic and general help information is provided, and then more detailed explanations are provided in response to the user's requests. Although this is easier for users to use than the above-mentioned help guide method, it does not go beyond the help guide for individual keys and icons. Therefore, it has been impossible to provide help guides for functions that require two or more key operations, or functions that require multiple steps of operation, for which users normally request help.

For example, if a user wishes to ``move some of the ruled lines to the next page'' while operating a word processor, it is almost impossible to provide specific help information that meets this request.

In other words, since there is no key (icon) for moving the border, you will need to request help guide for the border key (icon) or movement (icon), but the help information for the movement key (icon) does not explain how to move the text. , ruled lines are often not written, while the ruled line key (icon)
, even though explanations are provided for inputting and deleting ruled lines, there are often no explanations for moving them. therefore,
The user ends up not being guided about "moving the ruled line to the next page."

One way to solve this problem is to learn about users' requests by receiving and answering their questions. However, if questions from users were answered in natural language, especially in the case of Japanese, complex processing such as selecting homonyms and supplementing abbreviations would be required.

It is not very practical in terms of processing speed and cost.

Therefore, there is a method in which the user is given a plurality of options for each item in advance and asked to combine them to form a question. However, even with this method, until now the items/candidates given as options were only one or several options prepared in advance, and the items/candidates could not be changed in detail depending on the user's intention or situation. There wasn't. As a result, the number of candidates will inevitably increase.

Users had to perform the difficult operation of selecting the most appropriate one from among a large number of candidates and constructing a question.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention provides that when a user issues a help request and asks a question,
In order to reduce the burden on users, the purpose is to provide a help guide method that narrows down and displays options for creating questions.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention narrows down and displays each candidate in a list of question items when requesting help, and allows the user to assemble a question by selecting an appropriate one from the carefully selected candidates. This allows the system to understand and judge what the user wants to know, search for, extract and present the most suitable help guide message for the user.

Usually, when a user requests help, it is when they do not understand how to operate the device or when an error occurs and they do not know how to deal with it. It is deeply related to the situation and history. Therefore, by analyzing the situation using the user's input history information and selecting candidates related to the situation for each item from the candidate correspondence table, it is possible to narrow down the list. The candidate correspondence table shows the relationship between the candidates and their probabilities as percentages. By using this information to determine the possibilities of candidates for each item, a list of possibilities for each item will be created, and by selecting a few with high probability from this list, only candidates that are close to the user's intention can be created. will be selected.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the number of question list candidates that a user selects when requesting help is reduced. As a result, the display time and display area of the question list are reduced, and the time for the user to make selections is also reduced. Therefore, the operational efficiency of the user is greatly improved, and the user's anxiety is also greatly reduced, so that the user can use information processing equipment with peace of mind, and the practical advantages thereof are enormous.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the method of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a Japanese word processor.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the input unit 1 is an input device capable of inputting a single character, a numerical value, a command, etc., and specifically includes a keyboard, a mouse, etc. The output unit 2 is a display device such as a CRT. The internal storage unit 3 stores programs and data. The external storage section 4 is a magnetic disk device such as a floppy disk or a hard disk, an optical disk device, a memory card, a magnetic tape, etc., and help information and the like are stored here. The control unit 5 controls these.

FIG. 2 specifically shows the configuration of the internal storage section 3. As shown in FIG. The internal storage section 3 is divided into a code storage section 31 and a data storage section 32. Furthermore, the code storage section 31 includes the input section 1. Output unit 2, I10 control function unit 311 that controls external storage unit 4, help control function unit 312, and application processing function unit 3
Consists of 13. The data storage section 32 is an area for storing data used by each of the above functional sections during execution.

FIG. 3 is an example of a question item table displayed on the output section.

FIG. 4 is an example of a question table in a situation different from that shown in FIG. The underlined candidates in FIG. 4 are those selected by the user, and below the table they are combined and the content the user wants to know is shown as text.

FIG. 5 is an example of a help network for searching and extracting help information that the user specifically wants to know from candidates selected in the question list. A segmented help message index 51 is located at the end of the help network.

FIG. 6 is an example of a subdivided help message IJt.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an overview of the processing of the help control function section in one embodiment of the method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a concrete example of step 75 in FIG. 7, and is about narrowing down the target and axis items.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a candidate correspondence table of a question item table, which is one of the pieces of information stored in the external storage unit 4. This table shows, in percentage terms, how likely a candidate is to become the next candidate.

FIG. 10 is an example of a possibility list.

Figure 11 is an example of storing the history of command input operations.
The new key operation is below.

FIG. 12 is an example of a state transition diagram. Keys are shown in parentheses.

The narrowing down process performed by the help control function section will be specifically explained below with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

The data input from the input unit 1 is sent to the I10 control function unit (
through the help control function section (Fig. 2 311)
2), and it is determined whether it is a help request (step 73 in FIG. 7).

If a help request is made now, the application processing function unit 31
The state analysis means in 3 uses the input history data and state transition diagram stored in the data storage unit 32,
The current work status is analyzed in accordance with the question items (step 74).

For example, the items between II' are objects, actions, and directions.

The explanation consists of 9 concise sentences, and the last 3 input history data are ``ruled line key'', ``ruled line key'', and ``movement key J'' as shown in Figure 11.At this time, the state The analysis means applies the history of these three inputs to the state transition diagram shown in FIG. 12, thereby analyzing the current work status as ``the ruled line is being moved.'' As a result, the two objects and actions are analyzed as object=ruled line and action=movement.

Next, based on this analyzed information, display item selection function)
Step 75) is performed.

In FIG. 8, candidate selection for the object is first performed at 752. Here, we will discuss ruled lines and things related to ruled lines (
(for example, underlined) is given a certain score and stored in a possibility list. In this case, a correspondence table like the one shown in FIG. 9 is used to determine what is related to what and the score of its possibility. This table expresses the depth of the relationship between candidates as a ratio, and the candidate obtained by the state analysis means is searched for by Candidate 1, and the depth of the relationship with the candidate related to it is determined from Candidate 2 and the ratio. If we were to give 100 points to the ruled line, the underline would be 80 points due to the value (80%) in the candidate correspondence table.
It becomes a point. 754 The same thing applies to actions.
Do it with

Next, based on the possibility list obtained from 752.754,
The final score is 755.756. For example, "Create", which is a possible action for ruled lines, has a probability of 50% compared to 100 points for ruled lines, so 50 points will be added.
``Delete'', which is a possible action for the underline, has a probability of 50% compared to the 80 points for the underline, so 40 points will be added. For an action, points are added for objects for which the action is possible. Figure 10 shows an example of possibility list!.

By setting a certain threshold value for the possibility list obtained through the above processing and selecting items with scores higher than that threshold, it is possible to select and display only candidates that are closer to the question the user is asking. can. In addition, candidates with scores below the threshold are classified as “Other” in the item, and “Other”
Display when the item is selected. This makes it possible to deal with the situation when the user tries to ask a question that is not very relevant to the situation.

An example of displaying the question item table created in the above manner from the output unit 2 (step 86) is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

When the user selects each item (step 77), the request corresponding to the selected item is displayed at the bottom of the table. Then, based on this question text, the question is analyzed, and based on the obtained results, a help information search function (step 79) is performed.
Here, a help network stored in an external storage unit such as the example shown in FIG. 5 is used to search for the relevant help information. Then, the subdivided specific help messages (FIG. 6) are extracted and searched and displayed on the output unit 2 to provide help to the user.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, the content of the created text may be used to analyze the state when requesting help, or previously asked questions may be used.

In addition, in the above example, the Japanese word processor was used as an example to show how to narrow down the target and action.
In addition to this, explanation content and direction.

It is possible to narrow down the questions to items that are considered to constitute questions regarding information processing devices, such as the brevity of sentences.

Furthermore, regarding the correspondence table between candidates, the scale that expresses the depth of the relationship between candidates is not limited to the relative scale used in the above example, but may also be an absolute score. The present invention is not limited to the methods of the embodiments, and in short, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram specifically showing the configuration of the internal storage section, and FIG. 3 is an example of a question list displayed on the output section. FIG. 4 is an example in which a question list and selected candidates in a situation different from that in FIG. 3 are combined into a question text. Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of a help network for searching and extracting help information, Figure 6 is a display example of a help message, Figure 7 is a flowchart of the process of the help control function, and Figure 8 is a diagram showing an example of a help network for searching and extracting help information.
The figure is an example of a detailed flow diagram of the part where items are narrowed down.
Figure 91m is a correspondence table between question item candidates, Figure 10 is an example of a possibility list, Figure 11 is an example of storing the history of command input operations, and Figure 12 is an example of a state transition diagram used for state analysis. be. 1... Input section 2... Output section 3...
Internal storage section 4... External storage section 5... Control section 31... Code storage section 32... Data storage section 311... I10 control function section 312...
・Help control function department 313...Application processing function department representative Patent attorney Nori Chika Ken Yudo Kikuo Takehana Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 8 Figure 4 Figure 5 Whistle +7 M Figure 8 Figure 6 Figure 9 Figure 10

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A means for inputting the user's help request, a control means for analyzing the situation at the time of the help request, a means for outputting question items based on the information obtained by the control means, and a means for inputting the user's help request. A help guide method comprising means for searching and outputting a help guide message based on a question. (2) The control means includes a storage means for storing a history of command input operations, a state analysis means for analyzing the state at the time of a help request using the history stored in the storage means, and a help target, action, and explanation. a storage means for storing item information including a plurality of candidates belonging to each item such as content;
2. The help guide method according to claim 1, further comprising a corresponding item candidate selecting means for selecting a corresponding item candidate in said storage means based on the output of said state analyzing means. (3) The help guide method according to claim 2, wherein the corresponding item candidate selection means uses a situation-dependent probability list.