JPH11265246A - Multi-window display device and method therefor, and medium for storing multi-window display program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display and process the content of even a window in a lower layer when windows are overlapped. SOLUTION: When plural windows 6a and 6b overlap each other, the content of the window 6a in the upper layer is displayed as it is, and the content of the window 6b in the lower layer is also displayed so as to be distinguished from the content of the window in the upper layer by changing the font, display concentration, or display color. When the neighborhood of a character 2 of the window 6b in the lower layer is clicked, the object(character string) of the window in the lower layer can be selected, and an operation such as copy or deletion can be carried out while the display is obtained as it is.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-window display device, a multi-window display method, and a medium storing a multi-window display program capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a display system in a personal computer at present, a window system is mainly used, and in particular, a multi-window system capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows is employed.

[0003]

However, in the conventional multi-window system, even if a plurality of windows are displayed on a display having a limited area, the windows overlap each other and the lower window is hidden by the upper window. Substantially only one or some of the topmost windows were available. And
Browse documents displayed in different windows,
To copy and paste between windows, switch the front display of the window, reduce the window size so that it does not overlap, automatically change the layout of the lower window, and do not cover the upper window It was necessary to take the method of displaying on the part.

[0004] However, the method (1) has a problem that it takes extra time to switch screens, and the method (2) has a disadvantage that the amount of information displayed in one window is small. Further, the method has a drawback that it cannot be used for objects whose meaning cannot be understood when layout information is changed, such as a chart.

An object of the present invention is to provide a multi-window display device, a multi-window display system, and a medium storing a multi-window display program which can also display and process the contents of lower windows when windows overlap. I do.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multi-window display device for simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, wherein a portion of the screen on which the plurality of windows overlap is represented by a coordinate of each window. Superimposing portion detecting means for detecting based on data, display control means for displaying the contents of the lower window together with the contents of the upper window by making the display modes of the overlapping windows different from each other for the portion where the plurality of windows overlap. , Is characterized by having.

According to the present invention, a plurality of windows are simultaneously displayed on a screen. In the case of the window system of a personal computer system, there are an application window and a folder window, and the application window displays processing contents such as character strings and figures processed by the application program. Icons of the folders and files included in the folder are displayed. Multiple windows may be displayed overlapping,
Conventionally, the lower layer window is hidden by the upper layer window and the overlapping portion is not displayed, but in the present invention,
The contents of the lower window are also displayed together with the upper window. At this time, if the images are displayed in exactly the same manner, the user cannot determine which display contents belong to which window. Therefore, the display mode is changed for each window.

In the invention of claim 2 of the present application, the display control means is means for displaying characters of a lower layer window thinner or thinner than characters of an upper layer window among overlapping windows. It is characterized by.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present application is the invention according to claim 2, further comprising means for storing a plurality of fonts having different display densities or line widths of characters, and wherein the display control means is provided with the lower window. Is displayed using a font having a lower display density or a font having a smaller line width than the characters in the window on the upper layer side.

The method of changing the display mode is such that the display density of characters and the thickness of lines are changed for each window as in the second and third aspects of the present invention. Various methods such as a method of changing the display color of the contents of each window can be applied.

The invention of claim 4 of the present application is directed to claims 1 to
In the invention according to claim 3, when the pointing means for pointing one point on the screen and a portion where the plurality of windows overlap is pointed by the pointing means, the distance between the pointing position and the display object of each window is determined. Detect and select the shortest distance display object, or
Selection determining means for moving a cursor to the position of the display object in the window of the display object having the shortest distance.

In the conventional multi-window system, only the uppermost window is active and an object can be designated or the cursor can be moved. When processing a lower layer window, the window is first designated and moved to the uppermost layer. After that, it was necessary to specify the object and the like. Therefore, in the invention of claim 4, in the invention of claims 1 to 3, it is possible to use an instruction means to indicate that the object of the lower window is displayed in a mode different from that of the upper layer. Can be specified and the cursor can be moved. And
When a point on the screen is pointed by pointing means such as a mouse, the distance between the pointed position and the display object of each window is detected, and the display object having the shortest distance or the window of the display object is selected. Added support for object specification and cursor movement. As a result, the step of specifying a window can be omitted, and processing on a multi-window can be made more efficient. The processing between the multi-windows includes, for example, copying and pasting a character string between word processing windows and moving a file icon between folder windows.

[0013] When the lower layer window (display object) is selected by the instruction means and the selection deciding means, the superimposition relation may be changed such as moving the window to the uppermost layer. May be continued as it is.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the multi-window display method for simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window. In a portion where a plurality of windows are overlapped, the display modes of the overlapping windows are made different from each other to display the contents of the upper window and the contents of the lower window.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the fifth aspect, when one point of a portion where the plurality of windows are overlapped is designated, the designated position and a display object of each window are displayed. Is detected, and the display object with the shortest distance is selected, or the cursor is moved to the position of the display object in the window of the display object with the shortest distance.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, when a plurality of windows are simultaneously displayed on a screen, a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window, and a plurality of windows are detected. Are stored in a multi-window display program for displaying the contents of the upper layer window and the contents of the lower layer window by making the display modes of the overlapping windows different from each other for the overlapping portions.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, when a plurality of windows are simultaneously displayed on a screen, a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window, and a plurality of windows are detected. When the overlapping portions are displayed in different manners from each other in the overlapping windows, the contents of the lower window are displayed together with the contents of the upper window, and one point of the overlapping portion of the plurality of windows is designated. Detecting the distance between the indicated position and the display object of each window, and selecting the display object with the shortest distance, or moving the cursor to the position of the display object in the window of the display object with the shortest distance Memorizing the multi-window display program And it features.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A personal computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. This personal computer system has a function of a multi-window system capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a display. Also, when multiple windows are displayed at the same time, even if they overlap, the contents of the lower window (lower window) will be the upper window (upper window)
Display with the contents of At this time, by changing the display mode of the contents of the upper window and the contents of the lower window, it is possible to identify which content belongs to which window. Characters can be identified by changing the font, display density, etc.,
In the case of a figure, it can be identified by changing its display color and the like.

FIG. 1 is an external view of the personal computer system, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram and a configuration diagram of a memory of the personal computer system. In FIG. 1, a display 1 of a CRT is connected to a computer main body 2 by a display cable 3. A keyboard 4 and a mouse 5 are connected to the computer body 2 as input devices. This personal computer system operates in a multi-window system capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows 6 by the functions of a built-in system program and application programs.

In FIG. 2A, a personal computer main body 2 includes a main board 21 on which a CPU and a memory are mounted, a hard disk 22, which is a built-in peripheral device, and a CD.
-ROM drive 23, floppy disk drive 2
4, a modem 25 and the like. Further, a keyboard 4 and a mouse 5 as input devices are connected to the main body 2 of the personal computer, and the CRT display 1 is connected through a display control unit 26 having a built-in frame buffer. The system program, the font group, and the application program are stored in the hard disk 22, and are read into the RAM 21a of the main board 21 when executing the program.
The system program, font group, and application program are supplied by a CD-ROM 33 set in the CD-ROM drive 23, a floppy disk 34 set in the floppy disk drive 24, and the like, and are installed on the hard disk 22. Further, the operation program may be downloaded from the server computer 40 connected via the modem 25.

In FIG. 2B, a hard disk drive 22 has a system program 220, a font data group 221 and an application program 222.
Is stored. The system program 220 is a program for controlling the basic functions of the personal computer.
Is read in. The font data group 221 includes various font data, and an appropriate font is selected by a system program or an application program. As the application program 222,
For example, there are a word processing program and a CAD program, and when a user instructs to start each program, RA
It is read into M21a.

In FIG. 2C, when the personal computer is started, a system area 210 is secured in the RAM 21a, and a system program read from the hard disk drive 22 is written to an area 211 in the system area 210. In the system area 210, a window data area 212 for controlling window display, a font cache 21
3. A storage area such as a copy / paste buffer 214 is secured. When an application program such as a word processing program is started, an application area 230 is reserved for the execution of the application program, and the application program 231 is read into the application area 230 and the work area 2 is read.
32 are reserved. The work area stores the contents of an application window displayed by the application.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the control function of the system program. Window display unit 11
Is a functional unit that actually draws a window and its contents in response to a command from the window control unit 12. The drawn contents are developed on a frame buffer of the display control unit 26.

The window control section 12 is a functional section for managing the superimposition relation of windows. The layout of the windows to be displayed is determined in accordance with the operation of the input device or the instruction from the application program, and the window layout is instructed to the window display unit 11. As a result of comparing the display coordinates of each window, a plurality of windows are displayed in an overlapping manner. If it is detected that the fonts are overlapped, the font, the display density, the display color, and the like according to the vertical relationship are instructed to the window display unit 11. In addition, the user can specify the number of windows that can be transparently displayed as transparent windows, that is, the number of windows that can be seen through even if they are overlapped, to the window control unit 12. The window control unit 12 corresponds to a superimposition unit detection unit and a display control unit. The detection of window overlap may be performed by actually developing each window and comparing its coordinates, or may be performed based on a comparison operation of an expression that defines the display position of each window.

The input device operation recognition unit 13 is a functional unit that recognizes operations from input devices such as the mouse 5 and the keyboard 4. When the mouse 5 is clicked, the coordinates of the pointer displayed on the display 1 at the time of the click are detected.

The font management unit 14 manages fonts used in each of a plurality of overlapping windows. In this system, the contents of the lower window are displayed even in the portion where the upper window overlaps. For this reason,
Change the font used in the upper window and the display font in the lower window. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a font whose line width becomes thinner as it goes down from the upper window to the lower window is used, and the font is selected so that the display density becomes lighter as it goes down from the upper window to the lower window. Here, FIG.
Is an example of fonts with the same shape (Roman) but different line widths (Bold, Medium, Light).
FIG. 2B is an example in which completely different fonts are used.

Such a set of fonts is prepared in the font management unit 14 as a font set in advance, and when windows overlap and a font set becomes necessary, the font management unit 14 All you have to do is select a font. The font set may be automatically set by the font management unit 14, or may be selected and set by the user. Further, the font set held by the font management unit 14 is not limited to one set, and may be a plurality of sets. In this case, it is only necessary to determine which font set to use based on the font or the like originally used for each window.

In the overlapping area, the characters of each window are displayed in the font determined as described above in order to identify the contents of each window, but the display font of the other non-overlapping areas is arbitrary. Yes, a font originally used in each window may be used, or a font determined to be used in an overlapping area may be used in this non-overlapping area.

Instead of using the font set, a font originally used in each window may be used, and only the display density and display color may be changed so that each window can be identified.

The operation of the font management unit 14 and the window control unit 12 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This operation is repeatedly executed in a short time in order to detect the operation of the input device and the processing of the application program and quickly change the display. First,
The vertical relationship of the window currently displayed on the display is recognized (s1). Recognize an overlapping area (superimposed area) in the displayed window (s
2). Then, a character string to be displayed in the overlapping area is determined (s3), and a font corresponding to the window hierarchy or a font density or thickness is selected (s4). In parallel with the processing of this superimposed area,
Non-overlapping area of each window (non-overlapping area)
Is determined (s5), and a font corresponding to the non-overlapping area of each window is selected (s5).
6). After this font selection operation, the character strings in each window are arranged in each window using the selected font (s7). This arrangement is performed on the frame buffer of the display control unit 26, and this is displayed on the display 1 (s8).

In FIG. 3, an operation target window recognizing unit 15 is a functional unit for recognizing which window is to be operated based on the coordinates (click coordinates) at which the pointer is displayed when the mask 5 is clicked. is there.
When a portion where the windows do not overlap is clicked, it is recognized that the window or desktop at the clicked coordinate is selected. When a region where a plurality of windows are overlapped is clicked, it is recognized that a window including an object having the shortest distance from the click coordinates is selected, and that the object is recognized as being selected. If the object is a character, the distance between the center point of the character and the click coordinates may be compared.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, it is assumed that the windows 6a and 6b contain the characters "A" and "KA", respectively. The distance between the click coordinate of the mouse 5 and the center of the character "a" and the character "ka" is d
1, d2, and if d1 <d2, the distance is d
It recognizes that the window 6a including the character “A” is selected. If d1 = d2, it is recognized that the upper layer window 6a has been selected. Also, in this case, when d1 is equal to or less than a certain value, it is recognized that the object “A” has been selected simultaneously with the selection of the window.

In FIG. 3, an application interface 6 is a functional unit for transferring the processing of an application program such as a word processing program or a CAD program to the window control unit 12. Processing such as copying, pasting, and deleting an object is performed by an application program in response to a user operation, and the resulting drawing information is passed to the window control unit 12.

The copy / paste operation of the system program will be described with reference to the drawing of FIG. 7 and the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 7 shows a copy of the character string “Aioe”, which is data displayed in the lower window,
It is a figure explaining the case where it pastes in an upper layer window. First, the operation procedure will be described. First, the user clicks the vicinity of the character string "Aioeo" which is the object 60 of the lower window 6d. As a result, the lower layer window 6d and the object 60 are selected. Then, a predetermined copy operation (such as “Ctrl + C”) is performed to load the object 60 into the buffer 214. Then, the non-overlapping area of the upper window 6c is clicked to select the upper window 6c, and a predetermined paste operation (such as "Ctrl + V") is performed to paste the buffered object near the click position. As a result, the character string "aiueo" is pasted on the upper window 6c. In this example, "aiueo" is 1
One object is selected by clicking, but if each character of "Aioe" is a separate object, drag the mouse when selecting window 6d by mouse click, or Alternatively, the user may directly drag the mouse to select all the objects "aiueo".

Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 8, the above-mentioned copy / paste operation in the personal computer system will be described. When the mouse 5 is clicked on the window (s11), it is determined whether or not this mouse click has been performed in the overlapping area where the windows overlap (s11).
12). If the mouse is clicked on the superimposed area,
The distance between all the character strings in the superimposition area and the click coordinates is measured (s13). Among these, the window including the character string at the shortest distance from the click coordinates is set as the operation target (s14). Then, the character string selected by dragging the mouse is copied to the buffer (s15). That is, this process is performed when the user drags the mouse on the selected window to select a character string and performs a predetermined copy operation. Next, when the mouse is clicked on the window again (s16), if the click is on the superimposed area (s17), the top window is selected (s18).
When a window other than the superimposed area is clicked, the clicked window is selected (s1).
9). Then, the character string copied in the buffer is pasted into this window (s20). In the case of the second mouse click, a window having an object closest to the click coordinates may be selected.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to a desktop personal computer system,
The present invention can be applied to any information processing device having a display, such as a notebook personal computer, a notebook-sized small information terminal or the like having a liquid crystal display, a bank or other financial device. The present invention can also be applied to those having a touch panel on a display surface, such as an ATM installed in an institution and an automatic ticketing machine installed in a railway station.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, even when a plurality of windows are displayed overlapping each other, the contents of all the windows are displayed, so that all the windows can be overlooked at the same time, and a small screen is displayed. Even so, the advantages of multi-window can be maximized.
Further, in this case, since the contents of each window are displayed in a different manner, there is no mistake as to which contents belong to which window.

Further, according to the present invention, even the object displayed in the lower window can be selected as it is, or the cursor can be moved to the lower window, so that the window can be moved to the uppermost layer. The step of causing the object to be omitted can be omitted, and processing such as copying and pasting an object between windows and moving an object can be performed extremely efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a personal computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the personal computer system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating functions of a system program of the personal computer system.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view for explaining selection of a display font when a plurality of windows overlap in the personal computer.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view for explaining font management processing of the personal computer.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary view for explaining selection of an object in a state where a plurality of windows are overlapped on the personal computer.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view for explaining copy paste between a plurality of windows of the personal computer.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a copy / paste operation between a plurality of windows of the personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CRT display, 2 ... Personal computer main body, 4 ... Keyboard, 5 ... Mouse, 6 ... Window (displayed on a display), 21 ... Main board, 2
1a RAM, 22 hard disk drive, 23 ...
CD-ROM drive, 33: CD-ROM, 24: Floppy disk drive, 34: Floppy disk, 26: Display controller

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A multi-window display device for simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, comprising: a superimposition section detecting means for detecting a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen based on coordinate data of each window; A multi-window display device, comprising: display control means for displaying the contents of the lower layer window together with the contents of the upper layer window by making the display modes of the overlapping windows different from each other in a portion where the windows overlap. 2. The multi-window display according to claim 1, wherein said display control means is means for displaying characters of a lower layer window thinner or thinner than characters of an upper layer window among overlapping windows. apparatus. 3. A display device comprising: means for storing a plurality of fonts having different display densities or line widths of characters, wherein the display control means has a lower display density for characters in the lower window than in upper windows. 3. The multi-window display device according to claim 2, wherein the display unit uses a font or a font with a small line width for displaying. 4. An instructing means for instructing one point on a screen, and when an instructing means instructs a portion where the plurality of windows overlap, a distance between the instructed position and a display object of each window is detected. And a selection determining means for setting a display object having the shortest distance to a selected state or moving a cursor to a position of the display object in a window of the display object having the shortest distance. The multi-window display device according to claim 2 or claim 3. 5. A multi-window display method for simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, wherein a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window, and the plurality of windows overlap. A multi-window display method characterized by displaying the contents of the lower layer window together with the contents of the upper layer window by making the display modes of the overlapping windows different from each other. 6. The multi-window display method according to claim 5, wherein when one point of a portion where the plurality of windows overlap is designated, a distance between the designated position and a display object of each window is detected. And selecting a display object having the shortest distance, or moving a cursor to a position of the display object in a window of the display object having the shortest distance. 7. When a plurality of windows are simultaneously displayed on a screen, a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window, and a portion where the plurality of windows overlap each other is detected. A medium storing a multi-window display program for displaying the contents of the lower layer window together with the contents of the upper layer window by making the display modes of the respective windows different from each other. 8. When simultaneously displaying a plurality of windows on a screen, a portion where the plurality of windows overlap on the screen is detected based on coordinate data of each window, and a portion where the plurality of windows overlap each other is detected. The contents of the lower window are displayed together with the contents of the upper layer window by making the display modes of the windows different from each other, and when one point of the overlapping portion of the plurality of windows is designated, the designated position and the position of each window are indicated. A medium storing a multi-window display program for detecting a distance to a display object and selecting a display object having the shortest distance, or moving a cursor to a position of the display object in a window of the display object having the shortest distance .