US 5,546,521 AGranted

Dynamic presentation of contextual help and status information

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorAnthony E. Martinez

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Abstract

A method and apparatus of displaying contextual help or status information to the user of a computer system in a graphical user interface. When a help facility is enabled, the system determines the position of a pointer, such as a mouse pointer, relative to the objects in the graphical user interface. If the pointer is over an object, the system refers to one or more tables which correlate objects with help and/or status information. The information is then displayed proximate to the pointer, preferably in a semitransparent window at a predictable offset from the pointer to allow the information presented by the graphical user interface to be viewed. As the pointer is moved across the graphical user interface, the information text associated with the pointer changes dynamically. In one preferred embodiment, at least one of the tables which correlate objects with the information is updated to reflect details about objects which change dynamically.

Claims8

Dependent claims

In a data processor, a method of displaying contextual help to a user thereof comprising the steps of:

initializing a help program;
automatically determining whether a pointer in a graphical user interface in the processor is located over a first data object;
responsive to determining that said first data object is present under the pointer and determining that said help program is initialized, finding information stored in the processor corresponding to the first object, wherein said finding step includes the steps of:
referring to a first table in which corresponding information correlated to the objects in the graphical user interface is dynamically updated to account for changes in the objects;
responsive to not finding corresponding information in said first table, referring to a second table in which corresponding information correlated to the objects in the graphical user interface is stored longer than in said first table;
responsive to not finding corresponding information in said second table, referring to a third table in which corresponding information correlated to the type of objects generally found in the graphical user interface is stored;
and
responsive solely to finding information corresponding to the first data object, displaying the information to the user proximate to the location of the pointer.

5 more elements

A data processing system which displays contextual help to a user comprising:

means for initializing a help program;
means for automatically determining whether a pointer in a graphical user interface is located over a first data object;
means for finding information stored in the data processing system corresponding to the first data object responsive to a determination that the first data object is present under the pointer and that said help program is initialized, wherein said means for finding includes:
means for referring to a first table in which corresponding information correlated to the objects in the graphical user interface is dynamically updated to account for changes in the objects;
means for referring to a second table in which corresponding information correlated to the objects in the graphical user interface is stored longer than in said first table in response to not finding corresponding information in said first table;
means for referring to a third table in which corresponding information correlated to the type of objects generally found in the graphical user interface is stored in response to not finding corresponding information in said-second table;
and
means for displaying the information to the user proximate to the location of the pointer responsive solely to finding information corresponding to the first data object.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/324,294Filed 17 Oct 1994 · continuation
Priority: 15 Oct 1991
Granted: 13 Aug 1996
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

G06F 3/0481
Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]: based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a…
G06F 9/453
Execution arrangements for user interfaces: help systems
G05B 2219/23121
Pc programming: display graphics with corresponding text
G06F
Computing and data processing