Results-oriented help displays for computer software programs

A computer implemented process for making available to a user, in a graphical user interface environment, information related to an expected result of a procedural step prior to executing the step on a computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) displaying a first help window having an activation entity displayed thereon;
• (b) displaying a second help window which appears and at least partially displaces the first help window in response to the user clicking on said activation entity with a pointing device, said second help window containing information regarding the expected result, said information regarding the expected result being a screen capture of a window display as it would appear following execution of the procedural step rather than as a textual description of the expected result of the procedural step;
• and
• (c) clearing the second help window and restoring the first help window in response to user provided input through said pointing device.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for making available to a user in a graphical user interface environment information related to an expected result of a procedural step prior to executing the step on a computer system, the computer program product further comprising:
• computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect displaying a first help window having an activation entity displayed thereon;
• computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect displaying a second help window which appears and at least partially displaces the first help screen in response to the user clicking on said activation entity with a pointing device, said second help screen containing information regarding the expected result;
• computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect providing the information regarding the expected result as a graphic representation of an actual screen as such screen would appear following execution of the procedural step rather than as a textual description of the expected result of the procedural step;
• and computer readable program code devices configured to cause a computer to effect clearing the second help window and restoring the first help window in response to user provided input through said pointing device.

A graphic user interface providing help to a computer user during the running of an application program on a computer, the graphic user interface comprising a plurality of computer readable code devices that operate to make available to the computer user, result information relative to a result that would be accomplished by a given user-initiated application program step, the result information being provided to the computer user prior to the computer user actually executing the given application program step:

• first computer readable code devices configured to cause the computer to display a help screen relating to the given application program step, the help screen having a result icon displayed thereon for selection by the computer user;
• second computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to display a result screen which at least partially displaces the help screen;
• the result screen being displayed in response to the computer user using a pointing device to select the result icon that is displayed on the help screen;
• the result screen containing the information relative to the result that would be accomplished by the given application program step:
• third computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to provide the information relative to the result that would be accomplished by the given application program step as a graphic representation of a application program screen as it would appear following execution of the given application program step rather than as a textual description of the expected result of the procedural step;
• and
• fourth computer readable program code devices configured to cause the computer to clear the result screen and to restore the help screen in response to the compute user using the pointing device to provide an input to the computer.