Iconic representation of content

A system for representing contents of computer files via icons, the system comprising:

• a computer memory including a group of directories with lists of files;
• a semantic content extractor for determining a plurality of topics of each of the files from an examination of words in the files;
• and
• a module for creating a plurality of topic icons representing the files including:
• a means for associating a respective one of the topic icons with each of the determined topics, means for assigning weighted values to each of said plurality of topics, and means for selecting topic icons to represent the files based on the weighted values assigned to said determined topics;
• and
• means for creating, for each of the files, a composite icon including the plurality of topic icons associated with the topics of the file, and wherein each of the topic icons of the composite icon for said each of the files has a separate index attachment which opens directly to information in said each file represented by said topic icon.

An icon creator for creating icons and selecting icons for representing a file, comprising:

• a semantic content extractor for identifying the importance and significance of a plurality of topics associated with th& file based on an examination of words in the file;
• and
• a matcher to create a match of data and images to create a multitude of topic icons using a database of images and a database of icons, including:
• a means for associating a respective one of the topic icons with each of the topics, means for assigning weighted values to each of said plurality of topics, and means for selecting a plurality of the created topic icons to form a composite icon to represent the file based on the weighted values assigned to the identified topics;
• and
• wherein each of the selected topic icons of the composite icon has a separate index attachment, which opens directly to information in the file represented by said selected topic icon.

An icon creator for creating an icon representing a file, said file including a larger part showing cars, a smaller part showing travel, and a middle sized part showing dealerships, the icon creator comprising:

• a semantic content extractor for identifying the importance and significance of topics associated with the file based on an examination of words in the file;
• a matcher to create a match of data and images to create composite icons using a database of images and a database of icons;
• wherein said composite icons contain multiple topics including cars and travel, and dealerships;
• and
• means to contain an index which lists information on cars or building, means to show where the information on cars is placed in the file;
• and wherein, using a fraction method, the files can be broken down;
• wherein each icon has an index attachment, which opens directly to the file.

A method for creating icons, comprising:

• generating a list of files;
• reading the word content of each file;
• for each file,
• i) attaching a plurality of topics to the file based on the read word content of the file;
• ii) generating a plurality of topic icons for the file based on the topics attached to the file;
• iii) creating a composite icon for the file from the plurality of topic icons generated for the file;
• and
• iv) using said plurality of topic icons in the composite icon to point to different parts of the file having the different topics associated with said plurality of topic icons;
• creating an index of topics;
• printing a list of topic icons near file names;
• and
• creating a list of topic icons to list files;
• and
• wherein each of the topic icons of the composite icon has an a separate index attachment which opens directly to information in the file represented by said topic icon.

A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for determining and displaying icons representing files containing text, said method steps comprising:

• determining a plurality of topics of a file by examining words in the file;
• searching a database of topic icons;
• assigning weighted values to each of said plurality of topics, including:
• associating a respective one of the topic icons with each of the topics, assigning weighted values to each of said plurality of topics, and selecting topic icons to represent the file based on the weighted values assigned to said determined topics;
• creating a composite icon for the file, said composite icon including the topic icons associated with the topics of the file;
• displaying the composite icon to represent the file;
• and
• wherein each of the topic icons of the composite icon has a separate index attachment which opens directly to information in the file represented by said topic icon.