(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of an operation guidance generating unit which displays an animated procedure of data processors or the like to guide a user, and to a method of generating the operation guidance applied to the operation guidance generating unit.
(2) Description of the Related Arts
The rapid progress in data processing systems provides today's data processors with a variety of functions. However, the operation becomes undesirably complicated as the number of functions increases. Given these circumstances, a data processor capable of displaying operation guidance has been proposed: the operation guidance explains the functions or operation method to a user, so that he can easily operate the data processor.
For example, a document filing system furnished with such an operation guidance display function is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 61-91775. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of this document filing system. This document filing system stores document data on an optical disc, and the stored document data are retrieved for display. In the following, the operation guidance display function of this document filing system will be particularly explained.
The document filing system comprises an image input unit 101, an image output unit 102, an image input/output control unit 103, an optical disc 104, an optical disc unit 105, an optical disc control unit 106, a stationary disc 107, a floppy disc 108, a disc control unit 109, a display unit 110, a key board 111, a display control unit 112, an image memory 113, a data processing unit 114, an operation guidance readout processing unit 132, a writing processing unit 133 for a spare memory, and a display processing unit 134. These processing units operate in the following way.
First of all, documents showing operation instructions for the user, or documents of operation guidance showing the operation instructions and corresponding images are prepared.
Then, the guidance documents are read under the control of the operation guidance readout processing unit 132. The guidance documents are read with the image input unit 101 as image data. Having been recorded in the image memory 113, the image data are stored into the stationary disc 107. Further, the image data are written into the optical disc 104 under the control of the writing processing unit 133. With the abovedescribed processing, the image data of the operation guidance are stored in the document filing system.
During the operation, the image data of the operation guidance stored in the optical disc 104 are read out at a display command from the user under the control of the display processing unit 134 to be displayed on the screen of the display unit 110 by way of the image memory 113 and display control unit 112. FIG. 2 shows an example of a display of the operation guidance. Operation guidance 250 consists of an operation instruction 251 and an operation image 252. Note that the operation instruction 251 alone or both the operation instruction 251 and operation image 252 can be displayed as the operation guidance.
As has been explained, with the operation guidance display method of the conventional document filing system, the operation instructions and the corresponding images are read to be stored in the form of the image data, and then the image data for the operation guidance are retrieved to be displayed at a request from the user. However, the documents must be prepared in a matching number to the various kinds of the operation guidance. For example, even when the images are identical, another document must be prepared if the operation instructions are different, albeit partially. Further, it is not easy to add, amend, or revise the contents of the guidance; the document-preparation process must be repeated from the start to add or amend the contents. Moreover, a document of animated operation guidance includes numerous pages, making the document preparation process time-consuming.