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EP0325443A2
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Help facility shared by a plurality of applications
Assignee: HP Inc
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Filing: 1989-01-19
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2009-01-19
Abstract
Abstract A help system is presented which provides a uniform interface for a plurality of applications (11,12,13). For each application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) a help text file (82) is developed. From each application in the plurality of applications, a user may call a main help routine (16). This main help routine (16) accesses the help text file (82) for the application from which the main help routine is called. Using this help text file (82) the main help routine (16) displays text which gives a user information about the application the user is currently using. Thus a user is able to use a standard interface to obtain help information about a particular application.
Inventors
- 👤 Jonathan A. Weiner
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-25 16:39
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F9/00; G06F9/06; G06F9/44; G06F9/451; G06F9/453
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim
123 words
A computing system in which a user may interact with a plurality of applications (11,12,13) which run thereon, said system having a help system comprising: a plurality of help text files (82) wherein each help text file in the plurality of help text files is associated with an application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and, a main help routine (16), which may be accessed by a user from every application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and which presents a user with help information for a first application in the plurality of applications by accessing data from a first help text file in the plurality of first help text files, wherein the first help text file is associated with the first application.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
123 words
A computing system in which a user may interact with a plurality of applications (11,12,13) which run thereon, said system having a help system comprising: a plurality of help text files (82) wherein each help text file in the plurality of help text files is associated with an application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and, a main help routine (16), which may be accessed by a user from every application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and which presents a user with help information for a first application in the plurality of applications by accessing data from a first help text file in the plurality of first help text files, wherein the first help text file is associated with the first application.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
44 words
A system according to claim 1 wherein each help text file (82) comprises: a plurality of entries (174) each entry including a header, the header including a topic name, and each entry including text containing information about the topic named in the topic name.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
156 words
A computing system having a system memory (10), a display (14) and a user help system comprising: a plurality of application programs (11,12,13) residing in the system memory and which may be run by a user; a plurality of help text files (82) residing in the system memory (10) each help text file from the plurality of text files being associated with an application program from the plurality of application programs (11,12,13); and a main help routine (16) residing in the system memory (10) which may be accessed by the user from every application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and which presents the user with help information for a first application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) by accessing data from a first help text file in the plurality of first help text files (87) and displaying the information on the display (14) wherein the first help text file is associated with the first application.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
156 words
A computing system having a system memory (10), a display (14) and a user help system comprising: a plurality of application programs (11,12,13) residing in the system memory and which may be run by a user; a plurality of help text files (82) residing in the system memory (10) each help text file from the plurality of text files being associated with an application program from the plurality of application programs (11,12,13); and a main help routine (16) residing in the system memory (10) which may be accessed by the user from every application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) and which presents the user with help information for a first application in the plurality of applications (11,12,13) by accessing data from a first help text file in the plurality of first help text files (87) and displaying the information on the display (14) wherein the first help text file is associated with the first application.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
43 words
A system according to claim 3 wherein each help text file comprises: a plurality of entries (174) each entry including a header, the header including a topic name, and each entry including text containing information about the topic named in the topic name.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
94 words
A method for providing help information to a user from a plurality of applications (11,12,13), the method comprising: (a) developing for each application in the plurality of applications an associated help text file (82) which contains help information for the application; (b) using a single main help routine (16) to present a single user interface which is accessible for each application in the plurality of applications; and (c) accessing the help text file (82) associated with a current running application for help information when a user requests help information from the current running application.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
94 words
A method for providing help information to a user from a plurality of applications (11,12,13), the method comprising: (a) developing for each application in the plurality of applications an associated help text file (82) which contains help information for the application; (b) using a single main help routine (16) to present a single user interface which is accessible for each application in the plurality of applications; and (c) accessing the help text file (82) associated with a current running application for help information when a user requests help information from the current running application.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
18 words
A method according to claim 5 wherein step (c) includes accessing and displaying a topic name and text.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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