JP2000099227A - Drag-and-drop operation control system, operation control method, and recording medium recording program thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] In the conventional technology, a plurality of objects cannot be efficiently dragged and dropped to different destinations. SOLUTION: When an object is designated on a screen of a display device 1 by a mouse 2, a pop-up menu 60 for selecting a designated object as a drop destination or a drag target near the object.
Is displayed, and the selected object is stored in the object table 4a. By repeating this operation, a plurality of drop destinations / drag targets are registered, and a list menu of each registered object is displayed near the object designated by the mouse 2, and the object selected from the list is moved to the object destination / drag target. The specified object is dropped as a drag target.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drag-and-drop technique using a pointing device such as a mouse in an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a workstation. The present invention relates to a drag-and-drop operation control system and operation control method suitable for reducing a user load at the time of an AND-drop operation, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in information processing apparatuses such as personal computers and workstations, it has been widely practiced to drag and drop objects using a pointing device such as a mouse.

The drag and drop of an object means that an application, file, folder, or the like is displayed as an object such as an icon on a screen (display) of a display device, and the object (an icon or the like) is displayed with a mouse or the like. This is an operation to move the application on the screen and copy an application or move a file. Specifically, the cursor is positioned on the target object on the screen with the mouse, the object is moved to the destination by moving the mouse (cursor) while keeping the mouse button pressed, and the mouse button is pressed at the destination Release the button.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional drag and drop operation. When the object A (1) is dragged and dropped on the screen of the display device to the object B (1) using the mouse, the locus of the mouse cursor becomes an arrow. As described above, the drag-and-drop operation using the mouse is widely used because the operation status is easily understood visually. However, this technique is inconvenient because the user must keep the mouse button pressed during the drag.

[0005] As a conventional technique for addressing such a problem, for example, there is a technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-296183. This technology is a drag-and-drop technology that incorporates the concept of a set of moving objects called a drag set, and allows an iconified object to be dragged without the user holding down a mouse button.

However, in the prior art including Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-296183, no consideration is given to the case where a plurality of objects are efficiently dragged and dropped to different destinations. That is, in the conventional drag and drop technique, a plurality of objects can be dragged and dropped to one destination at a time, but the number of destinations is limited to one. Therefore, when dragging and dropping multiple objects to different destinations, grabbing one object at a time, moving it to the destination, releasing it, moving to the next object, and repeating the same operation Become.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional drag and drop operation on a plurality of objects. Here, three objects A (1), A (2), and A (3) are represented by objects B (1), B (2), and B (2), respectively.
The locus of the mouse cursor when dragging and dropping to B (3) is shown. In this operation, the user operates A (1) → B (1) → A (2) → B (2) → A (3) → B
The mouse cursor must be moved in the order of (3), the amount of movement of the mouse cursor increases, the operation load increases, and an operation error easily occurs.

[0008]

The problem to be solved is that, in the prior art, when a plurality of objects are respectively dragged and dropped to different destinations, it is not possible to hold the objects one by one and then hold the destination. The point is that you have to carry it away, move it to the next object, and repeat the same operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art and to minimize the amount of movement of a cursor of a pointing device such as a mouse in a drag-and-drop operation, thereby improving drag-and-drop operability. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drag-and-drop operation control system and an operation control method capable of improving the performance and a recording medium storing the program.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a drag-and-drop operation control system and an operation control method according to the present invention provide an object control method on a screen of a display device by pressing a right button of a mouse, for example. Is specified, the specified object is dragged and dropped near the object,
Alternatively, a pop-up menu for selecting a drag target is displayed, and the selected object is stored. By repeating this operation, a plurality of drop destinations or drag targets are registered. Then, when an object is designated on the screen by, for example, pressing the left button of the mouse, a list of registered objects is displayed in a pop-up menu near the object, and the object selected from the list is displayed. As an object destination or a drag target, a specified object is dropped or dropped on a specified object.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the drug / drug of the present invention.
1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a configuration according to the present invention of an AND-drop operation control system.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a CRT (Cathode Ra).
y Tube), 2 a mouse as a pointing device (input device), 3 a CPU (Centra
l, an information processing device having a processing unit and a main memory for performing processing by a storage program method;
(Hard Disk Driver), etc., and 5 is F
D (Flexible Disk) and CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Re
ad Only Memory) and 6 is a recording medium 5
It is a driving device that reads data and programs from the computer.

The information processing device 3 reads the program and data of the recording medium 5 into the main memory or the external storage device 4 via the drive device 6, thereby storing the object storage processing portion 7a, the menu display processing portion 7b, and the drop processing portion. A drag-and-drop control unit 7 comprising an object table 4a and an operation information table 4b are generated in the external storage device 4.

In the drag-and-drop control unit 7, when an object is designated by a mouse cursor on the screen of the display device 1 by the user pressing the right button of the mouse 2, for example, the menu display processing unit 7b. In addition, a pop-up menu for selecting a specified object as a drop destination or a drag target of the drag-and-drop operation is displayed near the object.

When the user selects the specified object as a drop destination or a drag target in the pop-up menu, the selected object is registered in the object table 4a by the object storage processing unit 7a. By repeating this operation, a plurality of drop destinations or drag targets are registered in the object table 4a.

Thereafter, when the user designates an object on the screen of the display device 1 by pressing the left button of the mouse 2, the menu display processing section 7b places each object registered in the object table 4a near the object. Display a list of objects in a pop-up menu.

Then, the user operates the mouse 2 to
When one object is selected from the list as a drop destination, the specified object is dropped on the selected object by the drop processing unit 7c. Alternatively, when the user operates the mouse 2 and selects one or more objects from the list as a drag target, the drop processing unit 7c drops the selected object onto the specified object.

Hereinafter, the operation of the drag-and-drop operation control system having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of the object table in FIG. 1, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of an operation information table in FIG. In the object table 4a in FIG. 2, the names ("A (1)", "A (2)",
“A (3)”,...) Are stored in an array format.

The operation information table 4b shown in FIG.
Are a menu display state item 31 for storing a display state of a pop-up menu displayed on the display device 1, and a selected object item 32 for storing a currently selected object.
Consists of “Displaying” is stored in the menu display state item 31 while the pop-up menu is being displayed on the screen of the display device 1 in FIG. 1, and “non-display” is stored otherwise. The selected object item 32 may store an object to be dragged (drag target), or may store the destination (drop destination) of the object of the movement destination.

The drag-and-drop control unit 7 shown in FIG. 1 controls these tables (object table 4a,
By referring to or updating the information stored in the operation information table 4b), the processing operation according to the present invention is performed as shown in FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the drag-and-hold operation in FIG.
5 is a flowchart illustrating a first processing operation example of the drop operation control system according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a second processing operation example of the drag-and-drop operation control system in FIG. 1 according to the present invention. It is.

FIG. 4 shows an operation example when the right button of the mouse 2 in FIG. 1 is pressed. First, when the menu display state item 31 of the operation information table 4b shown in FIG. If there is (step 101), the pop-up menu currently displayed on the screen of the display device 1 in FIG.
Once deleted (step 102), a new pop-up menu is created and displayed.

That is, "add drag" is created as the first menu item (step 103). Next, the object currently being dragged is referred to as the menu item by referring to the object table 4a shown in FIG. Add (step 104). It should be noted that the contents displayed in this menu item need only be such that the user (operator) can identify the menu item, such as the first few characters in the case of character string data. Absent.

Next, the coordinates of the mouse (cursor) are obtained (step 105), and the popup menu is moved and displayed so that the upper left coordinates of the popup menu are located at the coordinates (step 106). Finally, the menu display state item 31 of the operation information table 4b is set to "displaying" (step 107). FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of the pop-up menu displayed in this manner.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of the pop-up menu displayed in the processing in FIG. The pop-up menu 60 of the present example is displayed on the screen of the display device 1 of FIG. 1 in the processing of FIG. 4 from the information stored in the object table 4a of FIG. "Add to drag" at the beginning,
Thereafter, the contents stored in the object table 4a (objects “A (1)”, “A (2)”, “A (3)”) are set.

The pop-up menu 60 is located near the mouse cursor on the screen of the display device 1 at the time when the right button of the mouse 2 in FIG. 1 is pressed. In this example, the coordinates of the mouse cursor correspond to the upper left coordinates of the pop-up menu. Is displayed as follows.

Next, the processing of FIG. 5 will be described. This figure 5
Is an operation example when the user presses the left button of the mouse 2 in FIG. 1. First, the mouse (cursor) coordinates on the screen of the display device 1 in FIG. 1 at that time are obtained (step 201). If the menu display state item 31 in the operation information table 4b shown in FIG. 3 is not "displaying" (step 202), the object selection process is performed.

That is, it is checked whether or not the mouse coordinates are on the object (step 208). If there is, the object is set in the selected object item 32 of the operation information table 4b (step 209).
This object may be an object to be dragged, or may be an object representing a drag destination.

In step 202, if the menu display state item 31 is "displaying", it is checked whether or not the mouse (cursor) coordinates are included in the display area of the pop-up menu 60 in FIG. (Step 203). If it is included, and the mouse (cursor) coordinates are on the “Add to Drag” menu item in the pop-up menu 60 (step 20)
4) Add the contents stored in the selected object item 32 to the object table 4a in FIG. 2 (step 20).
5).

In step 204, if the mouse (cursor) coordinates point to a menu item representing an object in the pop-up menu 60, a corresponding object is obtained (step 210), and the object is stored in the operation information table 4b. Drop (copy or move) the object pointed to by the selected object item 32 (step 211). Then, the object is deleted from the object table 4a (step 212).

At the end of these processes, the pop-up menu 60 is deleted from the screen of the display device 1 (step 20).
6), menu display state item 3 in the operation information table 4b
1 is set to "non-display" (step 207).

Next, a case where an object to be dragged by the user is added based on such a processing operation will be described. First, the user positions the cursor of the mouse 2 on the object to be moved on the screen of the display device 1 in FIG. 1 and presses the left button of the mouse 2. By this operation, the flow of FIG.
The object is set in the selected object item 32 in the operation information table 4b of FIG. 3 by the processes of 2, 208, and 209.

Next, when the user presses the right button of the mouse 2, the flow of FIG.
By the process of 6, for example, the pop-up menu 60 shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the screen of the display device 1 near the cursor of the mouse 2.

When the user moves the cursor of the mouse 2 to "add to drag" in the pop-up menu 60 displayed in this way and presses the left button of the mouse 2, the flow of FIG. 5 is started. Steps 201 and 2
By the process of 05, the content of the selected object item 32 of the operation information table 4b is added to the object table 4a of FIG.

Thus, the object is added as a drag target. If a plurality of objects are to be added as drag targets, the user may repeat the above operation for each object. In this case, if a plurality of objects to be dragged are displayed close to each other, the designation operation can be performed with a small amount of movement of the mouse (cursor).

When the object specified as the drag target is dropped as described above, the following processing operation is performed. The user uses the mouse 2 to display the display 1
When the mouse cursor is positioned on the object of the movement destination or the copy destination on the screen of FIG. 5 and the left button of the mouse 2 is pressed, the processing operation of FIG.
The object is set in the selected object item 32 of the operation information table 4b of FIG. 3 by the processes of 02, 208, and 209.

Next, when the user presses the right button of the mouse 2, the processing operation of FIG. 4 is started. For example, a pop-up menu 60 of FIG. 6 is displayed near the cursor of the mouse 2 on the screen of the display device 1. The object to be dragged added by the process of 104 is displayed as a menu item.

Further, the user sets the pop-up menu 6
When the cursor of the mouse 2 is moved to the menu item indicating the object to be dropped in 0 and the left button of the mouse 2 is pressed, the processing operation of FIG. 5 is started, and the processing of steps 201 to 204, 210 and 211 is started. Thereby, the object is copied to the object set in the selected object item 32 of the operation information table 4b.

Thus, the object is dropped. Here, when dropping a plurality of objects being dragged to different destinations, the above operation may be repeated. The locus of the mouse cursor in such an operation is as shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the locus of the mouse cursor according to the drag-and-drop operation control method of the present invention. This example shows a locus of a mouse when a plurality of objects are dropped on different objects.

For example, "A (1)", "A (2)", "A
Objects (3) ”,“ B (3) ”,
When individually dropping on the objects of “B (1)” and “B (2)”, the user first selects the object “A”.
(1) "," A (2) ", and" A (3) "in this order by moving the mouse cursor to add as a drag target.

Then, the mouse cursor is moved to the object "B (1)", and the pop-up menu 7
1 is displayed, the object "A (2)" is selected and a drop operation is performed, and then the drop operation of the object "A (3)" on the object "B (2)" by the pop-up menu 72 is similarly performed. Then, a drop operation of the object “A (1)” is performed on the object “B (3)” using the pop-up menu 73.

At this time, each object B (1), B (2),
Since B (3) and each of the pop-up menus 71 to 73 are displayed near each other on the screen of the display device 1, the locus of the mouse cursor becomes a locus indicated by an arrow, and the moving amount of the mouse cursor, that is, The operation load on the mouse 2 can be reduced.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7, in the drag-and-drop operation control system and the operation control method according to the present embodiment, the drag and drop operation control Displays a pop-up menu for the user to select an object to be dragged or to drop the selected object. In addition, the user can use the pop-up menu to select and specify a drag target or a drop destination object, and
It is configured to instruct execution of each process.

Thus, even when a plurality of objects are dragged and dropped to different locations, the amount of movement of the mouse cursor on the screen of the display device can be reduced as much as possible. As a result, the user's mouse operation load can be reduced, the rate of forgetting the contents of the operation during the mouse operation can be reduced, and it is not necessary to alternately perform the drag operation and the drop operation. , Each operation can be concentrated, and the efficiency of the operation is improved.

The present invention is not limited to the examples described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7, and can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof. For example, in this example,
I use a mouse as a pointing device,
A trackball, a cursor key of a keyboard, or the like may be used.

[0047]

According to the present invention, a plurality of objects can be efficiently dragged and dropped to different destinations, and the operability of drag and drop can be improved. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a configuration according to the present invention of a drag and drop operation control system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of an object table in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of an operation information table in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first processing operation example of the drag-and-drop operation control system in FIG. 1 according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second processing operation example of the drag-and-drop operation control system in FIG. 1 according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a pop-up menu displayed in the processing in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a locus of a mouse cursor according to the drag-and-drop operation control method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional drag-and-drop operation example.

FIG. 9 shows a conventional method for dragging a plurality of objects.
It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of an AND-drop operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: display device, 2: mouse, 3: information processing device, 4: external storage device, 4a: object table, 4b: operation information table, 5: recording medium, 6: drive device, 7: drag and drop control Section, 7a: object storage processing section, 7b: menu display processing section, 7c: drop processing section, 31: menu display state item, 32: selected object item, 60, 71 to 73: pop-up menu.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A system for dragging and dropping an object displayed on a screen based on an operation of a pointing device, wherein the object storage means stores one or more objects designated as a drop destination by a cursor of the pointing device. A menu display means for displaying a menu of all objects stored in the object storage means in the vicinity of the cursor when the drop source object is designated by the cursor, and a menu displayed by the menu display means. A drag-and-drop operation control system, comprising: a drop unit for dropping the object specified as the drop source on the specified object. 2. A system for dragging and dropping an object displayed on a screen based on an operation of a pointing device, wherein the object storage means stores one or more objects designated as drop sources by a cursor of the pointing device. A menu display means for displaying a menu of all objects stored in the object storage means in the vicinity of the cursor when the object of the drop destination is designated by the cursor, and a menu displayed by the menu display means. Drop means for dropping a specified object onto the object specified as the drop destination. A drag-and-drop operation control system, comprising: 3. The drag-and-drop operation control system according to claim 2, wherein the drop unit collects a plurality of objects designated by the cursor from a menu displayed by the menu display unit, A drag-and-drop operation control system, characterized in that the object is dropped on the object specified as the drop destination. 4. A method for dragging and dropping an object displayed on a screen on a display device by a central processing unit based on an operation of a pointing device connected to the central processing unit. Storing at least one object designated as a drop destination in a storage means, and, when designating the drop source object by the cursor, displaying all the objects stored in the storage means near the cursor in a menu on the display device. A drag-and-drop operation, comprising a step of displaying and a step of dropping the object specified as the drop source from the menu displayed on the display device to the object specified by the cursor. Control method. 5. A method of dragging and dropping an object displayed on a display device on a screen by a central processing unit based on an operation of a pointing device connected to the central processing unit. A first step of storing at least one object specified as a drop source in a storage unit, and specifying a drop destination object by the cursor.
A second step of displaying a menu of all objects stored in the storage means in the vicinity of the cursor on the display device, and dropping an object designated by the cursor from a menu displayed on the display device in a menu. The third to drop on the object specified as
And a drag-and-drop operation control method. 6. The drag-and-drop operation control system according to claim 5, wherein, in the third step, a plurality of objects designated by the cursor from a menu displayed on the display device as a menu are collected. A drag-and-drop operation control system for dropping an object specified as the drop destination. 7. A recording medium for recording a program and data readable by a computer, wherein the recording medium is a computer readable recording medium.
A recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the processing of each step according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is recorded.