International Business Machines Corporation

Debra L Mayhew

Nikolay Tzankov Markov

Marc D Boegner

Daina Pupons Wickham

Eileen Felicia Kopp

Maria Teresa De Jesus Stoll

Julie Anne Santilli

Gordon Andrew Davison

Michael Leon Pauser

David Edward Shough

Amy Chang

Tu-An Cheng

Tracy Hutcheson

Michael Wei Mao

Lara Hamilton Cone

Miriam Sarah Powell

A method for interfacing with a plurality of wizards in a computer system. The method includes providing the plurality of wizards organized into groups; providing a launch button on a launch pad, wherein the launch button is associated with at least one wizard, wherein selection of the launch button executes the at least one wizard; providing information pertaining to the at least one wizard when a pointer is positioned over the launch button. The method further includes providing a high-level visual overview of a process corresponding to the plurality of wizards to assist a user when the user may not be familiar with the process before the user selects the launch button to execute the at least one wizard, wherein the high-level overview comprises a relationship between the at least one wizard and other wizards on the computer system.

Visual wizard launch pad

Various embodiments of a computer-implemented method, system and computer program product provide a graphical interface. At least one tab is presented on a display. The tab comprises one or more child objects of a parent object of a hierarchy of objects. The tab has a three-dimensional effect. The tab has an apparent bend into the display. The apparent bend into the display increases as a depth of the one or more child objects of the hierarchy increases.

Graphical interface for tree view

A method for interfacing with a plurality of wizards in a computer system includes providing the plurality of wizards; providing a launch button on a launch pad, the launch button associated with a wizard, where selection of the launch button executes the wizard; and providing information pertaining to the wizard on the launch pad. The information includes a relationship between the wizard and other wizards on the computer system, elements of the computer system affected by the wizard, and/or how to information showing how to use a user interface of an application on the computer system to accomplish a task. The launch pads are interactive interfaces between a user of a computer system and wizards which exist on the computer system. The information is provided in the form of text and/or visual objects. The user has an overview of the complete process before the execution of each wizard.

A dialog window for use in a filtering process provides filtering criteria based upon a limited number of object properties. Each property has an associated criterion input comprising an operator input and a value input which together with the associated property specify a filtering criterion. The dialog window preferably includes a limited number of properties, such as two or three properties, for simplicity and ease of use. Each property further has a selector in the form of a check box by which the user selects the operant filter criteria. The dialog window additionally includes a count button by which the user may update a count display which indicates the number of objects which will be returned using the presently entered filtering criteria.

Graphical filter dialog window system and method for same

The invention leads a user through an application program procedure via interactions with displayed information. A method incorporating the invention first displays maps (i.e., flow charts) of tasks required to be accomplished during the application procedure. The maps include various graphical icons, each of which provides an indication of job execution status; job names that are associated with at least some of the graphical icons; and connectors between the job names which designate an execution relationship therebetween. During the application program procedure, the presentation of a graphical icon is modified to indicate a readiness of an associated job to execute. Thereafter, the user selects the associated job for execution by entering a selection signal. The graphical icon's presentation is modified to indicate completion of execution of the associated job and the presentations of one or more connectors are modified to indicate a completion of execution. A preferred application of the method of the invention is to an application program which enables installation of a complex software system such as a database, on a mainframe computer.

Method and apparatus for leading a user through a software installation procedure via interaction with displayed graphs

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Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Debra L Mayhew