The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 01, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 04, 1996
Mark H Jacober, Beverly, MA (US);
Jennifer L Pinkus, Milton, MA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A help demonstration player program is provided which accepts a set of commands in the form of a script input and generates simulated keystrokes and mouse events. The keystrokes and mouse events are provided to the application program which then operates as if the user had generated the keystrokes and mouse events. The sequence of keystrokes and mouse events directs the application software to perform a task one step at a time. Since the task starts with the user's customized screen and detects and responds to the state of the user's desktop through the demonstration, the resulting animated display is tailored to the user's actual display, presenting much more meaningful and less confusing instructions to the user. The demonstration player creates sample data so that the user's actual data is not corrupted during the playing of the explanatory sequence and user control over the keyboard and mouse is disabled to prevent the user from interfering with the demonstration. The text from conventional help screens may also be displayed on the screen during the demonstration in order to further assist the user.