초록 ▼

A computer hardware (FIG. 1) and software (FIG. 2) system uses a plurality of multilevel, hierarchical menus (FIG. 3) to access basic system capabilities. The menu system is made flexible, and responsive to the needs of individual users by means of a menu table (FIGS. 4 and 7) containing the menu en

A computer hardware (FIG. 1) and software (FIG. 2) system uses a plurality of multilevel, hierarchical menus (FIG. 3) to access basic system capabilities. The menu system is made flexible, and responsive to the needs of individual users by means of a menu table (FIGS. 4 and 7) containing the menu entry text for all menus, the identity of the menu on which the entry is to appear, and the action to be taken if that menu entry is selected. The menu table can be edited by the user (15) in response to local needs and is used to generate (FIG. 5) all menus of the menu system dynamically, on the fly, as needed. In one embodiment, the menu table is broken up into separate tables for each menu level. In another embodiment, secondary menu item selection criteria are added to the menu table entries to further condition menu entry selection on user attributes such as geography or time.

대표청구항 ▼

A menu-driven digital data processing system comprising means for storing a menu entry data record in said system for each item of a first plurality of displayable menu items of a second lesser plurality of displayable menus, each said record including a menu field identifying one or more of said se

A menu-driven digital data processing system comprising means for storing a menu entry data record in said system for each item of a first plurality of displayable menu items of a second lesser plurality of displayable menus, each said record including a menu field identifying one or more of said second plurality of displayable menus on which the associated menu item is to appear, a text field including the displayable text of the associated menu item, and an action field identifying the action to be initiated in response to the selection of the associated menu item; means responsive to the contents of said menu field for selectively displaying all of the menu items identified as appearing on a common identified menu, means for selecting at least one of said displayed menu items, and means responsive to the selection of said at least one displayed menu item for initiating the action identified in the action field of the record associated with the selected menu item.