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Document display apparatus for displaying a plurality of multimedia documents

  • US 6,289,361 B1
  • Filed: 02/04/1998
  • Issued: 09/11/2001
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1997
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A document display apparatus comprising:

  • a memory for storing document data of a multimedia document containing pictures and letters, the document data containing data indicative of whether or not the document data is related to document data of one or more other multimedia documents each to be displayed at the same time together with, and at a particular position relative to, the multimedia document;

    a display having a document displaying area for displaying the multimedia document; and

    a display control circuit for determining if the document data for the displayed multimedia document is related to document data of any other multimedia documents and, if so, for causing the display to display a document selecting area composed of a plurality of areas, each area corresponding to one multimedia document from a group of multimedia documents including the displayed multimedia document and the multimedia documents related thereto, wherein, when a single area is selected from the plurality of areas of the document selecting area, said display control circuit causes the display to display in the document displaying area the multimedia document corresponding to the selected single area, and wherein the areas of the document selecting area provide a single-screen view that visually depicts two-dimensional positional relationships among the multimedia document displayed in the document displaying area and the multimedia documents related thereto so that the relationships among the multimedia document displayed in the document displaying area and all of the multimedia documents related thereto can be visually perceived at the same time as a whole in the document selecting area.

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