Support program

Abstract

The present invention provides a technique of displaying a screen which is insusceptible to an effect of a change in language setting of an OS in an information processing device in which a general-purpose printing program of an OS standard is incorporated.　An auxiliary program 42 for supporting a general-purpose printing program 41, when a request for displaying a detailed setting screen 60 has been made, causes execution of specific processing for specifying the language of character information to be displayed on the detailed setting screen 60, to thereby display the character information included in the detailed setting screen 60 in the language specified in the specific processing. Further, the auxiliary program 42, when a prescribed input operation has been performed via a user interface during the display of the detailed setting screen 60, causes execution of first notification processing for notifying an OS 21 of the language specified in the specific processing, and causes execution of first acquisition processing for acquiring, from the general-purpose printing program 41, new character information to be displayed as a result of the prescribed input operation, to thereby cause a display 13A to display the detailed setting screen 60 including the new character information acquired in the first acquisition processing.

Description

Support Program

[0001] The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a support program that supports control of a printer.

[0002] In recent years, a technology has been put into practical use in which a printer is controlled by a general-purpose print program that is part of the operating system (OS) and that is standard for the OS, without using a printer driver provided by the printer vendor. With this technology, when the OS detects a printer, it associates it with the general-purpose print program that is standard for the OS. Thereafter, when a print instruction for that printer is received, the general-purpose print program that is standard for the OS generates print data, making it possible to print using the general-purpose print program that is standard for the OS, without using a printer driver provided by the printer vendor.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology related to an OS-standard general-purpose printing program. Patent Document 1 discloses a support program that supports a general-purpose printing program, which acquires language information indicating languages ​​supported by a printer from the printer, and when displaying a setting screen that accepts input operations for print settings for a print job based on the general-purpose printing program, replaces character information available as options on the setting screen with character information corresponding to the language indicated in the acquired language information.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2022-120952

[0005] The screens provided by the support program that supports the general-purpose printing program depend on the language setting of the OS. Therefore, if the language setting of the OS is changed while the support program is providing the screen, a different language may be displayed on the same screen, which may confuse the user. The technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 also does not mention changing the language setting, leaving room for improvement.

[0006] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is a support program executable by a computer of an information processing device, compatible with a printer connected to the information processing device, and supporting a general-purpose print program possessed by an operating system of the information processing device, wherein the program causes the computer to: execute a display process for displaying a screen including character information using a user interface of the information processing device, and is capable of displaying new character information when a predetermined input operation is made via the user interface on the screen being displayed; the program further causes the computer to: execute a specification process for specifying the language of the character information to be displayed on the screen when a display request for the screen is made, and displays the character information included on the screen in the language specified in the specification process as an initial state of the screen displayed in response to the display request; the program further causes the computer to: execute a first notification process for notifying the operating system of the language specified in the specification process when the predetermined input operation is made via the user interface while the screen is being displayed; the program further causes the computer to: After the first notification process is executed, a first acquisition process is executed to acquire the new character information displayed in response to the specified input operation from the general-purpose printing program, and the new character information acquired in the first acquisition process is displayed on the user interface.

[0007] The support program disclosed in this specification first identifies the language when a screen display request is made, and then, when displaying text information based on a predetermined input operation while the screen is displayed, notifies the general-purpose printing program of the identified language and then acquires the text information from the general-purpose printing program, thereby fixing the text information displayed on the screen to the identified language. Therefore, even if the language setting of the OS is changed while the screen is displayed, the screen will continue to be displayed in one language, avoiding user confusion.

[0008] The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology for displaying a screen that is not easily affected by changes in the language setting of the OS in an information processing device that has an OS-standard general-purpose printing program installed.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of a PC. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an OS language setting screen. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a setting screen. FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a printing procedure. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a print setting screen. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a detailed print setting screen. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a display procedure for the detailed print setting screen. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a detailed print setting screen in a state where a pull-down menu is displayed. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a detailed print setting screen in a state where a non-conformity notification screen is pop-up displayed.

[0010] A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a "PC") that uses the support program of the present embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. This specification discloses a support program executed on a PC.

[0011] As shown in Fig. 1, the PC 1 of this embodiment includes a controller 10 including a CPU 11 and a memory 12. The PC 1 is an example of an information processing device. The CPU 11 is an example of a computer. The PC 1 also includes a user interface (hereinafter referred to as "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "communication IF") 14, which are electrically connected to the controller 10. Note that the controller 10 in Fig. 1 is a collective term for hardware and software used to control the PC 1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware that actually exists in the PC 1.

[0012] The CPU 11 of the PC 1 executes various processes in accordance with programs read from the memory 12 and based on user operations. The memory 12 includes a non-volatile memory 121 and a volatile memory 122. The volatile memory 122 is also used, for example, as a work area when executing various programs. A buffer provided in the CPU 11 is also an example of the memory 12. Note that the example of the memory 12 is not limited to a ROM, RAM, HDD, etc. built into the PC 1, but may also be a storage medium readable and writable by the CPU 11, such as a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

[0013] The user IF 13 includes a display 13A, which is hardware that displays a screen for notifying the user of information, and hardware that accepts operations by the user. Note that the user IF 13 may be a combination of the display 13A that can display information and a mouse, keyboard, or the like that has an input acceptance function, or may be a touch panel that has the functions of the display 13A and an input acceptance function.

[0014] The communication IF 14 includes hardware for communicating with external devices such as the printer 2. The communication IF 14 may use a communication standard such as Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), or USB. The PC 1 may be connectable to the Internet via the communication IF 14. The PC 1 may be provided with multiple communication IFs 14 that support multiple communication standards.

[0015] 1, the non-volatile memory 121 of the memory 12 stores various programs and data, including an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose printing program 41, an auxiliary program 42, and an editing application 45. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a support program.

[0016] The OS 21 is a multitasking OS that can process multiple tasks in parallel by managing and switching between them, and is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), MacOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), or Android (registered trademark).

[0017] The OS 21 includes a generic printing program 41. The generic printing program 41 is a standard OS program prepared by the OS 21 vendor and provided as part of the OS 21. In other words, the PC 1 is equipped with the OS 21 that includes the generic printing program 41. The generic printing program 41 is not configured to use printer drivers specific to each printer.

[0018] The generic printing program 41 is a program that has the function of printing on multiple models of printers provided by multiple vendors based on user instructions. The generic printing program 41 supports generic functions that allow printing on many printers. Unlike printer drivers specific to each printer 2, the generic printing program 41 does not support functions specific to each printer 2 or printer driver, especially functions that require complex processing.

[0019] The general-purpose printing program 41 is a program that includes a function to receive image data designated as the print target in a print instruction output from various applications based on a user instruction and generate intermediate data based on that image data. The intermediate data is, for example, XPS data. The general-purpose printing program 41 also has a function to generate print data in a format that can be used for printing on various printers based on the intermediate data. The print data is, for example, PWGRaster data or PDF data. The general-purpose printing program 41 also has a function to send the generated print data to the printer 2 designated as the device to execute printing via the communication function of the OS 21.

[0020] The OS 21 also stores language setting information for a language set by the user on a language setting screen 23 provided by the OS 21, as shown in Fig. 2. The user can display the language setting screen 23 on the display 13A at any time while the PC 1 is running. The language setting screen 23 displays a pull-down menu 24 for selecting a language.

[0021] When the language setting screen 23 is displayed on the display 13A and the user operates the expand button 25 of the pull-down menu 24 to instruct list display, the OS 21 displays a list containing multiple language options. When the user selects one of the languages ​​displayed in the list, language setting information indicating the selected language is stored. This allows the user to set any language at any time using the language setting screen 23.

[0022] The auxiliary program 42 is a program or a group of programs that executes processing based on instructions from the OS 21 in conjunction with the processing of the general-purpose printing program 41, and is a program that supports control of the target hardware. The auxiliary program 42 in this embodiment corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC 1, and is provided, for example, by the vendor of the printer 2.

[0023] The general-purpose printing program 41 launches an auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 when the printer 2 is selected as the device to execute printing, when an instruction for detailed print settings is received while the printer 2 is selected, when an instruction to execute printing is received, etc. The auxiliary program 42 is, for example, called a print support app (abbreviated as PSA) or a hardware support app (abbreviated as HSA).

[0024] The auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of multiple programs that each accept an execution command, or a single program that can execute different processes in response to commands. The auxiliary program may also be a program prepared by a printer vendor for each printer type. For example, an auxiliary program for inkjet printers and an auxiliary program for laser printers may be prepared. Auxiliary programs are not limited to those for each printer type; they may also be prepared for each model of printer 2 or each series of printer models.

[0025] For example, when a new printer is connected to the PC 1, the OS 21 of the PC 1 can download an appropriate auxiliary program from a server of the printer vendor or the like according to the type and model of the connected printer 2 and install it in the PC 1. The OS 21 stores the identification information of the installed auxiliary program in the memory 12 in association with the printer information of the newly connected printer.

[0026] The auxiliary program 42 stores a setting file 43 in a predetermined storage area of ​​the memory 21. The setting file 43 stores setting information for the language set by the user on a setting screen displayed by the auxiliary program 42. When the user instructs the auxiliary program 42 to start via the user IF 13, the started auxiliary program 42 displays a setting screen 30, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, on the display 13A. The setting screen 30 displays a fixed language setting field 31. This setting screen 30 may be an independent screen as shown in FIG. 3, or may be included in a print setting screen D2 shown in FIG. 5 (described later), or may be included in a detailed setting screen 60 shown in FIG. 6 (described later).

[0027] In the language fixing setting field 31, a first radio button 31A is displayed adjacent to the left of the section displaying "Do not fix language," and a second radio button 31B is displayed adjacent to the left of the section displaying "Fix language." Furthermore, when the user selects second radio button 31B, a pull-down menu 32 for selecting a language is displayed adjacent to the bottom of the section displaying "Fix language."

[0028] After selecting the second radio button 31B, if the user operates the expand button 33 of the pull-down menu 32 to instruct list display, a list containing multiple languages ​​as options is displayed, and a selection operation to select one of the languages ​​displayed in the list is accepted.

[0029] Furthermore, when the user operates the apply button 34 on the setting screen 30, the selection state of either the first radio button 31A or the second radio button 31B is stored, and when the second radio button 31B is selected, language setting information indicating the language selected in the pull-down menu 32 is stored in the setting file 43. When the first radio button 31A is selected, language setting information is not stored.

[0030] The language setting information stored in this setting file 43 is used when the auxiliary program 42 displays a detailed setting screen 60 (to be described later) on the display 13A, the details of which will be described later.

[0031] Furthermore, when the user selects the first radio button 31A, the pull-down menu 32 is displayed in gray, and the user is therefore unable to select a language using the pull-down menu 32.

[0032] The editing application 45 is, for example, a program for creating and editing image data and document data. The editing application 45 may be, for example, Microsoft Word (registered trademark) or PowerPoint (registered trademark), or may be a program provided by the vendor of the printer 2. The editing application 45 is capable of receiving, for example, a print execution instruction to cause the printer 2 to execute printing via the user IF 13. Note that the editing application 45 is not limited to a program for creating and editing data, and may also be a program having a function for receiving display instructions and print instructions for various types of information, such as map information and web pages, in response to a user request.

[0033] As shown in Fig. 1, the PC 1 of this embodiment is connected to the printer 2 via the communication IF 14. The printer 2 is an inkjet printer and is a device that has at least a printing function and a communication function. For example, when the printer 2 receives print data from the PC 1 or the like, it can execute printing based on the received print data. The printer 2 may be a device capable of color printing, or a device capable of only monochrome printing.

[0034] (Printing Process) Next, the printing procedure when printing using the printer 2 in the PC 1 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram shown in Fig. 4. Note that each process other than the user's operation in this embodiment basically indicates processing by the CPU 11 in accordance with instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42.

[0035] In this specification, various processes performed by the controller 10 or the CPU 11 in accordance with programs such as the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41, and the OS 21 are sometimes described as being performed primarily by each program, for the sake of convenience. The processing by the CPU 11 also includes control of hardware using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, detailed description of the OS 21 is omitted, and the operation of each program is described.

[0036] First, prior to printing using the printer 2, the user can create and edit text and images using the editing application 45. If the user wants to print the text or image currently being displayed, the user selects print in the editing application 45 (B01). The user can select print from a menu of operation items provided in the editing application 45, for example.

[0037] When the editing application 45 accepts the selection of printing, it requests the general-purpose printing program 41 of the OS 21 to display a screen for accepting instructions regarding printing (B02). In response to the request, the general-purpose printing program 41 displays a print setting screen D2 as shown in FIG. 5 on the display 13A (B03). The print setting screen D2 is a screen that mainly accepts user instructions regarding various print settings that can be accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41. Note that the print setting screen may be displayed by the editing application 45.

[0038] 5 includes a printer selection field 51, an information display field 52, a basic print settings selection field 53, an advanced settings button 54, a print button 55, etc. The printer selection field 51 is a field for accepting the selection of the printer to be used for printing. The information display field 52 is a field for displaying information specified by an auxiliary program corresponding to the printer selected in the printer selection field 51. For example, when the selection of printer 2 is accepted in the printer selection field 51, or when a print instruction is accepted when printer 2 is set as the printer to be normally used in the OS 21, the general-purpose print program 41 can start the auxiliary program 42 and display an image prepared by the auxiliary program 42 in the information display field 52.

[0039] The basic print setting selection field 53 is a field for accepting basic settings such as the number of copies to be printed and the orientation of the original. The default display in the print setting selection field 53 is displayed based on the setting data stored in the nonvolatile memory 121. That is, the general-purpose printing program 41 reads the default setting data of the user identified based on the PC login information from the nonvolatile memory 121, and executes the default display in the print setting selection field 53 based on the read default setting data.

[0040] The advanced settings button 54 is a button for accepting an instruction to make advanced settings that are not included in the basic print settings selection field 53 .

[0041] Specifically, when the general-purpose printing program 41 receives a user operation on the advanced settings button 54 (B04), the general-purpose printing program 41 launches the auxiliary program 42 and requests the auxiliary program 42 to display a screen that accepts detailed instructions regarding printing (B05).

[0042] 6 on the display 13A. The detailed setting screen 60 displays a restore default button 61, an OK button 62, a cancel button 63, and a detailed print setting item 64 for setting parameters within the range executable by the printer 2 for each print setting item.

[0043] Additionally, the detailed print setting item 64 displays a check box 64A corresponding to the "borderless printing" item. Therefore, the user can set "borderless printing" by operating the check box 64A. Furthermore, if the user operates the check box 64A again when "borderless printing" is set, the "borderless printing" setting is canceled. Because there are many print setting items that can be accepted on the detailed setting screen 60, the auxiliary program 42 may be able to accept an instruction to switch between the items to be selected, for example, using multiple tabs.

[0044] Additionally, the detailed print setting item 64 has a pull-down menu 64B corresponding to each print setting item, for example, the item "paper type." When the user operates the expand button 64C of the pull-down menu 64B, a list 64D (see FIG. 8) showing options that can be selected as the paper type is displayed, and each parameter corresponding to the "paper type" is displayed as an option on the list 64D, for example, "inkjet paper," "glossy paper," "postcard," etc.

[0045] Therefore, when list 64D is displayed, if the user selects one of the parameters displayed in list 64D, for example, "glossy paper," the selected "glossy paper" is set as the parameter corresponding to "paper type."

[0046] The details of the auxiliary program 42 displaying the detailed setting screen 60 shown in FIG. 6 on the display 13A will be described later.

[0047] 4, after the user determines the image to be printed and the print settings for the printer 2, the user inputs a print execution instruction (B07) in the editing application 45. That is, for example, when the editing application 45 receives an operation on the print button 55 on the print setting screen D2 shown in FIG. 5, since the general-purpose printing program 41 is incorporated into the OS 21 of the PC 1, the editing application 45 determines that it has received an execution instruction to cause the printer 2 to print the selected image to the general-purpose printing program 41.

[0048] If the user does not need to make detailed settings that are not included in the basic print setting selection field 53 on the print setting screen D2, that is, if the default settings are acceptable, the user can directly operate the print button 55 without operating the advanced settings button 54 on the print setting screen D2. In this case, the processes from B04 to B06 are not executed.

[0049] The editing application 45 outputs the received print instruction information to the general-purpose print program 41 (B08). The general-purpose print program 41 acquires, from the editing application 45, image data indicating the image to be printed and information indicating the print settings as the print instruction information.

[0050] The general-purpose printing program 41 generates intermediate data by converting the format of the image data of the image to be printed into the format of intermediate data based on the information obtained from the editing application 45 (B09). The image data included in the editing application 45 is of various types, and the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the image data to be printed into intermediate data suitable for generating print data. Note that if the image data to be printed is data suitable for generating print data, the generation of intermediate data may be omitted and the intermediate data may be used as is.

[0051] Before generating the intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 may start the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the designated device, the printer 2, and notify the printer 2 that print job processing has begun. When started by the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 can pass information indicating various instructions used when generating the intermediate data to the general-purpose printing program 41 as necessary.

[0052] After generating the intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 outputs an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42, thereby starting the auxiliary program 42 (B10). The auxiliary program 42 can acquire the intermediate data and print settings generated by the general-purpose printing program 41 (B12) by, for example, requesting data from the general-purpose printing program 41 (B11). The auxiliary program 42 then edits the acquired intermediate data based on the print setting information (B13).

[0053] Next, the auxiliary program 42 passes the print settings and edited intermediate data to the general-purpose printing program 41 and requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to generate print data (B15). The general-purpose printing program 41 then rasterizes the intermediate data and generates print data including raster data, which is bitmap data (B16). The general-purpose printing program 41 then passes the generated print data to the auxiliary program 42 (B17).

[0054] The auxiliary program 42 passes the print data to the general-purpose printing program 41, thereby instructing the general-purpose printing program 41 to send a print instruction to the printer 2 (B18). The general-purpose printing program 41 sends a print job including the print data to the printer 2 (B19). The printer 2 executes printing based on the received print data (B20). As a result, a printed document based on the print instruction output from the editing application 45 is generated.

[0055] (Display Process of the Detailed Print Setting Screen) Next, Fig. 7 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the display procedure of the detailed print setting screen, and the display procedure of the detailed print setting screen will be described below with reference to Fig. 7. Note that this display procedure is a process equivalent to the process of B06 shown in Fig. 4.

[0056] In this embodiment, each process other than user operations basically indicates processing by the CPU 11 in accordance with instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42. In this specification, various processes performed by the controller 10 or the CPU 11 in accordance with programs such as the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41, and the OS 21 may be described, for convenience, as if each program were independently performing the various processes. Processing by the CPU 11 also includes hardware control using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, the operation of each program will be described without providing a detailed description of the OS 21. Furthermore, in this description, parts that achieve the same effects as those of the printing process described above will be denoted by the same reference numerals.

[0057] That is, when the general-purpose printing program 41 receives a user operation on the advanced settings button 54 (B04), the general-purpose printing program 41 launches the auxiliary program 42 and requests the auxiliary program 42 to display a screen that accepts detailed instructions regarding printing (B05).

[0058] Then, the auxiliary program 42 reads the setting file 43 and determines whether or not the setting information of the language is stored (C01).

[0059] 3, if the user has previously selected "Fix language" by operating the second radio button 31B on the setting screen 30, the setting file 43 stores the language setting information indicating the language selected in the pull-down menu 32, so the auxiliary program 42 determines if: [setting information is stored] and reads the language setting information stored in the setting file 43 (C02). Note that this processing is an example of the specifying processing.

[0060] Furthermore, if the user previously operated the first radio button 31A on the setting screen 30 to select "Do not fix language," language setting information is not stored in the setting file 43, and the auxiliary program 42 determines if: [setting information is not stored] and requests language setting information from the general-purpose printing program 41 (C03). The general-purpose printing program 41 then passes the language setting information set in the OS 21 to the auxiliary program 42 (C04). This language setting information is the language setting information set by the user on the language setting screen 23 shown in FIG. 2. This processing is an example of a specific processing.

[0061] Next, the auxiliary program 42 determines the display language based on the setting information read in the process of C02 or the language setting information acquired in the process of C04 (C05).

[0062] Next, the auxiliary program 42 requests the start address of the current translation resource from the loader of the general-purpose printing program 41 (C06), and then the auxiliary program 42 acquires the start address of the current translation resource from the general-purpose printing program 41 (C07).

[0063] Next, the auxiliary program 42 executes the following language read process for each required word to acquire various words required for the initial state of the detailed setting screen 60. That is, before acquiring each word, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to change the language setting of the loader to the language determined in the process of C05 (C08). Note that this process is an example of the second notification process.

[0064] Next, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to refer to a translation resource for the text (C09). The general-purpose printing program 41 then references the translation resource based on the language setting of the Loader, and passes the text requested by the auxiliary program 42 to the auxiliary program 42 as a translated text. That is, the auxiliary program 42 obtains the translated text in the language determined in C05 (C10). This process is an example of a second obtaining process.

[0065] The auxiliary program 42 repeatedly executes the language readout process of C08 to C10 for each word displayed on the detailed setting screen 60 shown in Fig. 6 to obtain each translated word. Note that the process of C08 may be executed after the process of C07 and before repeating the language readout process, rather than being executed during the language readout process.

[0066] In this embodiment, when displaying the detailed settings screen 60, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose print program 41 of the language determined in C05 before acquiring the translation required for the detailed settings screen 60. This acquires the translation in the language determined in C05, thereby preventing variations in the language on the initial detailed settings screen 60. Furthermore, by issuing a notification each time a translation required for the detailed settings screen 60 is acquired, even if the language setting of the OS 21 is changed while acquiring the translation required for the initial detailed settings screen 60, the language can be displayed in the language determined in C05, thereby avoiding user confusion.

[0067] Next, the auxiliary program 42 generates the detailed setting screen 60 shown in Fig. 6 based on the acquired translated text and displays it on the display 13A (C11). At this time, the text displayed on the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in the translated text passed from the general-purpose printing program 41 based on the language determined in C05. This process is an example of display processing.

[0068] Specifically, for example, if the user has previously operated the second radio button 31B on the setting screen 30 shown in FIG. 3 to select "Fix Language" and has also set Japanese in the pull-down menu 32, then in step C05, Japanese stored in the setting file 43 loaded in step C02 is determined as the display language, and the text on the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in Japanese. Also, if the user has previously set English in the pull-down menu 32, then English is stored in the setting file 43 loaded in step C02, and the text on the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in English. This display is the initial state of the detailed setting screen 60.

[0069] This also means that when the auxiliary program 42 is requested to display a screen that accepts detailed instructions regarding the next print (B05), if the user has not changed the setting file 43, the same language is determined in C05, and the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in the same language as the previous time.

[0070] Furthermore, even if the user changes the language setting of OS21 between the previous display and the current display of the advanced settings screen 60, the language of the advanced settings screen 60 is fixed by the settings in the settings file 43 and is therefore not affected by the language setting of OS21.

[0071] 3, if the user selects the first radio button 31A to select "Do not fix language" and the language setting of the OS 21 is set to German, the language setting information acquired in the process of C04 is determined as the display language in the process of C05, i.e., German is determined as the display language, and the text on the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in German. If the language setting of the OS 21 is set to English, the language setting information indicating English is passed in C04, and the text on the detailed setting screen 60 is displayed in English.

[0072] If the user changes the language setting of the OS 21 between the previous display of the advanced settings screen 60 and the current display, the language of the advanced settings screen 60 will be different between the previous display and the current display.

[0073] After the process of C11, when the user performs a change operation on the detailed setting screen 60 displayed on the display 13A that requires the display of new text (C12), the auxiliary program 42 executes a language read process for the new text. That is, for each new text, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to change the language setting of the loader to the language determined in the process of C05 before acquiring the new text (C13). This process is an example of a first notification process.

[0074] Next, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to refer to a translation resource for the new wording (C14). The general-purpose printing program 41 then references the translation resource based on the language setting of the loader, and passes the wording requested by the auxiliary program 42 to the auxiliary program 42 as a translated wording. That is, the auxiliary program 42 obtains the translated wording in the language determined in C05 (C15). This process is an example of a first obtaining process.

[0075] The auxiliary program 42 repeatedly executes the language readout process of C13 to C15 for new words that need to be displayed due to a user change operation, and acquires the translation language of each word. Note that the process of C13 may be executed after the process of C12 and before the language readout process, rather than being executed during the language readout process.

[0076] 6 based on the acquired translation language and displays it on the display 13A (C16). At this time, each word on the detailed setting screen 60 and new words displayed as a result of a user's change operation are displayed using the translated words acquired from the general-purpose printing program 41 based on the language determined in C05.

[0077] 3, the user operates the second radio button 31B to select "Fix Language" and sets Japanese in the pull-down menu 32, and then the advanced settings screen 60 is displayed. If the language setting of the OS 21 is subsequently changed to a language other than Japanese and the user operates the expand button 64C in the pull-down menu 64B corresponding to the print settings item "Paper Type" on the advanced settings screen 60, a list 64D in the pull-down menu 64B is displayed. In this case, the user's operation of the expand button 64C corresponds to a change operation that requires the display of new text, and the options included in the list 64D correspond to the new text.

[0078] Also displayed on list 64D are parameters corresponding to "paper type," such as "inkjet paper," "glossy paper," "postcard," etc. At this time, as shown in Fig. 8, for example, the words that are initially displayed on detailed setting screen 60 and the parameters displayed on list 64D are all displayed in Japanese, even though the language setting of OS 21 has been changed to a language other than Japanese.

[0079] In this manner, in this embodiment, for example, each time the user performs a change operation that requires the display of new text, the language of the detailed setting screen 60 is specified to the language indicated in the setting information stored in the setting file 43. This means that, for example, the language of the detailed setting screen 60 in its initial state shown in FIG. 6 and the language of the list 64D of the pull-down menu 64B shown in FIG. 8 that is displayed when the user performs a change operation that requires the display of new text will be the same language, thereby avoiding confusion for the user.

[0080] Furthermore, the advanced settings screen 60 displays a warning message when parameters that cannot be set simultaneously are selected. The display language can also be fixed when this warning message is displayed. For example, in the settings screen 30 shown in FIG. 3, the user operates the second radio button 31B to select "Fix language" and sets Japanese in the pull-down menu 32. Then, in the advanced settings screen 60 shown in FIG. 6, the user operates the check box 64A with "A4" selected in the "Document size" item of the print settings.

[0081] Assuming that the user has performed a change operation requiring the display of new text, the process executes steps C13 to C15, and in step C16, the incompatibility notification screen 70 shown in FIG. 9 pops up in Japanese on the detailed settings screen 60 displayed in Japanese on the display 13A, warning the user that the "A4" setting for "Original Size" and the "Borderless Printing" setting are incompatible settings. Note that the text displayed on the incompatibility notification screen is an example of a warning message. In this case, when "A4" is selected in the "Original Size" item of the print settings, the user's operation of the checkbox 64A corresponds to a change operation requiring the display of new text, and the message included in the incompatibility notification screen 70 corresponds to the new text.

[0082] In this embodiment, for example, if the user operates the second radio button 31B to select "Fix language," the language of the detailed settings screen 60 and the non-conformance notification screen 70 is specified to the language determined in C05. This means that, for example, the language of the detailed settings screen 60 in its initial state shown in FIG. 6 and the language of the non-conformance notification screen 70 shown in FIG. 8 will be the same language, thereby avoiding confusion for the user.

[0083] In this embodiment, the parameters that cannot be set simultaneously are the "A4" setting for "Document size" and the "Borderless printing" setting, but this is not limited to this. For example, it may also be the case that "Photo" is selected for "Print quality" and "Plain paper" is selected for "Paper type."

[0084] 3, the user operates the first radio button 31A to select "Do not fix language," and the detailed settings screen 60 is displayed in Japanese when the language setting of the OS 21 is set to Japanese. If the language setting of the OS 21 is set to German, for example, the user operates the expand button 64C of the pull-down menu 64B corresponding to the item "Paper Type," and a list 64D of the pull-down menu 64B is displayed. Each parameter corresponding to "Paper Type" is displayed in German on the list 64D.

[0085] Furthermore, if parameters that cannot be set simultaneously are selected on the advanced settings screen 60, a warning message is displayed. For example, suppose that the user operates the first radio button 31A on the settings screen 30 shown in Fig. 3 to select "Do not fix language," and the advanced settings screen 60 is displayed in Japanese when the language setting of the OS 21 is set to Japanese. If the language setting of the OS 21 is set to German, and the user operates the checkbox 64A on the advanced settings screen 60 shown in Fig. 6 with "A4" selected in the "Document size" item of the print settings, the user is deemed to have performed a change operation that requires the display of new text. Therefore, the processes from C13 to C15 are executed, and the incompatibility notification screen 70 shown in Fig. 9 is popped up in German on the advanced settings screen 60 displayed in Japanese on the display 13A.

[0086] As described above in detail, the auxiliary program 42 acquires the character information of the characters displayed on the detailed settings screen 60 via the general-purpose printing program 41. However, if "language not fixed" is applied, the language of the character information depends on the language setting of the OS 21 when the character information is acquired. Therefore, for example, in the case of a detailed settings screen 60 including a pull-down menu 64B, if the language setting of the OS 21 is changed while the detailed settings screen 60 is displayed and the list 64D of the pull-down menu 64B is then displayed, without applying the technology disclosed in this embodiment, the character information displayed on the detailed settings screen 60 before the language setting change will be in the language before the change, but the character information indicating the options in the list 64D will be displayed in the new language. Furthermore, for example, if parameters that cannot be set simultaneously are selected on the detailed settings screen 60, the incompatibility notification screen 70 will be displayed in the new language.

[0087] On the other hand, when "Fix Language" is applied, the language is specified when a display request for the detailed settings screen 60 is made, and when new text information is displayed based on a predetermined input operation, the specified language is notified to the general-purpose printing program 41 and then the text information is acquired from the general-purpose printing program 41, thereby fixing the text information displayed on the detailed settings screen 60 to the specified language. Therefore, even if the language setting of the OS 21 is changed while the detailed settings screen 60 is displayed, the detailed settings screen 60 will continue to be displayed in one language, thereby avoiding confusion for the user.

[0088] The embodiments disclosed in this specification are merely examples and do not limit the present invention in any way. Therefore, the technology disclosed in this specification can naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the device connected to the PC 1 is not limited to the printer 2, but may be any device with a printing function, such as a multifunction device, a copier, or a fax machine. Furthermore, the number of printers 2 connected to the PC 1 is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be two or more.

[0089] In addition, in the embodiment, the system is configured so that the user can choose between "Do not fix language" and "Fix language", but it may also be configured so that the system always operates with "Fix language" as described in the embodiment, rather than being configured so that the user can choose.

[0090] Furthermore, for example, the examples of screens displayed on the display 13A are merely examples and are not limited to the examples shown in the drawings. Furthermore, the wording, object shapes, backgrounds, etc. displayed on each of the illustrated screens may be any. Furthermore, for example, while the print setting screen D2 including one information display field 52 is shown in FIG. 5, the arrangement, shape, size, number, etc. of the information display field 52 are not limited to the example shown in this drawing. Furthermore, the information display field 52 may be omitted.

[0091] In the embodiment, only the printing operation is described in detail as the operation of the auxiliary program 42, but the auxiliary program 42 may have other roles. Furthermore, the program that executes the process of this embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, and may be any program that receives instructions from the OS 21 or the general-purpose print program 41 when printing using the general-purpose print program 41. For example, it may be a print workflow application (Print Workflow) whose specifications have been published by Microsoft.

[0092] Furthermore, the execution timing of the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to that of the embodiment. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may be executed in response to a direct execution instruction from the OS 21, or may be a resident auxiliary program 42. If the auxiliary program 42 is resident, it may receive an execution command and perform the above-described operation.

[0093] Furthermore, in any flowchart disclosed in the embodiments, the execution order of multiple processes in any multiple steps can be changed or they can be executed in parallel as long as no contradiction occurs in the processing content.

[0094] The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by a single CPU, multiple CPUs, hardware such as an ASIC, or a combination thereof. The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be realized in various ways, such as a recording medium on which a program for executing the processes is recorded, or a method.

[0095] 1 PC 2 Printer 11 CPU 13 User IF 13A Display 23 Language setting screen 30 Setting screen 41 General-purpose printing program 42 Auxiliary program D2 Print setting screen 60 Detail setting screen

Claims

1. A support program executable by a computer of an information processing device, compatible with a printer connected to the information processing device, and supporting a general-purpose print program possessed by an operating system of the information processing device, the support program causing the computer to: execute a display process for displaying a screen including character information using a user interface of the information processing device, and, when a predetermined input operation is made on the screen being displayed via the user interface, display new character information; the computer further: executes a specification process for identifying the language of the character information to be displayed on the screen when a display request for the screen is made, and displays the character information included on the screen in the language identified in the specification process as an initial state of the screen displayed in response to the display request; the computer further: executes a first notification process for notifying the operating system of the language identified in the specification process when the predetermined input operation is made via the user interface while the screen is being displayed; the computer further: executes a first acquisition process for acquiring, after the first notification process, from the general-purpose print program, the new character information to be displayed in response to the predetermined input operation, and displays the new character information acquired in the first acquisition process on the user interface. A support program configured to:

2. A support program as claimed in claim 1, wherein the specification process is configured to: acquire the current language setting from the operating system; and specify the language as set in the acquired language setting.

3. A support program as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory of the information processing device is capable of storing a setting file containing language information indicating a language, and the specification process reads out the setting file stored in the memory of the information processing device and specifies the language as indicated in the language information contained in the read setting file.

4. A support program as claimed in claim 3, wherein the specification process is configured to: if the setting file is not stored in the memory, obtain the current language setting from the operating system, specify the language as set in the obtained language setting, and store the setting file containing the language information indicating the specified language in the memory; and if the setting file is stored in the memory, read the setting file from the memory and specify the language as indicated in the language information included in the read setting file.

5. A support program as described in claim 1, configured to cause the computer to execute the first notification process and the first acquisition process after the first notification process for each piece of new character information when there is a plurality of pieces of new character information displayed on the screen as a result of the specified input operation.

6. A support program as recited in claim 1, configured to cause the computer to execute, when a request to display the screen is received, the specification process, a second notification process for notifying the operating system of the language specified in the specification process, and a second acquisition process for acquiring, after the second notification process is executed, from the general-purpose printing program, the character information to be displayed on the screen in its initial state, and in the display process, display the screen in its initial state using the character information acquired in the second acquisition process.

7. A support program as recited in claim 1, wherein the screen includes a pull-down menu, and a list showing options selectable in the pull-down menu is not displayed in an initial state; when the predetermined operation is an operation to display the list in the pull-down menu, the list is displayed, and character information corresponding to the options included in the list is displayed as the new character information; and when the operation to display the list in the pull-down menu is performed via the user interface while the screen is being displayed, the computer is caused to execute the first notification process; and in the first acquisition process, the character information corresponding to the options displayed in the list in the pull-down menu is acquired from the general-purpose printing program, and the character information corresponding to the options acquired in the first acquisition process is displayed in the list in the pull-down menu using the user interface.

8. A support program as recited in claim 1, wherein the screen has a plurality of setting items, and the plurality of setting items include combinations of setting values ​​that cannot be set, an input operation that results in the combination of setting values ​​that cannot be set is set as the predetermined operation, and when the combination of setting values ​​that cannot be set is set, character information indicating a warning message is displayed as the new character information, and the support program is configured to: cause the computer to execute the first notification process when, while the screen is displayed, there is an input operation that results in the combination of setting values ​​that cannot be set via the user interface, and in the first acquisition process, acquire the character information indicating the warning message from the general-purpose printing program, and display the character information indicating the warning message acquired in the first acquisition process on the user interface.

9. A support program as set forth in any one of claims 1 to 8, configured to cause the computer to, when started by the operating system in response to a print instruction output from an application program provided in the information processing device, which prints an image on the general-purpose print program, acquire image data representing the image from the general-purpose print program, and execute a print process to send a print command to the printer based on the image data.

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