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Contents
1. DIOL anok UIYM SINDIO siu s su dx DJOJ JNO jaau Of YSDd j IBN juanoy3nsur poy no ai juaajosul uipo q nok speak youy Duunp eun awos jo you subaw p HV3A ANV NI aayobau SI dald J09A JO pug uspO StU 4 LN000299V IN3ALS3ANI HSVI ino HO ul 2v6 l anny nok J09A jo pua ayy iD snul SS91 uioH L INNO9IV ALINDA 3AOH SOsS 62 1 02 S68 vl 2v6 Cl 1034 jo pu3 uspo 88l 6 l2p s s6 ae SHUIADS N Snid SL e198 l yso usop ssa 4Ig o2 S68 tl eve el 000 2 IDSA JO HOIS YSD INR a lt a 19W IN3WAS3ANI HSVO t 109A JD9A Z 103A 109 SISKTVNV LNAWLSSANI 8 dO 9Hd 41NDJ3Q HAG all M N 439195 syinsay 5 471 575 Sheet 15 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent Lig 18 90l 865 99 060 1 266 801 422 1 S6 28l 612 0b tl2 Ol SOS 62 G spa 3NOH YNOA 9v 18 18 nuaw ez puy 9S3 r Old su s s suoydwnssy 4 14 3WOH u9349S SNOIA3IA ANDA 86 18 t 9 8S t6 Ob t 82 68 l S 2G 8 668 S2 lep vl di H 0S3 ySDI ui ux3 86 18 ysoo u OOO ZE UHM p s NOA S6 881 6 I2v G Sve 1 I 18 21 4I O2 G68 vl ov6 l OOO 2 p JD9A spa Z spa 109A SISATIVNV LNAWLSSANI 813 ilnoj q HAG alld M N 6L JD9A bupuo u39315S SnmOIA 91d UHA dn p pu Ajjouly nok pup sipo y 40 BWOY D pajDJedo pup p spuo9ind nok u ul awoy amok uo UJnjaJ USDI UO YSDI2. SJ014 JINOH u99195S SnolAdid dNOd Uu3319S SHNS H IX9N NO 9d uaeJog SnOIA31d X N s dnbg ugbd dieH UX3 2S3 uipu 3VWOY juasind Jno jo ADS ay uloJj p 9AI9931 dis 96g c ysoo Aup sp pam SD 9ja spunj pDn nu spuoq sx904S N tsiuno29p yung sq2 SD YINS SjessD O9 qDi9XJDUJ 00 Jno 060 I JO SISUOD 1D3A 4104 SPUN 403A JO JJDIS YSDD s ul daad 66 8 110 TELA sjisoo uisojo Aod puo juauw bdumop ayy 3MDUW ol SS91 2G6 2 ajqpHoan OQOO ZE sandy Ajjoipiul nok youl aes woH 66 M 409A JO nooov LNAWLSSANI HSVO 94 YM BunupiS 3NOH 612 Ov S68 vl eve el 1D A JO pu3 uso2 v1Z Ol 88l 6 Coe S6 Sve sBulADS 8N Sn d i 18 21 uso butso ss 7 GOS 62 LIE OZ G68 tl ov6 tl 000 Z JD A JO JIDIS USD 199V LN3AALLS3ANI HSVO G 1D9A p JD9A 1D9A Z JD9A 209A SISXIVNV LNAWLSSANI 8 dO 14 934 Ynp j q WAS ald M N u 45s s jnsey 19 5 471 575 Sheet 11 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent Ve Id nuay 3Z DUY 9S3 su33195 suomnduinssyze y JD9A SBUDY JON di H 13 u9915S IsiiJ 3WOH u9919S snol 83Jd s dN d u9915S SINSIH IXeN NOIA djaH ux3 2S3 u9319S SNOIAIAH yxaN dn 6d uq5d awoy puana uno jo ajos BY UJOJJ D A19991 ysoo uD sp jam SD aya spunj jonynw spuog sywools syuno99p yung sq SD YINS SIISSD lqpol ydbui DiOI anok uipu3 9 PN JO jSISUO 1034
3. ay IZIADUIUINS UDI M MON 10M di H 4 U9949S SINSIY N Nd9d uspj jojo Duipu3 9 DS ui044 USD N dnd SMO OJ SD 3SDYIANA OH 309 SBUIADS N SNid usp PBuiso 2 ssa JD3A JO 41JDIS uspo 99V LN3INLLS3ANI HSVO 8 JO U99J9S s nsay 5 471 575 1 INTERACTIVE PARAMETER DRIVEN ITERATIVE FINANCIAL SPREADSHEET ANALYSIS WITH CONTEXT AND LAYOUT SENSITIVE HELP SCREEN BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to the field of computer financial analysis systems and more specifically to a user interface for such a system Current computer financial analysis systems allow a user to input personal financial data such as salary expenses assets and investments which represent the user s initial financial state The system will then output predictions of the user s future financial status based on mathematical models Financial analysis systems typically analyze mortgage refi nancing loan amortization renting or leasing versus buying a home retirement planning investment analysis and achieving financial goals The input of the financial analysis system is typically a set of numbers The output of the system may be a single number or it may be a table of numbers or a chart or graph The difficulty in designing a financial analysis system for a personal or home user is that in order to provide an accurate analysis many figures have to be both entered
4. 3 4 5 and 6 respectively Using the right and left arrow keys the user can display the results for years one through ten as a display of any five consecutive years at one time The ability to input and display parameters and calculate and display results for incremental periods is an advantage of the present invention over prior art systems This method allows the user to take into account discrete or one time instances of events which affect their financial status For example referring to FIG 4 values 235 and 227 corre sponding respectively with the real estate appreciation rate and a return on cash investment can be modified for each of years 1 2 3 4 and 5 10 In this way the user can take into account a trend such as a projection from a qualified real estate market analyst that the home price appreciation rate will be increasing over the next ten years The manner of presentation of parameters utilizing incremental periods is self explanatory in that the average lay person understands instantly from looking at the display 201 of FIG 4 the purpose of the parameters and the effects of inputing yearly variations in the parameters Further the result screen 301 of FIG 6 is an efficient and concise means of presenting the results of a complicated financial analysis to the user For example by looking at the ending total cash results 303 the user can determine the effect of terminating their investment i e selling the home in
5. 9 Sheet 13 of 15 5 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent 11 9 4 nuaw ez puy 9S3 su 15S suoyduinssy 4 Joa UDYJ onL di H 13J u9949S 1SJ 3 JNOH U9919S snol 8Jd INIA U9919S SINSIY IX N N 9d upuy 9 PN u33aJ9s snolaald XIN dnbd uq 6d unoooD ayy uo Q3120n03Q0 s pup sasaujuaJod ul UMOYS Si n DA aU aaljobeu 9330 djeH ux3 983 SHUIADS JON j _ sasuadxa 913 ojo pjoyasnoy juaul daJd 911491 saxby abpbysow unoA ssaj awodul plO Jno sp LION peip nojpo INNOJIV LN3W1S3ANI HSVI 344 OF p ppp 4D SS971 Gb2 jo SHBUIADS PN anok ip ayy Burning uioH 3IWOH gOS 62 12 03 S68 vl ev6 el 108A JO pu3 uspo 88l 6 lev G 66 Al sbulADS N SNid M 18 21 uso Duso ss 71 4I o2 S68 vl eve6 el 000 2 1094 JO MDIS YSOD oe 199 LNSWLSAANI HSVO t 1034 JD9A Z 1091 10a SISXIVNV LNSWLSSANI 914 Vilnoj q HAG l 4 M N 8 dO 9 415S s nsay 5 471 575 Sheet 14 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent nualA u 18 9 g6s s 060 266 8 2221 962 elt 612 0v t12 0l SOS e2 G 1094 AWOH YNOA eb 118 a 9h Jon d 9H 13 azAjouy 983 su33195 suonuduinssy ze y JD9A IBUDYO djaH ux3 2S3 u9919S snoieJd IX N dn6g uabd Nd9d pak oy 10 sasuadxa uipu3 pjo Jno upy ssa SI uspo DuiJjois snjd 3uooul
6. S Patent Nov 28 1995 Sheet 2 of 15 5 471 575 101 ENTRY 10 DETERMINE THE TERM OF THE INVEST MENT TO BE ANALYZED 105 3 DIVIDE TERM INTO TWO OR MORE INCREMENTAL PERIODS 107 SELECT INITIAL PARAMETERS SELECT AN INCREMENTAL PERIOD 109 lI ASSIGN PARAMETERS TO THE PERIOD 113 MORE PARAMETERS TO ASSIGN NO 115 CALCULATE RESULT FOR FIRST PERIOD USING INITIAL DATA AND ASSIGNED PARAMETERS 117 CALCULATE RESULT FOR SUCCESSIVE PERIODS BY USING 1 RESULT FROM PRECEDING PERIOD 2 ASSIGNED PARA METERS FOR THIS PERIOD AND 3 INITIAL DATA 119 ANY PERIODS LEFT TO CALCULATE NO 121 DISPLAY RESULTS FIG 2 12 EXIT U S Patent Nov 28 1995 Sheet 3 of 15 5 471 575 309 START SET CURRENT PAGE TO FIRST PAGE GET TEXT AREA DIMENSIONS OF CURRENT PAGE GET TEXT FOR CURRENT PAGE GET NUMBER OF ARROWS FOR CURRENT PAGE 3ll 313 315 317 DISPLAY ITEM VALUE IF ANY IN TEXT DISPLAY SELECT DIFFERENT HELP TEXT DEPENDING ON VALUE OF ITEM 32 DISPLAY TEXT IN TEXT AREA 364 B GET ARROW PATHS DISPLAY ARROWS FLASH OPTIONAL DRAW TEXT BOUNDARY FIG JA ANY ARROWS TO DISPLAY U S Patent Nov 28 1995 Sheet 4 of 15 5 471 575 ESCAPE KEY PRESSED REWRITE SCREEN DISPLAY PAGE DOWN KEY PRESSED TO DISPLAY TO DISPLAY AT FIRST PAGE 347 OF TEXT 353 REWRITE SCREEN DISPLAY FIG 3B 5 471 575 Sheet 5 o
7. a user to model discrete events such as changes in the investment rate or income and expenditures which occur at selected points during the investment term being modeled as contrasted with continuous events which may be modeled by an equation with parameters whose values do not change BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is an illustration of a computer system FIG 2 is a diagram illustrating the logic flow for a method of calculating financial results FIGS 3A and 3B are a diagram illustrating the logic flow for a method to display help text on a computer screen FIG 4 is a first screen display of the present invention which allows the user to input parameters FIG 5 is a second screen display for allowing the input of additional parameters FIG 6 is a third screen display for outputing results FIG 7 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with first help text FIG 8 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with second help text and arrows FIG 9A shows different help text displayed for a different value FIG 9 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with third help text and an arrow FIG 10 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with fourth help text and an arrow FIG 11 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with fifth help text and an arrow FIG 12 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with sixth help text and an arrow FIG 13 shows the screen display of FIG 6 with seventh help text and two arrows DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRE
8. by the user and interpreted by the user as output by the computer Often the user is confronted with an entire display screen filled with numbers and short often abbreviated descriptive headings in both the input and output screens If the user is unfamiliar with the names and functions of each of the numbers in the display it will prevent the user from correctly and efficiently using the financial analysis system and more seriously will lead to incorrect conclusions about the user s financial state of affairs Traditional financial analysis systems use various meth ods to explain to the user the purpose of items on the screen One method is called hypertext which allows a user to point to an item on the screen for example by using a cursor controlled by a mouse or by highlighting the items through keyboard selection After an item is pointed to the user presses a help button and a paragraph or two explaining the item the item s purpose and function pops up onto the display screen This help text remains on the screen until the user presses a keyboard or mouse button whereupon the help text disappears and the user is returned to the initial display The user can proceed to highlight another item to obtain more help text for any of the items on the screen A problem with prior art systems is that the help text when displayed overlays some initial screen information which would be helpful to the user in understanding the
9. each of any of the 10 years If the user sells the home in year 3 value 307 which shows 58 674 is the amount which the user would realize according to the financial analysis In prior art systems in order to obtain information such as that shown in screen 301 a user would typically have to run the investment analysis ten times once for each of the incre mental periods changing the initial data set each time the analysis is run The preferred embodiment of the present invention pro vides many result parameters in an easily understandable fashion such as end of year cash 305 shown in FIG 6 This shows the user s assets such as savings accounts and 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 8 other investments not including the home investment and gives the user a clear indication of their ability to maintain the home investment throughout the investment term As an example if the values for the end of year cash 305 were progressively decreasing or became negative it would mean respectively that the user was heading towards insol vency or became insolvent Other prior art financial analysis systems show results plotted on a graph requiring the user to interpret the gap between two curves which causes an ambiguous result Also results in graph form are not as intuitively obvious as simply providing account balances for each incremental period FIGS 3A and 3B show a logic flow diagram for a method to pr
10. items in a financial analysis system display screen These methods often provide information about items in a manual like format where the function of items is discussed as if the user were reading a textbook and turning pages by pressing keyboard or mouse buttons The text in these methods often occupies the whole of the screen so that the user is provided with no visual reference of the items whatsoever As mentioned above financial analysis systems use math ematical models to predict the effect that various factors will have on the user s financial status over the term of an investment Every attempt is made to simplify the use of the system by keeping the number of inputs from the user low and by presenting the output as a single number or a graph However this simplification is at a sacrifice in the flexibility of the financial analysis system as the user is only allowed to specify their financial status at the beginning of the term and the system calculates their financial status at the end of the term This is in contrast with the real world where an individual s financial situation is affected on a day to day basis throughout the term of the investment For example assuming a user trying to simulate a one year investment a traditional financial analysis system would have the user specify starting parameters such as the amount of investment and rate of return and then use these parameters to calculate the accrued value at the end o
11. or page up keys have been pressed and the user is retumed via path 343 back to step 331 that is the system will continue awaiting one of the key presses escape page down or page up Assuming the page up key is pressed at step 341 execu tion falls to step 345 If the current page counter is at the first page the user will not be allowed to increment the page and execution returns through path 347 back to step 331 If the current page counter is not set to the first page then the current page counter is decremented to indicate the previous page of help text at step 349 At step 351 the display screen is rewritten in a manner similar to the rewrite step 332 Execution returns along path 353 to step 313 where the parameters for the new page of help text are retrieved at steps 313 315 and 317 The new help text is displayed similarly to the discussion above for displaying the first page help text Referring to FIG 7 and assuming the user has pressed the page down key to access the next page of help text the subsequent display would be as shown in FIG 8 Note that the page down keypress would have been detected at step 335 of FIG 3B and a check would have been made at step 337 finding that the current page is not the last page so that the current page would have been incremented to the next page The first page would have been erased by the rewrite screen display step 351 then execution would have returned to steps 313 315 and 317 t
12. sidaguos UJNj34 JO 94DJ Ipuj lui 40 3N DA 025 juasaid you yum nof asnyuod upul 49ulDi uauljsanut uo yso9 uJnjaJ YSDI UO YSDI Jno lpln3jp5 oj paubisap som HAG Ed S N33349S SLINSSY SISAIVNY LNINLSIANI eee 2 PR 199V LN3W1S3ANI HSVO p 109A JD A Z 108A 408A SISAIVNV LN3W LS3ANI 8 dO 1 3113 Hn0jaq HAG l 3 M N u3342 Sj nsay 5 471 575 Sheet 9 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent 8 OA nuaw ez puys2S3 su99J9S suoljdwnssy 4 403A IBUDYI JOin di H d Nd9d djaH HX3 983 u9919S SNOIAII IX N ANA uq5d awoy ay jo ajps uipu3 8jDunn au uodn 9412281 i no uspo jau ay no sMous YUM INNODIV ALINOA 3WOH ayi si puooes ays Aupinbi 5 Jan ANOA JO aunspaw D sapi o4d pup YSDI ssaoxa uno JO D sejpjnunooD ppnuijuo9 y m INNODIV LN3ANIS3ANI HSVO d id ay SI S aust Sjunoo9D OM UI us05 anok sJojiuou HAG JON SS97 ers 481 g 2 Zl I99 6Sl GI Zvl 9n DA j93JD0 N 9uuoH INNOIOV ALINOA SWOH 612 0b S68 bl gop d4D A Jo pug uspO SB uIADS JAN SNId uso buisolQ ssa7 S68 tl 2v6 el 000 6S JD A JO HOIS ys 199V LNAWLSSANI HSVO spa 2 1D9A 109A 195 SISAIVNY LNAWLSSANI 8 30 I 914 41MDJ3Q HAG ltd M N u 949S sj nsay 5 471 575 Sheet 10 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent 6 9 4 I nuaw z jouv 2S3 suaeJog suoydunssy y joa ebupu2 Join djeH zs 13 u9915S
13. user is first becoming acquainted with the system and desires only to do a test run to become familiar with the system Having the computer select the initial default parameters would also be useful when the user omits input ing one or more necessary parameters as where the user does not have enough information to enter an accurate parameter and desires only that the parameter be a reasonable approxi mation of the typical value of that parameter At step 109 an incremental period is selected In the home buying scenario since the investment term is ten years and the incremental period is one year step 109 would require the selection of one of the ten one year periods This step may be performed by the user as where the user desires to enter parameters for a specific year Step 109 may also be performed by the computer as where the computer is prompting the user to enter parameters for a specified year In step 111 parameters are assigned to the period selected in step 109 This is typically done by the user who hopefully has enough information to enter accurate parameters How ever if the user chooses not to or cannot enter accurate parameters the computer may use default values as above in 5 471 575 5 the case of using default values to set the initial parameters at step 107 Where the steps 109 and 111 of respectively selecting incremental periods and assigning parameters to the selected periods are performed by the user
14. 10 Spunj J09A JO HDS USD s ul an si quinu aaijobau ayooipul pZO l sp y9ns Jaquinu p punoJo 589 sesaujusJDd 1291409 SI si auns nok y Jequinu WOH anyobau p SI anjoA INNODOV LNAWLSSANI HSVI Bulupis sno 3NOH esi e 09 12b s S6 St2 sBuI ApS I N SNid i i 18 71 usp usop ss 1 I O2 S68 tl v6 l p20 1 JD9A JO HOIS WuspO ESA TA E I 19W IN3N ISIANI HSVI p 1093A JD9A 2 apa 3094 SISXIVNV lN3NWlS3ANI 9143 N039Q HAG l 3 MAN 8 dO u89J2S s nsay 5 471 575 Sheet 12 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent 12 19 nuawW z jouv u9915S SJ 14 2 3NOH eb 118 digg 1X3 983 uaaJog SNOIA9IJ jxeN dn d udbd Ol 9 4 u i5S suonduinssy ze y JD9A 3Bupuo JON dien 4 U9919S SNOIN ANDA u i5S sinseH KON NO9d uipu3 9 N u33198S SLN3W3MInO3H HSVO NI 3AON 2u UO IHDI D U UMOYS S usp Bursojg yL sisoo Buisoj9 1eujo pup daid sasuadxa Buiaow jeu Shobjsow js ay uo piod sjulod LOAN juaw bdumop ayy jo Dunsisuoo usp5 Budpis ano SS9 woa pajopajqns s 18 41 Jo uspO Duiso IxeN NOH 1 02 S68 tl 2ve el 1D A jo pu3 usp I2v G s6 Sb2 SDUIADS N Snid 18 71 yso9 usoj ssa7 G68 bl 2b6 el 000 Z JD3A JO HOIS YSDD 19W LNSWLSSANI HSVO 1D9A Z J09A 1094 SISATVNV LNSWLSSANI 8 dO 913 4n0jeQq HA8 AI M N u 4i5Ss 5 nsay G9 471 575
15. 12 In this manner not only are the continuity of the display and context of display preserved while the items are dis cussed in help text but the items on the screen may be described in regard to the sequence of operations performed 5 471 575 11 on them This is particularly useful in describing the results of a financial analysis system where values on the screen are often items in a sequential calculation and are best described by showing the order in which the items are combined or used in the calculation The method of the present invention therefore provides a means for providing information to the user much like a teacher standing at a blackboard who points out and explains the purpose function and ordering of items on the blackboard FIG 13 is another screen showing a different help text 377 In FIG 13 the help text 377 is used to described relationships between two items on the screen that is value 379 and value 381 This is done by pointing to each value with two separate arrow paths and points Note that the paths serve to connect the values with the help text and the help text is positioned on the screen so as to allow both items to be seen in sufficient context with the initial display to make the explanation readily understandable The above described arrangement is merely illustrative of the principles of the present invention Numerous modifi cations and adaptations thereof will be readily apparent to those sk
16. 4 The information on the display screen may be text such as headings 207 numbers or values such as 209 and graphics such as the boundary 211 Display screen boundary 203 shows the limits of the screen 5 upon which information may be displayed Ttems at the top half 221 of display 201 are parameters in the initial set of data for the financial analysis system The items discussed in connection with a financial analysis system will most likely be numerical values However the 10 20 25 30 35 45 50 55 60 65 6 present invention s method for displaying help text is appli cable to other systems in which an item may be a character word alphanumeric string symbol collection of symbols or a graphic The text 219 is a descriptor for value 213 Highlight 215 is a reverse video area which causes value 213 to appear in the illustration as white on black instead of black on white as would be the case where highlight box 215 was not surrounding value 213 Highlight box 215 may be moved to select different values to be modified Typically this movement can be achieved with a keyboard such as keyboard 9 of FIG 1 where dedicated keys such as the arrow keys on the key board indicating up down right and left may be used A device such as mouse 11 could also be used to move highlight box 215 in accordance with the mouse movement Highlight box 215 may be moved from its current position to highlight value 223 by moving
17. 90 pp 6 7 28 31 66 67 116 117 144 145 292 293 334 337 354 355 376 381 388 389 543 547 Results Albrecht Teach Yourself GW Basic 1990 pp 18 64 Symantec Timeline User Manual 1990 pp 16 14 amp 16 15 Mobley Matrix Intl The Mobley Matrix Operations Manual 1989 pp P 1 to P 6 R 20 R 21 Acerson WordPerfect Series 5 The Complete Reference 1988 pp 231 428 WealthStarter with Charles J Givens User s Guide Reality Technologies Limited Primary Examiner Heather R Herndon Assistant Examiner Anton W Fetting Attorney Agent or Firm Townsend and Townsend Khou rie and Crew 57 ABSTRACT A financial analysis system for mathematically modeling an investment on a computer provides an improved computer user interface and a help method for teaching a user how to use the analysis system and for explaining the meaning of items on the screen An investment term is broken up into two or more incremental periods and unique parameters may be associated with each incremental period so as to allow for the modeling of discrete events and permit varying of input assumptions of one or more incremental periods In accor dance with this scheme results are displayed with each incremental period having its associated result or results A method for displaying help text to explain the purpose function and ordering of items displayed in a computer financial analysis system is disclosed The help text is visual
18. D EMBODIMENT The present invention is a financial analysis system which allows a user to input an initial set of data representing a financial state or status The financial analysis system then 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 uses a mathematical model to make predictions about a future financial state The invention uses a computer system 1 as shown in FIG 1 Computer system 1 comprises a display 3 having a screen 5 Computer system 1 further comprises a cabinet 7 within which are standard computer components not shown such as disk drives memory central processor peripheral adapter cards etc Computer system 1 may have user input devices such as a keyboard 9 or a mouse 11 Mouse 11 may have one or more buttons 13 FIG 2 shows the logical flow of the steps in a method for calculating results based on an initial set of financial data The method assumes that the financial analysis can be characterized as an investment over a term or fixed period of time The method further assumes that the user has enough information to accurately define an initial set of data describ ing the user s present financial situation with respect to the investment Also the user must have enough information to characterize the market forces such as the rate of home price appreciation For example such a financial analysis would apply to buying a home where the buyer s current savings and salary are known
19. G 8 that is the help text 355 and associated boundary 357 arrow path 359 and arrow points 362 and 361 have been replaced with the initial text Then the current page counter was updated to indicate the next page of help text whereupon the data for displaying the new page of help text had been retrieved Finally the new help text was displayed New help text 359 discusses item 361 which is pointed to by a path and an arrow point Note also that value 363 is restated in the help text for clarity A subsequent press of the page down key will lead to the display shown in FIG 10 FIG 10 shows a new page of help text 367 which is used to describe item 365 FIG 11 in turn shows help text 369 describing item 371 FIG 12 shows help text 373 which discusses item 375 FIG 9A shows the display screen with a negative value for the Cash Start of Year entry Accordingly different help text is displayed at 360 It can be seen from FIGS 9 through 12 that the sequence of help pages discusses items which are arranged in a vertical column in a top to bottom fashion That is a dis cussion of the items can proceed with attention given to the logical flow of using the items in a calculation in the order that they are displayed on the screen The item of FIG 9 is the first item used in a calculation From this item the item pointed to in FIG 10 is subtracted Next the item pointed to in FIG 11 is subtracted to yield a result as pointed to in FIG
20. NDA u99415S SINSINH XIN NADA 1 t t t 218 901 86 I8 7219 8GS t62 Ot vLE 8c uso Iplol Durpu3 nue ez ppuy 2S3 u9915S SMA 3WOH 86999 68 IG sees 668 sz Iovi ajoS WO1J Uso I N 060 1 860 1 901 1 I 6111 Kulpu q odaid 266 800 X 8 60 8I9 OID ZI HU eel saoupjog ebbbiJoN 22 beco 08S 8 6288 S l9 SUOISSIWWO SS 1 4S648 2 2 2l 199 651 SILH Sz9 S l n DA I M40N_ UI0H INNO9IV ALInO3 3WOH 612 0b SOS 62 4I o2 G68 tl ove el 103A jO pu3 usp UM r 0 e biZ ol g88 6 I2ve S S6 Svz SHUIADS JN Sn d 18 21 uso Busog ss 1 SOS 62 l O2 S68 tl Zb6 el 000 2 1091 JO JJD S uspo9 19 LNSWLS3SANI HSVO S 109A t 109A JD9A Z JD9A JD9A SISAIVNY IN3WAIS3A NI 914 1npjed HAG all MAN 8 JO 99415S s nsoy 057 0 sog 5 471 575 Sheet 8 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent Z Old nua ez jpuy 2 S3 Su99415S suomdunssy y J09A abupyd JON di H 3 U9919S 4511 J 3INOH u9919S SNOIABId dNOd u9945S SHNSIHY IX 9N NG9d 18 901 e86 18 t 9 8S t6 Ot t 82 usD jojo Bbuipuy g6s 9 9 N djaH 4x9 2S3 u93915S Ix N UNA 060 dad awiy Ul jurod asnan awos Ip awoy ay 198 314 NO UIYM HON 3ADY Ajjonjyuaaa j no yspd yonw moy pupy uo ysDy SS97 joiu snok uaaib nok swous uJnjeJ usp2 UO YSDI SIUL o
21. United States Patent us Giansante gE 8 11 Patent Number 4 Date of Patent 5 471 575 Nov 28 1995 54 INTERACTIVE PARAMETER DRIVEN ITERATIVE FINANCIAL SPREADSHEET ANALYSIS WITH CONTEXT AND LAYOUT SENSITIVE HELP SCREEN 75 Inventor Joseph E Giansante Mountain View Calif 73 Assignee Home Equity Software Inc Mountain View Calif 21 Appl No 816 892 22 Filed Jan 3 1992 Sih ito AAA ttu os G06F 17 21 52 US Cleo ass aaa 395 144 395 161 58 Field of Search ou essen 395 161 144 395 145 146 147 148 152 153 154 155 157 158 364 408 419 1 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 891 770 1 1990 THOME tt 2 Naa ulaqa 395 144 X 4 989 141 1 1991 Lyons et al 364 408 4 992 939 2 1991 Tyler 364 408 X 5 058 009 10 1991 Yoshino et al 5 122 972 6 1992 Richards et al 5 148 365 9 1992 Dembo 5 155 806 10 1992 Hoeber et al 5 157 768 10 1992 Hoeber et al s 964 408 wee 395 157 364 408 X eee 395 157 395 157 5 179 654 1 1993 Richards et al we 395 157 5 189 608 2 1993 Lyons et al 364 408 5 195 172 3 1993 Elad et al 395 50 5 287 448 2 1994 Nichol et al 395 157 X 5 317 688 5 1994 Watson et al 395 161 5 339 392 8 1994 Risberg et al 395 161 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Campbell Quattro Pro Handbook 19
22. along with the price of the house and expected expenses in purchasing the house These values would be part of the initial set of data defining the user s financial state Other values such as the rate of home price apprecia tion interest rate on the mortgage salary increases and taxes would be some of the parameters input by the user and used in the math model to calculate the future financial state The methods described below in reference to FIG 2 allows the user to take into account one time factors or factors which change over the term of the analysis because the user may input parameters which are only effective for a short period of time within the overall term of the investment In FIG 2 the method or procedure has an entry point 101 Step 103 determines the term of the investment Using the purchase of a home as an example the user may decide to analyze the home purchase over a ten year term Thus the term of the investment is set at ten years Step 105 divides the term into two or more incremental periods In the example the ten year term can be conveniently divided into ten one year incremental periods In step 107 initial param eters are selected This can be achieved by having the user input parameters which define the user s initial financial state Alternatively the computer system may select pre stored initial parameters for some or all of the required parameters to define the initial state This would be useful when the
23. analysis system since these methodologies do not represent any actual quantity of cash held by the user at any time during the investments The internal rate of return approach suffers from an additional shortcoming in that it 5 471 575 3 gives no weight to the relative size of the investment For example an investment of 1 000 which returns 1 500 in five years has the same internal rate of return as an invest ment of 100 000 returning 150 100 even though in the second case the amount earned is 100 times larger than the first case This is because the internal rate of return expresses its result as the ratio of return to investment SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly the present invention provides a means by which help text may be displayed on a display screen in a financial analysis system executing on a computer The help text describes an item on the screen and a pointer or arrow connects the help text with the item being described The present invention implements a help tutor which can automatically display help text in a predetermined sequence to explain items on the screen and illustrate the logical flow of the calculations performed on the items Different help text may be displayed for different values of an item For example if the item is a number and its value is positive then a first help text can be displayed if the value of the item is negative a second help text can be displayed The invention also allows
24. e more parameters to assign step 109 is again repeated along with subsequent step 111 Note that it is not necessary to first select an incremental period before assigning parameters In other words parameters can be entered and then assigned to an incremental period that is steps 109 and 111 may be reversed At step 115 the result for the first period is calculated using the initial data and parameters assigned to the first period At step 117 results are calculated for successive incremental periods using the result from a preceding period and any assigned parameters for the successive periods being calculated Also at step 117 some of the parameters from the initial data may be used Step 119 looks to whether there are any periods left with uncalculated results If so execution continues at step 117 If there are no periods left to be calculated execution falls to step 121 where the results are displayed for the user The method ends at step 123 The math models used in the analysis require that the incremental period results be calculated sequentially That is the calculation for year two in the above sample could not begin until the results were obtained for year one The screen display 201 of FIG 4 shows a preferred embodiment for accomplishing some of the steps of the method described above in reference to FIG 2 Screen display 201 is comprised of information on the computer screen 5 of FIG 1 which is also indicated in FIG
25. ere are no arrows to be 5 471 575 9 displayed execution proceeds to step 329 which draws a text boundary around the help text as shown by boundary 325 of FIG 7 At step 331 of FIG 3B the user may exit the help tutor mode by pressing the escape key thus causing the execution to terminate at 333 If the escape key is pressed the screen display is restored at step 332 and the routine is exited at step 333 so that the user is returned to the display 301 of FIG 6 The rewrite screen display step 332 will rewrite the screen and restore it to its origina display 301 before exiting The user may continue on to the next page of help text by pressing the page down key in which case execution will be routed by step 335 to step 337 Step 337 checks whether the help text being displayed is already at the last page This would be indicated by the current page counter having a value equivalent to the last page If that is the case execution will return to step 331 in other words the user will not be allowed to proceed to the next help page since there is none Assuming at step 337 that the current page counter is not set to the last page execution proceeds to step 339 and the current page is incremented to the next page Similar to the pressing of the page down key the page up key may be pressed by the user This is checked at step 341 If the page up key has not been pressed at this point it would mean that neither the escape page down
26. esent help text on a display screen The display screen initially displays items of information which could comprise text numbers and graphics initial text A problem arises when it is necessary to explain by means of additional text the meaning of various items on the screen Often there is not enough area to display the help text and initial text at the same time Also when it is desired to explain the flow or sequence of actions occurring on the screen the standard single help text box is inadequate FIG 3A shows entry point 309 It is assumed that at step 309 the display screen is presently displaying information such as shown on screen 301 of FIG 6 The user could initiate entry into the routine of FIGS 3A and 3B for example by pressing the Fl key In step 311 of FIG 3B the program executing on the computer system will set a variable representing the current page of help text to indicate that the current page of help text is the first page of help text Step 313 retrieves data from a data structure to obtain the area dimensions of the current page Step 315 retrieves the text for the current page and step 317 retrieves the number of arrows if any for the current page The information retrieved in steps 313 315 and 317 can be contained in a single data structure or multiple data structures The use of one or more data structures can be implemented in any number of ways known in the art For example the text area dimensio
27. f 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent b 911 TIC ROSAS SY 7 sue daa MOSS SH DYO DEAN 05624 t 1D9A JD9A 2 103A JD9A jours J uso unos ow uaYy 9 qpipduoo Ajjouad od 94d uoissiuuuuo9 434019 aopo puo5 s SDDBJJON 45114 1ueuApduMoq buno pasanquuia l METAR YY NOA ajdumx3 ajduiS y MoL omnt 9NIAng 9e Poy lu unls Aul usp ud uJnjey 99 3404 UuOljbIo 91ddy lpis3 DAY spa 7 ec C001 5 s su dx3 uow OSI ow a9ubunsu GOH 0000 447 95 ansu abob pow 0001 Ak 940Y XD dold 00SZ Sluiod oos 2 see siso9 Duiso 2 OOO SZI 99114 IWMOH EZZZZ 298049104 1 4uay Giz EA de YES te N33H2S suonduunssy 622 lee 5 471 575 Sheet 6 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent Os GARE OS AF22 A O O0l uo4nqiajuo jo YONI lqHonp q XOL 0007 uonnquuog jUNOUIY paxij Snid OO 99 ADIDS JO JUIIIId uonunqiauo UDId 1u3ui3J119M OOS C S WNUIXDA VOL GL 1u92J8d VOI Z b O o o 9 7 S g aurou 18140 o s o s o s gs m 4 94 espe1ou JDIDS 02 192 BEA US sD DS pua ng 1v2 6127 OI G 4A btupaA JD9A 2 ADA 403A UP ANAL BABYS 02 3WOH 9 JO t YNOA lduipx3 ajdwis V anol YMO u 15S 9NIAng suondunssy 5 471 575 Sheet 7 of 15 Nov 28 1995 U S Patent 9 Od 10t S 99409S suomnduinssyzc J Joa 9B5upuo JO di H 4 u93919S SNOIAIAH A
28. f one year This does not take into account the possibility that the interest rate may fluctuate within the year As another example in a cash flow analysis other one time events such as an increase in salary may occur during the investment term being modeled The math models used in current financial analysis systems make it difficult to handle discrete events that is parameters whose values change during the course of the investment term Financial analysis systems on the market today generally use a present value or internal rate of return analysis methodology These methods operate respectively by cal culating the present value of the stream of cash flows or by calculating the internal rate of return associated with the cash flow stream Such methods are well known in the art In each method a discount rate may be specified by the user however this discount rate is maintained constant throughout the calculation This is not an accurate reflection of actual discount rates which can fluctuate with time Moreover these math models based on present value or internal rate of return provide no means of modeling discrete events such as windfall capital realizations one time or intermittent expenses or other discrete events which would affect a user s income in a non continuous manner Further the use of present value or internal rate of return analysis methodologies is confusing to the average user of a financial
29. function of the item Sometimes even the item itself is overlayed so that the user loses visual reference to the item Other systems remove the initial display completely and present the user with a completely new screen containing the help text When the user decides to go back to the initial display the help text is removed and the initial display is restored With this latter technique the user loses all visual refer ence to the item which is being explained by the help text Such visual reference is important when the item is one of many numbers shown on the screen and the number s placement relative to other displayed information is helpful in understanding its function The second problem with the hypertext method of pro viding help information is that a sequence or flow of help 20 25 30 35 40 45 55 60 65 2 information between items is not established This is because it is the user who is selecting the items to be explained and the user may randomly or haphazardly choose to have items explained in a sequence which is not repre sentative of the role of the items in a computation For example in the calculation of A B C the user may first select an explanation of A and then an explanation of C which probably does not provide as good an understanding of the computation as if A and B were explained before C was explained Other help methods are even less adequate in explaining the function of
30. illed in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention What is claimed is 1 A method for displaying help text on a display screen in a computer system wherein the computer is coupled to a user input device for generating signals in response to the actions of a human user where said screen initially displays first text having a plurality of items wherein each item is a numeric value displayed on the display screen wherein the initially displayed first text and plurality of items describe a mathematical calculation performed by using the items in a fixed order said method comprising the steps of storing a predefined data structure in the computer wherein the data structure includes references to a plurality of the initially displayed items wherein the references in the data structure are arranged in a pre defined order corresponding to the fixed order of the referenced items repeating in response to signals from the user input device the following steps to display help text associ ated with the items referenced by the data structure selecting a reference from the data structure in accor dance with the ordering of the references in the data structure using the computer to select predefined help text cor responding to the item referenced by the selected reference using the computer to determine an area on said screen large enough to contain said selected help text using the computer to de
31. ith the second quantitative value expressed as a number 5 The method of claim 4 wherein the first quantitative value expressed as a number is positive and the second quantitative value expressed as a number is negative 6 The method of claim 4 wherein one or more of the displayed quantitative value expressed as numbers are input by the user 7 An apparatus for displaying help text on a display screen in a computer system wherein said screen initially displays first text having a plurality of items wherein each item is a numeric value displayed on the display screen wherein the initially displayed first text having a plurality of items describes a mathematical calculation performed by using the items in a fixed order the apparatus comprising a computer a user input device coupled to the computer wherein the user input device generates signals in response to the actions of a human user a storing process executed by the computer system for storing a predefined data structure in the computer wherein the data structure includes references to a plurality of the initially displayed items wherein the 5 471 575 13 references in the data structure are arranged in a pre defined order corresponding to the fixed order of the referenced items a user input handling process executed by the computer system for repeating in response to signals from the user input device steps to display help text associated with the items refere
32. ly associated with an item that is displayed in context on the screen Help text is automatically displayed in a predetermined sequence to explain items on the screen and to illustrate the logical flow of calculations performed on the items Different help text may be displayed when the value of an item changes 8 Claims 15 Drawing Sheets 361 Screen OF 8 Endin PGDN Next Results Screen Fl Help Tutor Change Year New File BYM Default File INVESTMENT ANALYSIS Year Year Year Year r CASH INVESTMENT ACCT l E s sea ee Cash Start of Year 32 0007 13 942 14 895 20 317 29 505 Less Closing Cash 17 813 363 Plus Net Savings 245 953 5 421 9 188 10 714 Cash End of Year 13 942 14 895 29 505 40 219 HOME Starting with the CASH INVESTMENT ACCOUNT for Year we 359 Home see that you initially have 000 avotidble 7 957 Less to make the downpayment and pay closing costs 11 277 Mort x x 2 8 992 Prep These Cash Start of Year funds for Year consist of 1 090 your total marketable assets such as CDs bank accounts i Net C Stocks bonds mutual funds etc as well as any cash 5 598 received from the sale of your current home PgDn PgUp Next Previous Screen PGUP Previous Screen F3 Assumptions Screens HOME ESC Exit Help HOME First Screen ESC Analyze Menu U S Patent Nov 28 1995 Sheet 1 of 15 5 471 575 U
33. may not use the same parameters as other incremental periods In the preferred embodiment moving the highlight box downward would cause the high light box to move from the value 243 to value 247 Moving the highlight box to the right from its position as shown in FIG 5 would cause the highlight box to cover value 251 The above discussion shows how steps 109 and 111 of FIG 2 may be accomplished The user may continue to select columns and assign parameters by repeating the above described steps The user may indicate that no more parameters are to be assigned by pressing a key on the keyboard such as the ESCAPE or F4 keys In this way step 113 of FIG 2 is implemented After all parameters have been assigned computation of the results proceed in accordance with steps 115 117 and 119 of FIG 2 FIG 6 shows a screen display 301 of the results from the analysis The results display is presented in columnar form with each column corresponding to the incremental period of one year In the result screen 301 of FIG 6 each of the results for the incremental one year periods may be viewed although only five periods are shown at any one time The system accepts a user input such as a right arrow key press from the keyboard to display the results for an additional year For instance if the user were to press the right arrow at the screen display as shown in FIG 6 years 1 2 3 4 and 5 would be replaced with the results for years 2
34. nced by the data structure wherein the user input handling process includes a selecting process for selecting a reference from the data structure in accordance with the ordering of the references in the data structure a help text selecting process for selecting predefined help text corre sponding to the item referenced by the selected reference a region determining process executed by the computer to determine an area on the screen large enough to contain the selected help text a position determining process executed by the com puter to determine a position for the area on the screen wherein the position does not cause the area to overlap the item a help text displaying process to display the help text within the area a linear pointer displaying process for displaying a linear pointer on the screen wherein one end of the pointer is substantially near to the help text and wherein the other end of the pointer is substantially near to the referenced item thereby visually connect ing the help text with the referenced item and a final help text displaying process for displaying the selected help text in the determined position on the screen 8 An apparatus for displaying help text on a display screen in a computer system comprising an item name display process executed by the computer system for displaying an item name on the display screen a first displaying process for displaying a first quantitative value expressed as a n
35. ns can be stored as two sets of XY coordinates indicating the upper left corner coordi nate and the lower right corner coordinate A parameter which is a pointer to a location in computer memory where the current text resides may be retrieved at step 315 and the number of arrows for the current page could be an integer value At step 319 the item which the help text is explaining is displayed in the help text box This can be merely using the item in a sentence which describes the item Where the item is a number the use of the number within the help text helps to identify the number being discussed At step 319 different help text may be selected according to the value of the number assuming the item is a number In the preferred embodiment one set of help text will be displayed if the number is negative and another set of help text will be displayed if the number is positive This helps to alert the user to important situations such as insolvency which arise due to a change in parameter values for a particular analysis Finally at step 321 the text for the current help page is displayed in the help text area on the screen FIG 7 shows the same initial display as in FIG 6 however help text 323 is overlayed onto the initial display as would appear after execution of step 321 of FIG 3A At step 327 of FIG 3A software executing on the computer would check whether there are any arrows to be displayed Assuming for the moment that th
36. o get the data for displaying the second page of help text and the screen display under the second page of help text would have been saved at step 319 The second page of help text would have been displayed at step 321 FIG 8 shows the second page of help text 355 overlying a different part of initial screen display 301 and having a different size FIG 8 also shows help text boundary 357 path 359 and arrows 362 and 361 However at this point at step 327 of FIG 3 these structures would not yet have been displayed At step 327 the software checks whether there are any arrows to display In this case there are two arrows to display so execution proceeds to step 364 where information indicating the paths of the arrows is obtained This infor mation would be another data structure which can be imple mented in any of a variety of ways known in the art One 10 15 20 45 55 60 65 10 such data structure could be a point to point list of XY coordinates describing line segments which make up the path At step 366 the arrow paths such as 359 of FIG 8 are drawn Also at step 366 the arrow points 362 and 361 are displayed In a preferred embodiment the arrow paths and points are flashed on the screen three times in approximately two seconds to direct the user s attention to the items pointed at Any further method for alerting the user and directing their attention to the items pointed at may be used such as emboldening
37. one of the user input devices such as keyboard 9 or mouse 11 of FIG 1 may be used In a preferred embodiment of this invention to be described below display screen 5 of FIG 1 would show incremental periods as columns on the screen and would show parameters associated with each column as rows within that column The user could then by means of keyboard 9 or mouse 11 move a cursor not shown on the Screen from parameter to parameter Moving the cursor horizontally from column to column would achieve step 109 of selecting an incremental period Moving the cursor ver tically from parameter to parameter within the column and modifying the parameter would constitute step 111 that of assigning a parameter to the incremental period The user would be free to modify each of the parameters indicated by the cursor position by pressing additional buttons on either the keyboard 9 or mouse 11 as for example by entering a numerical value using the numbered keys on a typical keyboard Many workable procedures for achieving steps 109 and 111 are possible and all are considered within the scope of this invention Step 113 looks at whether there are more parameters to assign to incremental periods This decision can be made by requesting the user to indicate whether or not the user desires to enter more parameters Alternatively the computer sys tem may prompt the user for parameters until all parameters have been entered In either case where there ar
38. rst quantitative value expressed as a number on the display screen at a first position adjacent to the item name selecting first help text associated with the first number displaying the selected first help text on the display screen displaying a linear pointer on the display screen wherein one end of the pointer is substantially near to the selected first help text and the other end of the pointer is substantially near to the first quantitative value expressed as a number thereby visually connecting the first selected help text with the first quantitative value expressed as number displaying subsequent to the displaying a first quantita tive value expressed as a number step a second quantitative value expressed as a number on the display screen at the first position to replace the first quantita tive value expressed as a number wherein the second quantitative value expressed as a number is different from the first quantitative value expressed as a number selecting second help text associated with the second quantitative value expressed as a number displaying the selected second help text on the display screen and displaying a linear pointer on the display screen wherein one end of the pointer is substantially near to the selected second help text and the other end of the pointer is substantially near to the second quantitative value expressed as a number thereby visually connect ing the second selected help text w
39. s for years 5 through 10 Thus the parameters under heading 237 will be used in calculating the six incremental periods periods 5 through 10 To select an incremental period the user posi tions highlight box 215 within one of the five columns Parameters are assigned by modifying one of the two values within the column in a manner to analogous to the discussion above for entering parameters for the initial data set Again as with the initial parameters the incremental period param eters may be spread out over more than one screen In the preferred embodiment both the initial and incremental parameters are spread over six screens which are accessed by using the page up and page down keys FIG 5 shows another screen 237 which shows a second set of column headings 239 coinciding with the column heading 231 of FIG 4 Highlight box 241 is now over value 243 corresponding to the parameter for current salary as indicated by descriptor 249 Note that there are no values for descriptor 249 under columns other than the column for the incremental period for year one However the periods other than the year one period do have a parameter absent from year one namely salary increase indicated by descriptor 253 Looking at the column for year one it is shown that the 5 471 575 7 blank space 245 exists where the corresponding parameter for salary increase would be Thus it is shown that a given incremental period may or
40. termine a position for the area on said screen where said position does not cause said area to overlap said item displaying said help text within said area displaying a linear pointer on said screen where one end of said pointer is substantially near to said help text and the other end of the pointer is substantially near to said referenced item thereby visually con necting said help text with said referenced item displaying the selected help text in the determined position on the screen removing the selected help text from the determined position on the screen 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of displaying in response to a first signal from the user input device help text corresponding to the next item in the 10 20 25 45 50 55 60 65 12 predetermined order and displaying in response to a second signal from the user input device help text corresponding to the previous item according to the predetermined order 3 The method of claim 2 wherein the user input device comprises a keyboard with first and second keys wherein the first signal is generated by a user depressing the first key wherein the second signal is generated by a user depressing the second key 4 A method for displaying help text on a display screen in a computer system the method comprising the following steps performed by the computer system displaying an item name on the display screen displaying a fi
41. the arrow points and paths or further animating the pointing process as by showing the arrows creep up to the pointed items highlighting the items etc Execution proceeds to step 329 where the text boundary 357 is drawn After execution of step 329 the screen display will appear as shown in FIG 8 The display of FIG 8 shows that the help text presented in this fashion is an effective method for clearly and simply discussing items on a screen which is already filled with information The help text of FIG 8 discusses the items the cash investment account and the home equity account while at the same time maintaining a continuous display of the items in context This is unlike the prior art which replaces the screen being viewed with an entirely new and different screen of information discussing items which appeared on the previously displayed screens This manner of displaying help text loses both continuity and context Other prior art systems overlay help text with the initial screen but do not point to the items in their initial locations on the screen and do not preserve the context of the items on the screen Thus the method of the present invention provides an improved method to explain the results of a financial analy sis system FIG 9 shows the display screen after the user has pressed the page down button in the display of FIG 8 Similar to the above discussion the display screen has been rewritten from the display of FI
42. the box to the right or it may highlight value 225 by moving the box downwards Additionally other methods may be employed to allow wraparound of the box to value 227 by moving the box upwards or the box may be allowed to jump from value to value These methods of cursor movement are well known in the art Once positioned over a value such as 213 that value may be modified by pressing a key such as the standard return or enter keys not shown on keyboard 9 and then entering a new value by means of numeric keys not shown on keyboard 9 of FIG 1 In this way step 107 of FIG 2 that is selecting the initial parameters may be achieved Note that in the preferred embodiment screen display 201 only allows the user to select a subset of the initial parameters The remainder of the initial parameters are on additional screens which may be accessed by using additional keys on keyboard 9 such as page up and page down The lower section 229 of screen display 201 presents parameters for incremental periods The incremental period parameters are shown as columns 231 Each incremental period column has a heading such as 233 and has values such as 235 and 227 arranged in rows under the column heading In this analysis the term of investment is ten years and the incremental period is one year However only five columns are shown on screen 201 This is because the column with heading 237 pertains to incremental period
43. the pointer is substantially near to the selected second help text and the other end of the pointer is substantially near to the second quantitative value expressed as a number thereby visually connecting the second selected help text with the second quantitative value expressed as a number and a help text removing process for removing the selected help text from the determined position on the screen ko ok k
44. umber on the display screen at a 10 15 20 25 30 35 14 first position adjacent to the item name a first help text selecting process for selecting first help text associated with the first quantitative value expressed as a number a selected first help text displaying process for displaying the selected first help text on the display screen a linear pointer displaying process for displaying a linear pointer on the display screen wherein one end of the pointer is substantially near to the selected first help text and the other end of the pointer is substantially near to the first quantitative value expressed as a number thereby visually connecting the first selected help text with the first quantitative value expressed as a number a second displaying process for displaying a second quantitative value expressed as a number on the display screen at the first position thereby replacing the first quantitative value expressed as a number wherein the second quantitative value expressed as a number is different from the first quantitative value expressed as a number a second help text selecting process for selecting second help text associated with the second quantitative value expressed as a number a second help text displaying process for displaying the selected second help text on the display screen a second linear pointer displaying process for displaying a linear pointer on the display screen wherein one end of
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