An electronic spreadsheet system of the present invention includes a notebook interface having a plurality of notebook pages, each of which may contain a spread of information cells, or other desired page type (e.g., Graphs page). Methods are provided for rapidly accessing and processing information on the different pages, including displaying a plurality of page identifiers for selecting individual pages, and further including a preferred syntax for referencing information. Additional methods are provided for editing cells and blocks of cells.

System and methods for improved spreadsheet interface with user-familiar objects

Discusses an approach and issues regarding the use of intelligent adaptive user interfaces, coupled with hypermedia, to provide supportive learning situations for users within an instructional paradigm of cognitive apprenticeship. Existing models of user interaction are examined and extended with a supportive learning model of user interaction. The paper addresses learning opportunities provided by implementing this model of interaction using intelligent computer-human interaction, as well as identifies issues which are yet to be resolved in providing supportive learning situations within the apprenticeship learning paradigm. >

Apprenticeship instruction through adaptive human-computer interaction

This bibliography was originally compiled for the purpose of a Doctoral degree submitted to Loughborough University of Technology in March 1993. The information in this bibliography, which was started in the last quarter of 1989, was continuously updated by collecting data from all the important current journals and abstracting and indexing sources. It covers all of hypertext, including HyperCard and other hypertext/hypermedia systems which are being used for teaching and training. These systems are also used for conducting research in this field. Full efforts were made to cover all the publications such as periodical articles, conference papers/Proceedings, books and reports that were published until the first quarter of 1993.

Use of hypertext for teaching and training: a bibliography

Underlying the current enthusiasm for teaching by means of multimedia and hypertext — subjects that we can term collectively, hypermedia (Figure 1) — there seem to be some implicit assumptions which need to be examined. Typical of these are 


assumptions about perception; for example, if a picture or video extract is good on its own, it must be even better with music, voiceover, and sound effects or in company with other pictures or video extracts;


assumptions about scale; for example, if one picture is worth a thousand words, fifty thousand pictures must be worth fifty million words; and


assumptions about cognition; for example, because the brain works by association, we should present our information associatively.

Mnemotechnics and the Challenge of Hypermedia

This study explores the problem of designing an environment for the learning of procedures using an hypertext environment. It presents an HYPERCARD interface for the learning of database procedures for the EXCEL spreadsheet. Direct manipulation interfaces (Shneiderman, 1982) encourage exploration and learning, but are not very effective for complex and abstract applications, which require planning and the coordination of many operations. For these interfaces, written documentation and help features are generally too fragmented and static. As for rigid tutorials they prove ineffective for the learning of complex procedures, as they leave no room for inferences. We will discuss the design of a learning environment to encourage and support exploration in this context. The system is based on a protocol analysis of users reading the written documentation and trying the system. Semantic, syntactic and process analyses have shown how users build their representations of the procedures to be learned (lexical ambiguities, inversion of sequences, search for illustrations, etc.). Based on this user model and drawing from studies on learning, a new environment was developed in Hypercard which put forward an interactional structure for the learning of direct manipulation procedures. Inspired both by the G.O.M.S. model (Card, Newell and Moran, 1983) and by "planning interfaces" (Miller, 1982), it first presents the hierarchy of goals, then outlines methods with accessible definitions, examples, exercises and various tests. Only there after these are alternative methods and selection rules explained. As in "planning interfaces", the system offers explanation both at the general level of goals and methods and at the concrete level of their integration into concrete examples. The user is free to explore this "training wheel" environment, where aspects of the Excel environment are simulated and gradually made accessible, with appropriate guidance and feedback.

Aude Dufresne

Papers

Exploratory behaviors and the design of computer instruction manuals in hypertext