Patent ID: 8434015

Claim:
An information processing apparatus, comprising: a display element; an indicated position detection means whose manipulating face is placed on a display screen of the display element and which accepts an indicating manipulation performed by a user, and detects and outputs information on coordinates representing a position indicated with the indicating manipulation; a detection means for detecting the indicated position on the display screen of the display element and the style of the indicating manipulation based on the information on coordinates fed from the indicated position detection means; and a display control means for dividing the display screen of the display element into a first area, in which at least item shifting operating pieces are disposed, and a second area in which display items that are objects of item shifting are displayed, and for implementing control so that pieces of display information will be displayed in the first area and second area respectively, wherein when the result of detection fed from the detection means signifies that a manipulation has been performed on the operating piece disposed in the first area, the display control means changes one or both of the first area and second area on the display screen according to a facility allocated to the operating piece, and when the manipulation performed on one of the operating pieces disposed in the first area is a tracing manipulation, a spacing between symbols disposed in the first area is changed.