Patent ID: 6880131

Claim:
A data set selecting apparatus connectable to an external storage device, wherein said storage device stores a plurality of data sets that are grouped into a plurality of data groups, comprising: a display screen; a plurality of data group selecting controls, each data group selecting control being allocated to each of said data groups; a plurality of data set selecting controls that are three-dimensional controls located separately in the vicinity of said display screen; an initial page setting device for designating, as an initial page data set, a desired data set from amongst the plurality of data sets that belong to a desired data group as selected by a user by means of a desired one of said plurality of data group selecting controls; and a display controller which causes said display screen to list a plurality of identifiers, each representing each of at least a part of said plurality of data sets belonging to a desired data group which is selected by the user by means of the data group selecting control that is allocated to said desired data group such that an order of identifiers to be listed on said screen is determined by said initial pave data set and that each of said listed plurality of identifiers is exhibited on said display screen at a location corresponding to and in the vicinity of each of said plurality of data set selecting controls that are thus allocated to said listed identifiers, wherein operating each of said plurality of data set selecting controls causes selection of the data set indicated by the identifier allocated to the operated data set selecting control.