JPH0877171A - Document processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a document processor in which the designation of the processed object of a document need not be redefined even if such editing as to keep substantial context information is applied to a document. CONSTITUTION: An input document 1 is added with a processed object instruction attribute to show the relative contex to the document component to be the starting point of a relative context. When the document processor 1 is started, first of all, a document component designation description generating part 3 analyzes the input document held in an input document holding part 2, and retrieves the document component added with the processed object instruction attribute. It extracts a document component ID out of the found document component, and simultaneously, extracts a processed object instruction attribute value. Next, it generates document component designation description from extracted information. A processing description generating part 6 generates processing description for executing processing from the document component designation description and the instruction of the processing held in a processing instruction holding part 5. A processing executing part 7 executes the generated processing description, and outputs a result as an output document 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention takes a structured document composed of one or a plurality of parts (hereinafter referred to as document parts) of a document created by a user and inputs it to a specified document part. The present invention relates to a document processing device that processes a document.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When processing a document, it is sometimes desired to process a part of the document, that is, some document parts. In such a case, it is necessary to specify the document part to be processed and to perform the process. Conventionally, two methods have been used as a method of specifying a document part to be processed.

The first method is a method of directly designating a document part by a user. The user uses the mouse or other pointing device to select the document part to be processed and activates the process. Alternatively, an attribute is set in the selected document part, and the attribute is specified to start the process. Alternatively, a tag is attached to the document part to specify what kind of processing is to be performed. According to this first method, all the document parts to be processed must be manually specified. Therefore, in document processing that requires batch processing of a large number of documents, the user is forced to perform complicated work.

In order to reduce complexity, some document creation applications can automatically embed tags in the document when creating the document. In this case, the document parts to be processed in advance must be expected at the time of creating the document. Therefore, if necessary, appropriate processing is performed on the created document.
Application to so-called atypical document processing does not have that effect.

That is, the first document part designating method is very useful especially for a user for a large number of document parts or documents, and for a document process in which appropriate processes are collectively and flexibly performed. You will be burdened.

The second method of specifying a document part is a method of designating a document part using a rule (hereinafter referred to as context information) concerning the structure of the document part. In the case where the document to be processed is a document (hereinafter referred to as a structured document) that is formed by configuring document parts based on a certain rule, the document part to be processed is determined based on the context information. It becomes possible. By specifying the document parts to be processed using the context information, it is possible to specify a large number of document parts collectively with the same context information, and to specify the document parts across a plurality of documents. As a result, a large amount of document parts or documents can be collectively processed. Further, by describing the context information according to the processing, flexible document processing can be performed.

The structured document and the context information will be outlined below. Generally, a structured document is a method of expressing the logical structure of a document by a tree structure by defining the inclusion relationship of document parts as a parent-child relationship of the tree structure. For example: -The entire document is one document part, and includes the necessary number of child document parts corresponding to "chapter". The document parts corresponding to “chapter” include child document parts corresponding to “section”, and the document parts corresponding to “section” include child document parts corresponding to “paragraph” and “figure”. -A document part corresponding to a "paragraph" holds a character string as its content. -The document part corresponding to "figure" is further composed of the document parts corresponding to "figure body" and "caption". The document part corresponding to the "drawing body" holds the graphic information that is the entity of the drawing, and the document part corresponding to the "caption" holds the character string including the title of the drawing.

In a structured document such as the above example,
A document is represented as a tree structure having a document part corresponding to "entire document" as a root of a tree structure and document parts corresponding to "paragraph", "drawing body", "caption" and the like as leaves. A tag indicating the type of the part can be attached to each document part. These tags are general-purpose tags, and are different from the tags described in the first document component designation method in that they are not directed to specific processing.

Next, the context information will be outlined by using another example. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a logical structure of the processing target document, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a printing plate of the processing target document. The logical structure of the document shown in FIG. 2 and the printing plate of the document shown in FIG. 3 are of the same document.

Here, Root, Segment, T
Consider a document part to which general tags such as itle and Text are added. Here, Root represents a root of the tree structure of a document, and is a general-purpose tag attached to a document part representing "entire document". -Segment is a general-purpose tag such as "chapter" and "section" that is commonly assigned to document parts that form a logical structure of a document. -Segment parts must include a document part that represents the title of the part. This document part is a general-purpose tag Tit
By adding le, it is distinguished from other document parts. A general-purpose tag Text is attached to a document part located in a leaf of a tree structure that holds a character string such as “paragraph”.

FIG. 2 shows a structured document having a tree structure to which such a general-purpose tag is added. However, in FIG. 2, Segment, Title, and Text are abbreviated as Seg, Ttl, and Txt, respectively. Further, a character string, graphic information and the like are arranged at the positions where the numbers shown in FIG. 2 are entered. For example, the character string “Chapter 1 Introduction” shown on the printing plate of FIG. 3 is arranged in the portion 1. Similarly, the part 2 is "Overview", the part 5 is "Install", the part 9 is "Chapter 2 Parameter List", the part 10 is "input", 13
A character string "output" is arranged in each of the portions.

In the document shown in FIG. 2, the titles of the sections in Chapter 2 are subject to processing. In FIG. 2, the hatched portion is the processing target. As the context information for designating the hatched portion in FIG. 2, for example, 1) $ # Seg # Seg / (Ttl / Txt / "Chapter"
+ Seg / ^ Ttl) 2) Seg / (Ttl / Txt / "parameter" + S
eg / ^ Ttl) 3) Root / ($ # Seg # Seg / Seg / ^ T
tl) can be described. Here, the symbol '/' represents a parent-child relationship in the document structure, the symbol '@' represents a parent-child relationship that can be in any number of stages, the symbol '#' represents a direct sibling relation, and the symbol '+' represents one stage. Represents the parent-child relationship. For example, “Seg / Ttl” specifies a parent-child relationship between a Segment component and a Title component included in the Segment component, and “Ttl # Txt” is a Title component directly included in the same document component and a Text component immediately after the Title component.
Identify sibling relationships of parts. Further, the symbol """, that is, a character string enclosed in double quotation marks indicates that it is a text character in the character content system. For example," Txt / "
The text "" indicates that the text content of the Text part includes the character string "text". The symbol '$' is a special symbol representing null. "$ # Seg" used with the symbol '#' is Segmen
There is no previous sibling in t, that is, Segme
Indicates that nt is the eldest son. The symbol '^' is used to specify the document part to be specified in the context information. The inside of () has priority, and the symbol '/' has priority over the symbol '#'. Also, the symbol '. 'Matches any one-step constructor.

The above 1), 2), and 3) are expressed differently, but all three of them are shaded in the document of FIG.
That is, the titles of the sections in Chapter 2 are specified. The description of 1) is a Segme that has only one Segment component as an older brother and includes the character string "chapter" in its Title component.
The Title component of the Segment component that is a child of the nt component (that is, the Segment component of Chapter 2) is shown. The description 2) indicates the Title component of the Segment component that is a child of the Segment component (that is, the Segment component of Chapter 2) that includes the character string "parameter" in the Title component.
Furthermore, the description in 3) is a Segm that is the root child of the description structure and has only one Segment component as an older brother.
ent component (that is, the Segment component of Chapter 2)
The Title component of the Segment component, which is a child of the. For the sake of understanding, if you express it without rigor,
The expression of 1) indicates the title of the second child segment of the "chapter", the expression of 2) indicates the title of the child segment of the segment including the "parameter" in the title, and the expression of 3) indicates 1 The titles of the child segments of the second segment of the level segments are shown. There are other descriptions that specify the same part.

As described above, the context information is information for identifying a document part by using the positional relationship, contents, attributes, and other characteristics of the held information in the tree structure of the document part. After the document parts are specified by such context information, the layout of each section of Chapter 2 can be changed to a layout different from other chapters by performing necessary processing, or the title of each section of Chapter 2 can be changed. It is possible to meet various user requests such as extracting and creating a document for a list of parameters separately from the original document. Further, since the same context information can be used when processing a plurality of document parts across a plurality of documents, it is effective in automating the document processing. further,
By redefining the context information as appropriate, it is possible to flexibly specify the document parts according to the processing at that time. That is, the second method has an effect of compensating for the drawbacks of the first document component designating method described above.

However, there is a problem in the second method that does not occur in the first method. The problem is that if the document that is the target of the document processing is changed due to editing by the user or the like, the context information must be changed even though the specified document component itself is not changed. Is. That is, since the document has been changed, the desired context cannot be specified with the context information for identifying the text component defined before the change, and it is necessary to redefine the context information. May occur. In the first method, since the document part is directly specified, unless the specified document part itself is changed, the processing target cannot be specified due to the change of the other parts.

In the above example, when the numbering of chapters is changed from "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2" to "Chap1.", "Chap2." Must be redefined. in this case,
If it is specified in the description of the context information as described in 1) above, since "Ttl / Txt /" chapter "" does not match the chapter title, the desired document part cannot be specified. Therefore, 1 ') $ # Seg # Seg / (Ttl / Txt / "C
It is necessary to change the description to "hap" + Seg / ^ Ttl).

In addition, for example, when the chapter title of Chapter 2 is changed from "parameter list" to "option list", or when a chapter whose title is "attention regarding parameters" is newly created. Must change the description of context information as in 2) above. If Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are replaced with each other and the "Parameter List" chapter is designated as Chapter 1, the above 1) and 3) must be changed. Furthermore, we newly introduced a segment corresponding to the edition,
When Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are combined into the first volume, the description in 3) above must be changed. As such, various edits to the document require redefinition of contextual information.

However, in any of the above-mentioned examples, the essential context information "specify the title of a segment which is a child of a specific segment" is retained. In this way, the second method for designating document parts is
When the method is adopted, it is necessary to redefine the non-essential information even though the context information is partially retained by the change of the target document. This drawback of the second designating method is a problem that does not occur in the first method of directly designating a document part.

[0019]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and even if an edit that adds essential context information is added to a document, the process target of the document parts is processed. An object of the present invention is to provide a document processing device that does not need to redefine designation.

[0020]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a document processing apparatus for inputting a structured document composed of a plurality of document parts, a document for specifying a document part is specified. Relative context information holding means for holding the component identification information, relative context information representing the document structural relationship between the identified document component and the document component set to be subjected to document processing in association with each other, and the relative context information. Based on the document part specification description, a document part specification description generation part for generating a document part specification description for specifying a document part to be processed based on the document part specification information and relative context information stored in a storage part. It is characterized in that it has a document processing means for performing document processing on the processing target component.

According to the second aspect of the invention,
The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a document component identification unit that identifies a document component based on an input instruction.
Relative context information input means for inputting relative context information indicating a document structural relationship between the specified document part and the document part set to be subjected to document processing, and the input relative context information is specified. Further comprising relative context information adding means for adding to the document part, and relative context information extracting means for extracting the document context identifier and the relative context information of the document part to which the relative context information is added from the document. The designated description generation means generates a document part designation description for designating a document part to be processed based on the document part identifier extracted by the relative context information extraction part and the relative context information. Is.

[0022]

According to the invention described in claim 1, the relative context information holding means includes the document part specifying information for specifying a certain document part, and the specified document part and the document part set to be subjected to the document processing. And the relative context information indicating the document structure relationship with the. Relative contextual information is
Of the context information that is the second document component designation method described in the conventional art, an essential part is a structural relationship with a document component that is not changed by editing (hereinafter, referred to as the origin of relative context information), That is, it is expressed by relative contextual information. The document component specifying information represents a document component specified by direct designation, not by context information, regarding an unessential part that can be changed by editing.

The document part designation description generation means receives the document part specifying information and the relative context information held in association with each other from the relative context information holding means, and specifies the document part to be processed from the information. Generate a document part specification description. Specifically, for relative context information,
By merging the document part specifying information specifying the starting point of the relative context information, the document part specifying description corresponding to the context information of the second method described in the conventional art can be generated. The document processing means uses the document part designation description generated by the document part designation description generation means to select a document part to be processed, and performs document processing on the selected document part.

When the document is edited, the document structure may change. However, if the relative positional relationship of the document parts does not change, the relative context information does not need to be changed. for that reason,
The processing can be performed without changing the information for identifying the document component to be processed as in the conventional case.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the document component identifying means identifies the document component in the document in accordance with an input instruction from the user or another application, and identifies the identified document component. The relative context information adding unit adds the relative context information input from the relative context information input unit as an attribute. The relative context information is added as an attribute to the document part that is the starting point. Then, the relative context information added to the document part in the document and the identifier of the document part to which the relative context information is added are extracted by the relative context information extraction means. The extracted document part identifier and relative context information are used in the document part specification description generation means to generate the document part specification description, and the document processing means processes the specified document part. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the relative context information can be added to a specific document part and processed by an interactive operation by the user or an input from another application. Also, since the relative context information is added as an attribute to the document part that is the starting point, even if the document is edited, it is possible to cause the process to be performed as long as the relative position of the document part to be processed does not change. Become.

[0026]

1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a document processing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a document processing device, 2 is an input document holding unit, 3 is a document part designation description generation unit, 4 is a document processing unit, 5 is a process instruction holding unit, 6 is a process description creation unit,
Reference numeral 7 is a processing execution unit, 8 is an input document, and 9 is an output document.
The document processing device 1 includes an input document holding unit 2, a document component designation description generation unit 3, a document processing unit 4, and the like. The document processing unit 4 also includes a process instruction holding unit 5, a process description creating unit 6, a process executing unit 7, and the like.

The input document holding unit 2 holds and manages a single input document 8 or a plurality of input documents 8. Document part specification description generation unit 3
Receives the structure of the input document from the input document holding unit 2,
From there, the identifier of the document part to which the processing target instruction attribute is added and the attribute value of the processing target instruction attribute are extracted. Then, a document part designation description is generated from the extracted document part identifier and the attribute value of the processing target instruction attribute.

The processing instruction holding unit 5 holds the contents of the processing performed on the document parts. Processing description creation unit 6
Creates a process description based on the document part specification description received from the document part specification description generation unit 3 and the processing instruction received from the process instruction holding unit 5. The process execution unit 7
Based on the process description created by the process description creating unit 6, the process for the input document is executed, and the result is output as the output document 9.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation in the first embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.
In the following description of the operation, a specific example will be described. In the following description, it is assumed that the document is a structured document in which the document parts have a tree structure. For example, assume that a document having a printing plate shown in FIG. 3 is given as a structured document having a tree structure as shown in FIG. Each document part has a document part ID as an identifier, and can have some attributes other than the document part ID. It is assumed that the user can select any document component in the document and can set any value to the attribute of the selected document component. Here, the attribute when the relative context information is added to the document part is the “processing target instruction attribute”. Further, as the description method for expressing the relative context designation, the description method used in the above-mentioned conventional technique is used.
The symbols '/', '#', '$', '^', etc. are as described above. In addition to these, the symbol '%' is introduced. The symbol '%' represents the origin of relative contextual information. For example, the symbol string "% / Txt" using this symbol "%" specifies all paragraphs that are children of the document part that is the starting point.

The document parts to be processed are shown in FIGS.
It is assumed to be the title of each section of Chapter 2 in the document shown in. In each figure, the document parts to be processed are hatched. In this example, the contextual information that should be kept essentially is "specify the title of a segment that is a child of a particular segment". In this case, since the specific segment is the second chapter, the relative context information starting from the second chapter (document part A in FIG. 2) is designated. The title of each section viewed from a document part corresponding to a chapter can be expressed as "% / Seg / ^ Ttl". The user uses the tool such as an editor capable of adding attributes and attribute values to the document part to specify this relative context information as the value of the "processing target instruction attribute" of the document part A. The document designated as described above is input to the document processing apparatus 1 as the input document 8.

Further, the processing instruction holding section 5 is instructed in advance what kind of processing should be performed on the designated processing target. For example, it is possible to instruct a process of changing the layout of the title of each section of Chapter 2. Here, it is assumed that the processing instruction holding unit 5 holds a processing instruction corresponding to “add a layout designation for page-laying out and laying out a designated document part”.

When the document processing apparatus 1 is activated, the document part designation description generation section 3 first analyzes the input document held in the input document holding section 2 and searches for a document part to which the processing target instruction attribute is added. . That is, in S21, one document part is read from the input document 8 held in the input document holding unit 2, and in S22, it is determined whether or not the processing target instruction attribute is added to the read document part. As a result of such a search, when a document part to which the processing target instruction attribute is added is found, the document part ID is extracted from the found document part in S23, and the processing target instruction attribute value is extracted in S24. To do. Here, the document part ID of the document part A is “[3
1] ”, the document part ID is extracted, and the processing target instruction attribute value“% / Seg / ^ ”is obtained.
"Ttl" is extracted. Next, in S25, "%" is replaced with "[3 1]" from the extracted information to create a document part designation description "[3 1] / Seg / ^ Ttl".

On the other hand, the processing instruction holding unit 5 holds a processing instruction corresponding to "add a layout designation for page-laying out and laying out a designated document part". This instruction is, for example, "aput-e '$ pat
tern; LaySty. It is assumed that it is expressed as “NLO = page ′”. Here, $ pattern is a part to be replaced with the document part designation description in the process description creating unit 6. In S <b> 26, the process description creating unit 6 sets the document part designation description “[31] / Seg / ^ Ttl” and the process instruction “aput” held in the process instruction holding unit 5.
-E '$ pattern; LaySty. NLO = p
From "age '", the description "aput" for executing the process
-E '[31] / Seg / ^ Ttl; LaySt
y. NLO = page ′ ”is created. These series of processes are repeated until the end of the file is detected in S27.

When the process description creating process for the document parts having all the process target instruction attributes is completed, the process executing section 7 executes the created process description in S28, and outputs the result as the output document 9.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of an output document.
As a result of the processing performed as described above, the layout of the sections of each section of the second chapter of the input document shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is changed, and the print document shown in FIG. Obtained as.

By thus designating the processing target based on the relative context designation, it is not necessary to change the value of the "processing target designation attribute" even when the following editing is performed. For example, when the numbering of chapters is changed from "Chapter 1" and "Chapter 2" to "Chap.1" and "Chap.2", and the chapter numbering of Chapter 2 is changed from "Parameter list". When the information is changed to the “option list” or the like, the relative context information does not include the designation by the content of the chapter, and thus it is not necessary to change the “processing target instruction attribute” by editing the character string.

If a section is added to Chapter 2 by editing, the added section title can be processed without changing the "processing target instruction attribute". In other words, the “processing target designation attribute” merely indicates the relative positional relationship of the processing target components, “specifying the title of a segment that is a child of a specific segment”. Therefore, when a specific segment is set as Chapter 2, the added clause satisfies this relative positional relationship, and the added clause is also processed as the other clause without changing the processing target instruction attribute at all. In addition, it is possible to perform processing collectively.

When the first and second chapters are replaced with each other and editing is performed with the "parameter list" chapter as the first chapter, the document parts to which the process target instruction attribute is added become the first chapter.
That is, since the "specific segment" is the first chapter,
Processing will be executed for each section of Chapter 1. As described above, even if a part of the document structure moves while the relative relationship is maintained, the document part to be processed does not change, and it is not necessary to change the processing target instruction attribute in accordance with the movement.

Introducing a segment corresponding to the new edition,
Even if the first and second chapters are combined into the first volume, the second
The subject of the section of the chapter remains the same. That is, the specific segment to which the processing target designation attribute is added is unchanged and is the second chapter, and the subject of each section of the second chapter is that the relative positional relationship from the specific segment does not change. . As described above, even if the structure of the entire document is changed, it is not necessary to change the processing target instruction attribute unless the relative position of the specific segment is changed.

In the above-described designation of the relative context, the processing target changes if the starting point is changed. By utilizing this property, the same specification description can be used in other places. For example, in FIG.
By replacing the relative context designation given to the document part A in Root with Root, it is possible to easily designate that the chapter title is to be processed.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the second embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted. Reference numeral 11 is a document part identification unit, 1
Reference numeral 2 is a relative context input unit, 13 is a relative context addition unit, and 14 is a relative context extraction unit.

The document part specifying unit 11 specifies an arbitrary document part in the input document designated by the user. As a method of designation by the user, for example, a document component shown on the display is designated by using a pointing device such as a mouse, a method of indicating by a cursor position in a document, or a document component is searched by using a search formula. A method of designating all the document parts of the search result can be considered. The relative context input unit 12 receives an input of a character string expressing a relative context designation starting from a designated document part. As a method of inputting, in addition to a method of using a keyboard or the like, it is also possible to receive a relative context designation input from another application. The relative context addition unit 13 adds the relative context designation input by the relative context input unit 12 to the document component specified by the document component specification unit 11 as an attribute value of the processing target instruction attribute. Relative context extraction unit 1
Reference numeral 4 receives the structure of the input document 8 held in the input document holding unit 2, and extracts the ID of the document part to which the processing target instruction attribute is added and the attribute value of the processing target instruction attribute from the structure. The document component designation generation unit 3 generates a document component designation description from the document component ID and the attribute value of the processing target designation attribute received from the relative context designation extraction unit 14.
The input document holding unit 2 and the document processing unit 4 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the second embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention, FIG.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a display screen in the document part identification unit and the relative context input unit. In S31, the document module identification unit 11 displays the input document 8 held in the input document holding unit 2. In the case of designating a document part, the process proceeds from S32 to S33, and in S33, the user selects the document part to be the starting point of the relative context designation in the window displaying the structure of the document to be processed. Is specified using the mouse cursor. In FIG. 8, the document part selected by the mouse cursor is indicated by an arrow, and the selected document part is hatched. When the relative context input unit 12 inputs a relative context designation for the selected document part, the process proceeds from S34 to S35. In S35, the user inputs the relative context designation from the keyboard or the like. In FIG. 8, "% / Seg /" is displayed in the relative context designation field displayed in the lower field of the display screen.
A character string indicating the relative context designation "^ Ttl" has been input. The input relative context designation is
It is added as a processing target instruction attribute to the document part designated in S33. This operation is performed in the relative context adding unit 13. Such an operation is repeated as necessary, and when the addition of the processing target instruction attribute is completed, S
The process proceeds from S37 to S21 in FIG. 4 and operates in the same manner as in the first embodiment. At this time, the reading of the document part from the input document file in S21 indicates the reception of the document part from the relative context adding unit 13. Since the relative context is added to the document parts received at this time, the determination in S22 is always true. Document part ID shown in S23 and S24
The relative context extracting unit 14 performs the process of identifying the above and extracting the process target designation attribute.

In FIG. 8, designation of a document part by a mouse,
Although the example of the relative context designation input by the character string from the keyboard has been shown, as described above, the document component identification unit 11 can use any means as long as it can designate a document component. A method shown by the cursor position in the inside, a method of searching for a document part using a search expression, and instructing all the document parts of the search result can also be adopted. In addition to inputting text using the keyboard, the method of copying the relative context specification is not limited to the method of copying the relative context specification on another application or attached to another document part, or the output result of another application. It is also possible to adopt a method of inputting.

In the configuration of the second embodiment described above, the same effect can be obtained regardless of which of the document component specifying unit 11 and the relative context input unit 12 operates first.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the third embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, the same parts as in FIG. Reference numeral 15 is a relative context storage unit. The relative context storage unit 15 includes the document component identification unit 11
For example, the ID of the document component designated by and the relative context designation input by the relative context input unit 12 are paired and stored in a management table and managed. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a management table used in the relative context storage unit. For example, the document component identification unit 11 identifies the document component having [3 1] as the document component ID,
When "% / Seg / ^ Ttl" is input from the relative context input unit 12 as the corresponding relative context designation, these pieces of information are stored as a pair as shown in FIG.

The relative context storage unit 15 is the document part specifying unit 11
The ID of the document part received from is not limited to this, and may be any information as long as the information can identify the document part, such as a pointer to the document part. The document part specification description generation unit 3 outputs the I of the document parts one by one from the relative context storage unit 15.
It receives D and a relative context designation and generates a document part designation description.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the third embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention. The operation of the third embodiment is almost the same as the operation of the first and second embodiments described above, that is, the operation shown in FIGS. 7 and 4. In FIG. 11, S41 to S4
5 and S47 are the same operations as S31 to S35 and S37 of FIG. In S46, the document component designated in S43 and the relative context designation input in S45 are paired and stored in the management table of the relative context storage unit 15.

When the input is completed, the process proceeds to S48 to S51. In S48, a pair of data is read from the management table of the relative context storage unit 15. The processing of S49 and S50 is performed on the read data to create a processing description. The processes of S49 and S50 are the same as S of FIG.
25, which is the same as the processing of S26. Until it is determined in S51 that the processing is completed for all the pairs stored in the management table in the relative context storage unit 15, S48 is performed.
Through S50 are repeated. When the process description is created for all the pairs stored in the management table, the process execution unit 7 operates in S52 and the process result 9 is output.

[0050]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the user gives a relative context designation independent of the editing of the document to a specific part in the document, so that the editing of the document can be performed. Invariant parts can be specified. That is, the user expresses the designation of the portion that is retained by the editing by the context information by the relative context designation, and identifies the designation of the portion that is designated by the editing and needs to be changed, and specifies the document part that is the starting point of the relative context designation. Express by This eliminates the need to redefine the processing target description due to the change of the document while maintaining the advantage of using the context information. In other words, if a document part whose processing target is to be specified has a certain relative positional relationship with a certain document part, even if the document is edited, the instruction for processing is changed as long as the relative positional relationship is retained. There is no need. Further, there is an effect that the designation using the context information enables simple designation as compared with the first method described in the conventional technique of individually designating the process. Further, claim 2
In the invention described in (3), the user can directly specify the document part that is the starting point of the relative context specification.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a document processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a logical structure of a processing target document.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a printing surface of a document to be processed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation in the first exemplary embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of an output document.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation in the second exemplary embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a display screen in the document component specifying unit and the relative context input unit.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram showing a third embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a management table used in a relative context storage unit.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing an example of an operation in the third exemplary embodiment of the document processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Document processing device, 2 ... Input document holding part, 3 ... Document part designation description generation part, 4 ... Document processing part, 5 ... Process instruction holding part, 6 ... Process description creation part, 7 ... Process execution part, 8 ... Input document, 9 ... Output document, 11 ... Document component specifying unit, 12 ... Relative context input unit, 13 ... Relative context addition unit, 14 ... Relative context extraction unit, 15 ... Relative context storage unit.

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Atsuhito Monma 134 Kobe-cho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Yokohama Business Park East Tower Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A document processing apparatus which inputs a structured document composed of a plurality of document parts, document part specifying information for specifying a document part, the specified document part, and a document to be subjected to document processing. Relative context information holding means that holds the relative context information indicating the document structure relationship with the parts set in association with each other, and based on the document parts specifying information and the relative context information held in the relative context information holding means And a document processing means for performing document processing on the processing target part based on the document part specification description, and a document part specification description generation means for generating a document part specification description for designating a document part to be processed. Characteristic document processing device. 2. A relative document part specifying means for specifying a document part on the basis of an input instruction, and a relative representing a structural relationship between the specified document part and the set of document parts to be subjected to document processing. Relative context information input means for inputting context information, relative context information adding means for adding the input relative context information to the specified document part, and document part identifier of the document part to which the relative context information is added And relative context information extraction means for extracting relative context information from the document, wherein the document part designation description generation means is based on the document part identifier and the relative context information extracted by the relative context information extraction means. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a document part designation description that specifies a document part to be processed is generated.