JPH11219247A - Document processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily confirm the serial number for respective page images allocated to respective printing surfaces for one or plural in a document processor provided with a document synthesis function. SOLUTION: At a page list display part 104 on a display screen, image serial numbers 204 are displayed while being made to correspond to printing surface serial numbers 202. In this case, the printing surface serial number 202 is the serial number by a printing surface unit in a synthetic document and the page image serial number 204 is the serial number by a page image unit in the synthetic document. Head marks 200 are displayed at the heads of the respective documents, and when the printing surface serial number 202 corresponding to the head mark 200 is clicked, the page image serial number 204 corresponding to it is displayed. As a result, the serial number in the synthetic document is easily specified for the page image at the head in the respective documents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus for processing an electronic document, and more particularly to an apparatus for printing a composite document obtained by combining a plurality of documents.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some document processing apparatuses have a function of combining a plurality of documents (print jobs) to create one combined document (synthesized job), and printing and displaying the combined document. There is. Here, the document is composed of an image of each page. Such an apparatus has a preview function of displaying a print image of each printing surface prior to printing.

[0003] By the way, if the continuity of the page numbers is not maintained between the documents after the documents are combined, a problem occurs when using the printed matter of the combined document. However, when each document is created by another person, it is not easy to easily know what page in the composite document corresponds to the first page of the document in charge of the document. It is possible to print once and make adjustments from the print result, but that is cumbersome and wastes paper.

[0004] It is not impossible to confirm the first page number of each document by sequentially turning from the first print side and counting up to the top of each document by the preview function, but this is an extremely complicated operation. Becomes In other words, in the conventional device, simply by specifying the print serial number in the composite document,
It is only possible to check the contents of each print side, and it is easy to recognize what page (the number of the page image) the image assigned to each print side corresponds to when viewed as a whole composite job. Can not.

[0005] Furthermore, after document synthesis, it is not possible to recognize where the breaks are between documents, and in that sense, it has been difficult to assign serial numbers to the entire synthesized document.

Some conventional document processing apparatuses include one
Some printers have a function of imposition (N-up) for allocating a plurality of page images to one printing surface, and this function can be used also at the time of document composition. However, when such imposition is performed, the relationship between the page numbers becomes more complicated, and the above problem becomes more prominent.

[0007] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 5-151204 and 6-131334 disclose related devices, but these devices cannot achieve the following objects of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a document processing apparatus for processing a composite document, in which a single
Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily confirm the serial number (page number in a composite document) of each of a plurality of assigned page images.

Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily confirm an appropriate page number of the first page of each document constituting a composite document.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a document synthesizing means for synthesizing a plurality of documents comprising at least one page image to generate a synthetic document, A serial number management unit for managing a unit of the printing surface serial number and the page image serial number of the page image unit; a list creating unit for creating a list representing a correspondence relationship between the printing surface serial number and the page image serial number; Display means for displaying.

According to the above configuration, the print surface serial number in the composite document and the page image serial number in the composite document are managed, and their correspondence is displayed as a list as needed. Here, the print surface serial number is a page number assigned to each print surface in the composite document, and the page image serial number is a page number assigned to each page image in the composite document.

Therefore, the user can easily recognize the serial number of each page image based on such a list display. The list preferably has a hierarchical structure. Further, it is desirable that the style of the list can be changed (hierarchical display by expansion, integrated display by binding, etc.) according to the user's request.

[0013] In a preferred aspect of the present invention, a head specifying means for specifying a head of each of the documents constituting the composite document, and a head mark addition for adding a head mark indicating the head to the list. Means. According to this configuration, it is possible to easily grasp the break between the documents constituting the composite document on the list, that is, to easily recognize the head of the document. Therefore, based on such recognition, if the page numbers are redone for each document (particularly if the first page number is reset), the page displayed together with each page image when the composite document is actually printed is obtained. The numbers can be made appropriate.

[0014] In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the list creation means displays only a page image serial number corresponding to the print serial number on the list for the print serial number designated by the user. According to this configuration, it is possible to prevent the display from becoming complicated.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the document synthesizing means has an imposition function for imposing a plurality of page images on the same printing surface, and the serial number managing means includes a printing surface for imposition. Regarding the serial number, a plurality of page image serial numbers related to imposition are managed in association with each other, and the list creating unit displays a plurality of page image serial numbers related to imposition in the vicinity of the print imprint number according to the imposition. Create a list. According to this configuration,
Even if the imposition function is executed, the page image serial number can be grasped without error.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the list creation means represents a plurality of page image serial numbers related to the imposition on a list in a pattern according to the imposition format. According to this configuration, the imposition mode can be indirectly recognized from the list, and confusion in page numbering can be prevented.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the serial number management means skips assignment of a page image serial number for a predetermined print side serial number. In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the serial number management unit operates in one of a mode in which the assignment of a page image serial number to a blank page image is permitted and a mode in which the allocation is prohibited.

[0018]

FIG. 1 shows an example of display by a document processing apparatus according to a comparative example. Here, the document processing device has a function of synthesizing a plurality of documents, a function of displaying an image of a specific print surface in a synthesized document obtained by the synthesis,
have.

In a display example 100 shown in FIG. 1, an operation unit 102 is a part on which icons and menus for display operation are displayed. The page list display unit 104
This is a part where a page list is displayed to allow the user to select a print serial number. Here, in this comparative example, the number of synthesized documents is, for example, 50 (pages).
, And are displayed in a bundle of ten printing surfaces. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the print serial numbers 11 to 20 are expanded and displayed.
That is, the print serial numbers from the eleventh print serial number to the twentieth print serial number are individually hierarchically displayed. Incidentally, the icon 108 indicates that the bundle of print serial numbers is not expanded, while the icon 110 indicates that the bundle of print serial numbers is expanded. The user selection for a specific print serial number is made, for example, by clicking with the cursor 120.

The printing surface image display unit 106 has a code 11
As shown by 2, this is an area where a print image 114 of a specific print serial number designated by the user is displayed on the page list display unit 104. In the example shown in FIG.
The image of the printing surface on which the 2-up designation has been made is displayed. Specifically, page images 116 and 118 are assigned to the left and right sides of the printing surface, respectively. Here, reference numerals 120 and 122 indicate the page numbers (original page numbers) of the respective page images assigned by the user before the document composition, and here 28 pages and 29 pages are assigned. These page numbers are those inserted in the page image as images. Therefore, in order to correct the page number, it is necessary to change the page number designation of each document before the document composition.

In the comparative example as shown in FIG. 1, the contents of the printing surface can be confirmed by designating the printing surface serial number, but one or more pages included in the printing surface can be confirmed. It is not possible to check the page image serial number on the composite document for the image. Further, the page list display unit 104 in the comparative example shown in FIG. 1 cannot visually recognize a break between documents in the composite document.

Therefore, the document processing apparatus of this embodiment has a page image serial number management function and a head management function, and the functions shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 can be performed. is there.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a display screen according to the present embodiment. In comparison with FIG. 1, the configuration of the list displayed on the page list display section 104 is particularly different. That is, according to the document processing apparatus of the present embodiment, first, the top mark 200 indicating the break of the document can be displayed on the page list. Then, the first mark 200 is confirmed, and the first mark 2
The print serial number 202 assigned with “00” is displayed on the cursor 12.
By clicking on 0 or the like, it is possible to expand and display the page image serial number 204 as shown in FIG. That is, in the present embodiment, each of the printing face-to-face numbers 2
02, a page image serial number 204 is associated with each other. By designating the print face serial number 202, the page image serial number 20 associated therewith is designated.
4 can be represented on the screen. Here, 35 and 36 are set as the page image serial numbers in the print face serial number 18.
And the left image 116 in the print surface image 114 displayed as shown in FIG. 1 is the 35th page image, and the right image 118 is the 36th page image , Are represented.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to easily recognize the top page number of each document from which a composite document is formed on the page list, that is, the serial number of each page image in the composite document. If necessary, you can change the designation of the page number to be assigned to the original document and perform the document composition process again, so that appropriate serial numbers can be assigned to all page images in the composite document Becomes

In the example shown in FIG. 2, four head marks 200 are shown on the page list, that is, the combined document is composed of four documents. 200
May be configured to be displayed only when, for example, the icon 110 is clicked and developed into the individual print serial numbers 202. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the leading mark 200 is also given to a bundle of print serial numbers including the leading page, but various modifications are conceivable.

Incidentally, in the document processing apparatus of this embodiment, the printing surface image display unit 10 shown in FIG.
The configuration 6 and the operation unit 102 are basically the same as those shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows another display example according to the present embodiment. In this display example, the page image serial number 20 is clicked when the print serial number 200 is clicked.
4 is displayed in the same manner as in the display example shown in FIG. 2, but in the display example shown in FIG. 3, the page image serial numbers 204 are displayed continuously in the horizontal direction instead of vertically. That is, the page image serial number 204 is displayed in a display pattern corresponding to the imposition method.

In each of the display methods shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the correlation between the print serial number and the page image serial number can be easily grasped by a hierarchical display. According to the display example shown in FIG. Further, it is possible to easily confirm even the imposition pattern, and as a result, it is possible to confirm the page image serial number of each page image displayed on the print surface image display unit 106 without error.

FIG. 4 shows various display patterns of page image serial numbers when imposition is specified. (A) shows various imposition methods when 2-up designation is performed, and the page image serial numbers are displayed in an arrangement as shown in the figure according to imposition from left to right or imposition from right to left. can do.

(B) shows the display pattern of various page image serial numbers when 4-up designation is made. In this case, the page image is also displayed in a pattern corresponding to the imposition method according to the imposition method. A serial number can be displayed.

According to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3,
Since the page image serial number can be displayed on the screen only when the print serial number is explicitly specified by the user, there is an advantage that only the necessary information is displayed on the screen and the configuration of the page list can be simplified. Therefore, users only need to give instructions for deployment step by step,
It is possible to easily confirm the page image serial number of the target print surface.

Next, the configuration of the document processing apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The input unit 10 receives an electronic document as a print job. Here, the document is described, for example, in a page description language,
The document may be a bitmap image. The document input via the input unit 10 is temporarily stored on the storage device 12. The job combining unit 14 is a processing unit that combines a plurality of documents selected by the user as necessary, and generates a combined document. The image generation unit 16 is a unit that generates an image (page image) of each page based on, for example, a page description language. The page image thus generated is sent to the printing device 20 via the print control unit 18 as necessary, and as a result, the image is printed on each sheet. Incidentally, the above-described imposition processing is performed by, for example, the display control unit 28 or the print control unit 18.

The serial number management unit 22 manages the print side serial number 202 of each print side unit in the composite document in association with the page image serial number 204 of each page image unit. The management table 24 is used in the management, and the specific contents will be described later with reference to FIG. The operation unit 26 includes, for example, a mouse and a keyboard.

The display control section 28 has a list creation section 30 and a display image creation section 32. The display control unit 28 is a unit that configures a screen image to be supplied to the display device 34. Here, the list creation unit 30 configures the page list display unit 104 illustrated in FIGS.
Further, the display image creating unit 32 constitutes the print surface image display unit 106 shown in FIG. 1 and the like. Incidentally, the print surface image is configured as a low-resolution image. When the list creation unit 30 creates a page list, the contents of the management table 24 are referred to via the serial number management unit 22. The display device 34 performs image display as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 6 shows the management table 24 shown in FIG.
Is shown. Here, (A) illustrates the configuration of a composite document, and (B) illustrates the contents of the management table 24 when such a composite document is managed. In this example, the composite document is composed of four documents, and for document 2 and document 3, a 2-up designation is made in which two page images are allocated to one print surface.

When the composite document is configured as described above, a management table 24 as shown in FIG. In other words, the management table 24 is composed of a print surface serial number, a page image serial number, and a head flag, and a corresponding page image serial number is associated with each print surface serial number. Further, a head flag is given to the print serial number or the page image serial number at the head of the document.

Such a management table 24 may be created immediately after job composition. For example, when the display control unit 28 constructs a page list, the serial number management unit 22 creates the management table 24 as necessary. You may make it create.

Next, the operation of the document processing apparatus shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 7 shows a process for creating the management table 24. In step S101, the print serial number K
Are initialized, that is, 1 is substituted for K. In S102, an initial setting is performed for the page image serial number L, that is, 0 is substituted for L.
In S103, one document is obtained from the combined document created by the job combining unit 14. S1
In 04, an image creation process as shown in FIG. 8 is executed, and in S105, it is determined whether or not the document is the final document. That is, S103 and S1 for each document
Step 04 is repeatedly executed.

FIG. 8 shows the specific processing contents of S104 shown in FIG. In S201, as a preparation for image creation, a storage area for one printing surface and a primary storage area for one page in a document are set on the memory. In S202, a print image (page image) for one page is created by the image creation unit 16 shown in FIG. 5, and the page image is stored in the primary storage area set as described above. In S203, the page image serial number L is incremented by one.

In S204, the page image stored in the temporary storage area as described above is allocated to the storage area for one printing surface. That is, when imposition is specified, page images are allocated according to the specified imposition method. By the way, when imposition is not specified, the generated page image is directly
A process of allocating to the storage area for the print surface may be performed.

In S205, it is determined whether or not the processing has been performed up to the last page. In S206, it is determined whether or not the image layout for one printing surface has been completed. That is, for example, when the 2-up designation is made and only one page image is allocated to the print surface to be processed, each process after S202 is executed. If the assignment of the two page images to the printing surface has been completed,
Steps after 07 are executed.

In S207, the print serial number K is incremented by one. Then, in S208, an image for one printing surface is stored in the storage device 12.

If it is determined in step S205 that the processing has been performed up to the final page image, in step S209, the non-image-allocated portion on the last print surface is set as a blank page. Of course, this step S209 is skipped when the imposition designation has not been specified, or skipped when such an unimage-allocated portion does not exist. In S210, when a blank page is designated in S209, a value corresponding to the blank page is added to the page image serial number L. In step S211, the print serial number K is incremented by one.
At 212, an image for one print surface is stored in the storage device 12.
Saved to

Therefore, by performing each processing shown in FIG. 8 on each document, an image corresponding to each printing surface of the composite document is stored in the storage device 12. At the same time, the management table shown in FIG. 6 is configured based on the relationship between the print surface serial number K and the page image serial number L. Incidentally, although not shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the head of each document is determined, and a head flag is added to the management table based on the determination result.

FIG. 9 shows the specific processing contents of the display control unit 28. In S301, the contents of the management table are referred to by the list creation unit 30, and a page list is created accordingly. Then, the display device 3
4, the page list is displayed. In parallel with this, in S302, the list creation unit 30 refers to the head flag, and an icon as a head mark is displayed at a position corresponding to the head of the document on the page list.

In step S303, the system is in a state of waiting for input of an instruction from the user. In step S304, it is determined whether or not the user has designated the print serial number. Here, if there is no such instruction, it is determined whether or not there is an end instruction in S307, and if there is such an end instruction, this processing ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S304 that a user instruction has been issued for the print serial number, the page image number corresponding to the print serial number instructed in step S305 is hierarchically displayed on the display screen. That is, the display as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is performed. In parallel with the display, S306
Then, the display image is created by the display image creation unit 32 based on the page image to be displayed, and the content of the print surface image display unit 106 is updated.
Then, the processing shown in FIG. 9 is sequentially repeated until a user issues an end instruction.

As described above, according to this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the page image serial number 204 associated with the print face serial number 202 can be displayed to the user as an image. Therefore, it is possible to easily specify the serial number of each page image in the composite document based on such display. Therefore, by resetting the initial page number in each document as necessary, it is possible to easily assign an appropriate serial number, that is, a page number, to all page images in the composite document.

Further, according to the present embodiment, since the head of each document can be grasped by the head mark 200, there is an advantage that the page image serial number at the head of each document can be easily grasped in that sense.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show the processing contents according to another embodiment. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, a page image serial number is not assigned to a blank page, and a skip process is performed on that portion. Further, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, the assignment of the page image number to the page number corresponding to the cover is skipped. According to each of such embodiments, there is an advantage that various serial number assignment methods requested by the user can be handled.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the determination of the match / mismatch between the page number displayed on the print surface image display unit 106 and the page image serial number displayed on the page list is performed by the user. The judgment can be automated. That is, character recognition is performed on the page number display area on the printing surface, thereby obtaining the page number of each page image, and comparing the page number with the page image serial number specified by the user. According to the comparison result, the page number in the page image may be automatically changed, that is, the image may be corrected using the image editing function. According to such a modification, there is an advantage that the trouble of returning to the processing of the composite document and renumbering the page numbers can be eliminated.

When the page image serial number 204 is displayed on the page list, the user can select the page image serial number and display the page image of the page image serial number on the print surface image display unit 106. it can.
That is, when many images are designated for imposition, a specific page image is enlarged and displayed. Further, in that case, the page image serial number 204 corresponding to the page image displayed as such may be highlighted. Further, when the top mark 200 is clicked,
A function of displaying the document ID, file name, and the like associated with the head mark 200 on the page list display unit 104 may be added.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In a document processing apparatus that processes a composite document, it is possible to easily confirm the serial number in the composite document for each page image assigned to one or more print surfaces. Also,
According to the present invention, it is possible to easily recognize a boundary between documents in a composite document.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing display contents by a document processing device according to a comparative example.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a page list display section displayed by the document processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a page list display section displayed by the document processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing display patterns of page image serial numbers corresponding to various imposition methods.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a document processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of a document and the contents of a management table.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the document processing apparatus.

8 is a flowchart showing specific processing contents of the image creation processing shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process related to a page list display.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing processing contents in another embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing processing contents in another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 input unit, 12 storage device, 14 job synthesizing unit,
16 image generation unit, 18 print control unit, 20 printing device, 22 serial number management unit, 24 management table, 2
8 display control unit, 30 list creation unit, 32 display image creation unit, 34 display device, 100 display screen, 10
2 operation unit, 104 page list display unit, 106 print surface image display unit, 200 start mark, 202 print surface serial number, 204 page image serial number.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A document synthesizing means for synthesizing a plurality of documents each including at least one page image to generate a synthesized document; Document management means for managing a serial number, a list creation means for creating a list representing a correspondence relationship between the print face serial number and the page image serial number, and a display means for displaying the list. Processing equipment. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a head specifying means for specifying a head of each of the documents forming the composite document, and a head for adding a head mark indicating the head to the list. And a mark adding means. 3. The document according to claim 1, wherein the list creation unit displays, on the list, a page image serial number corresponding to the print serial number only for the print serial number designated by the user. Processing equipment. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document synthesizing unit has an imposition function for imposing a plurality of page images on the same printing surface, and the serial number management unit relates to imposition. Regarding the print imposition number, a plurality of page image serial numbers related to imposition are managed in association with each other. A document processing device for creating a represented list. 5. The document processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said list creating means represents a plurality of page image serial numbers related to imposition on a list in a pattern corresponding to an imposition format. . 6. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the serial number management unit skips assignment of a page image serial number for a predetermined print surface serial number. 7. A document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said serial number management means operates in one of a mode in which a page image serial number is assigned to a blank page image and a mode in which a page image serial number is assigned. .