EP0016973B1 - Display device for a text processor - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a display device for a text editing device of the type specified in the preamble of claim 1.

A text processing device is known from DE-0S 28 01 750, in which a complete text line can be displayed on an optical display device. The operator has the option of specifying the position of a right edge and the width of an edge zone, which are then represented by marking characters on the display device. When entering the text using the device's keyboard, the alphanumeric characters appear from left to right in the order in which they are entered on the display device until the marked edge zone is reached. The operator now has the option of optically checking at which point in the text he wants to initiate a line feed within the edge zone, possibly after a word has been separated beforehand.

In this embodiment, a display device of such a width is required that a complete line can be displayed, because only then can an edge zone be optically marked in advance, which is then reached as the text is advanced. However, since the characters of the display device must have a size which is considerably greater than that of the characters to be printed on the recording medium in order to be sufficiently legible by the operator, a display device is too wide for a complete line length to be accommodated in the housing of a conventional office machine can. In addition, however, the costs for such a multi-digit display, together with corresponding corresponding multi-digit control circuits, are prohibitively high for the price level of conventional text processing devices.

In another text processing device (DE-OS 27 42 992) there is therefore a display device for displaying a partial line, specifically the last 15 text characters entered. The characters entered by means of a keyboard or coming from a text memory are shown here on the right-hand side of the display device and shifted one place to the left each time a new character is entered, so that in the right-most position of the text display area of the display device the last input is always entered Characters can be seen. The operator can specify the desired line length, and a consecutive number in a separate area of the display device provides him with information about the number of positions in the line that have already been occupied by pressing a key. Furthermore, he has the option of specifying an edge zone within which he is made aware of acoustically when a space or hyphen occurs.

With this text editing device, an expensive and difficult to accommodate full line display has been dispensed with. However, since the reaching and in particular the size of an edge zone cannot be optically displayed in advance in the case of a character display shifting from right to left, the operator is very involved in checking the right edge. In all cases in which there is no hyphen or space in the edge zone, he must determine the fill level of the line using the digit counter and calculate the available digits up to a possibility of separation. The same naturally applies to the cases in which he uses a line break from e.g. text-related reasons with a dash or space that appears accidentally in the border zone.

The invention has for its object to provide a display device for a text editing device that allows the operator a simple, direct visual control of the reaching and exploitation of an edge zone without the need to display an entire line.

This object is achieved by the features specified in claim 1.

The advantages that can be achieved with the invention are, in particular, that the operator has the start and size of the edge zone in front of his eyes when entering the text and, when he reaches the edge zone, can freely decide at which point of the text falling into the edge zone he wants to arrange a line. The clear visual control saves him from having to calculate the remaining digits until the end of the line.

In an advantageous embodiment, the operator receives a simple aid for the assessment of the border zone occupancy of each line by the marking of the border zone shown again on the display in the case of texts read out from the memory of the text processing device for the purpose of checking or editing.

• Figur 1 ein Blockschaltbild einer Textbearbeitungseinrichtung,
• Figur 2 ein stark vereinfachtes Flußdiagramm und
• Figuren 3a bis 3e Anzeigeeinrichtungen.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention emerge from the subclaims and from the exemplary embodiment described below in connection with the figures. Show it.

• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a text processing device,
• Figure 2 is a greatly simplified flow chart and
• Figures 3a to 3e display devices.

In Figure 1 is the block diagram of a text automaton with its essential components for understanding the invention. It has a microprocessor-controlled machine control 4, consisting of a central computing and control unit (CPU) 1, a microprogram memory (ROM) 2 and a data memory (RAM) 3, of which data entered by means of a keyboard 5 via input register 6 are known per se Edited in a manner and from which data to be output are output via output register 7 to a printing unit 8 for display on a recording medium. In addition, data can be stored via the output registers 7 in a buffer register 9, from where they arrive at a decoding and driver stages 10. In the decoding and driver stage 10, the coded data are converted into control signals for a display device 11 and fed to it according to a display controller 12, the sequence and frequency of transmission from the buffer register 9 to the decoding and driver stage 10 and the control of the display device 11 are determined. This control function could of course also be carried out directly by the machine control 4, but it has proven to be useful to keep the machine control 4 free for the actual text editing tasks and to provide a separate display control for the display of the alphanumeric characters.

In a manner known per se, text entered by an operator using the keyboard 5 is stored in the data memory 3 under the control of the central computing and control unit 1 and the microprogram memory 2. At the same time, the last part of the text entered is displayed on the display device 11, so that the operator has a visual possibility of checking whether the input is correct. If he detects an error in the displayed text, he has the option of using the appropriate input means on the keyboard, e.g. a backspace key to set the addressing of the data locations in the data memory 4 (address pointer) to the point to be corrected. The entry of a new character then causes it to be stored in the data memory 4 and to be displayed on the display device 11 instead of the old character. Such a type of entered and possibly corrected text can then be written out on a record carrier with a time offset by the printing unit 8, the beginning of printing of each line e.g. is triggered by triggering the line feed when this line has been entered. Of course, other operating modes can also be provided, which can be set by the operator if necessary. These include, for example, an input into the data memory 4 with simultaneous display of the data on the display device 11, but without printing out the text, input of a text with display on the display device 11 and simultaneous printing with the printing unit 8, display of a text contained in the data memory 4 without Printout on the printing unit 8 or with a printout. This offers the operator a wide variety of processing options.

The text representation and the representation of the edge zone at the end of each line are explained below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The words "a character display" are to be entered and displayed on the display device, each entered character being shown on the display device at the position indicated by an arrow 13 in FIGS. 3a to 3c and shifted one place to the left when the next character is entered becomes. After each input of characters, the control prompts whether a flag is set in a corresponding register of the control 4, which indicates that the input is already made within an edge zone (edge zone flag set?). If this is not the case, a further query is made as to whether the edge zone was reached with the last entry.

In the example in FIG. 3a, the letters of the text "one character" have been entered in succession, the respective queries "edge zone flags set?" and "border zone reached?" have been denied. After entering two more characters (Figure 3b) the query "Border zone reached?" yes. The result of this is that to the right of the entry point, the number of positions of the edge zone 14 preset by the operator is represented by a marking 15 below the character display area. At the same time, the edge zone flag which is held internally in the control to record the achievement of the edge zone 14 is set, and the operator is e.g. an acoustic signal alerted when reaching the edge zone 14. He can now predetermine the desired word break for the line based on the optically displayed remaining digits.

In FIG. 3c, the operator has entered a further four characters, four of which have been filled in in the peripheral zone 14, which in this example consists of six digits. If you enter each of these four characters "nzei", the query "Border zone flag set?" has been answered in the affirmative, whereupon another query "border zone ended?" connects. Since, in the example in FIG. 3c, the edge zone 14 still has two unoccupied positions and no line feed has been initiated, this query has so far been answered in the negative and the edge zone marking 15 has been shifted one position to the left so that the entered characters falling into the edge zone 14 are identified are.

Now the operator enters a separator, presses the line switch and carriage return key and writes in the start over the line. The display according to FIG. 3d can then be seen on the display device, in which a parallel vertical double line marks the beginning of the new line. In addition to the need to press the line switch key, a version is also conceivable in which the input of the separator or a space automatically triggers a line feed with the start of the entry at the beginning of the new line.

In any case, executing a line break with carriage retraction means that with the next character the query "border zone ended?" is affirmed. The display of any remaining spaces in the edge zone of the previous line is then deleted, as is the edge zone marker, and the text is entered in the new line as described above. The display shows that five positions of the finished line are in the border zone. If, on the other hand, a text is entered beyond the border zone without delimiters and line breaks, the query "border zone ended?" affirmed and another process is initiated, which is not part of the invention and is therefore not explained in more detail here. This could be, for example, the output of a warning signal to the operator and the blocking of further data entry.

FIG. 3e shows a representation on the display device, such as could be the case, for example, when a text stored in the data memory 3 is reproduced. In this case, since an area is not required for marking unoccupied areas of an edge zone, the area provided for this is used for text display. When reading a text from the data memory - for example for the purpose of revision - a larger section of text is thus displayed on the display device. Since characters falling into the edge zone 14 when entering text using the keyboard have not only been marked on the display direction, but the marking 15 has also been stored in the data memory with assignment to the respective character after the edge zone flag has been set, each time the text is reproduced from the memory Marks lying in an edge zone are provided with the marking 15. The operator thus has control over the assignment of the edge zone when the text is revised.

As variants of the described exemplary embodiment falling within the scope of the invention, embodiments are also conceivable in which, for example, edge zone markings 15 can be represented to the right of the entry position 13, but the edge zone 14 is filled with characters to the right beyond this position, in which the marking 15 indicates an edge zone position Assignment with a character is deleted, i.e. the character has no additional marking and in which the markings 15 unoccupied edge zone positions are not deleted after a line feed with carriage retraction but are retained between the end of the text of the line and the beginning of the text of the next line, to the operator to provide an expanded control option when revising a text that can be removed from the memory, etc.

In addition, an input option is expediently provided for the operator in order to be able to determine the width of an edge zone as desired. For this purpose, either the entry position 13 for characters to be displayed can be shifted to the right or left in the display device, thereby changing the edge zone area to the right of the entry position 13, or the controller 4 is specified how many of the positions to the right of the entry position 13 are to be defined and marked as edge zones.

When printing the text on a recording medium by the printing unit 8, it will generally not be desirable to mark the characters of the edge zone, so that the controller 4 is expediently designed such that edge zone markings can only be displayed on the display device and the characters of the data memory Border zone can be assigned.

Claims (10)

1. Display arrangement for a word processing apparatus, for example an automatic word handler, an accounting or an invoicing machine, for the one line display of a passage of text, upon which each symbol is displayed in a right- justified entry position and is shifted to the left by the following symbol, each symbol being provided by a keyboard or read out from a store, characterised in that on the right of the entry position (13) there is arranged a number of display positions corresponding to the number of positions of an edge zone (14), in which positions there can be displayed an edge zone marking (15) when the edge zone reaches a given symbol.

2. Display arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that upon the input of data each symbol falling in the edge zone (14) can be displayed in the entry position (13) and the edge zone markings (15) displayed to the right of the entry position (13) can be reduced simultaneously to one.

3. Display arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that symbols provided in the edge zone (14) can be displayed in the entry position (13) and, by shifting of the edge zone marking (15) displayed to the right of the entry position, can be supplied with an edge zone marking (15) one place to the left in each case.

4. Display arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that symbols falling in the edge zone (14) can be displayed successively to the right of the entry position (13).

5. Display arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that, in the case of texts to be filed in the store (3) of the word processor apparatus, a code for an edge zone marking (15) can be stored for each symbol lying in the edge zone (14) such that, upon its display from the store on the display arrangement (11), the edge zone marking is also displayed.

6. Display arrangement according to claim 5, characterised in that, in the case of texts to be filed in the store (3) of the word processor apparatus, codes for the edge zone markings (15) of the edge zone positions which are not occupied by symbols can be stored for each line written up to or into the edge zone (14) such that, upon the display on the display arrangement of the end of a line of a text read out from the store, the unoccupied edge zones are marked.

7. Display arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that, upon an instruction for line-changing and carriage return within the edge zone (14), the markings of the edge zone positions which are not occupied by symbols can be shifted via the entry position (13) to the left on the display arrangement (11), and the symbols provided in the new line can be displayed adjacent thereto in the entry position (13).

8. Display arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that, upon an instruction for line-changing and carriage return within the edge zone (14), the markings of the edge zone positions which are not occupied by symbols are cleared.

9. Display arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the edge zone markings in each end zone position can be displayed below or above the region of symbol representation.

10. Display arrangement according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the number of end-zone positions, which are to the right of the entry position (13) and which may be marked, is adjustable.

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