GB2143064A

GB2143064A - Registering and calling document texts

Info

Publication number: GB2143064A
Application number: GB08412808A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kaoru Kumagai
Original assignee: Canon Inc
Current assignee: Canon Inc
Priority date: 1983-05-20
Filing date: 1984-05-18
Publication date: 1985-01-30
Also published as: GB8412808D0; DE3418410A1; GB2143064B; JPS59214937A; JPH0557623B2

Abstract

A system for registering and calling documents in a character processing unit, comprises: a memory for storing character string information and associated title information; a display for displaying the stored title information; an entry device for entering the title information; a call device for calling the relevant character string information from the memory by entering, from the entry device, the title information associated with title information displayed on the display; and a registration device for registering new character string by entering the title information which is not stored in the memory device. This system enables the documents to be registered and called by a simple operation. The possible title informations are the 26 possible initial letters. Either the stored title informations are displayed at corresponding ones of 26 positions across the display, the other positions being blank, or all 26 letters are displayed, the stored ones being underlined. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION System for registering and calling documents in a character processing unit Background of the invention Field of the invention The present invention relates to a character processing unit and, more particularly, to a document registering/calling system in a character processing unit which is provided with a memory and which can store character string, i.e., sentences in this memory and can print or display the character string stored.

Description of the prior art Conventionally, electronic equipment of this kind, for example, character processing units such as an electronic typewriter or word processor can process a great amount of information and can store and hold sentences or various information necessary for typing.

In case of storing such various information, the operator arbitrarily gives titles to the respective information, thereby enabling desired information to be easily registered and called on the basis of the titles.

Figure 1 illustrates a keyboard unit KB1 of an electronic typewriter as an example of the conventional character processing unit of this kind.

In the diagram, SSW1 denotes a slide switch and the rightmost position STR instructs the registration into memory, while the other positions C, Wand L instruct the mode to specify the method for registration for every word, every line, and the like.

A key switch P.FORM instructs the registration and call of the information regarding a page format, namely, a tab and a margin and the like for a particular form. A key switch S.FORM instructs the registration or call of the top position information with respect to a stop position form, i.e., top position information of each entry portion of a particular chit.

A key switch TEXT instructs the registration or call of a document. A key switch K1 (*) instructs a delimiter and the like during the operation. K2 is a character key group such as alphabets, Katakana characters, numerical characters, symbols, etc.

Figure 2 shows an outside appearance of a display which is used in combination with the keyboard shown in Figure 1,for instance, of a liquid crystal display DSP of 30 digits in total. This display DSP shown in Figure 2 is generally disposed in the upper portion of the keyboard of Figure 1 and is used to ordinarily display characters to be entered.

Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the operations to register a document in the conventional character processing unit of this kind.

Firstly, the new registration is instructed by setting the slide switch SSW1 at the mark STR in step S1.

The key switch TEXT is pressed in step S2, then one character key among 26 characters of alphabets A to Z, for example, is entered as an arbitrary title name using the character key group K2 in step S3.

Subsequently, the key switch K1 is pressed in step S4 to start the entering operation of the document in step S5. Upon completion of the document entry, the key switch TEXT is again pressed in step S6, thereby finishing the registration processing.

Figure 4 is a flowchart showing the calling operation of the document in the conventional character processing unit of this kind.

Firstly, the slide switch SSW1 is set at a mark other than STR in step S11 to instruct the call of the document which has been already registered. Then the key switch TEXT is pressed in step S12 and the title name of the document (one character) which has been registered is entered in step S13. The key switch K1 is pressed in step S14 and subsequently the registered document is corrected or printed in step S15, then the key switch TEXT is pressed in the next step S16, thereby finishing the call processing of the document.

The coventional document registering/calling processings mentioned above are complicated since the slide switch SSW has to be switched whenever the document is registered and called. Moreover, it has a drawback such that it is necessary for the operator to completely memorize the title names of the registered documents and the title names of the unregistered documents.

Object of the invention It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-described conventional drawbacks and to provide a document registering/calling system in a character processing unit which can assurely register and call desired information into and from a memory on the basis of a title by an extremely simple operation in this way.

Summary of the invention To accomplish the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a document registering/calling system in a character processing unit, which comprises: a memory device for storing character string information and title information relative to the character string information; a display device for displaying the title information stored in the memory device; an entry device for entering the title information; a call device for calling the relevant character string information from the memory device by entering the title information corresponding to the title information displayed in the display device from the entry device; and a registration device for registering new character string by entering the title information which is not stored in the memory device.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1 is a diagram showing a keyboard unit in a conventional character processing unit; Figure2 is a diagram showing a display in the same; Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the conventional document registration procedure; Figure 4 is a flowchart showing the conventional document call procedure; Figure 5 is a diagram showing a keyboard unit in a character processing unit according to the present invention; Figure 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the document calilregistration procedures in the character processing unit of the invention; Figures 7A, 7B and 7C are diagrams to describe the relations between the title name and the display of the invention; Figure 8 is a block diagram showing an example of an arrangement of the character processing unit of the invention;; Figure 9 is a block diagram showing detailed examples of a controller and a document memory device in the character processing unit of the invention; Figures 10A and lOB show a flowchart to describe the operations thereof when they are arranged according to Figure 10; Figure 11 and Figures 12A, 12B when arranged according to Figure 12 are flowcharts to describe the operations in another embodiment of the invention.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments As shown in Figure 5, in the present invention, the mark STR is removed from a slide switch SSW2 on the keyboard unit KB2 and even when the slide switch SSW2 is at any other mark, only pressing the key switch TEXT allows the document registration or call to be started. The remaining constitution of the slide switch SSW2 is substantially the same as the slide switch SSW1 shown in Figure 1.

Figure 6 shows an example of the document registration or call processing procedure in the present invention.

In Figure 6, the key switch TEXT is pressed in step S21. In this step S21, after depression of the key switch TEXT, all of the title names of the registered documents will be immediately displayed in step S22. The display format in this case is such that, for example as shown in Figure 7A, the display DSP has been preliminarily constituted so that it can sequentially indicate alphabets A to Z from the leftmost segment thereof in the sequence of alphabets, and that only the alphabets as the title names registered among the alphabets Ato Z are displayed. For instance, when only the title names of A, B, D, and F have been registered, only A, B, D, and F are indicated in the respective relevant positions on the display DSP as shown in Figure 7B, and the other alphabetic characters are not indicated.

Next, in step S23, the operator determines whether the document is registered or called. In case of registering the document, the processing advances to step S24 and in this step, it is possible to register the title names by key-entering the title names of, e.g. C, E, G to Z, which are not indicated as shown in Figure 7B, through the character key group K2. The document entry is started in the next step S25 and upon completion of the document entry, the key switch TEXT is pressed again in step S26, thereby finishing the document registration processing.

On the other hand, to call the registered document in step S23, the operator key-enters the title name which he wants to call from among the title names which have been indicated on the display DSP in step S27, so that the processing advances to step S28. In this step, the document is called. At this time, the registered documents are corrected or printed, then the key switch TEXT is pressed in the next step S26 to complete the document call processing.

Referring now to Figure 8, there is shown a constitution of one embodiment of the character processing unit of the present invention. In Figure 8, the keyboard unit KB2 has the constitution shown in Figure 5, while the display DSP has the constitution of Figure 2. In Figure 8, CTL denotes a controller; PRT is a printer; and MEM is a document memory device.

The information entered from the keyboard unit KB2 is processed in the controller CTL, thereby enabling the result to be transmitted to the display DSP, printer PRT and document memory device MEM. In addition, the controller CTL allows the information relative to the document from the document memory device MEM to be read out.

The document memory MEM is mainly divided into a directory section (header section) M1 and a substance section M2. The directory section Ml is the block to manage the substance section M2. The documents which were encoded in accordance with the ASCII codes or the like, namely, the character strings have been stored in the substance section M2.

Furthermore, the directory section Ml is provided with management data sections M1.1 to M1.26 for respective 26 documents. Each of these management sections Ml .1 - Ml .26 is constituted by TTL for storing title names, ADR indicative of the top address of the document substance, CNT indicating a size of document substance, and TTLFLG representing the presence/absence of the registered documents.

In addition, as can be seen from Figure 8, the controller CTL can write in or readout from any location in the document memory device MEM.

The relation between the controller CTL and the document memory device MEM will be described with respect to the portion relative to the invention.

For this purpose, Figure 9 shows the details of the controller CTL and document memory device MEM of the present invention.

In Figure 9, X denotes an addressing unit for instructing the management data for every document, and Y represents an addressing unit for instructing either one of the title data TTL, ADR, CNT, and flag TTLFLG indicating the presence/absence of the registered titles in the management data section M1.1. A title data storage buffer TTLBF is a buffer register to temporarily store all the titles TTL in the document memory device MEM. CMP is a comparator. On one hand, a processing unit PROC can arbitrarily give desired instructions to the addressing units X and Y and title buffer TTLBF as shown in the diagram.

It is now assumed that the key switch TEXT was pressed in step S21 in Figure 6. At this time, the processing unit PROC discriminates whether the TTLFLG of the management data section M1.1 is O or 1 while using the addressing units X and Y. An example of the processing procedure is shown in Figure 10. Step S31 is the same as step S21 in Figure 6.

The address content of the addressing unit X is set into 0 in step S32 and the address data of the flag FLG of the memory MEM is stored in the addressing unit Y in the next step S33. Then, the address is advanced by + 1 in step S34. The flag TTLFLG is checked to see if it is "1" or not in the next step S35.

When TTLFLG is 0, the ASCII code of space is stored in a register stage Ex (x = 1) of the buffer register TTLBF in step S36. On the contrary, when the TTLFLG is 1, the processing advances to step S37 and the ASCII code of the TTL data "A" of the management data section M1.x (x = 1) is stored in the register stage Ex (x = 1) of the buffer register TTLBF. Subsequently, the processing advances from step S36 or S37 to step S38, where x is checked to see of it is 26 or not.

In this way, the processings in steps S34 to S38 are repeated until x = 26, thereby sequentially comparing the TTLFLGs of the management data of the management data sections M1.1 to M1.26 and storing the character code or space code of the title name corresponding to each TTLFLG into the buffer register TTLBF. After the comparison storage processings of all management data were ended, the processing advances to step S39, where the content of the buffer register TTLBF is sent to the display DSP to indicate the registered title name.

The display DSP displays as shown in Figure 7B in accordance with the processings as described above, so that the operator can see at a time all of the title names of the registered documents. In this state, pressing the character key of the title name displayed allows the processing to advance to step S40, so that the title name is entered. In step S41, the address location of the memory MEM associated with the entered title name is addressed. Next, in step S42, the TTLFLG associated with the entered title name is checked to see if it is "1" or not. In this case, since the TTLFLG is determined to be "1", the document is called.On the other hand, if the character key of the title name which is not displayed is pressed, the TTLFLG associated with the memory MEM is determined to be "0" in step S42,so that the document may be registered, then the operator may enter the document.

Figure 11 shows an example of the flow of the processing procedure of the second embodiment according to the present invention.

In Figure 11, the key switch TEXT is pressed in step S21. After the key switch TEXT was pressed in step S21, all title names are immediately displayed in step S22, in which underlines are added to the title names of the registered documents.

In this case, the display format is such that the display DSP is constituted so that alphabets A to Z are sequentially indicated from the leftmost segment of the display DSP in accordance with the alphabets as shown in Figure 7A, for example, and that the alphabets as the registered title names among the alphabets A to Z are displayed with, e.g., underlines.

For instance, in the case where only the title names of A, B, D, and F have been registered, only A, B, D, and F with underlines are displayed on the display DSP as shown in Figure 7C.

Next, the operator determines whether the document is registered or called in step S23. In case of document registration, step S24 follows, where it is possible to register the document by key-entering the title names without underlines, for example, the title names of C, E, G - Z as shown in Figure 7C through the character key group K2. The document entry is started in the next step S25 and upon completion of the document entry, the key switch TEXT is again pressed in step S26, thereby finishing the registration processing.

On the other hand, when calling the registered document in step S23, by key entering the title names which the operator wants to call from among the title names with underlines displayed on the display DSP in step S27, the processing advances to step S28, where the document is called. The registered document is corrected or printed here and in the next step S26, the key switch TEXT is pressed to finish the document call processing.

It is now assumed that the key switch TEXT was pressed in step S21 in Figure 11. At this time, the processing unit PROC of Figure 9 ckecks the TTLFLG of the management data section M1.1 to see if it is "0" or "1" while using the addressing units X and Y.

Figure 12 shows an example of the processing procedure. Step S31 is the same as step S21 in Figure 6.

The address content of the addressing unit X is set into 0 in step S32 and the address data associated with the flag FLG of the memory MEM is stored in the address unit Y in the next step S33. Then, the address is advanced by + 1 in step S34. The flag TTLFLG is checked in step S35 whether it is "1" or not. When the TTLFLG is 0, step S36 follows and the ASCII code of data "A" of the TTL of the management data section Ml.x (x = 1) is stored in the register stage Ex (x = 1) of the buffer register TTLBF.

On the other hand, when the TTLFLG is 1, the processing advances to step S37, where the ASCII code with the underline information of data "A" of the TTL of the management data section M1.x (x = 1) is stored in the register stage Ex (x = 1) of the buffer register TTLBF. Subsequently, the processing advances from step S36 or S37 to step S38, where x is checked to see if it is 26 or not.

In this way, by repeating the processings in steps S36 to S38 until x = 26, the TTLFLGs of the management data are sequentially compared from the management data sections M1.1 to M1.26 and the character code of the title name associated with each TTLFLG or the code of which the above title name was added with underline is stored in the buffer register TTLBF. After completion of the comparison storage processings of all management data, the processing advances to step S39, where the content of the buffer register TTLBF is sent to the display DSP, thereby displaying all of the registered title names and unregistered title names.

The display DSP displays as shown in Figure 7B on the basis of the processings as described above, so that the operator can see at a time all of the registered documents and unregistered documents.

In this state, by pressing the character key of the title name with underline displayed, the processing advances to step S40, so that the title name is entered. In the next step S41, the address location of the memory MEM associated with the entered title name is addressed. Then, in step S42, since the TTLFLG associated with the entered title name is determined to be "1", the document is called. On the other hand, when the character key of the title name without underline which is not displayed is pressed, the TTLFLG associated with the memory MEM is determined to be "0" is step S42, so that the document may be registered, and the operator may enter the document.

According to the present invention, with such a system constitution as described above, it is possible to eliminate the conventional drawback, i.e., complication such that the slide switch has to be switched whenever the document is registered and called. In addition, it is unnecessary for the operator to completely store the title names of the registered documents and the title names of the unregistered documents. Therefore, it is possible to register and call the documents by an extremely simple operation.

Claims

1. A system for registering and calling document in a character processing unit, comprising: memory means for storing character string information and title information associated with said character string information; display means for displaying the title information stored in said memory means; means for entering the title information; means for entering the character string; and control means for performing first control to call the relevant character string information from said memory means in response to that the title information associated with the title information displayed in said display means is entered from said title information entering means and second control to register new character string in response to that the title information which is not stored in said memory means is entered from said title information entering means.

2. A system according to Claim 1, wherein the title information associated with the character string information which is not stored in said memory means is not displayed in said display means.

3. A system according to Claim 1,wherein said display means displays the title information associated with the character string information which is not stored in said memory means, the title information associated with the character string information stored in said memory means, and annotation information which is added near said title information and which represents whether the character string is stored in said memory means or not.

4. A character processing unit which comprises: a memory device for storing character string information and title information relative to the character string information; a display device for displaying the title information stored in the memory device; an entry device for entering the title information; a call device for calling the relevant character string information from the memory device by entering the title information corresponding to the title information displayed on the display device from the entry device; and a registration device for registering new character string by entering the title information which is not stored in the memory device.

5. A character processing apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 5 to 12 of the accompanying drawings.