GB2305894A

GB2305894A - Book index

Info

Publication number: GB2305894A
Application number: GB9520586A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Damian Johnston
Original assignee: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Current assignee: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Priority date: 1995-10-09
Filing date: 1995-10-09
Publication date: 1997-04-23
Anticipated expiration: 2015-10-09
Also published as: GB2305894B; GB9520586D0

Abstract

The index comprises pages 4 with markers in the form of cut-out portions 8 or tabs for guiding a user to a predetermined preceding or succeeding page from a current page. The index is such that the predetermined preceding or succeeding page is accessible using the markers from only some of the pages.

Description

INDEXING SYSTEM AND METHOD The present invention relates to an indexing system and method for, in particular but not exclusively, books.

Books are known which have protruding tabs which separate the book into different sections, the beginning of which sections can be easily located by means of the protruding tabs. Books are also known which have cut-out portions which are used to locate the beginning of respective sections. Typically, these cut-out portions are used in dictionaries to indicate the beginning of each section relating to a respective letter. The cut-out portions are arranged generally to form a partial dome shape with the page at the beginning of each section not having a cut-out portion. A number of preceding pages have cut-out portions which together define the partial dome shape which allows a finger to be received in the partial dome shape so that the beginning page of each section can be located.

The disadvantage with both of the above-mentioned systems is that the markers are universal in that the user can go into any other marked section from a section to which the user is currently referring. Thus, these systems do not facilitate cross-indexing.

In particular, it is not possible to mark either pages or sections of the book which may contain information relevant to the page at which the user is currently looking without having to use the main indexing tabs or cut-out portions.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an arrangement comprising a plurality of pages connected together, at least some of said plurality of pages having marker means for guiding a user to a predetermined preceding or succeeding page from a current page, wherein said predetermined preceding or succeeding page is accessible using said marker means from only some of the plurality of pages.

With this arrangement, the user can easily locate other pages which are relevant to a current page without having to resort to a universal indexing system. This makes the location of other relevant pages simpler than with the prior art arrangements. It is preferred that said predetermined preceding or succeeding page be accessible from only some of the succeeding or preceding pages respectively.

It is preferred that these marker means be arranged about at least one edge region of at least some of the pages. This makes it easier to use embodiments of the invention. However, it is envisaged that in certain embodiments of the invention, the marker means may be provided in the main body of the pages.

Preferably, the marker means comprise cut-out portions which may be substantially semi-circular in shape. Cut-out portions are preferred in that they do not protrude from the edge of the page and are thus not prone to damage. They may also be easier to use. Substantially semi-circular cut-out portions are preferred in that they can be designed so as to accommodate a thumb or finger of a user thus making the arrangement simpler to use.

However, in certain embodiments of the invention, the marker means may be in the form of tabs extending from at least one edge region of the respective pages. These marker means may be protected from damage by suitable covers which are larger in size than the plurality of pages. It should be appreciated that in some embodiments of the present invention, both tabs and cut-out portions can be used.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a selected marker means on a current page which is to guide a user to said predetermined page overlies marker means on each of the pages lying between the current page and the predetermined page. In this way, it is possible to guide a user to the desired predetermined page.

In some embodiments of the present invention, means are provided for indicating to a user when particular marker means do not guide the user to a predetermined page. Thus, a distinction can be made between those marker means which lead the user to a predetermined page and those marker means which in themselves do not lead to relevant pages. Those indicating means may comprise a visual indication provided on said page and/or said marker means. For example, the visual indication means could take the form of an enclosure which excludes those marker means which would guide the user to a predetermined page and enclose those marker means which would not guide the user to a predetermined page, or vice versa. Alternatively, a colour coding system can be used.

Preferably, marker means are provided around at least two edge regions of at least some of the plurality of pages. In the case where pages are semi-circular or circular, the marker means are preferably angularly disposed about the edge region of the pages.

The plurality of pages are preferably connected together to define a book. Alternatively, the pages could be connected together so as to provide a concertina type arrangement.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a rotatable member having a plurality of marker means is provided, said rotable member overlying said plurality of pages, whereby the position of said rotatable member relative to said plurality of pages determines which of said plurality of pages identified by said marker means is accessible. In particular, the or each page lying between those pages which are to be accessible and the rotable member may have marker means underlying a respective marker means of the rotatable member. The marker means of the rotable member are preferably cut-out portions but may alternatively or additionally be tabs. This arrangement provides a greater variety in the ways that information or alternatives can be accessed.

In one embodiment of the present invention, at least some of the marker means which are arranged to overlie one another have a plurality of different sizes whereby marker means of a first size indicate a first predetermined page and marker means of a second size indicate a second predetermined page, wherein the first and second sizes are different. In this way the number of options available to the user can be increased. This also allows related information to be correlated and further facilitates crossreferencing.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an arrangement comprising a plurality of pages connected together about one edge thereof, each of said pages having at least two further edge regions and a plurality of marker means provided about a plurality of said further edge regions of at least some of said plurality of pages, wherein said marker means are arranged to guide the user from a current page to predetermined preceding and/or succeeding pages.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of locating in a plurality of pages, a predetermined page from a current page, at least some of said pages having marking means for guiding said user to a predetermined page, said method comprising selecting one of said marking means available from said current page and causing said page identified by said marking means to become the current page, wherein only some of said pages having marking means are accessible from said current page.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an indexing system for use with a plurality of pages, said indexing system comprising marker means for identifying at least one predetermined page as being of relevance to a current page, said marker means being arranged such that said at least one predetermined page is accessible using said marker means from only some of the plurality of pages.

For a better understanding of the present invention and as to how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures 1 to 10 show consecutive pages of a book embodying the present invention.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying Figures which show the consecutive pages 4 of a book 2. As can be seen, twenty pages 4 are shown in the Figures and the page number is indicated in the top right or left hand corner. The dotted line 6 shown in each of the Figures represents a fold line about which the respective pages 4 can be rotated in a conventional manner. As will be appreciated, in use the fold lines 6 will be adjacent to one another and will form a spine of the book 2.

Cut-out portions 8 are provided on a number of the pages 4, with the exception of the first and last pages 4a and 4b respectively.

The cut-out portions 8 can be arranged along the top edge 10 of a page 4, the side edge 12 and/or the bottom edge 14 of a page.

The cut-out portions 8 can be provided on any one or more of those edges. For example the second page only has one cut-out portion 8 along the side edge 12, the tenth page has a cut-out portion 8 along each of the edges 10, 12 and 14, and the fifth page has cut-out portions 8 along the top edge 10 and side edge 12. Additionally, more than one cut-out portion 8 can be provided along a given edge of the page 4. For example, page 6 has two cut-out portions 8 along its upper edge 10 and one cutout portion 8 along its side edge 12. These cut-out portions 8 are generally semi-circular and are sized so as to accommodate a thumb or finger of a user.

The cut-out portions 8 allow a user of the book 2 to locate other pages 4 of relevance to the information contained on the current pages 4 being looked at by the user. These other pages may either be preceding or succeeding pages 4 in the book 2. To explain how other pages of relevance to the current pages can be located, reference will now be made to pages 11 and 12 and in particular cut-out 16 on page 12. Cut-out portion 16 is arranged so as to guide the user to page 18 of the book. As can be seen, page 14 which underlies page 12 has a cut-out portion 18 located at the same position as cut-out portion 16 of page 12. Likewise, page 16 has a cut-out portion 20 which is in the same position as cut-out portions 16 and 18 and therefore underlies cut-out portions 16 and 18.However, page 18 does not have a cut-out portion at the location corresponding to the position of the cutout portions 16, 18 and 20. When the user puts his thumb in the cut-out portion 16 of page 12, the thumb will come to rest on portion 22 on page 18 which corresponds to the position of cutout portion 16, 18 and 20 and accordingly, the user can easily find page 18 which has been marked as containing information relevant to that contained on page 12.

In a similar manner, relevant preceding pages can be found in the same way. Reference is made to cut-out portion 24 of page 11 which overlies cut-out portion 26 of page 9. Page 7 does not have a cut-out at the same location as cut-out portions 24 and 26. Accordingly, when the user puts his thumb in cut-out portion 24, his thumb will rest on portion 28 of page 7 and thus, the user easily find that page.

In this way, it is possible for the user to find a number of other pages of relevance to information contained on a particular page. It should be appreciated that with this arrangement, only selected and not all preceding and succeeding pages 4 are arranged to be accessed using the above described marker system.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that a page which is identified by the marker system will only be accessible from a few of the other pages of the book. The few pages will be relevant to the respective page identified by the marker system.

In the embodiment shown in the Figures, a frame 30 is provided around the edge region of each of the pages 4. This frame 30 is arranged either to enclose or exclude the cut-out portions 8.

This frame 30 can thereby provide an indication to the user as to whether or not a particular cut-out portion 8 would guide the user to a page which is relevant to the current page 4.

Reference will now be made to page 9. As can be seen, cut-out 26 is enclosed within frame 30. This can provide an indication to the user that cut-out 26 does not lead the user to information relevant to that contained on page 9. On the other hand, cut-out 32 is not contained within frame 30 and accordingly, this provides an indication to the user that cut-out portion 32 will lead to information relevant to that contained on page 9. In fact cut-out portion 32 guides the user to page 3.

Regions 22 and 28 on pages 7 and 18 respectively are also excluded from the frame 30. These areas are those portions of a page to which a user is guided and on which the user's thumb will be placed.

Embodiments of the invention can have numerous practical applications and may for example be used to seek additional information concerning various aspects of a topic discussed on a current page. Thus, a given page could relate to a particular topic and the cut-out portions could then lead to more detailed information. For example, pages 11 and 12 could describe in general terms the human body. Cut-out 24 leads to page 7 which could include further information concerning the head. Cut-out 34 on page 7 leads to page 5 which may include more detailed information relating to the brain. In this way, a index system can be provided which allows localized cross-referencing to be easily achieved.

Alternative embodiments of the present invention can be used to implement games. For example, the book could present a maze-like arrangement which allows the user several different options as to how to proceed. For example, the object of the game could be to start from page 2 and arrive at page 20 and then to work. back to. page 2.

It should be appreciated that there are a number of modifications possible to the embodiments shown. For example, the cut-out portions need not be semi-circular but can of course be any suitable shape. Alternatively, the cut-out portions can be replaced by tabs which extend outwardly from the edge of the relevant pages. In some embodiments both tabs and cut-out portions could be provided. Whilst in the embodiments described, markers are not provided on the part of the target page which the user contacts with his finger or thumb, markers may in alternative embodiments be provided additionally on the target page itself under the markers which are used to guide the user to the target page. In some embodiments, a corner region of some of the pages may be cut off to guide a user to a predetermined page.

In the embodiments shown, the pages are generally square or rectangular. However, it would be possible to have any other suitably shaped pages, for example triangular pages, semicircular, circular pages or polygonal shaped pages. In the case of semi-circular or circular pages, the markers could be angularly disposed about the edges thereof. It would also be possible that in certain embodiments of the invention, not all the pages would be the same size. For example, some pages could be half size or even only a relatively small amount smaller than other pages. Each topic could be arranged on respectively different sized pages. Cross-referencing may be limited to other pages of the same size or alternatively cross-referencing may be possible between sections containing different sized pages. It should be appreciated that a number of different page sizes may be present.

The frame 30 can of course be dispensed with or alternatively may be replaced by a colour coded arrangement which indicates to the user that certain cut-out portions do not lead to further information relevant to that contained on the current page.

Mechanical means may be provided which cover certain ones of the cut-out portions when the book is opened at that page. The mechanical means may be arranged so that all the cut-out portions are uncovered when the book is no longer open at that particular page. The mechanical means may take the form of flaps which are moved to cover cut-out portions which do not lead to relevant information when the book is open at a particular page. The flaps may be moved so that the cut-out portions are no longer covered when the book is no longer open at that page.

It should be appreciated that any suitable means can be provided for connecting the pages together including conventional binding methods and the use, for example, of ringbinders or the like.

In some embodiments, the book may be arranged to lead the user first to a starting page which is not at the beginning of the book. Any suitable marker can be provided to achieve this although it is preferred that cut-off corners of the pages be used to guide the user to the starting page. The non-universal indexing system embodying the present invention may lend itself particularly well to arrangements where the starting page is in a central region of the book and the user can then be guided to a number of predetermined preceding or succeeding pages depending on the further information required by the user.

The present invention is also applicable to embodiments other than books. For example, in some embodiments of the invention, the pages may form a concertina type arrangement where all the pages are formed from a continuous sheet.

t should be appreciated that embodiments of this invention can be used to identify groups of pages as well as individual pages.

In one proposed modification to the invention, the front of the book is provided with a wheel having a number of cut-out portions. The position of the wheel relative to the rest of the book would determine which of the pages are initially accessible.

In those circumstances, various cut-out portions of pages lying between the target page and the wheel would be aligned with cutout portions of the wheel. However, other cut-out portions of various pages of the book would be covered by the wheel and thus unavailable to the user, at least initially. It should also be appreciated that such a book may be arranged, once opened, to be preferred embodiment of the invention.

In some embodiments of the invention it may be possible to use stepped markers lying on top of one another. For example large cut-out portions may lead to a first target page and smaller cutout portions may lead to a second target page under the first target page. The larger cut-out portions would overlie the smaller cut-out portions. In this way, the user would have the option of initially going to the first or the second target page.

Alternatively the user can go first to the first target page and then to the second target page.

Embodiments of the present invention may also be applicable to computerized books to allow access to various different pages or screens and may be implemented in suitable software or hardware.

In particular, the tabs could be replaced by areas which could be pointed to by a cursor and when identified could lead the user to other pages of the book or different screens. These other pages or screens can be any predetermined preceding or succeeding screen or page.

Claims

1. An arrangement comprising a plurality of pages connected together, at least some of said plurality of pages having marker means for guiding a user to a predetermined preceding or succeeding page from a current page, wherein said predetermined preceding or succeeding page is accessible using said marker means from only some of the plurality of pages.

2. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said marker means are arranged about at least two edge regions of at least some of the plurality of pages.

3. An arrangement comprising a plurality of pages connected together about one edge region thereof, each of said pages having at least two further edge regions and a plurality of marker means provided about a plurality of said further edge regions of at least some of said plurality of pages, wherein said marker means are arranged to guide the user from a current page to predetermined preceding and/or succeeding pages.

4. An arrangement as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein said marker means comprise cut-out portions.

5. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 4, wherein said cut-out portions are substantially semi-circular.

6. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said marker means are in the form of tabs extending from at least one edge region of the respective pages.

7. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a selected marker means on a current page which is to guide a user to said predetermined page overlies marker means provided on each page lying between said current page and said predetermined page.

8. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein means are provided for indicating to a user when particular marker means do not guide the user to a predetermined page.

9. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 8, wherein said indicating means comprises a visual indication provided on said page and/or said marker means.

10. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said plurality of pages are connected together to define a book.

11. An arrangement as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 9, wherein said plurality of pages are connected together to form a concertina-like arrangement.

12. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a rotatable member having a plurality of cut-out portions is provided, said rotatable member overlying said plurality of pages, wherein the position of the rotatable member relative to said plurality of pages determines which of said plurality of pages with marker means is to be accessed by the user.

13. An arrangement as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein at. least some of the marker means which are arranged to overlie one another have a plurality of different sizes whereby marker means of a first size indicate a first predetermined page and marker means of a second size indicate a second predetermined page, wherein the first and second sizes are different.

14. A method of locating in a plurality of pages, a predetermined page from a current page, at least some of said pages having marking means for guiding said user to a predetermined page, said method comprising selecting one of said markers available from said current page and causing said page identified by said marking means to become the current page, wherein only some of said pages having marking means are accessible from said current page.

15. An indexing system for use with a plurality of pages, said indexing system comprising marker means for identifying at least one predetermined page as being of relevance to a current page, said marker means being arranged such that said at least one predetermined page is accessible using said marker means from only some of the plurality of pages.