JP2001175648A - Document management system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document management system which can easily create a new document by gathering desirable pages from various documents. SOLUTION: When a document stored in a document storage part 1 is selected through an operation part 3, an editing control part 2 converts the document into data by pages at need and arranges the respective pages of the document on a task board. The editing control part 2 performs various editing processes such as the rearrangement and deletion of the pages arranged on the task board and the insertion of a page from another task board according to indications from the operation part 3. When output is indicated from the operation part 3 after the editing, the respective pages on the task board are combined in the array order to generate a document. At this time, the actual document can be created and a virtual reference document can also be created by making the pages of the actual document and the pages of the document to be created correspond to each other according to page information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document management system capable of editing a new document from an existing document.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various documents have been created and used. In some of them, a document or a part of a document created before is reused to create a new document. For example, it is conceivable to extract a few pages from a thick document and create a summary.

In recent years, with the spread of network facsimile apparatuses and fax modems, a series of images received by facsimile can be handled by a computer or the like. There is a demand to create a new document by reusing a part of such a series of images, or to edit a new document together with the existing document as described above.

Conventionally, however, a series of received images is managed as one image file. Therefore, in order to perform editing, it is necessary to make full use of an image editing function such as clipping and pasting of an image, and there is a problem that it is troublesome to reuse a received image. Furthermore, it has been more difficult to use it in combination with pages of other documents.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a document management system which can easily create a new document by collecting desired pages from various documents. It is intended to do so.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in a document management system, a storage means capable of storing a plurality of documents, and an arbitrary page of any of the documents stored in the storage means are selected for each page. The present invention is characterized by having a possible operation means and an edit control means for logically combining the pages selected by the operation means into a new document. With such a configuration, a new document can be created simply by selecting a page with the operation means, and a new document can be easily created by reusing an existing document.

Further, according to the present invention, in a document management system, a storage means capable of storing a plurality of documents, selecting any of the documents stored in the storage means, and selecting an arbitrary page of the selected document in page units And an edit control unit that converts the document selected by the operation unit into data in page units and logically combines the pages selected by the operation unit into a new document. It is characterized by the following. This makes it possible to select individual pages even for a series of images managed as a single image file, such as a document without the concept of a page or an image received by facsimile, making it easy to select each page. To create a new document.

[0008] As a configuration for editing a new document,
The edit control unit manages a task board for managing the page selected by the operation unit. Then, in accordance with an instruction from the operation means, it is possible to add and delete pages to the task board, change the page order, and the like. Furthermore, the pages managed by the task board can be output as documents while maintaining the order. As a result, it is possible to provide a user with an environment in which a document can be easily edited.

As a new document to be generated by the editing control means, for example, reference document information relating to the new document, and page information in which the page of the new document is associated with a document which is the substance of the page are generated. It can be configured as follows. Thus, a new document can be generated as a reference document without copying the entity of the document. Therefore, storage resources can be managed efficiently.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a document management system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing information used for document management in an embodiment of the document management system according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a data structure. In the figure,
1 is a document storage unit, 2 is an edit control unit, 3 is an operation unit, 11 is a real document, 12 is real document information, 13 is page information, 14 is reference document information, and 15 is a reference document. The document storage unit 1 stores information on the entity of the document (actual document) and a reference document for referring to the actual document. The actual document may be any document and may include any information such as text and images. For example, it may be a series of images received by facsimile. Also, any format can be used as long as the format can be converted by the edit control unit 2. The reference document is a virtual document logically constituted by one or more arbitrary pages of one or more real documents. The reference document has no entity as a document, and is a document configured only by association with a real document based on page information described later.

In order to manage such actual documents and reference documents, actual document information 12, page information 13, and reference document information 14 are used. The real document information 12 is information on the real document 11. In the actual document information 12, one record is created for each actual document. The real document information 12 includes information such as a real document ID for identifying a real document and a name (file name) of the real document, as shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG.
Contains information on the number of reference pages. The information on the number of reference pages stores the number associated with the page of the reference document by page information 13 described later. When the number of reference pages is 0, it indicates that the reference document is not referenced at all, and that even if the actual document 11 is deleted, the reference document is not affected. Of course, the actual document information 12 may include various other information such as the update date and the type of the actual document 11.

The reference document information 14 includes various information related to the reference document 15. This reference document information 14
Creates one record for each reference document 15. As the reference document information 14, for example, as shown in FIG. 2C, a reference document I for identifying the reference document 15 is provided.
D and information such as the name of the reference document 15. Of course, in addition to this, various information regarding the reference document 15 such as an update date, a creator, and a reference document type may be included.

The page information 13 is information indicating the correspondence between the page of the real document 11 and the page of the reference document 15. In the page information 13, a record is created for each page of the reference document 15. As the page information 13, for example, FIG.
As shown in (B), the page information ID, the reference document ID and the page number in the reference document 15, the real document ID and the real document 11
It contains information such as the page number inside. Of course, in addition to this, various information such as an update date may be included. The page information 13 associates the reference document 15 with the real document 11 as shown in FIG. For example, by associating the pages of the real document 11 with the pages of the reference document 15, regardless of the arrangement of the pages of the real document 11, and even if there are a plurality of pages of the real document 11, the reference document 15 is used as one reference document 15. Will be able to reference.

The editing control unit 2 enables various editing of a reference document. For example, a new reference document can be created from an actual document, pages can be added to or deleted from the reference document, and the page order can be changed. When a real document or a reference document is selected from the operation unit 3, the edit control unit 2 registers each page of the specified real document or reference document as a page of the reference document. At this time, if the actual document is in a format that cannot be accessed in page units, it is converted into data in page units and added as a page of the reference document. Of course, pages can be moved or copied between reference documents. At the end of editing, it can be saved as a reference document constituted by the selected page.

The operation unit 3 allows the user to instruct the edit control unit 2 to select a real document or a reference document, perform an editing operation in page units, and the like. The operation unit 3 can be composed of, for example, an output device such as a display and various input devices such as a pointing device such as a mouse and a keyboard.

Next, an example of an operation of the document management system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the following description, the edit control unit 2 provides a task board as an interface for editing a document to a user. The user can perform various instructions from the operation unit 3 using this task board to edit a document.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the task board. For example, when implemented in a window system, the task board is provided to the user as one window. Pages selected by the user are arranged on the task board, and this indicates that the arranged pages constitute a document. In FIG. 3, each page is indicated by an icon such as a folded paper at the lower right. The order in which the icons are arranged indicates the page order.
Shows one document.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, when a document icon is copied from outside the task board into the task board by, for example, dragging and dropping or pasting, the document is selected. . Of course, operations such as opening a document as a file may be performed. When such an operation is performed, an icon indicating each page of the selected document is added to the task board. FIG.
In the example shown in FIG. 7, a state is shown in which a five-page document has been added to a new task board. When adding a page, if the selected document is not page-based data, it is converted to page-based data. For example, it can be converted to a TIFF format or the like.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a task board when a page switching operation is performed. For example, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, when the icons of each page are arranged in the task board, one of the icons is changed in position by dragging, for example, and the arrangement order is changed as shown in FIG. 4B. I do. Thereby, the pages can be rearranged.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation for moving or copying a page between task boards. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, windows of a plurality of task boards are opened, and, for example, icons arranged on one task board are dragged and dropped on the other task board, thereby moving or copying in page units. It can be performed. Alternatively, pages can be moved or copied using a clipboard or the like. On the copy or move destination task board, a page is inserted at the position where it was dropped or at the specified position. By using such a page moving or copying function, a new document can be easily created by extracting pages from a plurality of documents.

Of course, the page can be deleted by designating the page and instructing deletion, or by dragging and dropping the page icon into, for example, a trash can.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example in which each page on the task board is output as a document. When output is instructed in a state where icons for each page are arranged on the task board, the pages of the icons arranged on the task board can be logically combined and stored as a reference document. For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, the fifth page of the document “AAA” and the document “AB” are displayed on the task board.
Output is instructed in a state where the icons of the third page of “C” and the first page of the document “AAA” are arranged. And
"XYZ" is input as the document name. As a result, the fifth page of the document “AAA”, the third page of the document “ABC”, and the first page of the document “AAA” become the first page, the second page, and the third page, respectively. XY
Z "is output.

FIG. 6B shows the data structure at this time. Information about the reference document “XYZ” is registered in the reference document information 14. At the same time, the reference document "XY
The first to third pages of “Z” are the fifth page of the real document “AAA” and the third page of the document “ABC” by the page information 13.
The page is associated with the first page of the document “AAA”. That is, the reference document ID of the reference document “XYZ”
For the page "1" of "236", the actual document "AAA"
The page “5” of the actual document ID “335” is associated. Similarly, for the page “2” of the reference document ID “236”, the real document ID “67” of the real document “ABC”
The page “3” of the real document “AAA” corresponds to the page “1” of the real document “AAA” with the page “3” of the reference document ID “236”. It is attached. The actual document ID is the actual document information 1
2 is registered. With such a data structure, the reference document can be referenced, edited, and the like without having any entity.

Alternatively, depending on the output destination, each page of the actual document may be copied based on such a reference document to create a new actual document. For example, when sending to a printer, a facsimile machine, or another device via a network as an output destination, an actual document may be generated and output.
In this case, the output format and the like can be converted according to the output destination.

In addition, the editing control unit 2 can provide various editing functions to the user, for example, by double-clicking the icon of the page to refer to the image of the page.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the document editing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. When creating or editing a document, first, in S21, a task board is displayed. Then, various operations are performed.

In S22, the operation performed by the user on the operation unit 3 is determined. For example, as shown in S23, in the case of a document selecting operation (for example, dragging and dropping a document to a task board), first in S24, It is determined whether or not the selected document is in a predetermined format that can be accessed in page units. If the selected document has a different format, format conversion is performed in S25. This makes the document accessible on a page-by-page basis.

Then, in S26, all pages in the document are added to the task board, and in S27, the display of the task board is updated. As a result, the selected document can be edited in page units.

The operation performed by the user on the operation unit 3 is, for example, S
In the case of a page addition operation (for example, dragging and dropping a page from another task board) as shown in FIG. 28, in S29, the page instructed to be added is additionally inserted at the designated position, and S27 is performed. To update the display of the task board. As a result, a page selected from another document can be moved or copied.

The operation performed by the user on the operation unit 3 is, for example, S
In the case of a movement operation of a page in the task board as shown in 30, the page is rearranged according to the page to be moved and the destination in S31, and the display of the task board is updated in S27. As a result, the pages can be rearranged and edited.

The operation performed by the user on the operation unit 3 is, for example, S
In the case of a delete operation of a page in the task board as shown in 32, in S33, the designated page is deleted. At the same time, the remaining pages are rearranged, and the display of the task board is updated in S27.
As a result, the page can be deleted.

The operation performed by the user on the operation unit 3 is, for example, S
In the case of an output operation of a page in the task board as shown in 34, the user further specifies an output destination from the operation unit 3 in S35. Then, in S36, the pages in the task board are combined and output according to the designated output destination. For example, if the output destination is a document such as a file, it can be output as a reference document as described above. Of course, it may be synthesized as a real document and output.
When the output destination is a printer, a facsimile machine, or transferred to another device via a LAN or the like, each page on the task board is synthesized as a real document, and data conversion is performed according to each output destination. Can be output.

Of course, it is possible to configure such that when the other operation of these operations is performed, corresponding processing is performed. In the example shown in FIG. 7,
The editing process is terminated when a document output operation is performed. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the process may return to S22 after the output of the document is completed, so that the editing can be further performed, and the editing process may be terminated upon receiving a termination instruction.

In the above description, an example in which a task board is used in a window system as an interface with a user has been described. Of course, the editing environment provided to the user is not limited to the task board, and the editing environment can be provided by various interfaces. Further, the system to be used is not limited to the window system as described above, and it is possible to provide a similar editing environment on various systems.

[0035]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, a new document can be created simply by selecting a page with the operation means, and an existing document can be reused to easily create a new document. Documents can be created. For example, an operation of extracting only useful pages from a plurality of documents and creating another document can be easily performed. Also,
A series of images managed as a single image file, such as a document without the concept of a page or an image received by facsimile, is also converted to page-by-page data. Can create documents. Further, by providing a task board as a user interface, it is possible to provide an environment in which a user can easily edit a document.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a document management system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a data structure of information used for document management in an embodiment of the document management system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a task board.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a task board when performing a page switching operation.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of an operation when moving or copying a page between task boards.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a case where each page on a task board is output as a document.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of the document editing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Document storage part, 2 ... Editing control part, 3 ... Operation part, 11 ...
Real document, 12 ... real document information, 13 ... page information, 14 ...
Reference document information, 15: Reference document.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A storage means capable of storing a plurality of documents, an operation means capable of selecting an arbitrary page of any document stored in the storage means in page units, and an operation means selected by the operation means. A document management system comprising editing control means for logically combining pages to form a new document. 2. A storage means capable of storing a plurality of documents, an operation means capable of selecting any of the documents stored in the storage means and selecting any page of the selected document in page units, A document management system for converting a document selected by the operation means into page-based data and logically combining the pages selected by the operation means to form a new document; . 3. The editing control unit manages a task board for managing a page selected by the operation unit, and adds and deletes a page to the task board according to an instruction from the operation unit. 3. The document management system according to claim 1, wherein the order is changed and the pages managed by the task board are output as documents while maintaining the order.