JP2003091528A - Document processor, and system and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of a conventional preview display method for a print page, wherein an actual print result is not expressed because an insertion page not included in a document is not considered. SOLUTION: When information about index paper inserted between pages stored in a document file including and storing information about at least a chapter and a page included in the chapter is set, the information about the set index paper is stored, and a print preview of the inserted index paper and each the page included in the document information are generated and displayed on the basis of the information aboout the index paper and the document information stored in the document file.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention collects output data generated by various programs such as a document processing program and an image editing program into one document and provides a document processing apparatus and an editing function for the document. It relates to systems and methods.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Different types of data, such as characters, tables, and images, have different structures for defining those data and different editing operations on the data. Therefore, various application programs are provided according to various types of data. ing. Therefore, a user who uses these data is required to edit data such as a character processing program for editing characters, a spreadsheet program for editing a table, and an image editing program for editing an image. It is necessary to use different applications according to the type.

As described above, a user generally uses an application program corresponding to each type of data. However, as a document to be created by the user, there are a plurality of documents such as characters and tables, characters and images, rather than documents composed of only one type of data, such as characters only, tables only, and images only. It is more common to handle documents composed of different types of data. Therefore, in order to create a document containing multiple types of data, the user uses the print function of each application to print each data using each application, and the printed results are arranged in the desired order. It was necessary to combine them to create a desired document.

Alternatively, for example, a program called an office suite, which forms one integrated application by various applications, provides a function of combining data generated by each application to form one document. By using this integrated application, the user can combine the data created by each application into one document by a specific application included in the integrated application.

[0005]

However, when a user combines printed materials from various applications to create a single target document, for example, in order to assign a page number to each page, all the necessary data is temporarily deleted. It is necessary to determine the page numbers to be printed after printing them out and putting them together as a document. Then, it is necessary for each application to write the determined page number for each page (called a logical page or an original page) of the original created by the application. This means that even if the application program has a function of assigning page numbers, if there are discontinuous portions, the user still has to specify the page numbers. Also, when the pages of the document are rearranged, the page numbers must be reassigned accordingly. Alternatively, multiple manuscript pages
A case where the document format is simply changed, such as one page as a printed matter (this page is called a physical page or a print page), a change from single-sided printing to double-sided printing, etc. However, some applications need to be edited and reprinted.

As described above, since the application that can manage the data varies depending on the type of data, the user must manually provide the interface between the applications. This means that the user needs a lot of labor, which causes a decrease in productivity. In addition, since many people are involved, an error is likely to occur.

On the other hand, when a document is created using the integrated application, various data can be arranged by using a print preview or the like in the data state without actually printing. With such capabilities, less effort is required than when combining printed materials to create a document. However, the application for editing / creating various data is limited to the one included in the integrated application, and the application desired by the user cannot always be used. Further, the document created by the integrated application is one document file, and editing / outputting is managed in file units. For this reason, even if an attempt is made to set the format for a part of the document file, there are many restrictions due to the function of the application. For example, it is necessary to change the format setting for each part where the format is changed and perform printing again. For this reason, much labor is required and productivity is low, which is no different from the method described above.

Further, in the conventional print page preview display method, even a merged page that is not included in the document is not considered, so that the print result is not expressed in the true sense. For example, if an index sheet is acquired from the inserter at any time and a print instruction for inserting and printing in a page of a document is given, the inserted index sheet will not be displayed when the print preview is displayed. It was not possible to know what kind of index paper was inserted until after the actual printing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and enables creation and editing of a document in which data created by an application program desired by a user is collected, and at the same time, the operability of the document is improved. A first object of the present invention is to provide a document processing apparatus and a system and method thereof that improve editing productivity.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a document processing apparatus and a system and method thereof which can display, as a print preview, information about a sheet to be inserted and printed at the time of printing, for example, an index sheet.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the document processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.
That is, a document storage unit that stores document information including at least a chapter and information about a page included in the chapter, and a setting unit that sets information about a sheet inserted between the pages stored in the document storage unit. A sheet information storage unit that stores information about the sheet set by the setting unit; and, based on the document information stored in the document storage unit and the sheet information stored in the sheet information storage unit, Display control means for controlling to display each page included in the document information and a print preview of the inserted paper.

To achieve the above object, the document processing system of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a document processing system having a printing device and an information processing device directly or indirectly connected to the printing device, and storing document information including at least a chapter and information on pages included in the chapter. Document storage means, setting means for setting information on paper inserted between pages stored in the document storage means, paper information storage means for storing information on the paper set by the setting means, Based on the document information stored in the document storage unit and the information about the paper stored in the paper information storage unit, each page included in the document information and the inserted paper are printed by the printing device. And a display control unit that controls to display the print preview in this case.

To achieve the above object, the document processing method of the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, the document information is set by a setting step of setting information about a sheet inserted between pages stored in a document file that stores at least a chapter and information of pages included in the chapter, and the setting step. And a print preview of each page included in the document information and the inserted sheet based on the document information stored in the document file and the information about the sheet. And a display control step of controlling to display.

[0014]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[First Embodiment] <System Outline> An outline of a document processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In this document processing system, a data file created by a general application is converted into an electronic manuscript file by an electronic manuscript writer. The bookbinding application provides a function of editing the electronic manuscript file. The details will be described below.

<System Configuration and Operation> FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the software configuration of the document processing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

This document processing system is realized by the digital computer 100. The general application 101 is an application program that provides functions such as word processing, spreadsheet, photo retouching, drawing or painting, presentation, and text editing, and has a printing function.
These application programs are used by an operating system (OS) when printing application data such as created document data and image data.
Utilizes a predetermined interface provided by.
That is, the application 101 transmits an output command of a predetermined OS-dependent format to the output module of the OS that provides the interface in order to print the created data. The output module that receives this output command converts the command into a format that can be processed by an output device such as a printer, and outputs it. The format that can be processed by this output device differs depending on the type, maker, and model of the device, so a device driver is provided for each device, and the OS uses the device driver to convert commands. When using Windows (registered trademark) of Microsoft Corporation as this OS, for example, GDI (Graphic Device) is used as the above-mentioned output module.
Interface) corresponds to the module called.

The electronic manuscript writer 102 is a software module provided as one of the above-mentioned device drivers to realize the document processing system. However, the electronic manuscript writer 102 is not intended for a specific output device, and converts the output command into a format that can be processed by the bookbinding application 104 and the printer driver 106 described later. The format after conversion by the electronic document writer 102 (hereinafter referred to as "electronic document format") is not particularly limited as long as the document in page units can be expressed in a detailed format. Among substantial standard formats, for example, the PDF format by Adobe Systems, the SGML format, etc. can be adopted as the electronic manuscript format. Application 101
When the electronic original writer 102 is to be used according to the above, the electronic original writer 1 is used as a device driver used for output
Specify 02 before printing. However, the electronic original file created by the electronic original writer 102 does not have a complete format as an electronic original file. Therefore, it is the bookbinding application 104 that specifies the electronic manuscript writer 102 as a device driver, and under the control of the bookbinding application 104, conversion of application data into an electronic manuscript file is executed. Bookbinding application 1
04 completes the new incomplete electronic manuscript file generated by the electronic manuscript writer 102 as an electronic manuscript file having a format described later. Hereinafter, when it is necessary to clearly identify this point, the file created by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is referred to as an “electronic manuscript file”, and the electronic manuscript file having the structure given by the bookbinding application 104 is referred to as a “book”. File ".

In this way, the electronic original writer 102 is designated as the device driver, and the general application 101
The application data is converted into an electronic manuscript format in units of pages defined by the application 101 (hereinafter referred to as “logical page” or “manuscript page”) by printing the data by the It is stored in a storage medium such as a hard disk. The hard disk may be a local drive included in a computer that implements the document processing system according to the present embodiment, or a drive provided on a network when connected to the network. good.

The bookbinding application 104 provides the user with a function for reading the "electronic document file" or the "book file" 103 and editing it. However, the bookbinding application 104 does not provide a function of editing the content of each page, but a function of editing the structure of a chapter or a book, which will be described later and is configured with a page as a minimum unit.

When printing the book file 103 edited by the bookbinding application 104, the bookbinding application 104 causes the electronic original despooler 10 to print.
5 is activated. The electronic manuscript despooler 105 reads out a specified book file from the hard disk, generates an output command suitable for the output module of the OS described above in order to print each page in the format described in the book file, and outputs it. Output to the output module shown. At that time, the printer driver 106 for the printer 107 used as the output device is designated as the device driver. Then, the output module converts the output command received using the printer driver 106 of the designated printer 107 into a device command that can be interpreted and executed by the printer 107. Then, this device command is transmitted to the printer 107, and the printer 107 prints an image corresponding to the command.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the digital computer 100 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the CPU 201 is a ROM 2
A program such as the OS, general application 101, bookbinding application 104, etc. stored in the program ROM of No. 03 or loaded from the hard disk 211 to the RAM 202 is executed to realize the software configuration of FIG. 1 and the procedure of the flowchart described later. To do. The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, a work area, etc. of the CPU 201. Keyboard controller (KB
C) 205 controls key input from the keyboard 209 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 206 controls the display on the display unit 210. The display unit 210 is not limited to the CRT, and may be, for example, a liquid crystal or plasma. The disk controller (DKC) 207 is a hard disk (HD) that stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files described later, and the like.
211 or a floppy (registered trademark) disk (F
D) control access to etc. The PRTC 208 controls the exchange of signals with the connected printer 107. The NC 212 is connected to the network and executes a communication control process with another device connected to the network.

<Electronic Manuscript Data Format> Before referring to the details of the editing application 104, the data format of the above-mentioned “book file” will be described.

This book file has a three-layer structure imitating a paper medium book. The upper layer is called a “book” and imitates one book, and attributes relating to the book in general are defined. The intermediate layer below it corresponds to the chapter in the book and is also called the "chapter". For each “chapter”, attributes for each chapter can be defined. The lower layer is "page",
Corresponds to each page defined in the application program. You can define attributes for each "page". It should be noted that one “book” may include a plurality of “chapter”, and one “chapter” may include a plurality of “page”.

FIG. 3A is a diagram schematically showing an example of the format of a book file. In the book file of this example, “book”, “chapter”, and “page” are indicated by the corresponding nodes. One book file contains one "book". "Book", "Chapter"
Is a concept for defining a structure as a “book”, and thus includes the defined attribute value and a link to a lower layer as its entity. The “page” has data of each “page” output by the application program as an entity. Therefore, the “page” includes, in addition to its attribute value, the substance of the original page (original page data) and a link to each original page data. The print page when output to a paper medium or the like may include a plurality of original pages. This structure is not displayed by a link,
It is displayed as an attribute in each hierarchy of "book", "chapter", and "page".

In FIG. 3A, the book 301 includes
Book attributes are defined and two chapters 30
2A and 302B are linked. This link displays that chapters 302A and 302B are included in the book 301. Chapter 302A, page 303
Links A and 303B indicate that these pages are included. On each page 303A, 303B,
The attribute value of the page is defined, and links to the document page data (1) and (2), which are the entities, are included. These links point to the manuscript data (1) and (2) of the manuscript page data 304 shown in FIG. 3 (B),
It is displayed that the entities of the pages 303A and 303B are original page data (1) and (2).

Similarly, chapter 302B includes pages 303C,
303D is included, and links to original document page data (3) and (4) are included. These links point to the original data (3) and (4) of the original page data 304 shown in FIG.
C and 303D are the manuscript page data (3),
(4) is displayed.

FIG. 4 shows a book attribute 3 according to this embodiment.
It is a figure for explaining 01.

Here, the attribute value of the lower layer is preferentially adopted for the item which can be defined redundantly with the lower layer.
Therefore, for an item included only in the book attribute 301, the value defined by the book attribute 301 becomes a valid value throughout the book. However, items that overlap with the lower layer have the meaning as default values when they are not defined in the lower layer. Each illustrated item does not specifically correspond to one item but may include a plurality of related items.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining chapter attributes according to this embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining page attributes according to this embodiment. Here, the relationship between the chapter attribute and the page attribute is similar to the relationship between the book attribute and the lower layer attribute described above.

In FIG. 4, the items unique to the book attribute 301 are six items of "printing method", "bookbinding details", "cover / back cover", "index sheet", "interleaf", and "chapter break". Is. These items are the items defined throughout the book.

As the attribute of "printing method", three values of "single-sided printing", "double-sided printing", and "bookbinding printing" can be designated. Here, “bookbinding printing” is a method of printing in a format that enables bookbinding by bundling a separately specified number of sheets, folding the bundle in two, and binding the bundle. As the attribute of “bookbinding details”, when “bookbinding printing” is designated as the “printing method”, “spread direction”, “number of sheets to be bundled” and the like can be designated.

The attributes of "front cover / back cover" are designation of adding a sheet to be used as a front cover and a back cover when printing electronic document files that are collected as a book, and designation of print contents on the added sheet. including. The “index paper” attribute includes, as chapter breaks, specification of insertion of index paper with ears, which is separately prepared in the printing apparatus, and specification of print content on the index (ears) portion. This attribute is used when the printing device to be used has an inserter with an insert function that inserts the paper prepared separately from the printing paper at the desired position, or multiple paper cassettes can be used. Is valid if The same applies to the attribute of "interleaving paper". The attributes of "interleaving paper" include designation of insertion of paper supplied from an inserter or a paper feed cassette as a chapter break, and specification of a paper feed source when inserting interleaving paper. .

The "chapter break" attribute includes designation of whether to use a new paper, a new print page, or not to do anything at the chapter break. In “single-sided printing”, the use of a new sheet and the use of a new print page have the same meaning. At the time of "duplex printing", if "Use new paper" is specified, consecutive chapters will not be printed on one sheet of paper, but if "Use new print page" is specified, consecutive chapters will be printed. Can be printed on the front and back of a sheet of paper.

Next, as for the chapter attributes shown in FIG. 5, there are no items unique to the chapter, and all of them overlap with the book attributes. Therefore,
If the definition in the chapter attribute and the definition in the book attribute are different, the value defined in the chapter attribute takes precedence. The items common only to the above-mentioned book attribute and chapter attribute are five items of “paper size”, “paper direction”, “N-up print designation”, “enlargement / reduction”, and “paper ejection method”. Of these, "Nu
The attribute “p print designation” is an item for designating the number of original pages included in one print page. The layout that can be specified here is 1 × 1 or 1 × 2, 2 × 2, 3 × 3, 4 ×
There are 4 etc. The attribute of “paper ejection method” is an item for designating whether or not to perform the stapling process on the ejected paper, and the effectiveness of this attribute depends on whether or not the printing apparatus used has the stapling function. .

Next, in the page attributes shown in FIG. 6, items unique to this page attribute are "page rotation designation",
There are "zoom", "arrangement designation", "annotation", "page division", and the like. “Page rotation designation” is an item for designating a rotation angle when arranging a document page on a print page. The “zoom” attribute is an item for designating the scaling factor of a document page. This scaling factor is specified with the size of the virtual logical page area being 100%.
The virtual logical page area is an area occupied by one manuscript page when manuscript pages are arranged in accordance with designation of N-up or the like. For example, if it is 1 × 1, the virtual logical page area is an area corresponding to one print page, and if it is 1 × 2, each side of one print page is reduced to about 70%.

Attributes common to the "book", "chapter", and "page" described above include a "watermark" attribute and a "header / footer" attribute.
The “watermark” is an image, character string, or the like that is separately designated and is printed by being superimposed on the data created by the application. The "header / footer" is a watermark printed on the upper and lower margins of each page. However, in this "header / footer", items that can be specified by variables such as page number and date and time are prepared. The contents that can be specified in the "Watermark" attribute and "Header / Footer" attribute are "Chapter".
And "page" are common, but in "book" they are different. In the "book",
You can set the contents of "Watermark" and "Header / Footer", and you can specify how to print "Watermark" and "Header / Footer" throughout the book. On the other hand, in the “chapter” or “page”, it is only possible to specify whether or not to print the “watermark” or “header / footer” set in the book in the chapter or page.

<Book File Generation Procedure> The “book file”, which is an electronic manuscript file given a structure by the completed bookbinding application 104, has the structure and contents described above. Next, a procedure for creating a book file by the bookbinding application 104 and the electronic document writer 102 will be described. The creation of the book file is realized as a part of the book file editing operation by the bookbinding application 104.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for explaining a procedure for opening a book file by the bookbinding application 104 according to this embodiment.

First, in step S701, it is determined whether the book file to be opened is a new file to be created or an existing one. In the case of new creation, the process advances to step S702 to newly create a book file that does not include chapters. In the example shown in FIG. 3, this newly created book file is a book node having only the book node 301 and having no link to the chapter node. For the book attributes in this case, a set of attributes prepared in advance for new creation is applied. Then, in step S704, a user interface (UI) screen for editing the new book file is displayed.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a UI screen when a new book file is created. In this case, the book file has no substantial content, so
Nothing is displayed on the UI screen 1100.

On the other hand, if there is an existing book file in step S701, the flow advances to step S703 to open the designated book file and display the user interface (UI) screen according to the structure, attributes and contents of the book file.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the displayed UI screen.

The UI screen 1100 includes a tree portion 1101 showing the structure of a book and a preview portion 1102 displaying the printed state. In the tree part 1101,
The chapters included in the book and the pages included in each chapter are displayed in a tree structure as shown in FIG. A page number is displayed in the tree portion 1101 and this page number indicates the number of the manuscript page. Further, the preview portion 1102 displays the content of the print page in a reduced size. The display order reflects the structure of the book.

Now, to the opened book file, application data converted into an electronic manuscript file by the electronic manuscript writer 102 can be added as a new chapter. This function is called the "electronic manuscript import function". By importing this electronic manuscript into a book file newly created according to the procedure shown in the flow chart of FIG. 7, the book file is given a substance. This function is activated by dragging and dropping application data on the screen of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the procedure for importing an electronic document according to this embodiment.

First, the application program that has generated the designated application data is activated, and the electronic document writer 102 is designated as a device driver to print the application data, thereby converting the application data into electronic document data (step S801). When the conversion to the electronic document data is completed, the process proceeds to step S802, and it is determined whether the converted data is image data. Under the Windows OS, this determination can be performed based on the file extension of application data. For example, it can be determined that the extension is "bmp", which is Windows bitmap data, "jpg" is jpeg-compressed image data, and "tiff" is tiff format image data.

If the image data is not image data in step S802, the process proceeds to step S803, and the electronic document file generated in step S801 is added as a new chapter to the book of the currently open book file. In this case, as the chapter attribute, the value of the book attribute is copied for the one common to the book attribute, and the chapter attribute is set to the prescribed value prepared in advance for the other attributes.

If the image data is image data in step S802, the process proceeds to step S804, in principle, no new chapter is added, and each document included in the specified document is included in the electronic document file generated in step S801. Add a page. However, if the book file is a newly created file, a new chapter is created and each page of the electronic document file is added as a page belonging to that chapter. Here, the page attribute is given its attribute value if it is common to the attributes of the upper layer, and is given the value if it inherits the attributes defined in the application data to the electronic document file. For example,
If "N-up print designation" or the like is specified in the application data, the attribute value is inherited. In this way, a new book file is created or a new chapter is added.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure for generating an electronic document file by the electronic document writer 102 in step S801 of FIG.

First, in step S901, a new electronic manuscript file is created and opened. Next, step S902.
Then, the application corresponding to the designated application data is started, and the electronic original writer 102 is used as a device driver to transmit an output command to the output module of the OS. This output module
The received output command is converted into electronic document format data by an electronic document writer and output. Here, the output destination is the electronic document file opened in step S901. Next, in step S903, it is determined whether or not conversion of all the designated data is completed. If completed, the process advances to step S904 to close the electronic document file. The electronic manuscript file thus generated by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is as shown in FIG.
This is a file that contains the substance of manuscript page data.

<Editing Book File> As described above, a book file can be created from application data. With respect to the book file generated in this way, the following editing operations can be performed on chapters and pages. (1) Add new (2) Delete (3) Copy (4) Cut (5) Paste (6) Move (7) Change chapter name (8) Renumber page numbers (9) Insert cover page (10) Insert sheet Insert (11) Insert index paper (12) Page layout for each original page.

In addition to this, it is possible to perform an operation of canceling an editing operation that has been once performed, and an operation of redone the canceled operation. These editing functions allow you to combine multiple book files, rearrange chapters and pages in the book file, delete chapters and pages in the book file, change the layout of original pages, insert slip sheets and index sheets, etc. Operation becomes possible. When these operations are performed, the search result is reflected in the attributes shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 or the structure of the book file. For example, when a new blank page addition operation is performed, a blank page is inserted at the designated location. This blank page is treated as an original page. In addition, if the layout of the original page is changed, the changed contents are the printing method and N-up.
It is reflected in attributes such as print, front / back cover, index sheet, slip sheet, and chapter break.

<Output of Book File> The book file created and edited as described above is intended for print output. When the user selects a file menu from the UI screen 1100 of the bookbinding application shown in FIG. 10 and selects print from the file menu, printing is performed by the specified output device. At this time, first, the bookbinding application 1
A job ticket 04 is created from the currently open book file and is passed to the electronic document despooler 105. Accordingly, the electronic document despooler 105 converts the job ticket into an output command of the OS, for example, a GDI command of Windows, and converts it into an output module, for example, GDI.
Send to. The output module generates a command suitable for the output device by the designated printer driver 106 and sends the command to the output device.

Here, the job ticket is data having a structure in which the manuscript page is the minimum unit. The data structure of this job ticket defines the layout of the original page on the paper. One job ticket is issued for each job. Therefore, there is a document node at the top, and attributes of the entire document, such as double-sided printing / single-sided printing, are defined.
Below that, a paper node belongs and includes attributes such as the identifier of the paper to be used and the designation of the paper feed port in the printer. A node of a sheet to be printed on the paper belongs to each paper node. One sheet corresponds to one print sheet, and a print page (physical page) belongs to each sheet. For single-sided printing, one physical page belongs to one sheet, and for double-sided printing, two physical pages belong to one sheet.
An original page placed on each physical page belongs to each physical page. The layout of the manuscript page is included as the attribute of the physical page.

The electronic original despooler 105 converts the above-mentioned job ticket into an output command to the output module.

<Other System Configuration> The outline of the document processing system according to the present embodiment is as described above. Although this is a stand-alone type system, book files are created and edited with almost the same configuration and procedure in server and client systems that extend this system. However, the book file and print processing are managed by the server.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a server / client type document processing system according to this embodiment.

Client Document Processing System 1200
Includes a DOMS (Document Output Management Service) driver 109 and a DOMS print service module 11 which are client modules in a stand-alone system.
0, DS (Document Service) Client Module 10
It has a configuration in which 8 is added. The client document processing system 1200 includes a document management server 1201, a centralized print management server 1202, and a print server 1203.
Are connected. These servers are usually connected to the client document processing system 1200 by a network, but when the server simultaneously functions as a client, they are connected by interprocess communication simulating communication between networks. In addition, in FIG.
Document management server 1201 and centralized printing management server 1202
Both servers are connected to the client, but it is possible that only one of them is on the network. If the connected server is a document management server,
If the document management server client system 1201SC including the client module is the print centralized management server 1202, the print management server client system 1202SC including the client module is
Added to standalone document management system.

The document management server 1201 is a server for storing book files created / edited by the bookbinding application 104. This document management server 1201
When the book file is managed by the book file, the book file is stored in the database 1211 of the document management server 1201 instead of or in addition to the local HD of the client PC. Bookbinding application 10
4 and the document management server 1201 store and read the book file by the DS client 108 and the DS.
This is done via the core 1212.

The print centralized management server 1202 is a server for managing printing of book files stored in the client document management system 1200 or stored in the document management server 1201. The print request in the client is transmitted to the DOMSWG server module 1221 of the centralized print management server 1202 via the DOMS driver 109 and the DOMS print service module 110. When performing printing with the printer 107 of the client, the centralized print management server 1202 passes the electronic document data to the electronic document despooler 105 via the DOMS print service module 110 of the client. On the other hand, when printing by the print server 1203,
It is transmitted to the DOMS print service module 1231 of the print server 1203. Centralized print management server 12
02 performs a security check on the saved book file for the qualification of the user who issued the print request, and saves a log of the print processing. Thus, this word processing system
It can be realized as a stand-alone system or as a client-server system.

<Contents of Preview Display> As described above, when the book file is opened by the bookbinding application, the user interface screen 1100 shown in FIG. 10 is displayed. Here, an open book (hereinafter referred to as a “book of interest”) is included in the tree portion 1101.
A tree showing the structure of is displayed. Print preview part 1
In 102, three display methods are prepared according to the designation of the user. The first is the "original view mode" in which the original page is displayed as it is. In this "original view mode", the contents of the original pages belonging to the book of interest are reduced and displayed. In this case, the layout of the document is not reflected on the display of the preview unit 1102. Second
Is the "print view mode". In this "print view mode", the preview page 1102 displays the manuscript pages in a form in which the layout of each manuscript page is reflected.
The third is the "simple print view mode". In the "simple print view mode", the content of each original page is not reflected in the display of the preview portion 1102, but only its layout.

Before describing the features of the embodiment of the present invention, the configuration of the document processing system having the host computer 100 and the printer 107 applicable to the present embodiment will be described. The host computer 1
Since the configuration of 00 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 2 described above, common portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. Further, even if the printer 107 is a local printer connected to the client,
Alternatively, even in the case of the printer 1204 connected to the server, it is applicable in any case.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the document processing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that, as long as the function according to the present embodiment is executed, whether the device is a single device or a system including a plurality of devices, connection is performed via a network such as a LAN or WAN, and processing is performed. The present invention can be applied to a system that is performed. Incidentally, here, the host computer 10
Since the configuration of 0 is the same as that of FIG. 2 described above, the description thereof will be omitted.

The printer 107 is controlled by the CPU 12. This CPU 12 is a program R in the ROM 13
Control program stored in OM or external memory 1
An image signal as output information is output to the printing unit (printer engine) 17 connected to the system bus 15 based on a control program stored in the RAM 4 and loaded in the RAM 19. A control program for the CPU 12 is stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13. R
The font ROM of the OM13 stores the font data and the like used when generating the above output information.
The data ROM 13 stores information used by the host computer 100 in the case of a printer that is not provided with an external memory 14 such as a hard disk.

The CPU 12 is capable of performing communication processing with the host computer 100 via the input unit 18, and outputs information of the printer 107 and the like to the host computer 10.
0 can be notified. The RAM 19 is a RAM that functions as a main memory of the CPU 12, a work area, or the like, and is configured so that its memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 19 is used as an output information expansion area, environment data storage area, NVRAM, and the like. External memory 1 such as the hard disk (HD) and IC card described above
The access of the memory cell 4 is controlled by the memory controller (MC) 20. The external memory 14 is connected as an option and stores font data, emulation programs, form data and the like. Further, the operation panel 21 is provided with switches for operation, an LED display, and the like.

Further, the above-mentioned external memory 14 is not limited to one, but a plurality of external memories can be connected, and in addition to the built-in font, an option card and a plurality of external memories storing programs for interpreting printer control languages of different languages can be connected. It may be configured as follows. Furthermore, NVRAM not shown
The printer mode setting information from the operation panel 21 may be stored.

Here, it is assumed that the host computer 100 is equipped with the files, applications, despoolers, drivers, etc. described above with reference to FIG. Then, the application 101 displays an operation screen as shown in FIG. 10 on the display unit 210, for example. In addition to editing functions such as changing the page order of documents, copying (copying), and deleting, this application can also perform function settings on the printer 107, such as stapling and punching holes, and print using the specified printer. It is possible to

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a “paper insertion setting” window by the application 101 according to this embodiment. This window is displayed in the print menu of the edit menu on the application operation screen in FIG.
It is activated using the menu or the "insert paper setting" button (not shown) on the toolbar. This "paper insertion setting" window is a window for setting the type of index paper and the insertion method. In this window, [paper insertion setting] can be performed for each of four covers, index paper, slip sheet, and back cover. In FIG. 14, only “index paper setting” is designated and displayed. ing. In this index sheet setting operation, whether to print the chapter name on the tab of the index sheet is set according to the model number of the index sheet (“5 tab” in FIG. 14) and the check state of the check box 1400. be able to.

Further, FIG. 15 shows "cover, index sheet,
The state of setting all the slip sheets and the back cover is displayed.
Here, settings can be made for each of these front cover, index paper, slip sheet, and back cover.

As shown in FIG. 14, when only "index paper" is selected and the screen returns to the print preview screen display as shown in FIG. 14, each original page of the print preview 1102 shown in FIG. It is a figure explaining the state displayed in the state. The process for realizing this will be described later in detail.

In FIG. 16, index sheets 1600 and 1601 are inserted at the beginning of each chapter, and the print preview 11
02 is displayed. These index paper 160
Since each of 0 and 1601 is displayed with the tab attached to the index sheet, the page position where the index sheet is inserted can be seen at a glance. In addition, the tab position of the index sheet is set to the top index sheet 160.
Since it is arranged and displayed downward from 0 in order,
You can also see the shape of the index paper at a glance.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the data structure of a document file handled by the application 101 according to this embodiment. This document file corresponds to the electronic document file 103 in FIG. 1, and is stored in the external memory 211 in FIG. 13 here, for example, but may be stored in the database 1211 in the document management server 1201 in FIG. .

In FIG. 17, document structure information 701.
Records information about the structure of the document displayed in the tree view 1101 of the application operation screen shown in FIG. The detailed document setting information 702 is an area for recording information that can be set for the entire document. The chapter detailed setting information 703 is an area for recording information that can be set in each chapter. The detailed page setting information 704 is an area for recording information that can be set for each page. The manuscript information 705 stores drawing information of each manuscript page, and information used for display on the print preview 1102 on the right side of FIG. 10 is stored in page units. Note that this document file also contains other necessary information for each document, but a description thereof will be omitted here.

FIG. 18 shows detailed setting information 7 of the document shown in FIG.
It is a figure explaining the data structure of 02 in more detail.

Reference numeral 801 is document page setting information, 802 is document finishing information, 803 is document editing information, 804 is document feeding information, and 805 is index sheet information. These pieces of information are detailed document setting information. It is stored as 702. Further, when the index sheet is set using the operation screen shown in FIG. 14, the setting information is added to the index sheet information 805.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining the information stored in the index sheet information 805 of FIG. 18 in more detail.

In the figure, 901 is index sheet information for chapter 1, 902 is index sheet information for chapter 2, and so on.
905) is recorded in a continuous area. For example, in FIG.
As shown in, when the index sheet is set to be used, the index sheet is inserted at the beginning of each chapter, so that the index sheet information fields for the number of chapters are secured. It will be.

FIG. 20 shows detailed setting information 70 of the chapter shown in FIG.
3 is a diagram showing in further detail the data structure of FIG.

Here, detailed setting information (1001 to 1005) of each chapter from the first chapter to the last chapter is stored.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining the data structure of the detailed setting information (1001 to 1005) of each chapter shown in FIG.

In FIG. 21, reference numeral 2101 is chapter page setting information, 2102 is chapter finishing information, 2103 is chapter editing information, and 2104 is chapter feeding information. These pieces of information are detailed setting information of each chapter. It is stored.

FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining a case where detailed editing of the index sheet is performed after the “index sheet insertion setting” of FIG.

Here, all the index sheets (five sheets in the example of FIG. 22) are displayed on the editing screen in an overlapped state.
Here, the tab of the index sheet to be edited is designated using, for example, the mouse cursor designated by the mouse which is a pointing device, and by clicking the mouse, the designated index sheet is displayed on the first page. , The index sheet becomes editable. For example, in the initial screen shown on the left side of FIG. 22, since the index sheet of the first chapter is editable, the tab 22
The index sheet with the number 01 is active, and editing can be performed on this index sheet. Then, by clicking the tab 2205 in this state, as shown on the right side of FIG.
The index sheet (fifth sheet) to which is attached is displayed at the top, and editing on this index sheet becomes active. In this way, it is possible to edit the tabs of the index sheets that have become active and the contents of the index sheets.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing details of index sheet setting and preview display processing by the application 101 in the document processing system according to this embodiment.

In this application 101, if index paper is set in the in-disk paper insertion setting dialog (FIG. 14), the area for recording index information for the number of chapters included in the document is shown in FIG. It is secured as shown in.

Therefore, first, in step S2301, if the index sheet is set for the first time this time, the index sheet information 805 includes index sheet information for each chapter as many as the number of chapters (N) as shown in FIG. Area is reserved and the default value of index sheet information is written there. Next, by performing the editing operation of this index sheet, in step 2302, the information for obtaining the effective coordinates of the tab area of the index sheet is calculated. Here, as an example, the upper right coordinates (X0, Y0) of the index sheet, the X coordinate range (X1, X2) of the tab position with the coordinates (X0, Y0) as the origin, the height H of the index sheet, and the tab The height J of is calculated in advance.

Next, in step S2303 and thereafter, if any event occurs due to the editing operation by the user, the process corresponding to the event is performed. For example, as an event for selecting an index sheet to be edited, when the index sheet is clicked with a mouse as a pointing device, steps S2304 to S23 are performed.
In step 09, the coordinate value (XX, YY) clicked using the mouse cursor is obtained. Next, proceeding to step S2310, the coordinate value (X
X, YY) is the upper right coordinate value of the index paper (X0, Y0)
Is converted into a coordinate value (X, Y) with the origin as. Then, based on the converted coordinate values (X, Y), it is confirmed whether or not the effective coordinate range of the tab area is designated by the mouse.
Here, if each of the X and Y values of the converted coordinate values (X, Y) satisfies the conditions of X1 <X <X2, Y0 <Y <Y0 + H, the mouse cursor is used to select one of the indexes. Since the tab of the paper has been designated, the index sheet corresponding to the designated tab is obtained. Here, by obtaining the integer part of {(Y-Y0) / J}, the designated index sheet number can be obtained when the leading index sheet number is "0". That is, this number is the chapter number for the area for storing the editing information, that is, the storage area for the index sheet information shown in FIG.

If it is not a mouse event in step S2304, the flow advances to step S2305 to check whether a tab edit event has occurred. If a tab edit event has occurred, flow advances to step 2308 to enter a character string to be written in the tab of the index sheet. Switch to the edit screen to do. Then, the character string set using this screen is designated by the chapter number obtained in step 2310 (see FIG. 1).
9), it is stored as tab information.

If it is not a tab edit event in step S2305, the flow advances to step S2306 to check if an index paper edit event has occurred. If yes, the flow advances to step S2307 to switch to the index paper edit screen, and in step 2310. The information edited in step S2307 is stored as index sheet information in the area indicated by the obtained chapter number (FIG. 19).

Finally, when an edit end event occurs in step S2303, the flow advances to step S2311 to start a preview display process as shown in FIG. 16 based on the information edited by the above operation.

First, since the index sheet is always inserted at the beginning of the chapter, the preview image of the chapter 1 index sheet is displayed in the preview processing according to the chapter 1 index sheet information 901 shown in FIG. Then, using the detailed information of the chapter and the detailed information of the page of FIG. 20, all the pages of the first chapter are previewed. Continued 2
The preview display after chapters is performed in the same procedure. Figure 1
Based on the index sheet information 902 of Chapter 2 shown in 9, the index sheet corresponding to Chapter 2 is previewed, and then 2
All page previews included in a chapter are performed using the chapter detail settings and page detail settings of FIG.

The preview image processed by such a procedure is the print preview 1102 in FIG. 10 with index paper inserted at the beginning of each chapter, as shown in FIG.

FIG. 24 is a flow chart showing the processing for performing the print preview display as shown in FIG. 16 according to the present embodiment.

First, in step S2401, the document detailed setting information 702 of the document information shown in FIG. 17 is read, and in step S2402, index sheet information 805 (FIG. 18) included therein is taken out. Based on this information 805, it is checked whether index sheet information is set in the current chapter. If set, step S24
In step 04, the information on the index sheet of the chapter is taken out and a preview display of the index sheet is performed. On the other hand, in step S2403, when the index sheet information is not set in the chapter, or after the processing in step S2404 is completed, the process proceeds to step S2405, and each document is read based on the information of the document pages included in the chapter. Display a print preview of the page. When the preview display of all manuscript pages of the chapter is completed, the flow advances to step S2406 to check whether the chapter is the final chapter. If it is not the final chapter, the process returns to step S2402 again, the index sheet information 805 (FIG. 18) of the next chapter is taken out, and the same processing as described above is executed. When the print preview display processing of all the manuscript pages of all chapters of the document is completed in this way, the preview display processing is ended.

Even when the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (eg, host computer, interface device, reader, printer, etc.), a device composed of one device (eg, copying machine, facsimile device, etc.) ) May be applied.

Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) recording a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to supply a computer of the system or apparatus ( Alternatively, it can be achieved by the CPU or MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer is executed based on the instruction of the program code. This also includes a case where a part or all of the actual processing is performed and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, , The CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs some or all of the actual processing,
The case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the index sheet designated by the "paper insertion setting" at the beginning of each chapter is preview-displayed as an image in a display form that can be discriminated from the original page of the document. be able to. Also, the tab information of each index sheet can be edited / changed to any information. This allows you to insert an index sheet with arbitrary information at the beginning of each chapter of a document, and print out the entire document to see which part of the document and how the edited index sheet is inserted. You can check before you do.

[0101]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to create and edit a document in which data created by an application program desired by a user is collected, and the operability is enhanced to edit the document. Productivity can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect that information regarding a sheet to be inserted and printed at the time of printing, for example, index sheet can be displayed as a print preview.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a stand-alone document processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a host computer of the document processing system according to the present embodiment.

3A and 3B are diagrams showing an example of the structure of a book file according to the present embodiment, FIG. 3A is a diagram schematically showing an example of the format of a book file, and FIG. 3B is a structure of original data. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a book attribute according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of chapter attributes according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of page attributes according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for opening a book file according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for importing an electronic document file into a book file according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of converting application data into an electronic document file according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a user interface screen when an existing book file is opened.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a user interface screen when a new book file is opened.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a client-server type document processing system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining configurations of a host computer and a printer in the document processing system according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a user interface screen for setting insertion of index sheets according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a user interface screen for performing insertion settings of cover sheet + index sheet + interleaf sheet + back cover sheet according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which a preview display is performed by including an index sheet in a document page when the insertion setting of the index sheet according to the present embodiment is performed.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of a document file according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of document detailed setting information according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing information on index sheets for each chapter according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing detailed setting information of each chapter according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of page setting information of each chapter.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating a display example when editing tab information of index sheets.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing a process of controlling editing and preview display of index sheet information according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing a process of controlling a preview display including index sheets according to the present embodiment.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Shigeo Nara             3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo             Non non corporation F term (reference) 2C087 AA02 AB01 CA05 CB20                 5B009 NA14 QA13 QB12                 5B021 LE05 PP08

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A document storage unit that stores document information including at least a chapter and information about pages included in the chapter, and information about a sheet inserted between the pages stored in the document storage unit. Setting means, a sheet information storage means for storing information about the sheet set by the setting means, document information stored in the document storage means and information about the sheet stored in the sheet information storage means. And a display control unit that controls to display a print preview of each page included in the document information and the inserted sheet based on the document information. 2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper is a tabbed index paper. 3. The display control means displays each page included in the document information and a print preview of the inserted paper in print order.
The document processing device described in 1. 4. The document processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an editing unit that edits information printed on the index sheet and / or the tab. 5. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sheet is inserted for each chapter of the document information. 6. A document processing system having a printing device and an information processing device directly or indirectly connected to the printing device, the document information including at least a chapter and information on pages included in the chapter. A document storage unit that stores information about a sheet, a setting unit that sets information about a sheet inserted between pages stored in the document storage unit, and a sheet information storage that stores information about the sheet set by the setting unit. Means, and based on the document information stored in the document storage means and the information regarding the paper stored in the paper information storage means, each page included in the document information and the inserted paper are stored in the printing device. A document processing system, comprising: a display control unit that controls to display a print preview when printed. 7. The document processing system according to claim 6, wherein the paper is a tabbed index paper. 8. The display control means displays each page included in the document information and a print preview of the inserted paper in print order.
Document processing system described in. 9. The document processing system according to claim 7, further comprising an editing unit that edits information printed on the index sheet and / or the tab. 10. The paper according to claim 6, wherein the paper is inserted for each chapter of the document information.
Document processing system according to item. 11. A setting step of setting information about a sheet to be inserted between pages stored in a document file that stores document information including at least a chapter and information of pages included in the chapter, and the setting. A sheet information storage step of storing information about the sheet set in the step, and each page included in the document information and the inserted sheet based on the document information stored in the document file and the information about the sheet. And a display control step of controlling so as to display a print preview of the document. 12. The document processing method according to claim 11, wherein the paper is a tabbed index paper. 13. The display control step displays a print preview of each page included in the document information and the inserted paper in print order.
Alternatively, the document processing method according to item 12. 14. The document processing method according to claim 12, further comprising a step of editing information printed on the index sheet and / or the tab. 15. The document processing method according to claim 11, wherein the sheet is inserted for each chapter of the document information. 16. A computer-readable storage medium, which stores a program for executing the document processing method according to claim 11. Description: 17. A program for executing the document processing method according to any one of claims 11 to 15.