JP2005196305A - Document shaping device and electronic mail device equipped with its function - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that text layout collapses due to the insertion of a quotation mark when the return of an electronic mail is repeated. <P>SOLUTION: An original text being the object of shaping is inputted (S10), and the role of the character string is specified for each character string included in the original text (S12). Then, a character string included in the original text is reshaped according to the role (S18). Thus, it is possible to shape the text. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for shaping a document, and more particularly to a technique for reshaping sentences included in a document and an electronic mail apparatus equipped with the shaping technique.

  With the enhancement of the network environment, communication using e-mail for business and private use has become frequent. Generally, electronic mail is realized by transmitting and receiving text data between devices connected to a network using a common protocol such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and POP (Post Office Protocol). By using a common protocol, communication between various devices connected to the network is realized.

  There are various specifications of devices to be communicated, such as a desktop computer with a relatively large screen as a display means, and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) with a relatively small screen as a display means. There is also. For this reason, depending on the receiving device, the positions of paragraphs and line breaks may change, making it difficult to read.

Also, mailers are often equipped with a function that adds quotes to the original text when replying. For this reason, if a reply is repeated with respect to one e-mail, quotes are continued and a line break may occur at a portion not intended by the user. For these reasons, there is a technique for shaping and displaying text included in an e-mail (Patent Document 1).
JP-A-11-184775 JP-A-6-282565

  In these techniques, a line break inserted by the user and a line break unintended by the user are estimated, and a shaping process is performed by removing the line break unintended by the user. That is, the conventional shaping process shapes the sentence so as to return to the initial sentence layout. For example, since a quotation mark is added every time an electronic mail reply is overlapped, a shift occurs as long as the quotation mark is added. For this reason, even if it returns to the first sentence layout, the sentence layout will inevitably collapse.

  The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object thereof is to appropriately shape a sentence included in a document to improve visibility and improve user convenience.

  One embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for shaping a sentence included in a document. The document shaping device includes an input unit that accepts a sentence including a plurality of character strings, an analysis unit that identifies a role of each character string in the sentence based on the character string to be visualized, and a character string included in the sentence And a shaping unit that visualizes according to its role. According to this aspect, the role of each character string included in the sentence is specified, and the character string is visualized according to the role. For this reason, even when a given sentence is broken in the sentence layout, it can be appropriately shaped.

  The “role of character string” is an expression technique in a sentence structure such as a headline and a decoration line, and is an element constituting the sentence. “Visualization” is a form of expression that produces a visual effect to realize the role of a character string. For example, the character arrangement is changed, a specific character is added to the character string, or the character string is modified. It may be given.

  The analysis unit may specify the role of the character string based on whether the character string includes a feature corresponding to the predetermined role. “Characteristics according to a given role” has a visual effect to satisfy the role, for example, character placement, specific characters added to the beginning of the character string, combinations thereof, and relevance to previous and next lines And so on.

  The analysis unit may specify the mutual relationship between the character strings and group them for each character string related to each other. The shaping unit may visualize the character string included in the group so that it can be visually distinguished for each group. Thereby, the user can grasp | ascertain visually the mutual relationship of a character string.

  The input unit may receive the sentence as an e-mail, and the analysis unit may specify the role of the character string in the sentence for the sentence included in the body of the e-mail. As a result, the body text of the e-mail can be formatted, so that even when an e-mail is received in which the reply is repeated and the text layout is broken, the text can be easily viewed.

  The analysis unit may identify the mutual relationship based on the quotation marks included in the character string in the e-mail, and group each character string.

  The shaping unit removes all the character information related to the position adjustment of the character string from the character string, and adds the character information related to the position adjustment according to the role of the character string to visualize the character string. The arrangement may be adjusted. “Character information related to position adjustment” is information of a character that can adjust the position of a character string, such as a line feed code or a blank code. As a result, the sentence can be shaped regardless of the original sentence layout.

  The analysis unit may classify character strings including the same quotation marks as the same group, and the shaping unit may use the quotation marks added to the character strings belonging to the group for visualization of the group. . Thus, the user can check the e-mail in a general e-mail display format, and thus can use the apparatus without being aware of the shaping process.

  The apparatus further includes an analysis condition storage unit that holds analysis conditions for specifying the role of the character string based on characteristics according to a predetermined role, and the analysis unit analyzes each character string. The role of each character string may be specified by determining whether the conditions are met. Thereby, the role of the character string to be specified, that is, the constituent element of the sentence to be specified can be changed by changing the analysis condition. The analysis condition may be defined on the basis of characteristics in a natural sentence of a character string having a predetermined role. This eliminates the need for invisible information such as tags, and can be used in any device that handles natural sentences.

  The apparatus further includes a rule storage unit that holds a visualization rule that specifies a visualization method of a character string having a role corresponding to a role in which an analysis condition is defined, and the shaping unit has a role of each character string. Visualization may be performed based on a visualization rule corresponding to.

  Another aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for handling electronic mail. This device acquires a sentence including a plurality of character strings from a receiving unit that accepts an e-mail via a network and a body part of the e-mail, and changes the role of each character string in the character string to be visualized. An analysis unit that is identified based on the text, a character string included in the sentence is visualized according to its role, a shaping part that shapes the sentence, and a display processing unit that displays the shaped sentence as the body part of the email Prepare. According to this aspect, the text included in the text of the e-mail is shaped according to the role of the character string constituting the text.

  It should be noted that any combination of the above-described constituent elements, or the constituent elements and expressions of the present invention may be mutually replaced between methods, apparatuses, systems, computer programs, recording media storing computer programs, data structures, etc. This is effective as an embodiment of the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the visibility of the document contained in an email can be improved and a user's convenience can be improved.

  In the shaping process according to the embodiment, the role of each character string included in the sentence is specified in the sentence structure, and visualization is performed according to the role. By grasping the role of each character string in the sentence, for example, character arrangement and character modification suitable for the role can be performed, so that the sentence can be appropriately shaped.

  FIG. 1A is a diagram showing the text of the body part of the e-mail before the shaping process. The sentence before the shaping process is hereinafter referred to as “original sentence”. This original sentence includes three groups of a first group a, a second group b, and a third group c. Each group is grouped for each e-mail reply timing, the first group a shows the latest reply message, the second group b shows the second new reply message, and the third group c shows 3 Shows the new reply message. In general, an original quotation mark 32 is added to the beginning of a sentence in the body part of a previous electronic mail in an electronic mail reply sentence. By comparing the original quotation marks 32 for each line, it is determined at which timing the reply message is sent.

  In the first group a of the original sentences, the first heading line 10a and the second heading line 10b are listed, and the first heading explanation text 12a and the second heading explanation text 12b are directly under those heading lines. Is described. There is a line feed 26 intentionally added by the user (hereinafter simply referred to as “original line feed 26”) at the end of the character string. In the first heading line 10a and the second heading line 10b, a bullet mark 30 which is one of the bullet characteristics is added to the head part. Each item includes an ordinal number such as “(1)”, “1.”, “i” and the subsequent items. The bullet mark 30 is a character or symbol that may be added to each item of the bullet added at the beginning of such a bullet.

  In the second group b of original sentences, a first decorative line 14a, a first paragraph explanation 16a, and a second decorative line 14b are described. The first decorative row 14a and the second decorative row 14b serve as delimiters from preceding and following sentences such as “blank rows” and “lines with continuous symbols”. In the third group c, the second paragraph explanation 16b is described over three lines.

  As described above, the sentence is not only arranged with characters, but also includes a plurality of components that form the sentence such as the arrangement of characters and the notation method. Appropriate use of such components provides various effects such as making it easier to read, understanding the contents, and making effective sentences. That is, the character string constituting the sentence has a role in constituting the sentence. And according to the role, for example, it is bulleted, a line break is added, or a space is added to adjust the positional relationship with other character strings. The present inventor has paid attention to this point, and has determined to determine the role of the character string originally in the sentence and shape the sentence so as to maintain the role.

  FIG.1 (b) is a figure which shows the text after shaping the text of Fig.1 (a). The text after the shaping process is hereinafter referred to as “shaped text”. The formatted text is obtained by shaping the text in FIG. 1A so as to maintain the role of each character string in the original text. The formatted text has a first group A, a second group B, and a third group C corresponding to the first group a, the second group b, and the third group c of the original text. The first group A, the second group B, and the third group C are visually distinguished by the same formatted quotes 34 as the character strings belonging to the corresponding original sentence group.

  The first group A of formatted sentences includes a first heading line 20a and a second heading line 20b corresponding to the first heading line 10a and the second heading line 10b of the original sentence. The first heading line 20a and the second heading line 20b are visualized so as to maintain a role as a heading. The first heading line 20a and the second heading line 20b of the formatted text are collectively referred to as “heading line 20”. Further, the first group A includes a first finding explanation 22a and a second finding explanation 22b corresponding to the first finding explanation 12a and the second finding explanation 12b of the original sentence. Since the first finding explanation 12a and the second finding explanation 12b of the original sentence serve as explanations for the first heading line 10a and the second heading line 10b, respectively, the role is maintained even in the formatted text. Is visualized as follows. The first finding explanation 22a and the second finding explanation 22b of the formatted text are collectively referred to as “finding explanation 22”.

  Although there are various specific visualization methods, in this figure, the indentation space 36 of the formatted text is added with an indentation space 36 so as to align with the heading line 20, and is folded back by the number of characters of the folding line L. Yes. That is, the second headline description 22b is arranged so that it is clear that the headline row 20 is the description. Although details will be described later, in the shaping process according to the present embodiment, after specifying the role of each character string in the original sentence, the character string in the original sentence is changed from, for example, a line feed, a quotation mark, a space for indentation, etc. All character information related to the position adjustment is deleted. Then, according to the role of the character string, character information related to position adjustment is newly added as appropriate, and a formatted text is generated. The formatted line feed 28 indicates a new line newly added by the shaping process. The indentation space 36 indicates a blank newly added by the shaping process.

  The second group B of the formatted text corresponds to the first decorative line 14a, the first paragraph explanatory sentence 16a, and the second decorative line 14b of the original sentence, and the first decorative line 24a, the first paragraph explanatory sentence 25a, and A second decorative row 24b is included. The third group C of formatted text includes a second paragraph explanation 25b corresponding to the second paragraph explanation 16b of the original sentence. Since the first paragraph explanation 16a and the second paragraph explanation 16b of the original sentence have a role as a normal message, the first paragraph explanation 25a and the second paragraph explanation 25b have a role as a normal message. Visualized to maintain. The “normal message” is a character string that is the center of the sentence, and matches the characteristics of the pre-registered character string as a predetermined role to be detected from the original sentence such as “headline” and “decorative line”, for example. Not defined as a string. The first paragraph explanation 25a and the second paragraph explanation 25b of the formatted sentence are collectively referred to as “paragraph explanation 25”.

  In this figure, the paragraph explanation 25 is indented by one character at the beginning of the line and is folded back by the number of characters of the folding line L. When comparing the first paragraph explanation 16a of the original sentence and the first paragraph explanation 25a of the formatted sentence, the first paragraph explanation 16a is not indented, but is indented in the first paragraph explanation 25a. I understand that. This is realized by deleting all the character information related to the position adjustment from the original sentence and appropriately adding the character information related to the position information according to the role of the character string. Thus, by newly adding the character information related to the position information according to the role of the character string, it is possible to visualize according to the role of the character string. Thereby, for example, even when the arrangement of each character string in the original sentence is changed by adding a quotation mark, each character string is visualized according to the role, and the entire sentence is appropriately shaped. In addition, since all character information related to position adjustment is deleted from the original sentence and reshaped according to the role of the character string, the user's subjectivity is removed and the character is shaped based on an objective standard. As a result, the formatted text may be formatted more clearly than the original text.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the shaping process according to the embodiment. First, an original sentence to be shaped is input (S10). Next, the sentence structure of the inputted sentence is analyzed, and the role in the sentence for each character string is specified (S12). In the present embodiment, when analyzing the sentence structure, not only the role of the character string in the sentence is specified, but also the mutual relationship between a plurality of character strings is specified, and the related character strings are grouped together. Therefore, step 12 includes a step (S14) of grouping character strings in the sentence for each related character string, and a step (S16) of identifying the constituent elements of the sentence, that is, specifying the role of the character string. . Thereafter, the character string in the original sentence is reshaped based on the role of the character string and the group to which the character string belongs (S18). Then, the formatted document is output (S20).

  The sentence can be shaped by causing the computer to execute the procedure of the shaping process. A program for causing a computer to execute this series of procedures may be used alone, or may be used by being incorporated in various programs that handle sentences. The programs to be incorporated include, for example, a program for realizing a device for sending and receiving e-mail, a program for realizing chat, a program for realizing a bulletin board, a program for realizing a word processor, etc. It may be a program for realizing an apparatus for handling text on a computer. Hereinafter, a case where the above-described shaping process procedure is incorporated in a program for realizing a device for transmitting and receiving an electronic mail by a computer will be described as an example.

  FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an electronic mail apparatus 50 having a shaping processing function according to the embodiment. In terms of hardware components, each component of the electronic mail device 50 is a CPU, a memory, a program that realizes the components of this figure loaded in the memory, and a storage unit such as a hard disk that stores the program. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that there are various modifications in the implementation method and apparatus. Each figure to be described below shows functional unit blocks, not hardware unit configurations.

  The receiving unit 52 receives an e-mail via a network. The e-mail storage unit 54 stores the e-mail. The selection unit 56 selects an e-mail from the e-mail storage unit 54 according to a user instruction, for example, and outputs it to the creation unit 58 or the shaping processing unit 100.

  The shaping processing unit 100 performs the above-described shaping processing on the original text included in the body of the email received from the selection unit 56 and outputs the shaped text to the display processing unit 62. The shaping processing unit 100 also outputs the formatted text to the creation unit 58 as a reply e-mail template. Of course, in another example, the creation unit 58 does not need to output the formatted text to the creation unit 58, and determines whether to output the formatted text to the creation unit 58 according to a user instruction. Also good. How to use the formatted text is arbitrary.

  The display processing unit 62 outputs the email subjected to the shaping process to the display unit. The creation unit 58 accepts input of text from the user and creates an e-mail. The creation unit 58 may newly generate an e-mail, or may create it based on a reply template supplied from the shaping processing unit 100. The creation unit 58 may create either new or reply e-mails. In short, the creation unit 58 may create an email to be transmitted from the transmission unit 60. The transmission unit 60 outputs the electronic mail supplied from the creation unit 58 toward the network.

  FIG. 4 is an internal configuration diagram of the shaping processing unit 100 of FIG. The accepting unit 102 accepts an email from the selection unit 56 and outputs the email to the analysis unit 104. The analysis unit 104 performs an analysis corresponding to step 12 in FIG. 2 on the original text included in the body part of the received electronic mail. The analysis unit 104 analyzes the original sentence for each line, that is, for each character string delimited by a line feed code. Hereinafter, one line of the original sentence is referred to as a “line character string”, and a group of a plurality of characters is referred to as a character string when it is not particularly necessary to identify the line as a line character string.

  The analysis unit 104 separates all line character strings included in the original sentence into a bullet part and a sentence part. The “bullet character part” is a character string that includes a quotation mark at the beginning of the line, a space, and a space character with indentation, and is automatically added by the mailer when replying to an e-mail. The “text part” is a remaining character string obtained by removing the beginning character string and the line feed code from the line character string. The analysis unit 104 groups line character strings having the same initial character part as a group. In general, each time a reply is repeated, one quotation mark is added, so it can be determined that the beginning of a letter portion is a character string created at the same timing.

  Moreover, the analysis part 104 specifies the role of the character string contained in a text part. The analysis unit 104 includes basic features (hereinafter simply referred to as “basic features”) that should be included in a character string having a predetermined role in order to specify the role of the character string included in the sentence portion. Check if it is in a string. When the character string included in the sentence part matches the basic feature, the analysis unit 104 determines that the character string has a role corresponding to the basic feature.

  The analysis condition storage unit 106 holds feature information related to basic features used for specifying the role of the character string in association with the role of the character string. For example, the characteristic information of the character string having the role of “heading line” is “including bullet mark, chapter number, etc. at the beginning of the sentence part”. The characteristic information of the character string having the role of “decoration line” is “the sentence part is blank or specific characters are continuous”. The character string characteristic information having the role of “headline explanation” is “most immediately after the headline line, that is, in the next line”. In the present embodiment, the character strings included in the original text are classified into four roles of “headline”, “decorative”, “headline”, and “normal message”. That is, the character string included in the original sentence is divided into four components. For this reason, the characteristic information of the character string having the role of “ordinary message” is “not applicable to any headline, decorative line, or headline description”.

  The analysis unit 104 refers to the analysis conditions held in the analysis condition storage unit 106 and identifies the role of the text part. The analysis unit 104 associates groups and roles for each line character string, and stores them in the sentence structure storage unit 108 as sentence structure information. Further, the analysis unit 104 stores the character string of the bullet character part used for the group discrimination in the text data storage unit 110 for each group, and further stores the text part for each line character string in the text data storage unit 110. . As a result, for example, the sentence structure information, the character string of the initial character part, and the character string of the sentence part in each line character string can be specified by using the information specifying the line character string as a key.

  In another example, each time the analysis unit 104 specifies the role of the character string, a tag specifying the role is added before and after the character string, and the sentence structure information and the character string of the sentence part are stored in the same file. You may make it store in. There are various methods for storing the sentence structure information, the bullet character part, and the character string of the sentence part, which are analysis results in the analysis unit 104, and an appropriate method can be taken according to the coding of the program. That is, the analysis part 104 should just perform a storage process so that the text structure information for every line character string, a bullet part, and a text part can be referred.

  The shaping unit 112 shapes the character string of the text part held in the text data storage unit 110 with reference to the text structure storage unit 108 and the shaping rule storage unit 116 to generate a formatted text. The shaping rule storage unit 116 defines a rule for visualization for each predetermined role, that is, for each component. For example, the formatting rule of “headline” is defined as “output a character string held in the corresponding sentence part and insert line breaks before and after the output character string”. The formatting rules for “decorative lines” are: “If a blank is retained in the corresponding text part, that is, if it is a blank decorated line, a line break is output, and if a non-blank character string is retained, that is, a blank ornament. If the line is not a line, the character string is output, and line breaks are inserted before and after the character string. The formatting rule for “headline description” is defined as “indentation of bullets in line with bullets or chapter numbers in the headline”. The formatting rule for “normal message” is defined as “wrapping when the number of characters per line reaches a predetermined number. Output according to word wrapping permission / prohibition processing”.

  The shaping unit 112 adds information for identifying a group to the head part of each line of the shaped document, and subsequently adds a character string of the text part according to the shaping rule. The information specifying the group may be a bullet character string associated with each group, for example, or may be another character string. In short, the shaping unit 112 may add a character string so that the groups can be visually distinguished. The shaping unit 112 outputs the newly generated formatted text to the output unit 114. The output unit 114 outputs the formatted text to the creation unit 58 or the display processing unit 62.

  When the processing of the analysis unit 104 and the shaping unit 112 is programmed, the analysis condition storage unit 106 and the shaping rule storage unit 116 are coded as a series of processing procedures. That is, the analysis condition storage unit 106 that holds the analysis conditions is not prepared separately, but may be expressed as a program code. Further, the above-described forms of the analysis conditions and the shaping rules are not all, but it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, for example, the analysis conditions for specifying the role of the character string are made more accurate.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of a process of separating the line character string into a bullet part and a sentence part in the analysis unit 104 of FIG. When the analysis unit 104 receives an e-mail from the reception unit 102 of FIG. 4, the analysis unit 104 reads one line of the original text in the body of the e-mail (S50) and determines whether all of the original text has been read (S52). ). When this process is started, the analysis unit 104 starts reading from the first line of the original sentence and repeats the same separation process until the last line is reached. In step 52, for example, whether or not it is the last line is determined based on whether or not the read line includes an EOF indicating the end of the file.

  If it is the last line (Y in S52), the process is terminated. If it is not the last line (N in S52), the analysis unit 104 deletes the line feed code included in the line character string (S54). Next, the analysis unit 104 separates the line character string into a bullet part and a sentence part (S56). For example, in this separation process, the presence or absence of a character (hereinafter simply referred to as “candidate character”) preset as a character constituting a bullet character string such as a quotation mark or a blank is determined in order from the top of the line character string, When there are no candidate characters, a character string up to that point may be used as a bullet character string, that is, a bullet character part. A character string obtained by removing the initial character string from the line character string may be used as the sentence part.

  The analysis unit 104 determines whether the bullet character part of the line character string processed immediately before matches the bullet character part of the currently processed line character string (S58). If they do not match (N in S58), the analysis unit 104 generates a new group (S60), and a bullet character string is associated with the group as an attribute. In step 58, when the bullet part matches (Y of S58), the analysis part 104 adds to the arrangement | sequence of the text part of the present group (S62). This process is repeated for all lines of the original sentence.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of processing for specifying a role for each character string in the analysis unit 104 of FIG. The analysis unit 104 acquires sentence parts one by one from the array of document parts for each group (S70), and determines whether all the sentence parts have been read (S72). When all the text parts are read (Y of S72), the analysis part 104 complete | finishes a process. When all the text parts are not read (N of S72), the analysis part 104 performs the process which identifies the role of a character string, ie, the process which identifies the component in a text (S74). Then, the analysis unit 104 registers the identified element as an attribute (S90). Then, the process returns to step 70, and the process is continued until the text parts of all groups are read. That is, the text structure information described with reference to FIG. 4 is generated by this series of processes, and is stored in the text structure storage unit 108 of FIG.

  The process of identifying the character string element in step 74 reflects the analysis conditions described in relation to the analysis condition storage unit 106 in FIG. 4 in the program. First, the analysis unit 104 determines whether or not the head of the sentence part is a bullet character (S76). In the case of a bulleted character (Y of S76), the analysis part 104 identifies as a heading line (S84). If it is not a bullet character in step 76 (N in S76), it is determined whether the sentence portion is empty or the same character is continuous (S78). When the sentence part is empty or the same character is continuous (Y in S78), the analysis part 104 identifies it as a decorative line (S86). If the sentence part is empty or the same character is not continuous in step 78 (N of S78), the analysis part 104 determines whether or not the immediately preceding sentence part is a heading line (S80). In the case of a heading line (Y in S80), the analysis unit 104 identifies it as a heading explanation line (S88). When it is not a heading line in step 80 (N of S80), the analysis part 104 identifies as a normal message (S82). The role of the character string thus identified is registered as an attribute in step 90.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of the shaping process in the shaping unit 112 of FIG. The shaping unit 112 reads the sentence part and sentence structure information for each group (S90), and determines whether or not all the sentence parts have been read (S92). If all the text parts have been read (Y in S92), the process is terminated. When all the text parts are not read (N in S92), the shaping part 112 outputs a bullet character string for visually distinguishing the groups (S94). And the shaping part 112 performs the shaping process according to the attribute of a text part, ie, the role of a character string (S96). By performing this for all the sentence parts, a formatted sentence is generated.

  The shaping process in step 96 is a flowchart of the process based on the shaping rule associated with each role of the character string described with reference to FIG. In this process, the shaping unit 112 first determines whether the attribute of the text part is a heading line (S98). In the case of a heading line (Y in S98), the shaping unit 112 adds line breaks before and after the text part and outputs it to the buffer (S104). In step 98, when it is not a heading line (N of S98), the shaping part 112 determines whether the attribute of a text part is a heading description line (S100). In the case of a headline explanation line (Y in S100), the shaping unit 112 adds a blank to the previous headline line to adjust the indentation of the headline and outputs it to the buffer (S106). In step 100, when it is not a headline explanation line (N of S100), the shaping part 112 determines whether the attribute of a text part is a decoration line (S102). In the case of a decorative line (Y in S102), the shaping unit 112 adds a line break before and after the text part and outputs it to the buffer (S108). If it is not a decoration line in step 102 (N in S102), the shaping unit 112 determines that the message is a normal message, and outputs the text part to the buffer as it is (S110). Then, the shaping unit 112 wraps and outputs the character string in the buffer according to the number of characters per line, word wrap, prohibition processing, and the like (S112).

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to each component and combination of processing processes, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1A is a diagram showing the text of the body part of the e-mail before the formatting process, and FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the text after the text of FIG. 1A is formatted. is there. It is a flowchart of the shaping process which concerns on embodiment. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail apparatus which has the shaping process function which concerns on embodiment. It is an internal block diagram of the shaping process part of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the flowchart of the process which isolate | separates the line character string in the analysis part of FIG. 4 into a bullet part and a text part. It is a figure which shows an example of the flowchart of the process which specifies the role for every character string in the analysis part of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the flowchart of the shaping process in the shaping part of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  50 e-mail device, 52 receiving unit, 54 e-mail storage unit, 56 selection unit, 58 creation unit, 60 transmission unit, 62 display processing unit, 100 shaping processing unit, 102 reception unit, 104 analysis unit, 106 analysis condition storage unit , 108 sentence structure storage unit, 110 sentence data storage unit, 112 shaping unit, 114 output unit, 116 shaping rule storage unit.

Claims (12)

An input unit that accepts sentences including a plurality of character strings;
An analysis unit that identifies the role of each character string in the sentence based on the character string to be visualized;
A shaping unit that visualizes a character string included in the sentence according to its role;
A document shaping apparatus comprising:   The document shaping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analysis unit identifies a role of the character string based on whether or not a feature corresponding to a predetermined role is included in the character string.   3. The document shaping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the analysis unit identifies a mutual relationship between the character strings and groups the character strings in relation to each other.   The document shaping apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the shaping unit visualizes a character string included in the group so that the character string can be visually distinguished for each group. The input unit accepts the sentence as an email,
5. The document shaping apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the analysis unit specifies a role of a character string in the sentence included in the body of the electronic mail.   6. The document formatting apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the analysis unit specifies the correlation based on quotation marks included in a character string in the electronic mail, and groups each character string. .   The shaping unit removes all the character information related to the position adjustment of the character string from the character string, and newly adds the character information related to the position adjustment according to the role of the character string to visualize the character string The document shaping apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement when adjusted is adjusted. The analysis unit separates character strings including the same quotation marks into the same group,
The document shaping apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the shaping unit uses a quote added to a character string belonging to the group for visualization of the group. Based on the characteristics according to the predetermined role, further comprising an analysis condition storage unit that holds an analysis condition for specifying the role of the character string,
The analysis unit determines a role of each character string by determining whether or not the analysis condition is suitable for each character string. The document shaping device described in 1.   The document shaping apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the analysis condition is defined based on a characteristic of the character string having the predetermined role in a natural sentence.   Corresponding to the role in which the analysis condition is defined, it further includes a rule storage unit that holds a visualization rule that specifies a visualization method of the character string having the role, and the shaping unit corresponds to the role of each character string. The document shaping apparatus according to claim 9, wherein visualization is performed based on a visualization rule to be performed. A receiving unit that accepts e-mail over the network;
An analysis unit that obtains a sentence including a plurality of character strings from the body part of the email, and identifies the role of each character string in the sentence based on the character string to be visualized,
A character string included in the sentence is visualized according to its role, and a shaping unit that shapes the sentence;
A display processor that displays the formatted text as the body part of the email;
An electronic mail apparatus comprising:

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