JP2006065548A - Document management device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document management device capable of improving convenience. <P>SOLUTION: The document management device stores additional information which is added to a document by a user in an additional information file different from the file of the document. The document management device, in presenting a file image object representing the file of the document, presents an image indicating information related to the additional information file as well as the file image object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a document management apparatus capable of associating additional information with a document.

  In recent years, GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) are becoming indispensable also in apparatuses that manage documents. In such an apparatus, a process similar to a process for displaying a file system using a GUI, such as windows (registered trademark) or MacOS (trademark), is employed. Specifically, an image object (file image object) representing a file is displayed for each registered document, and if there is a classification (directory), an image object such as a folder representing the directory or a binder is displayed. .

  When an image object such as a folder is subjected to a predetermined operation (for example, placing the mouse cursor on the image object and double-clicking the mouse button) meaning to open the folder, the folder is classified in the directory. A list of document file image objects will be displayed.

On the other hand, there is a document management apparatus that displays the contents of a document and associates additional information such as so-called annotation with the document. In such a method of associating additional information, there is a technique for storing additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file in order to facilitate document management in the document management apparatus. It has been developed (Patent Document 1).
JP 11-25077 A

  However, in the device disclosed in the above-mentioned conventional patent document 1, it is not known whether or not additional information is added to the document just by looking at the file image object of the document on the GUI screen. It is damaged. Further, if the document and the additional information are made separate files, the update date / time of the document itself remains the same as that at the time of registration. Therefore, it becomes impossible to determine whether the additional information has been added based on the update date / time.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a document management apparatus capable of improving convenience.

  The present invention for solving the problems of the conventional example described above is a document management apparatus for storing additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file. When a file image object representing a file is presented, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object.

  Here, in the additional information file, additional information, information for specifying a document to which the additional information is added, and information for specifying the user who added the additional information may be stored in association with each other. . Further, for each document, it is checked whether or not a predetermined timing condition is satisfied. For a document that satisfies the predetermined timing condition, additional information added to the document is acquired, and the document is stored in the document file. The acquired additional information may be additionally written.

  Furthermore, the information related to the additional information file may include at least one of the number of users who added the additional information, the number of additional information, and the date and time when the additional information was added.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a document management apparatus that holds additional information added by a user to a document. When presenting a file image object representing a file of the document, the file image object An image representing information related to the additional information file is presented.

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a document management apparatus that stores additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file, and represents the document file. When presenting a file image object, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object.

  Furthermore, a program according to another aspect of the present invention provides a file image representing a document file in a document management apparatus that stores additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file. When presenting an object, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the document management apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a communication unit 13. The document management apparatus 1 is connected to a plurality of user side apparatuses 2 via a network.

  The control unit 11 can be realized by a CPU or the like, and operates according to a program stored in the storage unit 12. Specifically, in the present embodiment, the control unit 11 receives additional information for a document, records additional information (additional information recording processing), and a file image object representing a document file as a user side device. The GUI processing presented in 2 is basically executed. Specific contents of the processing of the control unit 11 will be described in detail later.

  The storage unit 12 includes a storage element such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a computer-readable recording medium such as a hard disk. The storage unit 12 holds a program executed by the control unit 11. The storage unit 12 also operates as a work memory that holds various data necessary in the process of the control unit 11. Further, in the present embodiment, the storage unit 12 stores a document and additional information added to the document.

  The communication unit 13 is a network card or the like, and transmits data via the network in accordance with an instruction input from the control unit 11. The communication unit 13 receives data that arrives via the network and outputs the data to the control unit 11.

  The user side device 2 is a general personal computer and operates based on the user side program of the present embodiment. This user-side program basically has a process for causing the user-side device 2 to access the document management device 1 to acquire and display document data, a process for transmitting additional information for a document, In addition, various processes such as a process for receiving and displaying information representing a list of documents are performed. Specifically, these processes of the user device 2 may be performed using a web browser or the like.

  Here, specific processing contents of the control unit 11 of the document management apparatus 1 will be described. Note that the document according to the present embodiment is, for example, PDF (Portable Document Format) or the like, and for example, annotation information (annotation) can be set as additional information together with document data. Further, this document is generated by the user side device 2, for example. Then, the generated document is received from the user side device 2, and the control unit 11 stores it in the storage unit 12.

  Further, when storing the document in the storage unit 12, the control unit 11 may set the review period information for each document according to an instruction received from the user side device 2. This review period information is, for example, information indicating when the review period expires, and is stored and retained in the storage unit 12 in association with information for specifying a document. By providing the review period in this way, it is possible to separate processing in a period in which additional information may be frequently received from a plurality of users and processing in a subsequent period.

  Further, when the control unit 11 accepts an instruction to display the content of the document from the user side device 2, the control unit 11 reads the instructed document from the storage unit 12 and sends the content of the document to the requesting user side device 2. To send. Also, an instruction to add annotation information (annotation), for example, as additional information on the displayed document is accepted from the user side device 2. Since the document display process and the process for accepting additional information are widely known, a detailed description thereof is omitted here. Further, when displaying the document, the control unit 11 displays the additional information if there is additional information related to the document. This additional information display process will be described later.

  One characteristic of the present embodiment is that a review period can be set for each document, and additional information is held as a separate file from the document while the document is in the review period. It is. That is, when the additional information is input, the control unit 11 refers to a calendar or a clock (not shown) and relates to the document being displayed (target to which the additional information is added) and stored in the storage unit 12. Check if it is within the period. Then, after the review period has elapsed, the control unit 11 performs processing for including annotation information (annotation) inside the document, and updates the document data stored in the storage unit 12.

  If the document review period has not yet elapsed (if it is within the review period), the control unit 11 generates a file including the input additional information (additional information file) and stores it in the storage unit 12. . Specifically, this additional information file is generated for each document and for each user. The additional information file is associated with attribute information including information specifying the user who added the additional information and the document to which the additional information is added. Here, the attribute information may be a file name of the additional information file, or a separate attribute information database may be generated, and the attribute information may be stored in association with information specifying the additional information file.

  When a user adds a plurality of additional information, the additional information file corresponding to the user holds a plurality of additional information as shown in FIG. Here, in each additional information, additional information such as coordinate information indicating a position where the additional information is displayed, information necessary for display such as the content of the additional information, and information on the date and time when the additional information is added is managed. Information (management information) may be included.

  Further, in the present embodiment, this additional information file is stored in the same classification (directory) as the document to be added or a subdirectory (directory in a lower hierarchy) of the directory including the document to be added.

  In the present embodiment, the additional information is held in this way, and therefore, when the additional information is displayed, the content of the process changes depending on whether or not the document review period has elapsed. Specifically, when the document review period has not elapsed, the control unit 11 includes additional information in which the document being displayed is identified by the attribute information among the additional information files stored in the storage unit 12. Search for a file. The control unit 11 displays additional information based on the contents of the additional information file found as a result of this search. When the document review period has elapsed, in addition to this processing, additional information included in the document is also displayed. This additional information display method is the same as, for example, the processing for displaying the annotation information in PDF, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  When the control unit 11 receives an instruction from the user side device 2 to present a list of documents in the specified directory, the control unit 11 executes the following process. First, a list of document file names is generated from the specified directory. Then, an image in which file image objects corresponding to each document included in the list are arranged is generated (FIG. 2A). Here, a character string describing the file name of the corresponding document is arranged in the vicinity of each file image object (P).

  Here, the file image object may be a predetermined icon image, or may be a thumbnail image generated for each document (a reduced display image of the document).

  The control unit 11 checks the presence / absence of additional information for each document included in the list. Specifically, a counter representing the number of additional information for each document is set in the storage unit 12 and is initialized to “0”. Then, while referring to the attribute information of each additional information file, the count value of the document specified by the attribute information is incremented. The control unit 11 displays a composite image (FIG. 2B) obtained by superimposing a number (R) representing the value of the count result as information related to the additional information file on the file image object corresponding to each document. Generate. Here, the number can be, for example, a white number inside a circle filled with red. When the count value is “0”, it is not necessary to superimpose numbers.

  The control unit 11 distributes the generated composite image to the user side device 2 that has requested the list. Then, the user side device 2 displays this composite image. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) indicating a display request for the corresponding document may be set for each area of each file image object included in the composite image. This setting can be realized by using a clickable map in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).

  As a result, the user-side device 2 displays the number of additional information files in association with the file image object representing each document. The user device 2 can respond by simply viewing the file image object of the document on the GUI screen. It becomes possible to understand whether or not additional information is added to the document to be processed. Here, since the additional information file is generated for each user, the number of additional information files corresponds to the number of users to which the additional information is added.

  Further, the method of incrementing the count may be changed as follows. That is, the attribute information of each additional information file is referred to, and the count value of the document specified by the attribute information is increased by the number of additional information included in the additional information file. According to this, information on the number of additional information is provided as information related to the additional information file. When the date and time information is associated with each additional information and stored, the control unit 11 stores character string information representing the latest one among the date and time (date and time of the additional information added last). A composite image may be generated by superimposing it on an image object or combining it in the vicinity thereof. According to this, information on the date and time when the additional information is added as information related to the additional information file is provided.

  Furthermore, the control unit 11 according to the present embodiment may acquire information indicating the date and time when the document was previously displayed (previous access date and time) for each user and store the information in the storage unit 12. Then, using the information of the previous access date and time, the additional information included in the additional information file is the latest information on the date and time when the additional information is added (added last). The count value may be incremented when the date / time of the additional information is later than the previous access date / time. The number of additional information added after the previous access date may be added to the count value by referring to the information on the date and time when the additional information was added.

  In this way, for each user, the number of additional information added from the previous access to the current access and the number of users added with the additional information can be grasped on the GUI screen.

  Furthermore, the control unit 11 according to the present embodiment reads out additional information from the additional information file including the additional information when there is additional information related to the document for the document whose review period has elapsed, You may make it take in.

  Specifically, the control unit 11 performs the following process at predetermined timings, for example, periodically. That is, for each document stored in the storage unit 12, a flag indicating whether or not the capture process is completed is recorded in association with each other, and a review period ( It is checked whether or not a predetermined timing according to the present invention has elapsed. That is, with reference to the information of the review period, when the review period has passed as compared with the date and time at the time of processing, the capturing process is performed.

  Here, the import process includes the additional information file stored in the storage unit 12 whose attribute information includes information specifying the document to be processed in the additional information file. Read additional information and add it to the document data. At this time, the control unit 11 may delete the additional information file from which the additional information is read.

  When this processing is completed, the control unit 11 rewrites the flag associated with the document to indicate that the capture processing has been completed.

  As described above, regarding the document after the review period has elapsed, the additional information is included in the document data, thereby simplifying the display process of the additional information when the document is displayed. In addition, before the review period has elapsed, convenience is improved by holding the additional information as a separate file so that many users can write additional information all at once.

  Even when the additional information is included in the document data, the information about the additional information in the document data is totaled, and a character string or an image representing the result of the totaling is superimposed on the file image object related to the document. A composite image may be generated and the composite image may be transmitted to the user side device 2. The totaling here also counts, for example, the number of additional information and the number of users who have added additional information (in this case, information that identifies the user who added the additional information to each additional information is included). Can be done.

  According to the document management apparatus of the present embodiment, the document X created by the first user A is received from the user-side apparatus 2 of the user A and stored in, for example, a directory “/ document / A”. To do. Here, the directory path is described in accordance with the directory notation in UNIX (registered trademark). At this time, the setting of the review period is accepted from the user A and the contents of the setting are stored.

  The users B, C,... Access the document management apparatus 1 from their respective user devices 2 and refer to the document X. Then, when each user B, C,... Gives an instruction to add annotation information as additional information to the document X, the user side device 2 determines that the date and time when the instruction is received is before the review period expires. For example, the added annotation information is stored in an additional information file different from the document file. This additional information file is generated for each user and stored in the same directory “/ document / A” as the document.

  The additional information file includes information for specifying the document X that is the addition destination. Specifically, in the additional information file including the annotation information added by the user B, information “usr: B” specifying the user B and information “// “document / A / x.doc” is recorded in association. The content of the additional information file is, for example, a list of descriptions of annotation information portions in PDF, and each annotation information portion includes information such as the date and time of addition, information for identifying the added user, and the addition destination. It is also possible to associate information specifying a document, etc., and include it in this additional information file.

  Here, when the user A accesses the document management apparatus 1 and requests a document list in the directory including the document X, the document management apparatus 1 generates a list of document files. An image object (for example, a thumbnail image of the first page of each document) is generated and image data arranged is generated.

  Next, the number of related additional information files is counted for each document. Here, since the document and the additional information file related to the document are stored in the same directory, in order to search for the additional information file, the same directory as the corresponding document may be set as the search range.

  Then, the document management apparatus 1 combines the character string image representing the count value with the corresponding file image object, and generates a combined image. Then, the document management apparatus 1 transmits this composite image to the user side apparatus 2 of the user A. As a result, the user-side device 2 of the user A generates the number of additional information files added to the document X as file image objects related to the document X (because files are generated for each user. An image representing the number of users to which additional information has been added) is displayed (see FIG. 2B).

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to know whether or not additional information has been added to the document simply by looking at the file image object of the document on the GUI screen, and convenience can be improved.

1 is a configuration block diagram of a document management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the example of a part of GUI screen which the document management apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention provides.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Document management apparatus, 2 User side apparatus, 11 Control part, 12 Storage part, 13 Communication part.

Claims (7)

A document management device for storing additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file,
When presenting a file image object representing a file of the document, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object.   2. The document management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional information file includes additional information, information for specifying a document to which the additional information is added, and information for specifying a user to which the additional information is added. Is stored in association with each other. The document management device according to claim 1 or 2,
For each document, it is checked whether or not a predetermined timing condition is satisfied. For a document that satisfies the predetermined timing condition, additional information added to the document is acquired, and the document file includes the corresponding information. A document management apparatus for additionally writing acquired additional information. The document management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The information related to the additional information file includes at least one of the number of users who added the additional information, the number of additional information, and the date and time when the additional information was added. A document management device that holds additional information added by a user to a document,
When presenting a file image object representing a file of the document, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object. A control method of a document management apparatus for storing additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file,
When presenting a file image object representing a file of the document, an image representing information related to the additional information file is presented together with the file image object. In a document management device that stores additional information added by a user to a document in an additional information file different from the document file,
A program for presenting an image representing information related to the additional information file together with the file image object when presenting a file image object representing the file of the document.

Images