JP2007066317A - Document processor and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document processor capable of easily grasping relevancy among documents having a fixed relation, eliminating useless work such as looking over all the related documents while searching a correlated order of the related documents, and making the work efficiency carried out. <P>SOLUTION: The document processor has a detection means for detecting the relation among respective mails based on header information of the mail documents and a specifying means for specifying the time-serial final document relating to the assigned document based on detected correlated information in a relation detecting means 20a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus and a computer program.

  E-mail, which has been spreading rapidly in recent years, is establishing a firm position as a business tool, and content directly related to work is often exchanged multiple times by multiple people. Of course, the same applies when used between individuals as a communication tool.

  FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing the flow of a general electronic mail response. In response to the first electronic mail 4, the response mail is branched into two (4-1 and 4-2). Among them, the response mail 4-1 adds (quotes) the entire contents of the head mail 4 with a mark such as “>” at the beginning of each line, and the response text is described. The response mail 4-1-1 describes the response text without adding (without quoting) the content of the response mail 4-1. On the other hand, the response mail 4-2 branched from the top mail 4 also includes the response text without adding the contents of the top mail 4 (without quoting).

  If such a response is repeated, just reading the last e-mail may not reveal all the history so far. That is, as in the above example, in some e-mails, the contents of the preceding e-mail are not necessarily quoted, and there are cases where responses are made while deleting unnecessary parts. It is. Eventually all relevant emails had to be read.

  In that case, the response mail has a response mark (for example, Re :) added to the beginning of the same title, so the relationship and the content of the e-mail exchange and content can be determined using the mark and title. Will understand.

  However, as described above, understanding the flow and contents of email exchanges while recognizing the relevance of the emails including the case of branching using the landmarks and titles is the number of emails. The more it becomes, the more difficult it becomes. Therefore, it is not easy to find an e-mail that you should respond to.

  Furthermore, in such a case, it is necessary to grasp not only the landmarks and titles but also the time (included in the header information) and contents, and in any case, one e-mail is sent in order. One has to be looked at, which is quite burdensome for the user.

  The present invention was devised in view of the above problems, and the flow (or relevance) between documents having a certain relevance can be easily grasped, and the related order of the related documents. It is intended to provide a document processing apparatus and a computer program for performing such processing, which can eliminate wasteful work such as looking through all related documents while exploring the documents, and improve work efficiency. In particular, the present invention is applied to, for example, an e-mail exchanged with respect to a specific content, so that an e-mail to be answered can be easily found and one of these e-mails. For one thing, it is possible to easily grasp the contents of e-mails and their flow without having to look through them in order.

Therefore, the configuration of the document processing apparatus according to the present invention for processing a plurality of documents is as follows:
Means for extracting unique information for each document attached to the plurality of documents;
Means for detecting an association between the plurality of documents based on the extracted information;
Based on the detection result, the basic feature is to have document editing means for analyzing overlapping portions between a plurality of documents related to each other and merging the plurality of documents by omitting the overlapping portions.

  In this configuration, header information included in the document is extracted, and based on the information, the detection unit detects relevance between a plurality of documents. Further, based on the detected information, the document editing unit analyzes an overlapping portion between a plurality of documents related to each other, and merges the plurality of documents by omitting the overlapping portion. As a result, it is possible to omit duplicate portions from related documents, and to read all of the contents in order of relevance, and to re-edit these documents as one document. After merge edit processing by the document editing means, it becomes easy to read.

  In addition, as a method of document editing by the document editing means, the order of the documents is determined based on the related information detected by the detecting means, and the overlapping part is analyzed from these documents, and the document of the prior order is replaced with the document of the subsequent order. In the case where a part or all of the document is included, it is conceivable to omit the included part from the subsequent or previous document and to merge these documents.

  By providing a merge document created by such editing, it is possible to obtain a document having a series of flows and having no description of duplicate parts. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently grasp the contents of these documents and know a series of flows without looking through all the documents. If the above document is an e-mail, etc., it is possible to understand the contents of all e-mails and the flow of exchanges between e-mails without having to read all response e-mails. It is possible to eliminate the waste of looking through all the response mails and to improve the work efficiency.

  The document referred to in this configuration corresponds to e-mail and the like, but is not limited thereto, and includes a document having a predetermined file format.

  The term “between documents” in the present invention is not limited to a plurality of independent documents, but also refers to a content between a plurality of document contents stored in one file and managed as independent information. . If e-mail software is taken as an example as in the examples described later, each e-mail is managed as an independent file, but all e-mails (received e-mail, sent e-mail, e-mail in draft status, etc.) are in one file. There are also items that are stored in the mail and presented to the user as received mail, transmitted mail, or draft mail using its attributes (reception, transmission, draft, etc.). It goes without saying that the “between documents” includes such mail documents.

  Of course, if the document includes header information, the detection means detects the relationship between documents based on the header information. The detecting means detects a time-series order between the plurality of documents, so that the document editing means detects the plurality of documents according to the detected time-series order between the plurality of documents. Merge processing will be performed. In this case, the header information may include time information, ID (identification information) uniquely assigned to each document, and the like. Here, the meaning of unique means that the same thing as two does not exist as an ID. When such time information is included in the header information, the detection means detects a time-series order between documents based on the time information.

  The header information includes the ID as described above together with the IDs of other related documents, so that the detection unit detects a relationship between documents (including a relationship such as a branching state). Can do. Therefore, based on the header information, the detecting means arranges the relationship between the documents, and outputs it as related information to the document editing means. The document editing means analyzes the overlapping portion from the related information and merges the overlapping portion by omitting the overlapping portion.

  When there is time information in the header information of each document, the detection means detects a time-series order between the documents based on the time information of each document, and outputs at least the relevant information as related information. Become. In particular, when the header information includes time information on the creation / change of a symmetric document, the detection means uses the time information in the header information of each document to determine the time series between documents. The order is detected and output as related information including at least the order.

  In addition, this configuration may include a display unit that can display the relationship between documents from the related information detected by the detection unit.

  When there is such display means, the document editing means merges from the documents displayed in a tree by the display means to the last document in time series related to the specified document, and the display means It may have a function of displaying the merged document.

  As described above, the detection means detects the branching state between documents based on the ID uniquely assigned to the header information for each document, and outputs at least that as related information. In addition, the document editing unit may analyze the overlapping portion from such related information, and may merge by omitting the overlapping portion.

  Further, as described above, when the detection unit detects a branching state between documents based on an ID uniquely given in the header information for each document, and outputs it as related information including at least it, The display means can also display the relationship between documents including the branching state as a tree.

  When the document is an e-mail, the related information detected by the detecting means may be an e-mail response history. At that time, since the relationship between the documents becomes clear based on the response history, it is easy to omit the overlapping portion by the document editing means.

  The detection means detects a time-series order between documents based on time information in the header information of each document, and outputs at least it as related information.

  As described above, the header information may include an ID uniquely assigned to each document, or may include time information on creation / change of a symmetric document. In such a case, for each document, the detection means detects the branching state between documents based on the ID uniquely given in the header information, and based on the time information in the header information of each document. In addition, the time-series order between documents is detected, and at least these are detected and output as related information.

Furthermore, the configuration of claims 5 to 10 proposes a configuration for detecting a branching state (branch state) between documents for detecting a relationship between a plurality of documents. Therefore, in the extracted information, not only the unique information but also information relating to the citation source of each document and information relating to the document generation time are detected together. Then, the (first) detection means detects the time-series order of the plurality of documents based on the document generation time, and the (second) detection means detects the unique information and the citation source. Based on the information, the branch status of the plurality of documents is detected. Thereafter, by the document editing means, based on the detection result of the order and the branch status, with the branch source as a reference, for each branch unit, merge by omitting overlapping portions of the plurality of documents constituting the branch unit, Arrange multiple documents in chronological order.

That is, the configuration of claim 5 is:
  Means for extracting information unique to each document, information about the citation source of each document, and information about the document generation time from a plurality of documents;
  First detection means for detecting a time-series order of the plurality of documents based on the document generation time;
  Second detection means for detecting a branching state of the plurality of documents based on the unique information and the citation source information;
  Based on the detection result of the order and the branch status, with the branch source as a reference, for each branch unit, merge by excluding overlapping portions of the plurality of documents constituting the branch unit, and the plurality of documents in time series Document editing means to arrange
It is characterized by having.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the document processing apparatus of the fifth aspect, the document editing unit attaches information indicating a creation source of each document to the merged document.

The configuration according to claim 7 is a configuration in which the document processing apparatus according to claim 5 further includes display means for displaying the relationship between the documents as a tree from the detection results of the first detection means and the second detection means. It is.

According to the configuration of claim 8, in the document processing apparatus according to claim 7, the document editing unit includes a document displayed in a tree form by the display unit up to a final document in time series related to a specified document. And the display means is a configuration of a document processing apparatus that displays the merged document.

Further, the configuration of claim 9 is a configuration in which the document editing means merges documents according to the order of related documents in the document processing apparatus of claim 5.

In addition, the configuration of claim 10
  A document processing apparatus for detecting a relationship between a plurality of documents including a preceding document and a succeeding document that cites the preceding document,
  First detection means for detecting a branching state of the plurality of documents using information unique to each document included in each of the plurality of documents and information indicating a citation source of each document;
  Second detection means for detecting a time-series order of each document based on time information of each of the plurality of documents;
  A document editing unit that omits a sentence that overlaps a preceding document cited by a subsequent document among the plurality of documents, merges the plurality of documents from which the duplicate document is omitted, and edits the document as one document;
  Display means for displaying an editing result by the document editing means;
It is characterized by having.

The configurations of claims 11 and 12 are computer programs for causing a computer to function as the configurations of claims 1 and 5 . That is, as a configuration for solving the above-described problem, a computer program is disclosed in which each unit is realized by using the configuration of a computer. In this case, the computer may include a general-purpose computer configuration including the configuration of the central processing unit, or may include a dedicated machine directed to a specific process, and the configuration of the central processing unit. If it accompanies, there will be no limitation in particular.

When a program for causing a computer to function as each unit is read by the computer, the same configuration as each unit defined in claim 1 or 5 is realized.

  The program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and can be easily distributed and sold as a software product. Further, by using this computer program using existing hardware resources, the system of the present invention as a new application can be easily executed with the existing hardware. In addition to the configuration of such a recording medium, the configuration of an internal storage device such as a RAM and a ROM and the configuration of an external storage device such as a hard disk are included in the recording medium if such a program is recorded there. Needless to say.

It should be noted that some of the functions of the means according to claim 11 or 12 may be functions incorporated in a computer (functions incorporated in hardware in a computer, operating system installed in the computer, The function may be realized by another application program or the like, and the program may include an instruction for calling or linking a function achieved by the computer.

This is because a part of each means defined in claim 1 or 5 is substituted for a part of a function achieved by, for example, an operating system, and a program or a module for realizing the function is recorded on the recording medium. Is not recorded directly, but it is substantially the same configuration if some of the functions of the operating system that achieve these functions are called or linked.

The specific configuration of claim 11 is as follows.
Computer
Means for extracting unique information for each document attached to a plurality of documents;
Means for detecting an association between the plurality of documents based on the extracted information;
This is a computer program that functions as a document editing unit that analyzes overlapping portions between a plurality of documents that are related to each other based on the detection result, and merges the plurality of documents by omitting the overlapping portions.

The specific configuration of claim 12 is as follows.
  Computer
  Means for extracting information unique to each document, information about the citation source of each document, and information about the document generation time from a plurality of documents;
  First detection means for detecting a time-series order of the plurality of documents based on the document generation time;
  Second detection means for detecting a branching state of the plurality of documents based on the unique information and the citation source information;
  Based on the detection result of the order and the branch status, with the branch source as a reference, for each branch unit, merge by excluding overlapping portions of the plurality of documents constituting the branch unit, and the plurality of documents in time series Document editing means to arrange
It is a computer program that makes it function.

As described above, according to the document processing apparatus and the computer program according to claims 1 to 12 of the present invention, a plurality of documents related to each other by the document editing means based on the detected related information between the plurality of documents. Are analyzed, and the multiple documents are merged (eg, in chronological order) without the duplicates, so the relevant documents are eliminated, and all of their content is It is possible to read in order, that is, it is easy to read, and further, it is possible to easily grasp the relationship (including the branching state between documents) between documents with a certain relationship, and the relationship of the related document. While searching for the order, it is possible to eliminate unnecessary work such as looking through all the related documents, and to achieve an excellent effect that the work can be made efficient.

  In particular, by applying the present invention to e-mails that have been exchanged with respect to specific contents, it becomes possible to easily search for e-mails to be responded to, and each of these e-mails. Therefore, it is possible to easily understand the contents of e-mails and their flow without having to go through them step by step.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Reference Example 1)
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a case where a CD-ROM 200 storing a predetermined mailer application program and a document editing program of the original application that is a premise of the description of the present invention is read by the computer 100 and executed. 2 shows an outline of an apparatus and a functional block configuration when a computer 100 is configured with a document processing apparatus for electronic mail.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the computer 100 is connected to a system bus 111 to exchange necessary data and instructions. A CPU 101, a RAM 102, a ROM 103, a flexible disk drive 104, a hard disk drive 105, and a CD-ROM drive 106. A normal configuration including a keyboard 107 connected via an input unit interface 107a, a mouse 108, a display device 109 such as a display connected via an image processing unit 109a, and an output device 110 such as a printer connected via an output unit interface 110a. The CD-ROM drive 106 stores a predetermined electronic mail application program (hereinafter referred to as a mailer application) and a document editing program as a premise of the description of the present invention. D-ROM 200 is inserted, the program is read out, by being executed in the computer 100, so that the document processing device is configured on the mailer application.

  In this reference example and the embodiment of the present invention to be described later, an example in which a predetermined program is provided by the CD-ROM 200 is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the predetermined program is stored in another recording medium. Alternatively, the program may be downloaded from another device via a network and stored in the computer 100.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the structure of the document processing apparatus on the mailer application is a structure having a document storage means 10a, a relation detection means 20a, and a sorting means 30a.

  Among them, the document storage means 10a is also used as a file storage configuration (not shown) such as a received e-mail of a mailer application, an e-mail to be sent, an e-mail waiting for transmission (e-mail in a draft state), etc. The configuration includes an internal storage device such as a RAM 102 and an external storage device such as a hard disk drive 105. In each of the above e-mails, as header information, in addition to time information such as the reception time of the received mail document, the creation time of the outgoing mail and / or the transmission time, it is sent whether each mail document has been received. Status information for discriminating whether the message is currently waiting for transmission, or message-ID information at least.

  This Message-ID is uniquely assigned to each mail document such as “11111”, “22222”, “33333”, and “44444” as shown in FIG. 4 described later. In addition to the Message-ID, the header information includes References for indicating to which electronic mail the (related) response mail is.

  The association detection means 20a is configured to detect an association between documents based on the header information of the document [that is, to extract unique information such as Message-ID from the header information and extract the extracted information (Message- A configuration for detecting a time-series order between the plurality of documents based on the ID and time information] and a final document in time series related to the specified document based on the detected related information The CPU 101 and the RAM 102 that provides the work area are configured. Here, the process for detecting the relationship between documents detects the branch state between mail documents based on the Message-ID and References uniquely assigned to each mail document in the header information of each document, and the header information. The time-series order between the mail documents is detected on the basis of the time information therein, and when the processing is completed, the relation detection means 20a outputs the processing result as the related information.

  The sort means 30a is configured to sort the mail documents from the detected related information, and similarly includes the CPU 101 and a RAM 102 that provides a work area thereof. Here, the sorting process refers to a process of sorting mail documents based on the detected branching state and time-series order, and the sorting result is a predetermined order indicating the sorting order in each header information. Is added as a rank symbol (for example, a natural number) and stored in the document storage means 10a.

  FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show an example of the state of Message-ID and References included in the relational diagram of the response mail and the header information of each electronic mail in that case. Here, the mail (1) is the mail that is issued first, “11111” is added to the Message-ID, and there is no message-ID information of the related mail in References. According to FIG. 3, the mail (2) is a response mail of the mail (1), “22222” is added to the Message-ID, and the “Message-ID information of the mail (1) that is the related mail” is displayed in References. 11111 ”is included. According to FIG. 3, the mail (3) is a response mail of the mail (2), “33333” is added to the Message-ID, and the References includes the message-ID information of the related mail (2). 22222 ”is included. According to FIG. 3, the mail (4) is a response mail of the mail (1) branched from the mail (2), “44444” is added to the Message-ID, and the mail (1 ) Message-ID information “11111”.

  The relation detection means 20a detects the relation including the branch state between the mail documents as described above, and further detects the time-series order between the respective mail documents, and outputs it as the related information to the sorting means 30a. Therefore, the sorting result by the sorting means 30a can sort a group of related mail documents in a chronological order in descending order of relevance while reflecting the branching state when there is a branching. It becomes like this.

  As described above, the sorting result is added to the header information as a predetermined order symbol. Therefore, when the user looks into the files of these mail documents using the mailer application, these mail documents are according to the above order. Files are displayed side by side. If necessary, the user clicks a predetermined mail document, and the content of the mail document is displayed on the screen of the display device 109.

(Reference Example 2)
FIG. 5 shows a case where a CD-ROM 200 storing a predetermined mailer application program and a document editing program of the original application which is the premise of the description of the present invention is read and executed by the computer 100. 2 shows a functional block configuration when a document processing apparatus for electronic mail is configured.

  The hardware configuration of the reference example configuration is the same as that of FIG. 1, and details thereof are omitted here.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the structure of the document processing apparatus on the mailer application is a structure having a document storage means 10b, a relation detection means 20b, and a display means 40b.

  Among them, the document storage unit 10b and the relationship detection unit 20b are the same as the document storage unit 10a and the relationship detection unit 20a described above, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The display means 40b is configured to display the relationship between the documents as a tree from the detected related information, and includes the CPU 101, the RAM 102, and the display device 109. Then, the CPU 101 develops the video information reflecting the relevance on the RAM 102 and displays it on the screen of the display device 109.

  FIG. 6 shows a screen display state when a group of related mail document files on the mailer application is displayed on the display device 109 with the above configuration. According to the figure, the mail (1) is the mail that was first issued, and the response mail for the mail is branched into two mails (2) and mail (3). ) Response mail (4), response mail (4) response mail (5), response mail (5) response mail (6) are displayed as related mail, and mail (3) response mail ( 7) is displayed as a relevant email.

  Further, in the electronic mail displayed in this way, for example, when the user clicks mail (2), the display means 40b reads the mail document clicked on the basis of the related information output from the relation detecting means 20b. The last mail document is identified in time series from those related to the above, and the contents are displayed on the screen as mail (6) to which the user should respond. When the user clicks mail (3), the display means 40b displays the content of mail (7) to which the user should respond. Of course, by changing the function setting of the display means 40b, the contents of the clicked mail (2) can be set to be displayed on the screen as it is.

  In the configuration as described above, the relationship detection unit 20b detects the relationship including the branching state between the mail documents as described above, and further detects the time-series order between the respective mail documents, as the related information. In order to output to the display means 40b, the display means 40b arranges a group of related mail documents in chronological order in descending order of relevance while reflecting the branch state when there is a branch. In addition to displaying each mail document as a file icon for indexing, the relationship between each file icon can be displayed as a tree using a diagram so that their relevance including the branching state is shown. .

  Then, as described above, when the user clicks on a specific mail, the display means 40b receives the related information detected by the related detection means 20b, and the time series is selected from those related to the clicked mail document. Finally, the final mail document can be specified, and the contents can be displayed on the screen as mail to which the user should respond.

  FIG. 7 shows that when a CD-ROM 200 storing a predetermined mailer application program and the document editing program of the present invention is read and executed by the computer 100, the computer 100 has a document processing apparatus for e-mail. The functional block configuration when configured is shown.

  The hardware configuration of the above-described embodiment configuration is the same as that of FIG. 1 of the reference example 1, and details thereof are omitted here.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the document processing apparatus on the mailer application has a document storage unit 10c, a relation detection unit 20c, a document editing unit 50c, and a display unit 40c.

  Among them, the document storage means 10c and the relation detection means 20c are the same as those in the case of the reference example 1, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The document editing unit 50c is configured to re-edit a related mail document into a single mail document so that the user can easily read (the contents and a series of flows can be easily understood). It is composed of a RAM 102 that provides an area. The document editing means 50c determines the order of the mail document (priority in time including the branching state) based on the relevant information detected by the relation detecting means 20c, and from these mail documents, the duplicate portion If a part or all of the pre-order mail document is included in the post-order mail document, the inclusion part is omitted from the post-order (or pre-order) mail document, and these mail documents are deleted. It has a document editing function for merging.

  The display means 40c has substantially the same configuration as the display means 40b, but a time series related to the clicked mail document is selected when a specific one of the tree-displayed mail documents is clicked by the user. In particular, it has a unique function in that the merged document up to the final mail document is displayed. That is, the display means 40c passes the clicked mail document to the last time-related mail document related to it to the document editing means 50c. Therefore, when the merge document is re-edited as described above and returned again, the display unit 40c displays the merge document on the screen of the display device 109.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of a method of editing a series of mail document groups by the document editing unit 50c based on the relationship detection result by the relationship detection unit 20c. In the figure, the first head mail 1 has the mail document content represented by TOP. The response mail 1-1 has a Part: A1 in which a response part is described, and the TOP content of the top mail 1 (a symbol such as “>” indicating normal citation is attached to the top of the document). is doing. Further, the response mail 1-1-1 has a part called Part: A2 in which a response part to the response mail 1-1 is described, and the contents of Part: A1 of the response mail 1-1. Further, the response mail 1-1-2 of the response mail 1-1 has only a part called Part: A3 in which a response part to the response mail 1-1 is described.

  These series of associations have already been detected by the association detection unit 20c, and the document editing unit 50c that has received the association information edits these mail documents based on the above functions, and merges documents. Is generated. That is, starting from the mail document designated by clicking by the user, the non-overlapping portions of the respective mail documents are extracted and merged in chronological order from the oldest. Specifically, the previous mail document or data that has already been merged is compared with the contents of the mail document. If there is the same description content as the previous email, it is considered that the email content is duplicated, the duplicate is omitted, and the remaining part (the email) is added to the previous mail document or merge data. Merge the newly described part of the document). By performing these operations on all related mail documents, the merge operation is completed.

  In the above example, the TOP part is omitted from the first mail 1, the TOP part is omitted from the response mail 1-1, and the Part: A1 part is omitted from the response mail 1-1-1, and the Part: A1 part is omitted from the response mail 1-1-1. The part and the Part: A3 part are extracted as they are from the response mail 1-1-2, and these are arranged in time series to be edited again as one merge document 2.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the steps of the editing operation described above. First, the relation detection means 20c checks the header information of the mail document stored in the document storage means 10c, and searches for all related mail documents (step S101).

  Next, the oldest mail document M1 among the related mail documents is detected (step S102). Further, the next oldest mail document M2 is detected (step S103).

  The overlapping part of the mail documents M1 and M2 is detected, the overlapping part is omitted from the mail document M2 (or the mail document M1), and merge data MA is created (step S104).

  Next, the old mail document Mn is detected (step S105). An overlapping portion of the merge data MA and the mail document Mn is detected, the overlapping portion is omitted from the mail document Mn, and merge data MA is created (updated) (step S106).

  It is checked whether or not the mail document Mn is the last mail document (step S107). If it is not the last mail document (step S107; No), the process returns to step S105 and the above processing is repeated.

  If it is determined in step S107 that it is the last mail document (step S107; Yes), the merge data MA is displayed on the screen by the display device 40c (step S108).

  FIG. 10 shows how the document editing means 50c edits a series of mail documents with branches. In the figure, the first head mail 2 has the mail document content represented by TOP. The response mail 2-1 has a Part: A1 in which a response part is described, and the TOP content of the top mail 2. Further, the response mail 2-1-1 includes a part “Part: A 2” describing a response part to the response mail 2-1 and the contents of “Part: A 1” of the response mail 2-1. The response mail 2-2 of the first mail 2 branched from the response mail 2-1, has a Part: B1 in which a response part to the first mail 2 is described, and the contents of the TOP of the first mail 2. ing. Further, the response mail 2-2-1 has only the contents of Part: B2 in which a response part to the response mail 2-2 is described.

  The series of relations including the branch state have already been detected by the relation detection means 20c, and the document editing means 50c that has received the relevant information edits these mail documents based on the above function. And generate a merge document. Here, the data to be merged is a branch type and cannot be combined into one by the method as shown in FIG. Therefore, merge data for the number of branches is created. That is, in the above example, the TOP part is extracted from the head mail 2, the TOP part is omitted from the response mail 2-1, and the Part: A1 part is omitted from the response mail 2-1-1. Part: A2 is extracted, and these are arranged in time series and edited as one merged document A. Further, the TOP: part is omitted from the response mail 2-2, and the Part: B1 part is extracted from the response mail 2-2-1. The Part: B2 part is extracted as it is, and these are arranged in time series as one merge document B. Will be edited.

  In addition, as in this configuration, when the response mail is branched and there are multiple merge results for the number of branches, not only the merge results for the selected mail document are displayed, but also the merged results as a list, It may be displayed on the display means 40c so that it can be browsed.

  FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the contents of each document and the merged document (merge result) obtained by merging them with the actual mail document. In the figure, the mail document of the top mail 3 is “Shiritori” as the title, “Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp” as the mail transmission source, and the mail content is “Apple”.

  Also, the mail document of the response mail 3-1 is “Shiritori” as the title, “Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp” as the mail sender, and the mail content is “Gorilla”, and the top mail below “> Apple” representing the quoted portion of the email content of 3 is shown, and further below that, the notation of the sender of the first email 3 and the email content are “> From: Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp (line feed)> It is shown in the form of “Apple”.

  The mail document of the next response mail 3-2 is “Shiritori” as the title, “Suzuki@fujitsu.co.jp” as the mail transmission source, and the mail content is “Trumpet”. -1 sender's notation and the contents of the email are "> From: Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp (new line)> Gorilla (new line) >> Apple (new line) >> From: Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp (new line ) >> Apple ".

  Furthermore, the mail document of the next response mail 3-3 is “Shiritori” as the title, “Yamamoto@fujitsu.co.jp” as the mail sender, and the content of the mail is “Pineapple”. In the form of quoting the email content “Apple”, the email content “Gorilla” of the response email 3-1, and the email content “Trumpet” of the response email 3-3, “Pineapple> Trumpet >> Gorilla (newline) >>> Apple ”.

  The merged document M obtained by editing these mail documents by the document editing means 50c is, as shown in FIG. Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp> Gorilla (line feed) Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp> Apple ”. Here, the e-mail address of the speaker is also shown in order to indicate who is speaking. Of course, only the character string before “@” in the mail address may be written so that it is possible to distinguish who speaks.

As described above, according to the configuration of the present embodiment, a mail document having a series of flows and having no description of duplicate parts is obtained, and the editing result is displayed as one merged document. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently understand the contents of these mail documents and the series of flows including the branching state without looking through all the mail documents. In addition, it is possible to easily find an e-mail to be responded to in this way, and it is possible to grasp the flow of e-mail exchange so far by just reading it.

  It should be noted that the document processing apparatus and the computer program of the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, an outline processor for organizing a rough flow (outline) of ideas and assembling the entire configuration can be used for organizing a written document.

  The document processing apparatus and the computer program of the present invention can be applied to a plurality of related documents. As described above, for example, an outline for organizing an overall structure by arranging a rough flow (outline) of ideas. In the processor, it can be used for organizing the written document.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an apparatus in Reference Example 1 in which a configuration of a document processing apparatus for electronic mail according to an original application is mounted on a computer 100. It is a functional block diagram of the said document processing apparatus. It is a related figure of the response mail group shown as an example. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the state of Message-ID and References contained in the header information of each electronic mail in the said case. It is a functional block diagram when the document processing apparatus for electronic mail of the original application which concerns on the reference example 2 is comprised by the computer 100. FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the screen display state at the time of displaying the file of a group of related mail documents on a mailer application on the display apparatus 109 by the said structure. 1 is a functional block diagram when a document processing apparatus for electronic mail according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is configured in a computer 100. FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the method of the edit of a series of mail document groups by the document edit means 50c based on the relationship detection result by the relationship detection means 20c. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the above edit operation. It is explanatory drawing which shows the editing method by the said document edit means 50c in a series of mail document groups with a branch. It is explanatory drawing which shows the relationship between these document contents and the merged document which merged them with respect to an actual mail document. It is the schematic which showed the flow of the response of a general electronic mail.

Explanation of symbols

10a, 10b, 10c Document storage means 20a, 20b, 20c Detection means 30a Sort means 40b, 40c Display means 50c Document editing means 100 Computer 101 CPU
102 RAM
103 ROM
104 flexible disk drive 105 hard disk drive 106 CD-ROM drive 107 keyboard 107a input unit interface 108 mouse 109 display device 109a image processing unit 110 output unit 110a output unit interface 111 system bus 200 CD-ROM

Claims (5)

In a document processing apparatus that processes a plurality of documents,
Means for extracting unique information for each document attached to the plurality of documents;
Means for detecting an association between the plurality of documents based on the extracted information;
A document processing apparatus comprising: a document editing unit that analyzes an overlapping portion between a plurality of documents that are related to each other based on a detection result, and merges the plurality of documents by omitting the overlapping portion. In the document processing apparatus,
The detecting means detects a time-series order between the plurality of documents,
The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document editing unit merges the plurality of documents according to a time-series order between the plurality of detected documents. In the document processing apparatus,
The document processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the detection unit detects a time-series order between the plurality of documents based on time information attached to the document. In the document processing apparatus,
The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unique information for each document is identification information of each document attached to a header portion of the document. Computer
Means for extracting unique information for each document attached to a plurality of documents;
Means for detecting an association between the plurality of documents based on the extracted information;
A computer program for analyzing an overlapping portion between a plurality of documents related to each other based on a detection result, and functioning as document editing means for merging the plurality of documents by omitting the overlapping portion.

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