JP3023696B2 - Document processing device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus, and more particularly to a document processing apparatus that generates a specific layout structure from a logical structure of a document.

[Conventional technology]

As a document processing (hereinafter referred to as “layout processing”) technique for generating a document layout structure from a logical structure of a document, for example, ODA (ISO8613: Information Processing-Text and
Office Systems-Office Document Architecture (OD
A) and Interchange Format (1989)) and tnt (J. Ander
e, R.Furuta, V.Quint: Structured Documents, Cambridge
As seen in University Press (1989)), constraints on assignments associated with logical objects in a logical structure (hereinafter referred to as assignment instruction constraints) and constraints describing candidates for assignable structures that can be generated (hereinafter referred to as assignment constraints). (Referred to as a structure generation constraint).

The assignment instruction constraint includes, for example, "All structures below this logical object must be assigned in a specific frame."

Further, the structure generation constraint includes, for example, "this page includes a frame for the text and, if necessary, a frame for footnote inside the page".

The allocation process must be performed while satisfying two types of constraints, an allocation instruction constraint and a structure generation constraint. There are many candidates for an allocation structure that can be generated, and it is determined whether the allocation structure is appropriate. It depends on the amount of content of the target logical structure and the assignment instruction constraint. For this reason, when the logical structure of the document and the two types of restrictions are given, it is difficult for the processing device that executes the allocation process to infer an appropriate allocation structure from the information.

Therefore, a process of actually selecting a candidate of a certain allocation structure and performing allocation, and if the allocation fails, returning to a state where another candidate can be selected so that the allocation can be performed again (hereinafter referred to as backtrack processing) ), And then restart the layout process.

Examples of this document processing method include: “Hayashi, Saito, Ishida, Murata: Prototype of ODA Document Processing System (3)-Layout Processing”, Proc. Of the 37th Annual Conference of IPSJ (September 12, 1988) Day).

: "Murakami, Yamaguchi, Matsudaira, Uehara, Kagimasa: Realization of Document Allocation Processing Based on ODA (1)-Retry Issues-, Proc. Of the 40th National Convention of IPSJ, March 14, 1990
Day).

: "Matsudaira, Yamaguchi, Uehara,: Realization method of document layout processing based on ODA (2)-Devising efficiency in automatic layout-, Proc. Of the 40th Annual Conference of IPSJ (March 1990)
March 14).

: "Yamaguchi, Matsudaira, Uehara, Kagimasa: Realization method of document allocation processing based on ODA (3)-Processing method of repetition structure-,
Proc. Of the 40th National Convention of IPSJ (March 14, 1990)
Day).

Such documents described in literatures (collections of lecture papers) are known.

In order to cope with the document processing method described in these documents, the processing device may make an incorrect selection several times in the process of generating the allocation structure, but eventually correct allocation that satisfies the constraints. It was thought that the structure could be generated automatically without manual intervention.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in each of the above-mentioned documents, specific means for holding an alternative candidate based on the structure generation constraint for the backtrack and presenting the alternative candidate when the backtrack process is activated is described. However, no specific means for activating the backtracking process is described.

For this reason, there is a problem when the processing device allocates the content to the allocation object selected in order to satisfy the allocation instruction constraint attached to a certain logical object, and proceeds with the subsequent processing.

At this time, as a result of the processing, it is found that the assignment instruction constraint cannot be satisfied, or the assignment instruction constraint is satisfied but the option of the structure generation constraint selected for generating the assigned object is inappropriate. May occur.

As an example of the former assignment failure, I) when a certain paragraph has an assignment instruction constraint of "assigning all the contents in a certain frame", I selected a certain frame and assigned the paragraph However, there is a case where the content of the paragraph is larger than the margin of the frame, and the paragraph overflows from the frame.

On the other hand, examples of the latter layout failure include: II) If a certain paragraph has a layout instruction constraint of "layout within a specific page", a frame for the text and a When you select a page with two frames, the text frame contains all the paragraphs, but there are no footnotes in the paragraph and the footnote frame is empty. .

In both of the cases I and II of the allocation failure, in the conventional document processing method, there is a means for determining that the current allocation structure candidate is incorrect and that the backtracking processing must be called. do not do. In particular, when the structure generation constraint is satisfied but the assignment instruction restriction is not satisfied as in Failure Example I, the conventional document processing method cannot restart the process during the generation.

Therefore, the backtracking process must be started once after a specific allocation structure is generated on a trial basis, so that unnecessary allocation objects must be generated and deleted, and the allocation process must be performed quickly. Is extremely difficult.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a document processing apparatus capable of calling backtrack processing when a selected allocation object does not satisfy an allocation instruction constraint during generation of an allocation structure. The purpose is to do.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a content of a document having a logical structure composed of a plurality of logical objects is stored in a structure that describes an assignment instruction constraint associated with the logical object and a candidate of a layout structure that can be generated. In a document processing apparatus for generating a layout structure of a document including a plurality of layout objects by allocating according to a generation constraint, a logical structure holding unit (1 in FIG. 1) for storing a logical structure of the document; Constraint holding means (3 in FIG. 1) for holding constraint conditions related to document assignment including the assignment instruction constraint and the structure generation constraint.
Allocation structure generating means (4 in FIG. 1) for generating an allocation structure of the document based on the logical structure of the document held by the logical structure holding means and the constraint conditions held by the constraint holding means; Allocation structure holding means (2 in FIG. 1) for holding the allocation structure generated by the allocation structure generation means, and an allocation generated based on the logical object in association with the logical object given the allocation instruction constraint 2. Assignment means (51 in FIG. 2) for holding the assignment instruction constraint given to the object and the logical object, wherein the assignment structure being generated by the assignment structure generation means is held in the association means. Detecting means (5 in FIG. 1) for detecting when the instruction constraint is no longer satisfied, the detection output of the detecting means and the constraint holding means. The allocation structure generation unit deletes the allocation structure stored in the allocation structure storage unit based on the constraint conditions stored in the allocation structure generation unit and sets another allocation structure candidate satisfying the structure generation constraint to a selectable state. And backtrack means (6 in FIG. 1) for instructing re-assignment to the program.

[Action]

In the document processing apparatus according to the present invention, an assignment structure of a specific document is generated from the logical structure of the document so as to conform to a predetermined constraint condition, and the assignment instruction constraint held by the associating means is satisfied during the generation. If no longer, the detection means detects this, and the backtracking means detects the allocation structure held in the allocation structure holding means based on the detection output of the detection means and the constraint conditions held in the constraint holding means. Discarding is performed so that another allocation structure candidate that satisfies the structure generation constraint is made selectable, and the allocation structure generation means is instructed to redo the allocation.

Therefore, according to the present invention, generation and deletion of unnecessary allocation structures (allocated objects) can be suppressed to a minimum, and allocation processing can be performed quickly.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus to which a document processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

In this example, ODA (ISO8613: Information Process
ing-Text and Office Systems-Office Document Arch
itecture (ODA) and Interchange Format (1989)):
It is applied to a document processing device that performs an allocation process based on (office textbook editing / exchange architecture).

The document processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is used to store the contents of a document having a logical structure composed of a plurality of logical objects. By allocating according to the generation constraint, an allocation structure of the document including a plurality of allocation objects is generated.

In FIG. 1, the document processing apparatus includes a logical structure holding unit 1 for holding a logical structure of a document, an allocation structure holding unit 2 for holding an allocation structure of a document, and a constraint condition regarding the allocation of the document (the above-described allocation). Constraint holding means 3 for holding instruction constraints and structure generation constraints), and a document layout structure based on the logical structure of the document held by the logical structure holding means 1 and the constraint conditions held by the constraint holding means 3. The allocation structure generating means 4 to be generated, the detecting means 5 for detecting when the allocation structure being generated by the allocation structure generating means 4 no longer satisfies the allocation instruction constraint, and the detecting means 5 for detecting the allocation instruction restriction. When it is detected that the assignment structure is no longer compatible, the assignment structure held in the assignment structure holding means is broken based on the constraint conditions held in the constraint holding means. And a backtrack unit 6 for instructing the allocation structure generation unit 4 to re-assign the allocation to another allocation structure candidate satisfying the structure generation constraint. .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a document processing apparatus showing the detecting means 5 shown in FIG. 1 in further detail.

As shown in the figure, the detecting means 5 assigns an assignment object generated based on the logical object in association with the logical object to which the assignment instruction constraint is assigned, and an assignment instruction constraint (attribute name) assigned to the logical object. And an inspection object storage means 52 for storing a logical object to be inspected.
Inspection object changing means 53 for changing the object of inspection using information in the logical structure holding means 1 and empty structure judgment for judging whether there is any structure below a certain allocation object. Means 54 and logical structure holding means 1
The logical hierarchical relation determining means 55 for determining whether a certain logical object is included in the lower-level structure of another logical object by using the information in the Assignable hierarchical relationship determining means 56 for determining whether an object is included in a lower-level structure of another assigned object;
And a detection process control unit 57 for exchanging information with the allocation structure generation unit 4 and controlling the above units to control the detection process.

In this embodiment, the inspection by the detecting means 5 as to whether or not the above assignment instruction restriction is satisfied is roughly divided into two stages.

The first step is for an assigned object chosen to meet the “layout object class” attribute,
When there is no more content to be allocated to the lower allocation object of the allocation object, is there anything still not allocated to the lower allocation object? "

The second stage is “layout object class”, “indivisi
abilities "or" same layout object "attribute, when there is content to be assigned to an assigned object below the assigned object, the contents other than those below the assigned object are assigned. Does the assignment occur in the assigned object? "

As is well known, the above-mentioned “layout object clas
Each attribute of "s", "indivisibility", and "same layout object" is a part of attributes of the assignment instruction constraint defined in the above ODA, and one or more of these attributes Can be associated with a certain logical object.

In this embodiment, the logical structure holding unit 1, the allocation structure holding unit 2, the constraint holding unit 3, the inspection target storage unit 52
Is composed of a memory.

Further, the allocation structure generating means 4, the backtracking means 6, the associating means 51, the inspection object changing means 53, the empty structure determining means 54, the logical vertical relation determining means 55, the allocation vertical relation determining means 56, the detection process control means 57 consists of programs for achieving the function of each means,
For example, it is realized by the central processing unit executing each of the programs. Each of these means is realized by being constituted by each software (program) and executed by the central processing unit, but may be realized by being constituted by hardware or firmware. .

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, an operation of detecting whether or not the layout structure being generated by the document processing apparatus conforms to the constraint conditions in the above-described configuration will be described.

First, the allocation structure generation means 4 selects one unallocated logical object stored in the logical structure storage means 1 and then examines the allocation structure storage means 2 and the constraint storage means 3. As an assignment destination of the selected logical object, an appropriate assignment object is selected from those stored in the assignment structure holding means 3.

This means that the allocation structure already stored in the allocation structure holding means 2 is used. As an example, all the specific allocation structures that can be generated from the logical structure (corresponding to the common allocation structure in ODA) are used. There is a method of utilizing the minimum allocation structure common to all the methods. Regarding the minimum allocation structure, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei.
No. 157068.

By the way, if there is no appropriate one in the allocation structure holding means 2, the allocation structure generation means 4 generates an appropriate allocation object based on the constraint conditions held in the constraint holding means 3, and To be stored.

Next, the allocation structure generating means 4 selects the logical object and the allocated object,
To the start signal.

As a result, control of the entire allocation process is transferred to the detection means 5, where it is checked whether or not what has been allocated satisfies the allocation instruction constraint.

In this embodiment, the logical object and the allocation object selected by the allocation structure generating means 4 are referred to as “selected logic” and “selected allocation”, respectively.

The detection means 5 to which the control of the entire allocation process has been given first performs the first-stage inspection.

The activation signal from the allocation structure generation means 4 is input to the detection process control means 57. After the detection process control means 57 initializes the inspection object, the detection process control means 57 Logic is inquired. Then, when the inquiry result is returned, the inspection object changing unit 53 is instructed to store the logical object immediately before in the logical order of “selected logic” in the inspection object storage unit 52.

Then, as shown in FIG.
Searches the logical structure holding unit 1 and stores a logical object conforming to the instruction in the inspection target storage unit 53 (step 101), and sends a signal to the detection process control unit 57 that the instruction has been executed. .

As a result, the detection process control means 57
Logical objects in 52 (hereinafter referred to as "objects to be inspected")
Is instructed to check if it is a logical object immediately above “the selected logic”. The logical hierarchical relationship determining means 55 searches the logical structure holding means 1 and returns a result for the instruction (step 10).
2).

If the “inspection target” is a logical object immediately above the “selected logic”, the first-stage inspection is unnecessary, and the detection process control unit 57 shifts to the second-stage inspection.

On the other hand, if not, the detection process control means 57 checks whether or not the “test target” satisfies the condition I (step
103).

Here, the condition I corresponds to “inspection target” with the associating means 51.
And the attribute name of the association is “layout object class”.

If the "test object" meets this condition I,
The empty structure judging means 54 searches the allocation structure holding means 1 in response to a command from the detection process control means 57 indicating that the “inspection object” satisfies the condition II, and executes the “inspection”. It is checked whether or not "object" satisfies the condition II (step 104), and the result is returned to the detection process control means 57.

Here, the condition II is that there is no assigned object to which nothing is assigned in the lower-level structure of the assigned object associated with the “inspection target” by the association means 51.

By the way, when the condition I is not satisfied in the step 103 (when there is no need to make an inquiry to the empty structure determining means 54), and when the condition II is satisfied in the step 104 (when the inquiry is made to the empty structure determining means 54) As a result, when it is found that all the objects are allocated under the allocated object), the detection process control unit 57
Commands the inspection object changing means 53 to change the “inspection object” to the logical object immediately above the current “inspection object”.

The inspection object changing unit 53 searches the logical structure holding unit 1, stores a logical object conforming to the instruction in the inspection object storage unit 52, and sends a signal to the effect that the instruction has been executed to the detection process control unit 57 ( Step 105).

After the process of step 105 is completed, the process returns to step 102, and the steps after this step are executed.

By the way, if the condition II is not satisfied in the above step 104 (the inquiry result from the empty structure judging means 54 indicates that there is an allocated object to which nothing is allocated to the lower-level structure of the allocated allocated object. In the case, the surplus allocation structure exists even though there is no more content to be allocated below the allocation object. Send a signal for
The control of the entire allocation process is transferred to the back track means 6 (step 106).

This series of operations (steps 101 to 106) is repeated until the conditions for shifting to the second stage of the inspection are satisfied.

By the way, the backtrack means 6 given the control right
Then, the allocation structure holding unit 2 and the constraint holding unit 3 are checked to find a structure from which the allocation processing can be restarted. If a corresponding structure is found as a result, the allocation structure holding unit matches the restriction. An assignment object is added to or destroyed from the assignment structure held by the means 2. After that, a signal indicating backtracking is sent to the allocation structure generating means 4.

Now, if the first stage of the inspection is satisfied (Step 10
2: YES), the detection process control means 57 executes the second stage inspection.

In the inspection at the second stage, first, the detection process control unit 577 and the allocation structure generation unit 4 are inquired about the “selected logic”. Then, when the result of the inquiry is returned, the inspection target changing unit 53 is instructed to change the “selected logic” to the “inspection target”.

The inspection object changing unit 53 searches the logical structure holding unit 1, stores a logical object conforming to the instruction in the inspection object storage unit 52, and sends a signal to the detection process control unit 57 that the instruction has been executed. (Step 107).

Next, the detection process control unit 57 checks whether or not the allocated object of “inspection object” satisfies the condition III (step 108).

Here, the condition III is that the assigned object is associated with the “inspection target” by the associating means, and that the assigned object has not yet been inspected (the second-stage inspection).

If this condition III is satisfied, the detection process control means 57 checks whether or not the attribute name associated with “inspection object” is “same layout object” (step 109).
In the case of the "same layout object", the logical upper / lower relation determining means 56 determines whether the "selected logic" satisfies the condition IV (step 110).

Here, the condition IV is that “the selected logic” is an object that appears on the path searched leftmost from the “inspection object” to the left.

If the relation between the “selected logic” and the “test target” satisfies the condition IV in step 110,
If the attribute is not the “same layout object” attribute in 9, the detection process control means 57 inquires the “selected allocation” to the allocation structure generating means 4 and allocates whether the “selected allocation” satisfies the condition V. The target vertical relationship determining means 56 makes a determination (step 111).

Here, the condition V is that the “selected allocation” is an allocation object included in a structure below the allocation object associated with the “inspection target”;
Alternatively, the selected object is the same as the allocation object associated with the “inspection target”.

In other words, in step 111, the "selected assignment"
This means that the vertical relationship between the object and the layout object associated with the “inspection target” is determined.

If it is determined that the condition V is not satisfied as a result of the determination from the assignment hierarchical relationship determination means 56, the content that must be assigned to the lower level of the assignment object associated with the "inspection object" is determined. In other words, the detection process control means 57 sends the backtrack means 6
To the backtracking means 6.

On the other hand, in the above step 111, the "selected allocation"
Is included in the lower-level structure of the allocation object associated with the “inspection target”, since the constraint condition is satisfied, the detection process control unit 57 checks the association that satisfies the above condition III. (Step 112), and it is checked whether or not the association which has not been inspected yet exists in the "inspection object" (step 113).

This is because, in the ODA described above, the assignment instruction constraint associated with a certain logical object may be a single attribute or a plurality of attributes. Checks if the mapping has been checked for all attributes attached to the object.

If there is no association that has not been inspected in step 113 (all have been inspected), the detection process control means 57
The logical up / down determination means 56 determines whether the logical object immediately above the “inspection target” is a logical root (step 11).
Four).

Here, if the logical object immediately above the "inspection object" is not a logical root, the inspection object changing means 53 is instructed to change the "inspection object" to the logical object immediately above the current "inspection object". On the other hand, if it is a logical root, the second-stage inspection ends. The inspection object changing unit 53 searches the logical structure holding unit 1 and stores a logical object conforming to the instruction in the inspection object storage unit 52 (Step 115).
A signal to the effect that the command has been executed is sent to the detection process control means 57.

The detection process control means 57 performs this series of operations (steps 108 to 114) on the current “inspection object”,
If it is a logical root in 114 (after the second stage inspection is completed), “selected assignment” is changed to “selected logic”
“Layout object class”, “indivisibili
ty "or" same layout object "attribute, if it is selected, the associating means 51 will be provided with" selected logic "and" selected allocation ". , And the assignment instruction attribute name.

In response to this, the association unit 51 performs association so as to satisfy the instruction (step 116), and then sends a signal to the effect that the execution of the instruction has been completed to the detection process control unit 57.

After receiving the signal to the effect that the detection process has been completed, the detection process control means 57 sends a signal for continuing the processing to the allocation structure generating means 4, and hands over the control of the entire allocation processing to the allocation structure generating means 4 (step 117). ).

When receiving a signal indicating that backtracking has been performed, the allocation structure generation means 4 newly selects a logical object to be allocated and restarts the processing. When a signal indicating the continuation of the processing is received, the currently selected logical object and the allocated object are actually allocated, and it is assumed that the logical object has already been allocated.

In the processing procedure described above, the first-stage inspection is performed by executing steps 101 to 105, and the second-stage inspection is performed by executing steps 107 to 115.

Next, according to this embodiment, the above allocation failure example I
And II will be described in the order of the allocation failure examples I and II.

First, if a paragraph has an assignment instruction constraint of "assigning all its contents in a specific frame", the above-mentioned ODA (Office Document Editing and Exchange Architecture)
In, the logical object indicating the paragraph "layout o
The "bject class" attribute is equivalent to having a class indicating the frame as an attribute value.

Then, when the contents overflow, an allocation object different from the frame is selected by the allocation structure generating means 4 to allocate the overflow contents. At this time, in the second stage of the inspection of the detecting means 5, When the "inspection target" is "selected logic", the "layout object"
Since the "selected layout" does not come in the substructure of the layout object (that is, the frame into which the content that does not overflow) is associated with the "class" attribute, its "layout o"
You can see that the "bject class" attribute is not satisfied.

FIG. 4 shows an assignment state of a logical structure in a case where there is an assignment instruction constraint of "assigning all contents in a certain frame" to a certain paragraph, and an assignment structure being assigned to the logical structure. ing.

In the allocation state shown in FIG. 4, the detection process when “selected logic” ← logical object “section 2.1”, “selected allocation” ← allocated object “frame 2-2” is performed. This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

As is well known, in ODA, in the logical structure shown in Fig. 4, "the selected logic" = "Section 2.1"
In this case, the logical object immediately before the logical order of “selected logic” is the logical object “Chapter 2”.

(Step 101): “Object to be inspected” ← Logical object “Chapter 2” (Step 102): “Object to be inspected” = “Chapter 2”, “Selected logic” =
Since “section 2.1”, this step is “YES”, and the flow proceeds to step 107.

(Step 107): “Inspection object” ← logical object “section 2.1” (Step 108): “Inspection object” = “section 2.1” is associated with the allocation object “frame 2-1”, and has not been inspected yet. Therefore, since the condition III is satisfied, this step becomes “YES”, and proceeds to step 109.

(Step 109): “Inspection target” = Attribute name attached to “Section 2.1” is “layou
t object class ", so this step is" NO "
And the process proceeds to step 111.

(Step 111): “Selected allocation” = “frame 2-2”, “inspection target” = allocated object “frame 2-1” associated with “section 2.1”. “Assignment” is neither the same as the assigned object to which it is associated nor a lower-order object. Therefore, since the condition V is not satisfied, this step is “NO”,
Proceed to step 106. That is, backtracking occurs.

Next, in a paragraph, "assign within a specific page"
If you select a page that has two frames, a text frame and a footnote frame, to allocate this, the text frame contains all the paragraphs, If the footnote frame is empty because there is no footnote in the ODA, the logical object indicating the paragraph has a “layout object class” attribute as the class attribute value indicating the page, and the page has “ gene
rator for subordinates ", which is equivalent to having two classes, each showing a text frame and a footnote frame, connected by a SEQ term. When assigning the next logical object of the paragraph, In the first stage of the inspection, those not assigned to the substructure of the page associated with the paragraph are detected, and backtracking occurs.

FIG. 5 shows an allocation state of a logical structure in a case where there is an allocation instruction constraint of "allocation within a specific page" in a certain paragraph, and an allocation structure being allocated to the logical structure.

In the allocation state shown in FIG. 5, the detection processing in the case of “selected logic” ← logical object “section 2.2”, “selected allocation” ← allocated object “frame 3” is described in the third above. This will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

As is well known, in ODA, in the logical structure shown in Fig. 5, "selected logic" = "Section 2.2"
In this case, the logical object immediately preceding the logical order of “selected logic” is the logical object “section 2.1”.

(Step 101): “Inspection target” ← Logical object “Section 2.1” (Step 102): “Inspection target” = “Section 2.1” is “Selected logic”
= Since the object is not a higher object of “section 2.1”, this step is “NO”, and the process proceeds to step 103.

(Step 103): The assignment object “page 2” is associated with “inspection target” = “section 2.1”, and the attribute name associated with “inspection target” = “section 2.1” is “layout object class”. Therefore, since the condition I is satisfied, this step becomes “YES” and the process proceeds to step 104.

(Step 104): Assigned object “page 2”
There is an assignment object “Footnote Frame 2-2” to which nothing is assigned in the lower-level structure. Therefore the condition
Since it does not conform to II, this step is “NO” and the process proceeds to step 106. That is, backtracking occurs.

Note that the implementation in this embodiment is performed on the basis of object orientation, and for association, a special instance variable is provided in the logical object itself, and a pointer to a corresponding allocated object and a pointer to a string of an attribute name are provided. I let you.

This makes it possible to easily determine whether or not there is correspondence. Note that the association information can be realized by using a table, a hashed list, or the like.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, during the allocation process, when the selected allocation object eventually does not satisfy the allocation instruction constraint, the backtracking process can be called and the backtracking can be performed. Can be done quickly.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention as described above, during the allocation process,
When the layout structure does not conform to the layout instruction constraint, the backtracking process is called and backtracked, so that the layout process can be performed quickly and a desired document can be quickly created. There is an advantage.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus to which the document processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 in more detail, and FIG. FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the operation, and are diagrams for explaining the detection process. 1 ... logical structure holding means, 2 ... allocation structure holding means,
3 ... Constraint holding means, 4 ... Allocated structure refining means, 5 ...
Detecting means 6 Backtrack means 51 Correlating means 52 Inspection object storage means 53 Inspection object changing means 54 Empty structure judging means 55 Logical vertical relation judgment Means, 56: Assignable vertical relationship determination means, 57: Detection process control means.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Saito 3-57-6 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Granforet Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (56) References Information Processing Society of Japan 37th (late 1988) National Convention Presentation Transactions, p. 1853-1858 Fuji Xerox Technical Report No. 4 (issued on December 21, 1989), p. 14-20 Information Processing Society of Japan 40th (Early 1990) National Conference Papers Collection, p. 598-603 (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 15/20 550

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein the contents of a document having a logical structure composed of a plurality of logical objects are allocated in accordance with an allocation instruction constraint associated with the logical object and a structure generation constraint that describes candidates for a layout structure that can be generated. A document processing apparatus that generates a layout structure of a document including a plurality of layout objects; a logical structure holding unit that holds a logical structure of the document; and a layout of the document including the layout instruction constraint and the structure generation constraint. Holding means for holding a constraint condition regarding the document, and an allocation structure generating means for generating an allocation structure of the document based on the logical structure of the document held by the logical structure holding means and the constraint condition held by the constraint holding means. And an allocation structure for holding the allocation structure generated by the allocation structure generation means. Holding means, and associating means for holding an assignment object generated based on the logical object in association with the logical object given the assignment instruction constraint and an assignment instruction constraint given to the logical object, Detecting means for detecting when the allocation structure being generated by the allocation structure generating means does not satisfy the allocation instruction constraint held in the associating means; and detecting the output of the detecting means and storing the information in the constraint holding means. Discarding the allocation structure held in the allocation structure holding unit based on the set constraints, and making another allocation structure candidate that satisfies the structure generation constraint selectable, to the allocation structure generation unit And a backtrack means for instructing re-assignment.