JP3903036B2 - Document creation method and document creation apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a document processing method and apparatus provided with a scanner, and particularly includes the structure of a paper medium document that is read when image data read from the scanner is stored as an electronic document. The present invention relates to a document processing method and a document processing method that can be reflected in an electronic document.

  The most common method for copying a paper document is to use a copying machine. In recent digital copying machines, there is a read image transmission function for transmitting image data of a document read from a scanner unit as a file to a host computer (external device) connected via a network (for example, Patent Document 1).

  Also, if a manuscript is set on the scanner unit of the copying machine, the number of copies to be copied is input, and the copy button is pressed, a specified number of copies can be created. This method has a problem in that when the original read by the scanner is read obliquely, the corresponding pages of all copies are printed obliquely. Further, when copying with a copying machine, there is a problem that image quality deteriorates due to the addition of noise and black spots to the original document. Furthermore, there is a problem that unnecessary page numbers and headers / footers attached to the original document cannot be removed, and new page numbers and headers / footers cannot be added. In addition, there has been a problem in that it is impossible to perform more advanced editing of the original, such as adjusting the printing position of a specific original page. Conventionally, two methods have been implemented as a method for solving these problems.

  One is a method that is carried out by a single copying machine. A document that has been read by the scanner of the copying machine is temporarily stored in the copying machine, and the user confirms the state of the stored document to improve the above problems. Is performed, and a copy of the stored document is executed according to the print setting (for example, Patent Document 2). This method is used when skew correction and noise / black spot removal are performed automatically. However, advanced editing such as header / footer editing and page-by-page printing position adjustment is used for copying machines. The current situation is that it has not been carried out so much due to problems of operability and processing capability, or has been carried out with poor operability.

  The other is to transfer the original scanned by the scanner of the copier to the information processing device once connected to the copier, and to display the application software with advanced processing capabilities and advanced functions of the information processing device, This is a method that enables advanced editing by using an interface device with good operability such as a mouse / keyboard (for example, Patent Document 3).

  Conventionally, a high-quality copy of a paper document has been created by these two methods.

As described above, when an electronic document is generated by converting the document into electronic data by a scanner and generating the image as image data, image quality problems peculiar to a paper document such as inclination correction and density adjustment occur. In some cases, a blank page called a slip sheet is inserted in a paper input document in order to indicate a logical separation in the document.
JP 2002-132642 A JP-A-7-283933 JP 2000-165639 A

  As described above, when handling a paper manuscript in a format that inserts blank paper (interleaf) into a document and expresses the structure of the document, the data captured by the scanner is simply a sequence of digitized image data. For this reason, an electronic document simply includes one page of blank image data, and the logical structure in which the document is divided by blank paper is lost. In that case, it is necessary for the user himself / herself to perform an operation of searching for a slip sheet in the electronic document and giving the document structure to the document as a break.

  In addition, when a pay-per-use charge according to the number of prints is made for a printer or the like used for output, there is a problem that a charge is made even if nothing is printed for a blank page. In order to prevent this, a function of deleting blank pages may be provided when scanned image data is stored as a document. In this case, however, the slip sheet for indicating the document break is lost from the print result, and the electronic document cannot be logically separated using blank pages as a guide and restored as a structured document.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and by specifying a boundary page for each group of pages from the read image data, a single electronic document divided into a plurality of pages is created, It is an object of the present invention to provide a document processing method and a document processing apparatus for assigning an electronic document as a setting without leaving the boundary page as image data .

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement.

A document creation method in the document creation apparatus, wherein the image reading unit of the document creation apparatus reads image data in page units, and
A boundary page specifying step of specifying a boundary page that is a boundary of a group of pages from the image data read by the image reading step by the boundary page specifying means of the document creation device ;
A document created by the document creation unit of the document creation device based on the image data read in the image reading step, one electronic document obtained by dividing a group of pages before and after the boundary page specified in the boundary page specifying step Creation process ,
The setting editing unit of the document creation device deletes the boundary page specified by the boundary page specification step, and sets the boundary page to be inserted between the pages of the electronic document created by the document creation step. A setting editing step to be provided.

The present invention specifies a boundary page for each group of pages from the read image data, thereby creating one electronic document divided into a plurality of groups of pages, and without leaving this boundary page as image data. It is possible to provide a document processing method and a document processing apparatus to be given to the electronic document as settings.

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

[Outline of Document Processing System of this Embodiment]
The document processing system of the present embodiment can handle not only image data read by a scanner but also electronic files created by various application programs. Prior to the description of the embodiment, the background of the necessity of the document processing system of the present embodiment will be described.

  Different types of data, such as text, tables, and images captured by digital cameras and scanners, differ in the structure that defines the data and the editing operations on those data. Has been. The user uses different applications depending on the type of data, such as a character processing program for editing characters, a spreadsheet program for editing tables, and an image editing program for editing images.

  As described above, the user generally uses different application programs for each type of data. However, as a document to be created by the user, for example, a plurality of types of data such as characters and tables, characters and images, rather than a document composed of only one type of data such as characters only, tables only, and images only. Documents consisting of are more common. Therefore, in order to create a target document including a plurality of types of data, the user needs to print data for each application by using a printing function included in various applications and combine the printed materials in a desired order.

  Alternatively, there are programs called so-called office suites that form a single integrated application by various applications, and provide a function that combines data generated by each application to form a single document. When using this integrated application, the user can collect the data created by each application into one target document by a specific application included in the integrated application.

  However, when a user creates a single target document by combining printed materials from various applications, for example, in order to assign page numbers to each page, all necessary data should be printed once and put together as a document. The page number needs to be determined. Each application then writes the determined page number for each page of the document created by that application (this is called a logical page or a document page). Even if the application program has a function of assigning page numbers, if there is a discontinuous part, the user must still specify the page number for that part. When the target document page is rearranged, the page number must be reassigned accordingly. Or, it is not a change related to the contents of data, such as combining a plurality of manuscript pages into one page as a printed matter (referred to as a physical page or a print page) or changing from single-sided printing to double-sided printing. Even when the format is changed, editing and printing must be performed again by the application.

  As described above, since the application that can manage the data is different for each type of data, the user must provide an interface between the applications manually. This means that a great deal of labor is required for the user, resulting in a decrease in productivity. Furthermore, since many people are involved, errors are likely to occur.

  On the other hand, when a target document is created using an integrated application, various data can be arranged in a data state without printing out. For this reason, labor is not required as much as when a target document is created by combining printed materials. However, applications for editing and creating various data are limited to those included in the integrated application, and an application desired by the user cannot always be used. The target document created by the integrated application is a single document file, and management such as editing / output is performed in file units. Therefore, there are many restrictions due to the function of the application even when trying to set the format for a part of the document file. For example, it is necessary to change the format for each part where the format changes and to reprint. For this reason, in the point that much labor is required and productivity is low, it was not different from the method mentioned above.

  From the background described above, the document processing system of the present embodiment is a document processing system that solves these problems and also solves the problems of the present invention. Therefore, not only image data read by a scanner but also electronic files created by various application programs can be handled.

  Next, an outline of a document processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this document processing system, a data file created by a general application is converted into an electronic document file by an electronic document writer (sometimes referred to as a print data storage driver). An image read by the scanner is also converted into an electronic document file by means of a scanner driver or other application software. A bookbinding application (sometimes called a print control application) provides a function of editing the electronic document file. In this example, the general application, the scanner driver, the electronic document writer, the bookbinding application, and the electronic document despooler (sometimes referred to as a printing application) are shown separately so that the respective functions become clear. The package provided to the user is not limited to these, and may be provided as an application or graphic engine combining them. Details will be described below.

<Software Configuration Example of Document Processing System According to this Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the document processing system according to the present embodiment.

  The document processing system is realized by a digital computer 100 (hereinafter also referred to as a host computer) which is a preferred embodiment of a document processing apparatus (information processing apparatus) according to the present invention. The general application 101 is an application program that provides functions such as word processing, spreadsheet, photo retouching, drawing or painting, presentation, and text editing, and has a printing function for the OS. These applications use a predetermined interface (generally called GDI) provided by an operating system (OS) when printing application data such as created document data and image data. That is, the application 101 transmits an output command (referred to as a GDI function) in a predetermined format depending on the OS to the output module of the OS that provides the interface in order to print the created data. Upon receiving the output command, the output module converts the command into a format that can be processed by an output device such as a printer, and outputs the converted command (called a DDI function). Since the format that can be processed by the output device varies depending on the device type, manufacturer, model, etc., a device driver is provided for each device. The OS uses the device driver to convert commands and print data. A print job is generated by generating and enclosing in JL (Job Language). When using Microsoft Windows (registered trademark) as the OS, a module called GDI (Graphic Device Interface) corresponds to the output module described above.

  The electronic manuscript writer 102 is an improvement of the above-described device driver and is a software module provided for realizing the document processing system. However, the electronic document writer 102 is not intended for a specific output device, and converts the output command into a format that can be processed by the bookbinding application 104 and the printer driver 106 described later. The format after conversion by the electronic document writer 102 (hereinafter referred to as “electronic document format”) is not particularly limited as long as a document in units of pages can be expressed in a detailed format. Among substantial standard formats, for example, a PDF format by Adobe Systems, an SVG format, or the like can be adopted as an electronic document format.

  When the application 101 uses the electronic document writer 102, the electronic document writer 102 is designated as a device driver used for output, and printing is executed. However, the electronic document file as created by the electronic document writer 102 does not have a complete format as the electronic document file. Therefore, the bookbinding application 104 designates the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver, and conversion of application data into an electronic document file is executed under the management of the bookbinding application 104. The bookbinding application 104 completes the new incomplete electronic document file generated by the electronic document writer 102 as an electronic document file having a format to be described later. Hereinafter, when it is necessary to clearly identify this point, a file created by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is called an electronic manuscript file, and an electronic manuscript file given a structure by the bookbinding application is called a book file. If there is no need to distinguish between them, a document file, an electronic manuscript file, and a book file generated by an application are all referred to as a document file (or document data).

  In this way, by specifying the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver and printing the data by the general application 101, the application data is referred to as a page defined by the application 101 (hereinafter referred to as “logical page” or “document page”). .) Is converted into an electronic document format and stored as an electronic document file 103 in a storage medium such as a hard disk. The hard disk may be a local drive included in a computer that implements the document processing system of the present embodiment, or may be a drive provided on the network when connected to the network. .

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

  In this embodiment, first, print data from the general application 101 is stored in the system as an electronic document file 103 via the electronic document writer 102. This electronic document file 103 includes an intermediate file and an editing information file. The intermediate file includes content data of the printed material, setting data for printing, and the like. The content data of the printed matter is data obtained by converting data created by the user on the application into an intermediate code, and the setting data for printing is data describing how the content data is output (output format etc.) . In addition, application binding data called an editing information file for providing a user interface when the bookbinding application 104 instructs the user to edit the contents of the electronic manuscript file 103 and to output it is included. The editing information file stores not only extended data for providing a user interface but also print setting data that cannot be stored in an intermediate file. For this reason, for example, when a standardized format is used as the intermediate file, print settings that cannot be saved in that format can also be saved in the editing information file.

  The bookbinding application 104 reads the electronic document file 103. The bookbinding application 104 expands the contents of the intermediate file as a table in the memory, and if the editing information file includes specific settings that are not included in the intermediate file, the table in which the settings are expanded in the memory. To reflect. The output format of the contents of the read intermediate file can be changed, displayed, saved, and printed. The electronic document despooler 105 actually performs processing for printing.

  When the book file 103 edited by the bookbinding application 104 is printed, the bookbinding application 104 activates the electronic document despooler 105. The electronic document despooler 105 is a program module installed in the computer together with the bookbinding application, and is a module used to output drawing data to the printer driver when printing a document (book file) used in the bookbinding application. It is. The electronic manuscript despooler 105 reads a designated book file (electronic manuscript file) from the hard disk, and reads each page in a format described in the book file (electronic manuscript file), that is, a format defined by the intermediate file and the editing information file. In order to print, an output command suitable for the above-described OS output module (graphic engine) is generated and output to an output module (not shown). At that time, the driver 106 of the printer 107 used as an output device is designated as a device driver. The output module converts the output command received using the printer driver 106 of the designated printer 107 into a device command that can be interpreted and executed by the printer 107. The device command is transmitted to the printer 107, and an image corresponding to the command is printed by the printer 107.

  Further, the system of FIG. 1 includes a scanner, and an image can be read by the scanner 108 and stored as the electronic document file 103. There are two main methods for capturing an image from the scanner 108. One is a method called pull scan, which is a method of instructing scanning from the application side that receives an image. Specifically, there is a method in which the application acquires image data through the scanner driver 109. As a scanner driver, a TWAIN or ISIS compatible driver is generally used. The resolution and the number of colors can be set by the scanner driver.

  Another method is a method called push scan, in which a scan instruction is given from the scanner side. Specifically, there is a method in which the scanner places an image file on a hard disk shared over a network. In this case, the scanner needs to have a network function common to the digital computer 100 and to have a write authority for the shared folder.

  For push scan, the image file quality settings are set on the panel of the scanner itself. Common image formats include TIFF, JPEG, BMP, and PDF. On the other hand, in the case of pull scanning, the bookbinding application 104 directly acquires and reads image data from the scanner driver. In the case of push scanning, an image file placed in a predetermined folder of the digital computer 100, for example, is read. At this time, the bookbinding application 104 can monitor a folder in which the scanned image file is placed, or can receive a scan end notification from the scanner and automatically read it without waiting for user input. Alternatively, the user may instruct the bookbinding application 104 to read an image file placed on the digital computer 100.

<Hardware Configuration Example of Document Processing System of this Embodiment>
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the document processing system according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, the host computer 100 performs document processing in which graphics, images, characters, tables (including spreadsheets), etc. are mixed based on a document processing program stored in the ROM 203 or the external memory 211. The CPU 201 generally controls each device connected to the system bus 204. In addition, an operating system program or the like as a control program of the CPU 201 is stored in the program ROM or the external memory 211 in the ROM 203, and the font ROM or the external memory 211 in the ROM 203 is used for the document processing. Font data and the like are stored, and various data used when performing the document processing and the like are stored in the data ROM in the ROM 203 or the external memory 211. The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201.

  A keyboard controller (KBC) 205 controls key input from a keyboard 209 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 206 controls display on a CRT display (CRT) 210. A disk controller (DKC) 207 is a hard disk (HD) that stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, editing files, a scanner control program (scanner driver), a printer control command generation program (hereinafter referred to as a printer driver), and the like. ) And an external memory 211 such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD). An external interface (external I / F) 208 is connected to the printer 107 via the bidirectional interface (interface) 21 and connected to the scanner 108 via the bidirectional interface 22 to control communication with the printer 107 and the scanner 108. Execute the process. The NC 212 is connected to the network and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network. The printer 107 and the scanner 108 may be connected via a network.

  Note that the CPU 201 executes, for example, outline font development (rasterization) processing on the display information RAM set on the RAM 202 to enable WYSIWYG on the CRT 210. The CPU 201 opens various windows registered based on commands instructed by a mouse cursor (not shown) on the CRT 210 and executes various data processing. When executing printing, the user opens a window relating to print settings, and can set the print processing method for the printer driver including printer settings and print mode selection.

  The printer 107 is controlled by the CPU 312. The CPU 312 of the printer outputs as output information to a printing unit (printer engine) 317 connected to the system bus 315 based on a control program stored in the program ROM in the ROM 313 or a control program stored in the external memory 314. The image signal is output. The program ROM in the ROM 313 stores a control program for the CPU 312 and the like. The font ROM in the ROM 313 stores font data used when generating the output information, and the data ROM in the ROM 313 is a host computer in the case of a printer without the external memory 314 such as a hard disk. Information used above is stored.

  The CPU 312 can communicate with the host computer via the input unit 318 and can notify the host computer 100 of information in the printer. The RAM 319 is a RAM that functions as a main memory of the CPU 312, a work area, and the like, and is configured such that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 319 is used for an output information expansion area, an environment data storage area, NVRAM, and the like. Access to the above-described external memory 314 such as a hard disk (HD) or IC card is controlled by a memory controller (MC) 320. The external memory 314 is connected as an option and stores font data, an emulation program, form data, and the like. Reference numeral 321 denotes an operation panel on which operation switches, an LED display, and the like are arranged.

  The external memory 314 is not limited to one, and a plurality of external memories 314 are provided, and a plurality of external memories storing an option card and a program for interpreting a printer control language having a different language system in addition to the built-in font can be connected. May be. Furthermore, an NVRAM (not shown) may be provided, and printer mode setting information from the operation panel 321 may be stored.

  The scanner 108 is controlled by the CPU 332. The CPU 332 of the scanner inputs an image signal as input information from a reading unit (scanner engine) 337 connected to the system bus 335 based on a control program stored in a program ROM in the ROM 333. The program ROM in the ROM 333 stores a control program for the CPU 332 and the like. Information used by the CPU 332 is stored in the data ROM in the ROM 333.

  The CPU 332 can communicate with the host computer 100 via the I / F unit 338 and can notify the host computer 100 of information in the scanner. The RAM 339 is a RAM that functions as a main memory of the CPU 332, a work area, and the like, and also functions as an image memory that temporarily stores image data read by the scanner engine. The read image data is temporarily stored in the RAM 339 for each page of the sheet and transmitted to the host computer 100.

  The reading unit 337 irradiates the original image with light source light, condenses the reflected light on an image sensor such as a CCD or CMOS by an optical system, converts it into a digital signal, converts it into a digital signal, and inputs it to the IF unit 338. . Or what used CIS may be used. Further, the reading unit 337 is provided with an automatic document feeder (ADF), and has a function of conveying documents stacked on the sheet feeding unit one by one to a reading position, and automatically reads a plurality of documents. Can do. Further, the ADF has a sheet reversing function, and the front and back of one sheet can be read continuously. In that case, the image data read after reading the front side is transmitted to the host computer as image data corresponding to one page, and then the sheet is reversed and the back side is read, and the image data corresponds to image data corresponding to one page. To the host computer 100. The operation panel 331 is provided with a switch for operation by an operator, for example, a push scan operation, an LED display, and the like.

<Example format of electronic manuscript data>
Before referring to details of the editing application 104, the data format of the book file will be described. The book file has a three-layer structure imitating a paper medium book. The upper layer is called a “book”, imitating one book, and attributes relating to the book as a whole are defined. The middle layer below it corresponds to the chapter in the book and is also called “chapter”. For each chapter, attributes for each chapter can be defined. The lower layer is a “page” and corresponds to each page defined by the application program. Attributes for each page can be defined for each page. A book may contain multiple chapters, and a chapter may contain multiple pages.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a book file format. The format of this book file is represented by an editing information file. That is, FIG. 3 shows the structure of an editing information file among electronic document files. The book, chapter, and page in the book file are indicated by corresponding nodes. One book file contains one book. Since the book and chapter are concepts for defining the structure of the book, they include defined attribute values and links to lower layers as entities. The page has data for each page output by the application program as an entity. Therefore, the page includes an original page entity (original page data) and a link to each original page data in addition to the attribute value. Note that a print page when outputting to a paper medium or the like may include a plurality of document pages. This structure is not displayed by a link, but is displayed as an attribute in each hierarchy of a book, chapter, and page.

  In FIG. 3, since the book file does not have to be one complete book, “book” is generalized as “document”.

  First, the document information 401 is held at the top. The document information 401 can be roughly divided into three parts 402 to 404. The document control information 402 holds information such as a path name in the file system of the document file. The document setting information 403 holds layout information such as page layout and printing apparatus function setting information such as stapling, and corresponds to a book attribute. The chapter information list 404 holds a set of chapters constituting a document in a list format. The list holds chapter information 405.

  The chapter information 405 can be roughly divided into three parts 406 to 408. The chapter control information 406 holds information such as a chapter name. The chapter setting information 407 holds page layout information and stapling information unique to the chapter, and corresponds to chapter attributes. By having setting information for each chapter, it is possible to create a document having a complicated layout such that the first chapter has a 2UP layout and the other chapters have a 4UP layout. The page information list 408 is held in the form of a collection list of manuscript pages constituting each chapter. The page information list 408 indicates page information data 409.

  The page information data 409 is also roughly divided into three parts 410 to 412. The page control information 410 holds information such as page numbers to be displayed on the tree. The page setting information 411 holds information such as page rotation angle and page layout position information, and corresponds to an original page attribute. The page link information 412 is document data corresponding to a page. In this example, the page information 409 does not directly have document data, but has only link information 412, and actual document data is held in a page data list 413.

  FIG. 4 is a list showing an example of book attributes (document setting information 403). Normally, for items that can be defined overlapping with the lower layer, the attribute value of the lower layer is preferentially adopted. Therefore, for items included only in the book attribute, the value defined in the book attribute becomes a valid value throughout the book. However, items that overlap the lower layer have meanings as default values when they are not defined in the lower layer. However, in this example, as described later, it is possible to select whether to give priority to the attribute value of the lower layer. Each item illustrated does not specifically correspond to one item, but may include a plurality of related items.

  There are five items unique to the book attribute: bookbinding details, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break. These are items defined throughout the book. As the printing method attribute, three values of single-sided printing, double-sided printing, and bookbinding printing can be designated. Bookbinding printing is a method of printing in a format that enables bookbinding by bundling a separately designated number of sheets into two and folding the bundle. As the bookbinding details attribute, when bookbinding printing is designated, the spread direction, the number of sheets to be bundled, and the like can be designated.

  The front cover / back cover attribute includes designation of adding sheets as a front cover and a back cover when printing an electronic document file to be collected as a book, and designation of print contents on the added sheet. The index sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of index sheets with ears separately prepared in the printing apparatus as chapter breaks and designation of print contents in the index (ear) portion. This attribute can be used when a printing device used by an inserter having an insert function for inserting a sheet prepared separately from the printing sheet into a desired position, or a plurality of paper cassettes can be used. Effective in some cases. The same applies to the slip sheet attribute.

  The slip sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of a sheet supplied from an inserter or a sheet feed cassette as a chapter break, and designation of a sheet feed source when a slip sheet is inserted.

  The chapter break attribute includes designation of whether to use a new sheet, use a new print page, or do nothing in particular at the chapter break. During single-sided printing, the use of new paper and the use of a new print page have the same meaning. In double-sided printing, if “use new paper” is specified, consecutive chapters will not be printed on one sheet, but if “use new print page” is specified, consecutive chapters will be 1 It may be printed on the front and back of a sheet of paper.

  FIG. 5 is a list showing chapter attributes (chapter setting information 407), and FIG. 6 is a list showing page attributes (page setting information 411). The relationship between chapter attributes and page attributes is the same as the relationship between book attributes and lower layer attributes.

  As for chapter attributes, there are no items specific to chapters, and all items overlap with book attributes. Therefore, normally, if the definition in the chapter attribute is different from the definition in the book attribute, the value defined in the chapter attribute has priority. However, in this example, as described later, it is possible to select whether to give priority to the attribute value of the lower layer.

  Items common to only the book attribute and chapter attribute are six items: printing method, paper size, paper orientation, N-up printing designation, enlargement / reduction, and paper discharge method. As the printing method attribute, three values of single-sided printing, double-sided printing, and bookbinding printing can be specified in the book attribute, but in the chapter attribute, whether or not single-sided printing is performed only when double-sided printing is specified in the book attribute, that is, single-sided printing and Either double-sided printing can be specified, and switching between single-sided printing and double-sided printing can be set in one book. The N-up print designation attribute is an item for designating the number of document pages included in one print page. Examples of arrangements that can be specified include 1 × 1, 1 × 2, 2 × 2, 3 × 3, and 4 × 4. The paper discharge method attribute is an item for designating whether or not stapling is performed on the discharged paper, and the validity of this attribute depends on whether the printing apparatus to be used has a stapling function.

  Items unique to the page attribute include a page rotation attribute, zoom, layout designation, annotation, and page division. The page rotation attribute is an item for designating a rotation angle when placing an original page on a print page. The zoom attribute is an item for designating the scaling factor of the original page. The scaling factor is specified with the size of the virtual logical page area as 100%. The virtual logical page area is an area occupied by one manuscript page when the manuscript page is arranged in accordance with designation of N-up or the like. For example, if it is 1 × 1, the virtual logical page area is an area corresponding to one print page, and if it is 1 × 2, each side of one print page is an area reduced to about 70%.

  Attributes common to the book, chapter, and page include a watermark attribute and a header / footer attribute. A watermark is a separately designated image or character string that is printed over data created by an application. The header / footer is a watermark printed on the upper margin and the lower margin of each page. However, items that can be specified by variables, such as page numbers and date / time, are prepared in the header / footer. The contents that can be specified in the watermark attribute and the header / footer attribute are common to the chapter and the page, but the book is different from them. In the book, the contents of the watermark and header / footer can be set, and how the watermark, header and footer are printed throughout the book can be specified. On the other hand, for a chapter or page, whether or not to print a watermark or header / footer set in the book can be specified for the chapter or page.

<Example of Operation Procedure of Document Processing System of Present Embodiment>
(Book file generation procedure example)
The book file has the structure and contents as described above. Next, a procedure for creating a book file by the bookbinding application 104 and the electronic document writer 102 will be described. Creation of the book file is realized as part of the book file editing operation by the bookbinding application 104.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a procedure when the bookbinding application 104 opens a book file.

  First, it is determined whether the book file to be opened is to be newly created or is an existing one (step S701). In the case of new creation, a new book file not including a chapter is created (step S702). In the example of FIG. 3, the newly created book file is a book node that has only the book node 301 and does not have a link to the chapter node. As the book attribute, a set of attributes prepared in advance for new creation is applied. Then, a user interface (UI) screen for editing the new book file is displayed (step S704). FIG. 8 shows an example of a UI screen when a book file is newly created. In this case, since the book file has no substantial content, nothing is displayed on the UI screen 800.

  On the other hand, if there is an existing book file, the designated book file is opened (step S703), and a user interface (UI) screen is displayed according to the structure, attributes, and contents of the book file. FIG. 9 shows an example of this UI screen. The UI screen 900 includes a tree portion 901 that shows the structure of the book and a preview portion 902 that displays the printed state. The tree portion 901 displays chapters included in the book and pages included in each chapter so that a tree structure as shown in FIG. 3 can be seen. A page displayed in the tree portion 901 is a manuscript page. In preview portion 902, the contents of the print page are reduced and displayed. The display order reflects the structure of the book.

  In the opened book file, application data converted into an electronic manuscript file by the electronic manuscript writer 102 can be added as a new chapter. This function is called an electronic document import function. By importing an electronic manuscript into a book file newly created by the procedure of FIG. 7, an entity is given to the book file. This function is activated by dragging and dropping application data on the screen of FIG. 8 or FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure for electronic document import. However, a case where a document is read as image data from the scanner 108 and imported will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the application program that generated the specified application data is activated, the electronic document writer 102 is specified as a device driver, and the application data is printed out to be converted into electronic document data (step S801). When the conversion is completed, it is determined whether or not the converted data is image data (step S802). This determination can be made based on the file extension of the application data under the Windows (registered trademark) OS. For example, if the extension is “bmp”, it is Windows (registered trademark) bitmap data, if it is “jpg”, it is determined as JPEG-compressed image data, and if it is “tiff”, it is determined as Tiff format image data. it can. In the case of such image data, since it is possible to generate an electronic document file directly from the image data without starting an application as in S8010, the processing in S801 can be omitted.

  If it is not image data, the electronic document file generated in step S801 is added as a new chapter to the book of the currently opened book file (step S803). Normally, as the chapter attribute, the value of the book attribute is copied for those that are common to the book attribute, and for those that are not, the default value prepared in advance is set, but in this example, as described later, It is possible to select whether to give priority to the attribute value of the lower layer.

  In the case of image data, in principle, no new chapter is added, and each original page included in the electronic original file generated in step S801 is added to the designated chapter (step S804). However, if the book file is a newly created file, a new chapter is created, and each page of the electronic document file is added as a page belonging to the chapter. Normally, the page attribute is given an attribute value for an attribute common to the upper layer attribute, and is given for an attribute that inherits the attribute defined in the application data in the electronic document file. For example, when N-up designation or the like is made in the application data, the attribute value is taken over. In this way, a new book file is created or a new chapter is added. However, in this example, as described later, it is possible to select whether to give priority to the attribute value of the lower layer.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a procedure for generating an electronic document file by the electronic document writer 102 in step S801 of FIG.

  First, a new electronic document file is created and opened (step S901). An application corresponding to the designated application data is started, and an output command is transmitted to the output module of the OS using the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver. The output module converts the received output command into electronic document format data by the electronic document writer and outputs the converted data (step S902). The output destination is the electronic document file opened in step S901. It is determined whether or not conversion has been completed for all designated data (step S903), and if completed, the electronic document file is closed (step S904). The electronic manuscript file generated by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is a file including the substance of the manuscript page data shown in FIG.

(Book file editing example)
As described above, a book file can be created from application data. With respect to the generated book file, the following editing operations are possible for chapters and pages.
(1) New addition (2) Delete (3) Copy (4) Cut (5) Paste (6) Move (7) Rename chapter (8) Rename page number (9) Insert cover (10) Insert paper Insert (11) Insert index paper (12) Page layout for each document page.

  In addition, an operation for canceling an editing operation once performed and an operation for redoing the canceled operation are possible. Using these editing functions, for example, integration of multiple book files, rearrangement of chapters and pages in the book file, deletion of chapters and pages in the book file, layout change of manuscript pages, insertion of slip sheets and index sheets, etc. Operation becomes possible. When these operations are performed, the operation results are reflected in the attributes shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 or the structure of the book file. For example, if a blank page new addition operation is performed, a blank page is inserted at a specified location. This blank page is treated as a manuscript page. If the layout of the original page is changed, the changed content is reflected in attributes such as a printing method, N-up printing, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break. The display and operation example during editing in this example will be described in detail below.

(Book file output example)
The book file created and edited as described above has the final purpose of print output. When the user selects a file menu from the UI screen 900 of the bookbinding application shown in FIG. 9 and selects printing from the file menu, printing is output by the designated output device. At this time, the bookbinding application 104 first creates a despool table from the currently opened book file (edit information file and intermediate file) and passes it to the electronic document despooler 105. The electronic document despooler 105 converts an intermediate file, in this embodiment, a job ticket into a despool table, converts it into an OS output command, for example, a Windows (registered trademark) GDI command, and transmits it to an output module, for example, GDI. To do. The output module generates a command suitable for the device by the designated printer driver 106 and transmits the command to the device.

  That is, the graphic engine of the output module (not shown) loads the printer driver 106 prepared for each printing apparatus from the external memory 211 to the RAM 202 and sets the output to the printer driver 106. The output module converts the received GDI (Graphic Device Interface) function into a DDI (Device Driver Interface) function and outputs the DDI function to the printer driver 106. Based on the DDI function received from the output module, the printer driver 106 converts it into a control command that can be recognized by the printer, for example, PDL (Page Description Language). The converted printer control command is output as print data to the printer 107 via the interface 21 via the system spooler loaded into the RAM 202 by the OS.

  Here, the job ticket has a format used in the present embodiment as an intermediate file constituting the electronic document file 103. The job ticket is data having a structure with a manuscript page as a minimum unit. The structure in the job ticket defines the layout of the manuscript page on the paper. One job ticket is issued per job. For this reason, there is a document node at the top, and attributes of the entire document, such as double-sided printing / single-sided printing, are defined. Below that, a paper node belongs, and includes attributes such as an identifier of a paper to be used and designation of a paper feed port in the printer. Each paper node includes a node of a sheet printed on the paper. One sheet corresponds to one sheet. A print page (physical page) belongs to each sheet. For single-sided printing, one physical page belongs to one sheet, and for double-sided printing, two physical pages belong to one sheet. Each physical page has an original page arranged thereon. The physical page attribute includes the layout of the original page.

  An example of the data structure of the job ticket is shown in FIG. In printing data, a document is composed of a set of sheets, and each sheet is composed of two sides, a front side and a back side. Each side has an area (physical page) for laying out a document, and each physical page. Is composed of a set of manuscript pages which is the minimum unit. Reference numeral 1101 denotes data corresponding to a document, which includes data relating to the entire document and a list of paper information constituting the document. The paper information 1102 includes information related to paper such as paper size and a list of surface information arranged on the paper. The surface information 1103 includes data specific to the surface and a list of physical pages arranged on the surface. The physical page information 1104 includes information such as the physical page size and header / footer, and a list of manuscript pages constituting the physical page.

  The electronic document despooler 105 creates a table called a despool table for job tickets of electronic document files (corresponding to the job ticket shown in FIG. 12 as a table), and defines attributes and print settings defined in the editing information file. Accordingly, the despool table is converted into an output command to the output module.

(Example of preview display)
As described above, when the book file is opened by the bookbinding application, the user interface screen 900 shown in FIG. 9 is displayed. In the tree portion 901, a tree showing the structure of an open book (hereinafter referred to as “target book”) is displayed. In the preview section, three display methods are prepared according to the user's designation. The first is a mode called a document view that displays a document page as it is. In the document view mode, the content of the document page belonging to the book of interest is reduced and displayed. The layout is not reflected in the preview display. The second is a print view mode. In the print view mode, the document page is displayed on the preview unit 902 in a form that reflects the layout of the document page. The third is a simple print view mode. In the simple print view mode, the contents of each original page are not reflected in the display of the preview portion, but only the layout is reflected.

<Configuration example of other document processing system>
The document processing system of the above embodiment is a stand-alone system, but a book file is created and edited with substantially the same configuration and procedure even in a server client system to which this is extended. However, the book file and print processing are managed by the server.

  FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a server client type document processing system. The client document processing system has a configuration in which a DOMS (Document Output Management Service) driver 109, a DOMS print service module 110, and a DS (Document Service) client module 108, which are client modules, are added to a stand-alone system. . A document management server 1201, a print central management server 1202, and a print server 1203 are connected to the client document processing system 1200. These servers are normally connected to the client document processing system via a network, but are connected by inter-process communication that simulates communication between networks when the server also functions as a client at the same time. In FIG. 13, both the document management server 1201 and the print central management server 1202 are connected to the client, but only one of them may exist on the network. If the connected server is a document management server, the document management server client system 1201SC including the client module is the stand-alone print management server client system 1202SC including the client module. Added to document management system.

  The document management server 1201 is a server that stores book files created and edited by the bookbinding application 104. When a book file is managed by the document management server 1201, the book file is stored in the database 1211 of the document management server 1201 instead of or in addition to the local HD of the client PC. Saving and reading of book files between the bookbinding application 104 and the document management server 1201 are performed via the DS client 108 and the DS core 1212.

  The print central management server 1202 is a server that manages printing of book files stored in the client document management system 1200 or stored in the document management server 1201. The print request in the client is transmitted to the DOMSWG server module 1221 of the print central management server 1202 via the DOMS driver 109 and the DOMS print service module 110. The centralized print management server 1202 passes the electronic document data to the electronic document despooler 105 via the client's DOMS print service module 110 when printing with the client printer, and when printing with the print server 1203, the print server 1203. To the DOMS print service module 1203. For example, the centralized print management server performs a security check on the qualification of the user who issued the print request to the saved book file, and saves a print processing log. As described above, the document processing system can be realized as a stand-alone or a client-server system.

[Example of editing operation of document processing system of this embodiment]
FIG. 9 is an operation screen of the bookbinding application 104. The bookbinding application can perform function settings of the printing device such as stapling, in addition to editing such as changing the page order of documents, copying, and deleting, and can print to a designated printing device. In the left area of FIG. 9, a tree view showing the structure of the document is displayed. A document is composed of a set of chapters, and each chapter is composed of a set of manuscript pages. In the area on the right side of FIG. 9, a print preview of each page is displayed.

<Attribute Setting Example of Document Processing System of this Embodiment>
FIG. 14 shows a “detailed document setting” window 1400 of the bookbinding application 104. In this window, “document setting information 403” can be displayed / set. This window is activated from the “Detailed Setting for Document” menu in the Print Form menu on the application operation screen of FIG. 9 or the “Detailed Setting for Document” button on the toolbar. The “detailed document settings” window is a window for setting attributes that affect the entire document. This window is composed of four sheets, Page Setup, Finishing, Edit, and Paper Source, and FIG. 14 shows a state in which the Page Setup sheet is displayed. In this Page Setup sheet, settings relating mainly to layout can be performed, and settings such as paper size and orientation, N-page printing, and the like can be instructed. In this window, zoom-related check box controls 1401 and 1402 are arranged.

  FIG. 15 shows a “chapter detailed setting” window 1500 of the bookbinding application 104. In this window, “chapter setting information 407” can be displayed / set. This window is activated from the “Detailed Setting for Chapter” menu in the Print Form menu on the application operation screen of FIG. 9 or the “Detailed Setting for Chapter” button on the toolbar. The “chapter detailed setting” window is a window for setting a chapter-specific attribute. This window is composed of four sheets, Page Setup, Finishing, Edit, and Paper Source, and FIG. 15 shows a state in which the Page Setup sheet is displayed. In this Page Setup sheet, settings relating to a layout unique to each chapter can be mainly made, and settings such as paper size and orientation, N-page printing, and the like can be instructed. For the setting items that overlap between “detailed settings of document” and “detailed settings of chapter”, check box controls 1501, 1502, and 1503 of “Follow Book Attribute” are arranged. For the item group whose check box is checked, the setting value of the document is applied to the chapter. A case where this check is removed is shown in FIG. There are two types of chapter-specific settings. One is a setting item that only has a chapter. The other is a case where unique setting values different from those in the upper hierarchy document are held in the chapter hierarchy.

  FIG. 16 shows a state where the check boxes 1501 and 1502 are unchecked in “Chapter Detailed Settings” in FIG. In this case, even if the entire document uses A3 paper, the pages making up this chapter are A4 paper size. In addition, even if the layout is 1 Page Par Sheet in the document, this chapter is specified to be laid out with 4 Page Per Sheet. Since “Zoom Arrange” is checked, the setting value of the document in the upper hierarchy is used as the setting value of this chapter.

  FIG. 17 shows a “detailed page setting” window 1700 of the bookbinding application 104. In this window, “page setting information 411” can be displayed / set. This window is activated from the “Detailed Setting for Page” menu in the Print Form menu on the application operation screen of FIG. 9 or the “Detailed Setting for Page” button on the toolbar. The “detailed page settings” window is a window for setting unique attributes for each page. This window is composed of two sheets, Page Setup and Edit, and FIG. 17 shows a state in which the Page Setup sheet is displayed. In this Page Setup sheet, settings relating to a layout unique to each page can be mainly made, and settings such as a rotation angle and an enlargement / reduction ratio when placing an original page can be instructed. A check box control 1701 of “Follow Chapter Attribute” is arranged for setting items that overlap in “chapter detailed settings” and “page detailed settings”. For items for which this check box is checked, the setting value of the chapter is applied to the page. The case where this check is removed is shown in FIG.

  FIG. 18 shows a state in which the Page Rotation setting is changed in “Detailed setting of page” in FIG. The control 1701 is set to rotate and arrange so that the top of the page is left when laying out the original page. Since there is no “Follow Chapter Attribute” check box for this item, there are no duplicate setting items in the chapter or document, so the settings displayed in this window are always page setting values. If there is a check of 1701, for example, the item “Zoom Arrange” has a setting item that overlaps also in the chapter, so the setting value of the chapter is set as the setting value of the page. If the corresponding “Zoom Arrange” item in the chapter has a “Follow Book Attribute” check, the setting value of the chapter uses the setting value of the document in the upper hierarchy, so the page setting value eventually uses the setting value of the document It will be. If a corresponding item in a chapter is unchecked, it has a chapter-specific setting value, so that the page setting value uses the setting value unique to that chapter.

  The check box control information set on the setting screen may be held in a dedicated area, but is preferably held as one of the attributes in the setting information shown in FIG. In this case, an area for holding check box control information is added to FIGS. 5 and 6.

<Example of Document Editing Display in Document Processing System of Present Embodiment>
FIG. 19 shows the display format of the application when the setting value overlapping the upper layer is not used for the setting value of the upper layer, that is, when the check box controls 1501 and 1701 are unchecked.

  In the example of FIG. 19, the document is composed of two chapters, and each chapter has nine pages of document data. This is a display example when the layout of the first chapter is 4UP (also expressed as 4in1), and rotation is specified for the first page of the second chapter (10th page in the whole document). In the preview on the right side, the first to third pages show a state in which four documents are arranged on one page. Then, the state where the character “A” which is the data of the fourth page is rotated is displayed. The display format when chapter-specific settings and page-specific settings in the tree view are described. The icon 1901 for the first chapter changes to indicate that the chapter has its own settings. The icon 1902 for the first page of the second chapter changes to indicate that this page is specially set.

<Submission Method to Document Processing Device in Present Embodiment>
As described above, as a method for submitting a document as an electronic manuscript to the bookbinding application 104 that is a document processing apparatus, a document (including an image file) generated by any application on the host computer is used as an electronic manuscript. A method of converting to an electronic document format using a writer has already been considered. In the present invention, the bookbinding application 104 converts an image file read by an image reading apparatus (single scanner or multi-function peripheral having an input / output function) including a scanner unit connected to a host computer via a bidirectional interface. Provides a function to submit documents as electronic manuscripts (book files) to be handled. Hereinafter, a submission method for converting an image file read from a paper document into a book file will be described.

  As described above, there are a pull scan method and a push scan method as a method of receiving an image file read by the scanner unit with a host computer. In the pull scanning method, a scan instruction is transmitted from the bookbinding application 104 to the image reading apparatus via a scanner driver, and an image file is acquired as a response. This pull scan method is a known technique and will not be described in detail. The acquired image file is generated as a book file using an electronic document writer and submitted as a new chapter using a chapter division function described later. In the push scan method, an operation panel of an image reading apparatus as an MFP having an input / output function is used to send a destination address to which an image read by the operator is sent (to a predetermined folder in the HD of the host computer on the network). This is realized by transmitting the read image file to the specified destination address. Since this push scan method is also a known technique, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. When submitting an electronic document using the push scan method, a predetermined folder to which an image file is transmitted by push scan is periodically monitored on the host computer, and the image file is stored in the predetermined folder. When it is detected that the image has been transmitted, the image file is transferred to an electronic manuscript writer so that it is generated as a book file and submitted as a new chapter using a chapter division function described later.

  In this manner, the image file read by the image reading apparatus can be submitted to the bookbinding application 104 as a book file. Next, a chapter division method when an image file read by the image reading apparatus, which is a feature of the present invention, is submitted as a book file to the bookbinding application 104 will be described. In particular, here, a method of converting a document original divided by a slip into a book file will be described.

<Method for Digitizing Paper Medium Document in this Embodiment>
(Option when importing)
Hereinafter, the paper medium document digitization process will be described with reference to FIG. 20. Before that, first, options that can be set by the user in the paper document digitization process will be described. In the present embodiment, the operator can set processing conditions at the time of import using the user interface shown in FIGS. For these designated items, values corresponding to the designation are stored in a predetermined storage area, and are referred to during import processing.

  FIG. 33 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a dialog box for setting an import method for an image file input to a transmission destination folder of a scanned image file when the push scan method is used. This dialog is displayed and can be set, for example, by selecting an “import” item prepared in the “Print (print setting)” column of the menu of FIG. In FIG. 33, it is possible to select whether the scanned image data is imported into a book file by a bookbinding application (indicated as PM in FIG. 33) or stored in a folder by the import method 3201. Although not shown in FIG. 33, when storing in a folder, the folder can be designated. If it is specified that the file is to be imported into the book file, the bookbinding application 104 takes in the image data from the scanner and performs processing. If it is specified that the image data is to be stored in a folder, the bookbinding application 104 takes in the image data to be processed from a predetermined folder.

  The import method 3202 can select whether to add the scanned image data to an existing document (that is, a book file) or create a new book file. When adding to an existing document, the document to be added can be specified. If it is specified that the imported image data is to be added to the existing document, the existing book file is specified and opened, and then the processing of FIG. 20 is executed on the book file. Imported image data is added as a new page. If it is specified that the image data to be imported is a new document, a new book file is created prior to the procedure of FIG. 20, and then the new book file is created. Then, the process of FIG. 20 is executed.

  FIG. 34 is a UI diagram illustrating an example of a menu bar for setting automatic chapter division for a book file input to the bookbinding application when the pull scan method is used. FIG. 34 is the same window as FIG. 33, but can be input by selecting the “Process at Import” tab. In FIG. 34, when a blank page deletion check box 3301 is checked, a blank page deletion flag secured in a predetermined storage area is set. In this embodiment, if this blank page deletion flag is set during the import process, the blank page is deleted. Here, the blank page is one page of blank page in the case of single-sided reading, and in the case of double-sided reading, if two pages of consecutive odd page numbers and even page numbers are both blank pages, the two consecutive pages. It shall be said. Further, when a “do not delete continuous blank pages” check box 3302 is designated, a corresponding flag is set. When this is set, even when a plurality of blank sheets are continuous, the blank sheets are imported as they are into the book file. If the blank page deletion flag is set and this check box 3302 is not checked, for example, only one blank page is imported.

  If the chapter division check box 3303 is checked, a chapter division flag is set. If the chapter division flag is not set, the chapter division process is not performed, and all the original images to be imported are inserted into one chapter.

  When the chapter division flag is set, the division method button 3304 can be selected. As a division method, a setting for dividing a chapter on a blank page (blank page division setting) and a method for dividing an original by switching between one side and both sides can be selected. Furthermore, the “Make a blank page” (inserting sheet setting) check box 3305 can be selected when chapter division on a blank page is selected. These settings are stored in the area for each setting secured in the RAM as values indicating that. Further, these settings may be stored on the hard disk as one setting file.

  When the “Make blank paper” check box 3305 is checked, when a chapter is divided, the blank paper inserted between the chapters is deleted, and instead, the paper in the book attribute of the document is inserted. Setting (setting number 13 in FIG. 4) is set. The set contents include a slip sheet flag indicating that a slip sheet is to be inserted, and a code indicating a part for supplying the slip sheet. For example, if the printer is equipped with an optional inserter such as “same as a paper feed cassette”, a specific paper feed cassette, or the like, the inserter is designated as the code indicating the part for supplying the slip sheet. it can. Accordingly, when a blank sheet is inserted, the blank page is deleted regardless of the setting of the “Delete Blank Page” check box 3301.

  FIG. 36 is a UI diagram showing an example of a dialog box for setting detailed settings for automatic chapter division. Automatic chapter division is processing performed on a book file by selecting an existing book file and instructing the application of automatic chapter division by an operator. The settings in FIG. 34 differ from the settings in FIG. 36 in that they are referred to at the time of import, but the meanings of the check boxes are the same as those shown in FIG. FIG. 35 shows a menu screen for displaying the user interface screen of FIG. Here you can indicate whether you want to split the chapter for the whole document or for the selected chapter. For example, even if the “Chapter Division” check box 3303 in FIG. 34 is not checked at the time of import, if the chapter is divided after the import is completed, the chapter can be divided at a blank sheet insertion portion or the like.

(Import processing)
FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the procedure of import processing. The procedure of FIG. 10 is a procedure for importing a document generated by another application, whereas FIG. 20 is a procedure for importing a paper manuscript, reading the paper manuscript, analyzing the document structure, It is a flowchart which shows the whole process at the time of setting. In the present embodiment, an original read from the scanner is called a paper original, but of course includes an original printed on a sheet-like medium other than paper. The procedure of FIG. 20 is executed by the entire system including the scanner 108 and the computer 100. In particular, step 2001 is executed by the scanner, and steps 2002 to 2006 are executed by the bookbinding application 104.

  In step 2001, the paper document is digitized. In consideration of automation, a scanner with an automatic document feeder is desirable, but the type of scanner is not limited. Also, a plurality of formats such as TIFF, JPEG, BMP, and PDF can be considered as the format of the digitized data, but the present invention can be applied to any format. As described above, the document scanning processing method can be roughly classified into two types. One is a method called push scan. For example, a folder on a PC is set to be shared, and an image data file captured by the scanner is copied to the shared folder. The other is a method called pull scan, in which image data is directly received from a scanner via a scanner driver such as TWAIN or ISIS. In the case of push scan, the processes in steps 2001 and 2002 can be executed asynchronously. However, in the case of pull scan, the digitization of a document in step 2001 and the reading in step 2002 are managed by a computer as a series of processes. It is executed while synchronizing below.

  In step 2002, the bookbinding application 104 acquires information indicating the reading method. Here, it is sufficient to know whether single-sided reading or double-sided reading is used as reference information for determining slip sheets. In the pull method, this information can be acquired by negotiating the driver and the I / F. For example, in order to perform a pull scan by giving an instruction indicating whether single-sided / double-sided from the computer 100 to the scanner 108, the bookbinding application 104 can determine by reading the information for designating the single-sided / double-sided.

  In the case of push scan, if the file name created at the time of scanning is determined so that one side / double side can be distinguished, the bookbinding application 104 reads the image data file based on the file name. Thus, it is possible to automatically determine whether the data has been read on both sides or the data that has been read on one side. For example, in the case of single-sided reading, it is possible to make a determination from the file name by adding “S_” to the beginning of the file name and in the case of double-sided reading, by adding “D_”. Also, a method of scanning all pages and determining from blank pages in the data is possible. For example, it is determined as a double-sided job under conditions such as “when a blank page appears every other page” or “when there are pages where both consecutive odd and even pages are both blank pages” Other than the above, it is a method for determining that one side is used. Alternatively, instead of automatic determination, a method may be used in which a dialog screen for acquiring information is displayed to specify whether single-side reading or double-side reading is to be performed. In any method, the determination result is stored as a value such as a referenceable flag (for example, the value of the double-sided / single-sided flag secured in the RAM) for reference in a later step.

  In step 2003, digitized data (image data) is read into the system, particularly the bookbinding application 104. With the push scan method, it is possible to monitor a shared folder in which image data created by scanning a document is stored, and when the image data file is created, the system can automatically read the file. In the pull method, data can be acquired directly from the scanner driver. Based on the read image data, an electronic document file 103 is created with image data corresponding to one page of the document as one page. Details of this procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step 2004, the bookbinding application 104 performs slip sheet determination processing. Details of the processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 22, 23, and 24. When the interleaving page is determined, the process proceeds to step 2005, where the bookbinding application 104 divides the chapter of the book file before and after the determined interleaving page, and reflects the logical structure of the original in the data structure in the document. Details of this processing will be described with reference to FIG. In step 2006, the blank page is changed to “paper insertion setting” of the document. Details of this processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  Through the above procedure, the image data read from the paper document is converted into an electronic file reflecting the document structure of the paper document. The contents of this file can be displayed by the bookbinding application 104, and can also be printed. At the time of printing, if the inter-chap slip sheet is set, even if the electronic manuscript file 103 does not include a blank page that is a slip sheet, the book attribute slip sheet (document setting information 403 in FIG. 3) is used. If the setting of “insert slip sheet” is set as the setting number 13) in FIG. 4, the slip sheet is output as a blank sheet in the printed or displayed document. For this reason, in the electronic document file data display process, if there is a slip sheet setting, a blank page is inserted and displayed between chapters. In the printing process, for example, an instruction for feeding slip sheets from a cassette or inserter according to the setting is generated and inserted at a position where slip sheets are inserted, and transmitted to the printer.

  In this way, an electronic manuscript file that reproduces the read paper manuscript including its format can be generated, and a document that reproduces the original paper manuscript can be outputted as it is output.

(Electronic data reading process)
FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the digitized data reading process in step 2003 of FIG. In step 2011, the bookbinding application 104 determines whether all digitized data (image data) of a paper document has been read. Here, in the image data, one page of a paper document constitutes one file. Therefore, in the case of push scan, it is determined whether all image files in the predetermined folder have been read. In the case of pull scanning, for example, it is determined whether a reading end signal is input from the scanner. The image data is configured so that the order of the pages of the document can be determined. For example, the file names may be given in time series. Alternatively, it is possible to determine the sequence in which the files are created based on the creation time of the file attribute and regard the order as the page order. The readings at step 2012 and step 2014 are performed in the order.

  In step 2012, the bookbinding application 104 reads image data of one page (that is, one file). The reading order is, for example, a time series generated from a file corresponding to the first page. If the file is given a name indicating the page number, that number is followed. In step 2013, the bookbinding application 104 determines whether single-side reading or double-side reading is performed based on the result determined in step 2002 in FIG. If it is double-sided, in step 2014, another page of image data is read.

  In step 2015, the bookbinding application 104 determines whether the read image data is blank. Here, if double-sided reading is performed, it is determined whether both pages read in step 2012 and step 2014 are blank. If single-sided scanning is performed, it is determined whether only one page is blank.

  If it is blank, a blank page deletion flag is tested in step 2017. The blank page deletion flag is set in response to a check of the “blank page deletion” check box 3301 in FIG. If the blank page deletion flag is set, in step S2018, the bookbinding application 104 determines whether the chapter division flag is set and whether the “blank page division” is set as the division method. When the “divide chapter” check box 3303 in FIG. 34 is checked, the chapter division flag is set when “divide chapter on blank page” is selected in the division method selection field 3304 for the “blank division” setting. Set to

  As a result of the determination in step 2018, if the chapter division flag is not set, or if it is set and “Chapter division with blank page” is not selected, the blank page is discarded to delete the blank page. Therefore, the read page is left unattended, and the process proceeds to step 2011 to read the next page.

  On the other hand, even if the blank page deletion flag is set, if the chapter division flag is set and “Blank chapter division” is selected, the blank page is used for chapter division in a later step. Here, without deleting, the page read in step 2016 is added to the current chapter of interest. Since the chapter of interest does not exist immediately after reading the first page, in this case, a new chapter is generated and set as the chapter of interest. Similarly, when the read page is not a blank page or when the blank page deletion flag is not set, the page read in step 2016 is added to the current focused chapter.

  Here, an operation of adding a page to a chapter in the editing information file in the electronic document file 103 will be described with reference to the example of FIG. First, for the current chapter 405, an imported image is added as new page data to the page data list 413, and a link for the new page data is added to the page data link of the page information list 408 of the current chapter information 405. In addition, the page data of the imported image is linked to the current chapter information 405 by the page data link.

  On the other hand, a job ticket (see FIG. 12), which is an intermediate file included in an electronic document file, has a hierarchical structure but does not have a chapter structure unlike an editing information file. In the job ticket, a bundle of common sheets (also referred to as sheets) is used as sheet information 1102, and a partial sheet bundle having a common surface setting (for example, duplex printing and single-sided printing) in the bundle of common sheets. It has a structure in which the surface information 1103 is collected. Therefore, for example, when a plurality of different paper sizes are included in one document, paper information for each size is included. If the paper size and paper quality are one, the paper information is 1 even if the printing method is different. It is enough if there is one. In this embodiment, since the original images read together using the ADF function of the scanner are of a fixed size, it is sufficient for the paper information 1102 to create one piece of paper information corresponding to the first page. It is. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the job ticket hierarchy corresponding to the “chapter” of the editing information file corresponds to “face information”. Of course, this is because the paper settings are constant in this embodiment, and if the paper settings such as the paper size are different for each chapter, the job ticket hierarchy corresponding to the chapter is the paper information. Thus, the hierarchy corresponding to the chapter in the job ticket is determined in accordance with the type of attribute that is different for each chapter in the editing information file. Therefore, in this embodiment, the addition of a new page to the job ticket is as follows with reference to FIG. That is, new physical page information 1104 linked to the surface information 1103 corresponding to the current chapter is added, and new original page information 1105 linked to the physical page information 1104 is added. Then, the image data imported to the page data link of the original page information 1105 is linked as new page data.

  According to the above procedure, in step 2003, an electronic document file is created, and blank pages that are not used after this step and instructed to be deleted are deleted. In this procedure, an electronic document file may be newly created or may be added to an existing electronic document file. When added, a new chapter may be created based on the read image data, or may be added to an existing chapter. However, in FIG. 20, the description has been made assuming that a new chapter is added.

(Interleaf detection processing)
FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing a large flow of the slip sheet determination process in step 2004. First, in step 2101, it is determined whether it is single-sided reading or double-sided reading. This determination can be made at high speed by holding the processing result of step 2002 as a flag and referring to the flag. In the case of single-side reading, the process proceeds to step 2103. In the case of double-sided reading, the process proceeds to step 2102. Step 2102 is determination processing for double-sided data, and details will be described with reference to FIG. Step 2103 is a determination process in the case of single-sided reading. Details will be described with reference to FIG. Since the procedure of FIG. 22 is for dividing a chapter by using a slip sheet, it is desirable to skip the processing when the chapter division flag is not set in order to reduce the processing load.

  FIG. 23 is a flowchart illustrating in detail the slip sheet determination process during single-sided reading. In step 2201, the counter i is initialized. Here, it is assumed that the first page is the first page. In step 2202, end determination is performed. If the i-th page exists, the process proceeds to the next step. If the i-th page does not exist (exceeds the last page), the process ends. Step 2203 determines whether the i-th page is blank. The method for determining whether the scanned image is blank is not particularly limited in the present invention. If it is a blank page, the process proceeds to step 2204; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 2205. In step 2204, slip sheet determination is performed. In the case of single-sided printing, if a blank sheet is detected, the blank page is unconditionally determined to be a slip sheet, and the counter i is recorded in the slip sheet table. Then, the process proceeds to step 2205, the counter is incremented by 1, and the process returns to step 2203 again to determine the end. The slip sheet table is a table provided in a rewritable storage area such as a RAM.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating in detail the slip sheet determination process at the time of double-sided reading. In step 2301, the counter i is initialized. As in FIG. 23, one page is the top. In step 2302, end determination is performed. If the i-th page exists, the process proceeds to the next step 2303, and if it does not exist, the process ends. In step 2303, it is checked whether it is the i-th page blank page. If it is a blank page, the process proceeds to step 2304. If it is not blank, the process proceeds to step 2306. In step 2304, it is determined whether the (i + 1) th page is blank. Here, if both the i-th and (i + 1) -th pages are blank pages, both the front and back surfaces are blank, so it is determined that the page is a slip sheet, and the process proceeds to step 2305. Record the set i, i + 1). Then, the process proceeds to step 2306 and the counter is advanced by 2. By doing this, the counter is always an odd number, and it is possible to point to the surface. Then, the process returns to step 2302 to process the next data.

  It should be noted that a variation such as reporting the possibility of a scan error to the user may be implemented if the counter is incremented by 1 in step 2306 and the consecutive odd / even pages are blank in step 2305.

  In this way, if there is a blank page by scanning the electronic document file created in step 2003 from the top, the page number is registered in the slip sheet table.

(Chapter split processing)
FIG. 25 is a flowchart for explaining the details of the chapter division process in step 2005. In step 240A, the chapter division flag is tested. If the chapter division flag is not set, chapter division is not performed. If it is set, it is determined in step 240B whether or not “blank paper division” is set as the division method. If it is not blank sheet division, the chapter is divided at the boundary between both sides in step 240C. Since the present invention relates to blank paper division, further explanation of this process is omitted.

  On the other hand, if blank page division is set, the counter i is initialized in step 2401. i indicates the number of the chapter of interest. Next, the process proceeds to step 2402, and if it is not determined whether there is an i-th page, the process ends. If not completed, the process proceeds to step 2403 to check whether (i, i + 1) pairs are recorded in the slip sheet table. If it is recorded, the process proceeds to step 2405. If it is not recorded, the process further proceeds to step 2404, where it is checked whether i is recorded in the slip sheet table. If it is recorded, the process proceeds to step 2405, and if it is not recorded, the process proceeds to step 2408.

  Step 2405 is a determination for treating the first page as an exception. If the process of dividing a chapter in the case of the first page is performed, a chapter that does not include a page is created. In order to prevent this, in the case of the first page, the process jumps to step 2408 without performing the process of dividing the chapter.

  Steps 2406 and 2407 indicate processing for dividing a chapter. First, in step 2406, a new chapter is created. Chapter information 405 is created and added to the end of the chapter information list 404. In step 2407, the page information list 408 is separated at the i-th position, and the page information list of the new chapter created in step 2406 is obtained.

  Next, the process proceeds to step 2408, where it is determined whether the process is single-sided reading. If single-sided reading, the process proceeds to step 2409 and the counter is incremented by 1. If double-sided scanning is performed, the process proceeds to step 2410 and the counter is incremented by two. If it is not necessary to increase the counter at double speed in the case of both sides, 2408 to 2410 can be replaced with one step 2409. Steps 2403 to 2404 are not continuous steps, and step 2404 may be performed for single-sided reading, and only step 2403 may be performed for double-sided scanning.

  Here, an operation on the electronic document file 103 at the time of chapter division in steps 2406 and 2407 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, in step 2406, new chapter information is created for the editing information file shown in FIG. 3 and linked to the document information list 404 of the document information to which the chapter of interest belongs. As described above, the intermediate file shown in FIG. 12 does not have a chapter structure corresponding to the editing information file in the job ticket. Therefore, the hierarchy corresponding to the chapter is not necessarily constant. However, in this example, if the sheet attributes are the same between different chapters, the hierarchy of the surface information 1103 can correspond to the chapters. Therefore, for the job ticket, in step 2406, new surface information 1103 is created and linked to the paper information 1102 to which the current surface information belongs.

  Step 2407 is as follows. First, with respect to the editing information file, the data from the i-th page to the last page among the page information linked to the current chapter information is moved so as to link to the created new chapter information.

  On the other hand, for the job ticket, the data below the physical page information linked to the surface information corresponding to the current chapter is moved so as to link to the created new surface information.

  In this way, when chapter division with blank paper is selected, chapters are also divided into digitized documents for each blank paper inserted into a paper document.

(Interleaf processing)
FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating details of the slip-sheet forming process in step 2006. In step 2500, the chapter division flag is tested. If it is not set, the process is terminated. On the other hand, if the chapter division flag is set, it is determined in step 2501 whether the interleaf setting is set, that is, whether the interleaf is changed from the blank page to the paper insertion setting. If the interleaf setting has not been set, that is, if the user has set to leave a blank page as a document, the process ends. When the chapter is divided, the logical separation of the manuscript and the chapter separation are the same, and the print result is in a state where there is blank paper, so it is quite possible to choose not to change the setting. It is.

  On the other hand, if the slip sheet setting is set, that is, if the user has set to change the blank page to the slip sheet insertion setting, the process proceeds to step 2502. In step 2502, the setting for inserting a blank sheet at the chapter break is turned on. This setting is included in the document setting information 403 in FIG. 3, and is included in the “interleaf” attribute of the attribute information number 13 in FIG. In this attribute, the slip sheet setting is set. Although it is possible to specify where the interleaving paper is supplied from, in the present embodiment, the paper supply port is set so as to be supplied from the paper supply cassette for printing.

  In step 2503, a counter i for sequentially processing chapters is initialized. Counter i indicates the chapter of interest. In step 2504, it is determined whether there is an i-th chapter. If all chapters have been processed, the process is complete.

  If there are still unprocessed chapters, the process proceeds to step 2505, where it is determined whether or not single-sided reading is performed. If it is single-sided reading, the process proceeds to step 2506 to check whether the first page of the chapter is a blank page. This branching is a process for dealing with a case where no slip sheet is incorporated at the beginning of the sentence. Do not delete a page unless the first page of the chapter is a blank page. If it is determined in step 2506 that the page is a blank page, the process advances to step 2507 to perform processing for deleting the blank page at the beginning of the chapter. In step 2507, the corresponding document data is deleted from the first page information 409 and the page data list 413 of the page information list 406 of the chapter of the editing information file. Also, in the job ticket, the physical page information including the blank original page is deleted. If it is determined in step 2506 that the page is not a blank page, the process jumps to step 2510.

  If double-sided scanning is performed in step 2505, the process proceeds to step 2508, and it is determined whether the page corresponding to the first sheet of the chapter is blank as in step 2506. If it is not a blank page, the process jumps to step 2510. If it is determined in step 2508 that the page is a blank page, two pages of data are deleted from the beginning of the chapter. Similarly to step 2507, two pages of the first page information 409 are deleted from the chapter page information list, and the corresponding page data list is deleted from the document. The job ticket is the same as step 2507.

  Step 2510 determines whether the chapter of interest is the first chapter of the document. In the case of the first chapter, the process proceeds to step 2511, and the setting for not inserting the slip sheet is recorded in the first chapter. That is, among the book attributes shown in FIG. 4, the “interleaf” setting of attribute number 13 includes setting information indicating that no interleaf is inserted in the first chapter of the document. Set. In FIG. 26, nothing is done when the chapter is not the first chapter, but if it is possible to set so as not to insert the slip sheet at an arbitrary position, the counter i may be recorded as the number of the chapter where the slip sheet is not inserted.

  Then, the process proceeds to step 2512, the counter i is incremented by 1, and the process returns to step 2504 again to determine the end.

  As described above, the blank page at the beginning of the chapter is deleted, and instead, the setting of “insert slip” between chapters can be set as the document setting (book attribute).

  Reference numeral 2601 in FIG. 27 shows an example of a single-sided original in which a blank page is sandwiched. In this example, a blank page exists between the top page and the third and fourth pages. Reference numeral 2602 in FIG. 27 shows an example of electronic data created when the original of the original 2601 is scanned on one side.

  Reference numeral 2701 in FIG. 28 shows an example of a double-sided original with blank pages sandwiched therebetween. In this example, a blank page exists between the top and the second and third sheets of the document. Reference numeral 2702 in FIG. 28 is an example of electronic data created when a document 2701 is scanned on both sides. Note that the following example is an example in which chapter splitting with blank pages and interleaf settings are set.

  FIG. 29 is a screen display example when the document of FIG. 27 is read. All pages belong to one chapter. Reference numeral 2801 denotes an electronic document page (page numbers 1-1 and 1-5) corresponding to a blank page.

  FIG. 30 is a screen display example when step 2005 in FIG. 20 is completed. The chapter is divided into blank pages 1-5 between the third and fourth pages, and two chapters are created. At this point, a blank page 2901 remains.

  FIG. 31 is a screen display example at the time when step 2006 in FIG. 20 is completed. A blank page corresponding to 2701 is deleted from the manuscript and replaced with the slip sheet setting.

  FIG. 32 is an example of the paper insertion setting screen in FIG. The combo box 3101 indicates that the setting for inserting a slip sheet instead of a blank document is enabled. This setting is displayed based on the “interleaf” attribute in the document setting information (book attribute). If it is recorded in step 2511 in FIG. 26 that there is no blank paper in the first chapter, the setting value is displayed in the check box 3102 because it is set not to insert a slip sheet in the first chapter. Therefore, the check box 3102 is checked.

<Print Control Method for Interleaved Document in the Present Embodiment>
Next, details of the printing process in the electronic document despooler 105 will be described. A printing apparatus such as a printer to which the present invention can be applied has a hierarchical structure of jobs, binders, and pages, similarly to the hierarchical structure of books, chapters, and pages that a book file has. Basically, settings for a book can be applied to a job of the printing apparatus, and settings for a chapter can be applied to a binder of the printing apparatus, so that the printing apparatus can be controlled in accordance with the print settings of a document having a hierarchical structure. .

  The electronic document despooler 105 first issues a job start. Then, the book printing method (single-sided printing or double-sided printing) is set in the printing method attribute of the job. Book printing is an option as a book printing method, but in this embodiment, single-sided / double-sided printing control will be described, and bookbinding printing will be omitted. In practice, since the printing method is also set as the binder attribute, the book printing method setting has no meaning in this case. Alternatively, in the book file, only when the book printing method attribute is duplex printing, both sides of the book printing method are displayed, just as the example shows that you can set single-sided / double-sided (same as a book) as the chapter printing method. You may need to specify it. In this embodiment, the book printing method attribute is set as it is as the job printing method attribute, and control is possible in either case.

  Next, the job attributes including the printing method are issued, and the chapter number currently being processed is initialized. Next, it is determined whether or not all chapters have been processed. If processing has been completed, a job end is issued and the book printing process ends. If there are unprocessed chapters left, proceed to one chapter that is symmetrical to the process, and perform the above processing sequentially for all chapters.

  Next, the binder start is issued, the printing method of the chapter currently being processed is set in the printing method attribute of the binder, and the binder attribute including the printing method is issued. Subsequently, the printing process of each page of the chapter being processed is executed. When the printing process in the chapter is completed, the binder end is issued, and the binder issuance process is repeated until all the chapters are completed, and the single-sided / double-sided printing settings of all the chapters can be transmitted to the printer.

  The following describes how the printing process is controlled among the electronic document despooler 105, the printer driver 106, and the printer 107.

  First, the electronic document despooler 105 executes processing for generating a print job, such as CreateDC () and StartDoc (), for example, in the case of a Windows (registered trademark) OS, according to the printing processing procedure of the OS. This processing is notified to the printer driver 106 via GDI, and the printer driver 106 performs job generation processing and job attribute setting processing. Specifically, a command for instructing the printer with job attributes including job start, printing method setting, and the like is generated, and the command is transmitted to the printer 107 through an OS procedure for transmitting data to the printer.

  Next, the electronic document despooler 105 executes ExtEscape (BINDER_START) in the binder start issuing process, and notifies the printer driver 106 of the start of the binder that can specify an independent finishing attribute. Specifically, it means a notification of chapter printing start. Next, ResetDC () is executed in the binder attribute issuing process, and the binder attribute is notified to the printer driver 106. Specifically, the printer driver 106 is notified of binder attributes including chapter slip insertion and stapling settings. The slip sheet may be transmitted to the printer as a blank page. Upon receiving these processes, the printer driver 106 performs a binder generation process and a binder attribute setting process for notifying the printer 107 that the binder has started. Specifically, a command for instructing the printer with the binder attribute including the printing method setting is generated, and the command is transmitted to the printer 107 through an OS procedure for transmitting data to the printer.

  Thereafter, the electronic document despooler 105 notifies the printer driver 106 through GDI of the drawing contents of each page included in the binder, that is, the drawing contents of each document page included in the current chapter. As described above, the printer driver 106 receives the drawing contents in a form converted from GDI to DDI, converts the drawing contents into a drawing command such as PDL that can be interpreted by the printer, and transmits the drawing command to the printer 107.

  Then, the electronic document despooler 105 notifies the printer driver 106 of the end of the current binder and the start of the next binder by ExtEscape (BINDER_END) and ExtEscape (BINDER_START), respectively. Since these two notifications are intended to notify the binder boundary, they can be combined into a single notification notifying the binder boundary.

  In this way, the electronic document despooler 105 repeats the above process for the number of chapters. Finally, the electronic document despooler 105 follows the printing process procedure of the OS, for example, EndDoc () or the like if it is a Windows (registered trademark) OS. Execute processing to end the print job. This process is notified to the printer driver 106 via GDI, and the printer driver 106 performs a job end process. Specifically, a command for instructing the printer to end the job is generated, and the command is transmitted to the printer 107 through an OS procedure for transmitting data to the printer.

  Here, as a means for the electronic document despooler 105 to notify the printer driver 106 via GDI, specific APIs such as ExtEscape () and ResetDC () have been described as examples. However, the electronic document despooler 105 and the printer driver 106 may It goes without saying that the same processing can be realized using means other than this API as long as the printing processing can be executed synchronously.

  By such processing, the printing method (single / double-sided) set for each chapter in the book file is issued to the printer as a binder attribute, and can be performed while switching single-sided / double-sided printing. Inserting slip sheets set for each document in a book file can be performed as a binder attribute, or when a blank page is reproduced and issued to a printer, inserting slip sheets for each chapter.

  As described above, in the document processing system according to the present embodiment, a document including a slip sheet can be scanned at the time of scanning so that the document of the paper document can be digitized as it is, and at the same time, the amount of data can be reduced by deleting the blank sheet can do.

  In the flowchart shown in the present embodiment, before and after the processing can be switched as long as the processing is not completed.

Further, the present invention can be applied to a system (copier, printer, facsimile machine, etc.) consisting of a single device even if it is applied to a system consisting of a plurality of devices (eg, host computer, interface device, reader, printer, etc.). You may apply.

  In addition, an object of the present invention is to store a storage medium storing program codes of software (procedures of FIGS. 20 to 26) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments by a computer of a system or apparatus (or CPU or MPU). It is also achieved by reading and executing the program code stored on the medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, or the like is used. be able to.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

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

  In this embodiment, chapters are divided using blank sheets as interleaving sheets. However, a sheet on which a fixed image is described, or a sheet having a different size from other parts as long as it is a scanner that can continuously read different size originals. You can also insert a page that indicates the boundary at the chapter boundary.

  In the present embodiment, since the electronic document has a structure called a chapter, the structure of the original is represented by creating individual chapters. However, if the document shows the structure of a chapter by setting a certain flag in the information on the last page of a part such as a chapter, for example, the flag is set by slipping and the structure of the paper document is changed to an electronic document. It can be expressed as

  In this manner, when a slip sheet is detected in a document, the document hierarchical structure can be reproduced in the electronic manuscript file by creating chapters by dividing the document hierarchical structure at the position of the slip sheet. Further, by replacing the blank page document with the slip sheet insertion setting, it is possible to prevent charging for a page or paper on which nothing is printed at the time of printing. Further, by replacing the blank page original with the slip sheet insertion setting, it is possible to remove the blank original which is unnecessary in the structure of the document.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration example of a stand-alone document processing system according to the present exemplary embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example which implement | achieves the document processing system of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the structure of a book file. It is a figure which shows the list of book attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of chapter attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of page attributes. It is a flowchart which shows the example of a procedure which opens a book file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening a new book file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening the existing book file. It is a flowchart which shows the example of a procedure which imports an electronic manuscript file into a book file. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure for converting application data shown in Step 801 of FIG. 10 into an electronic document file. It is a figure which shows the example of the data structure used when performing printing and a display. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration example of a client server type document processing system. It is a figure which shows the example of the dialog window which performs the setting of the whole document which is the highest hierarchy of a data structure. It is a figure which shows the example of the dialog window which performs the setting of the chapter which is the intermediate | middle hierarchy of a data structure. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example in which unique attributes are set in the dialog window of FIG. 15. It is a figure which shows the example of the dialog window which performs the setting of the page which is the lowest hierarchy of a data structure. It is a figure which shows the example of a change of the setting value in the dialog window of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a display when the setting peculiar to a chapter or a page is performed. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the whole process of this invention. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of digitization processing of a document. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a slip sheet determination process. It is a flowchart explaining the detailed process of FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the detailed process of FIG. It is a flowchart explaining the flow of the process which edits the hierarchical structure of a chapter. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing for replacing a blank document with document settings. This is an example of a document including blank paper and an image captured by a scanner. This is an example of a document including blank paper and an image captured by a scanner. It is an example of a display of the electronic document to which this invention is not applied. It is an example of a display of the electronic document after applying the step of this invention partially. It is an example of a display of the electronic document after applying a part of this invention. It is an example of the paper insertion setting screen of the electronic document after applying this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen for selecting an import method. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen for selecting the processing option at the time of import. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen for instruct | indicating the chapter division | segmentation of a document. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen for selecting the option in the chapter division | segmentation of a document.

Claims (21)

A document creation method in a document creation device,
An image reading step in which the image reading means of the document creation device reads image data in units of pages;
A boundary page specifying step of specifying a boundary page that is a boundary of a group of pages from the image data read by the image reading step by the boundary page specifying means of the document creation device ;
A document created by the document creation unit of the document creation device based on the image data read in the image reading step, one electronic document obtained by dividing a group of pages before and after the boundary page specified in the boundary page specifying step Creation process ,
The setting editing unit of the document creation device deletes the boundary page specified by the boundary page specification step, and sets the boundary page to be inserted between the pages of the electronic document created by the document creation step. A document creation method comprising: a setting editing step to be given .   The document creation method according to claim 1, wherein the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying step is a blank page. If read continuously image data on the front and back of the document by the image reading step, the border page specified by the boundary page specification process, according to claim 1, characterized in that a blank page contiguous front and back Document creation method. Setting, document creation method according to claim 1, characterized in that the insertion setting of the blank pages to be imparted in said setting editing step. In the setting editing step, loaded if not the leading image data is a blank page of a document according to claim 1, wherein at the head, characterized in that additionally impart setting to the effect that not inserted boundary pages How to make. The division setting means of the document creation device specifies the boundary page, sets division into a group of pages in the electronic document before and after the boundary page, and sets the boundary page on the paper when divided. The document creation method according to claim 1, further comprising a division setting step for setting to change to insertion setting. A page in the electronic document when the output means of the document creation device outputs the rendering contents of each page data of the electronic document to a printer driver and the setting to insert the boundary page is given. The document creation method according to claim 1, further comprising an output step of outputting the insertion of the boundary page to the printer driver between the groups. Image reading means for reading image data in page units,
Boundary page specifying means for specifying a boundary page for each group of pages from the image data read by the image reading means;
A document creating means for creating one electronic document obtained by dividing a group of pages before and after the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying means based on the image data read by the image reading means ;
Setting editing means for deleting a boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying means and giving a setting to insert a boundary page between a set of pages in the electronic document created by the document creation means; A document creating apparatus comprising:   9. The document creation apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying unit is a blank page. If read continuously image data on the front and back of the document by the image reading unit, a boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying means, according to claim 8, wherein it is a blank page contiguous front and back Document creation device. 9. The document creation apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the setting given by the setting editing means is a blank page insertion setting. 9. The document according to claim 8, wherein if the read first image data is not a blank page, the setting editing means additionally gives a setting not to insert a boundary page at the top. Creation device. A division for specifying the boundary page, setting to divide into a group of pages in the electronic document before and after the boundary page, and setting to change the boundary page to the paper insertion setting when divided The document creating apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a setting unit. Inserting boundary pages between pages in the electronic document when the rendering contents of each page data of the electronic document are output to a printer driver and the setting to insert the boundary pages is given. 14. The document creation apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising output means for outputting the information to the printer driver. Image reading means for reading image data in page units,
Boundary page specifying means for specifying a boundary page for each group of pages from the image data read by the image reading means;
A document creating means for creating one electronic document obtained by dividing a group of pages before and after the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying means based on the image data read by the image reading means ;
A setting editing unit that deletes the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying unit and gives a setting to insert a boundary page between a group of pages in the electronic document created by the document creating unit;
Computer program for causing a computer to function with. 16. The computer program according to claim 15, wherein the boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying means is a blank page. 16. The boundary page specified by the boundary page specifying unit is a blank page continuous on the front and back when the image reading unit reads image data on the front and back sides of the document continuously. Computer program. 16. The computer program according to claim 15, wherein the setting given by the setting editing means is a blank page insertion setting. 16. The computer according to claim 15, wherein the setting editing means additionally gives a setting not to insert a boundary page at the head when the read head image data is not a blank page. program. A division for specifying the boundary page, setting to divide into a group of pages in the electronic document before and after the boundary page, and setting to change the boundary page to the paper insertion setting when divided 20. The computer program according to claim 15, further causing a computer to function as setting means. Inserting boundary pages between pages in the electronic document when the rendering contents of each page data of the electronic document are output to a printer driver and the setting to insert the boundary pages is given. The computer program according to any one of claims 15 to 20, further causing a computer to function as output means for outputting the information to the printer driver.

Images