JPH0447359A - Method and device for generating text area in documentation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep the interval of rows constant in the range of continuity of character strings by permitting arrangement of the character string beyond a division line in the case of adjacency to another small area and inhibiting this arrangement in the case of adjacency to a non-text area. CONSTITUTION:A text area A is automatically divided based on a non-text are B arranged in an arbitrary place to the text area A, and they are unified on demand, and priority levels adapted to a document format are given to plural obtained small areas, and the character string is successively displayed in respective small areas based on priority levels. A variable flag to permit display of the character string beyond the boundary between small areas is automatically turned on when they are adjacent to each other, and the character string is displayed beyond the boundaries with respect to the area where the variable flag is turned on. Thus, trouble that intervals of rows are varied by division to small areas is prevented to generated a document of high quality.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention provides a document creation device that creates a document by appropriately arranging a text area where character strings are placed, a graphic area where figures are placed, and an image area where images are placed. The present invention relates to a text area creation method and apparatus suitable for.

<Prior art> In recent years, relatively small computers have been used to create various documents, as well as edit and print the created documents.
So-called desktop publishing (hereinafter referred to as DTP)
) has been attracting attention, and research and development is being conducted to expand the scope of application of DTP and improve the quality of documents.

Specifically, it is possible to freely mix character strings that make up sentences, figures made up of vector data, images made up of dot data such as photographs and illustrations, and , research and development is being conducted to enable character strings to be placed only in areas other than illustrations.

As a method to satisfy such a request, for example, as shown in Fig. 8 (A) to (C), areas in which character strings can be placed (hereinafter referred to as text areas) are sequentially created and placed. By doing this, as shown in Figure 9 (D), there is a method of creating a text area that does not overlap with a non-text area (graphic area or image area), and ■ For example, as shown by the solid line in Figure 9 (A) When a non-text area is set as shown by the broken line while a text area is set, the text area that does not overlap with the non-text area is set based on the boundary of the non-text area, as shown in (B) of the same figure. A method of dividing the data into two parts has been proposed.

In either method, it is possible to mix character strings with figures or images, and to create documents of a certain degree of quality.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In the document creation method described in (■) above, the operator creates the necessary number of text areas and creates text areas that do not overlap with non-text areas. It is not only inconvenient that the order in which the columns are output must be set, and when performing batch processing, it takes a considerable amount of time to create the body area when each page has the same format. the position, size, and location of the non-text area;
There is an inconvenience that it takes considerable effort to modify the text area when the number etc. is changed. Furthermore, since character strings can be output only within each body area, it is not possible to output character strings across adjacent body areas, and as a result, line spacing changes at the boundaries between body areas. There is also the disadvantage that the quality of the document is degraded.

In the above document creation method (■), the main text area is divided and the output order of character strings is automatically assigned.
Although the operator's effort can be greatly reduced, since character strings can only be output within each divided body area, it is not possible to output character strings across adjacent body areas, and as a result, There is an inconvenience that the line spacing changes at the boundary between body areas, resulting in a reduction in document quality. Furthermore, there is also the disadvantage that when a plurality of non-text areas exist, the text area is subdivided into an extremely large number of text areas.

<Object of the invention> This invention was made in view of the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for creating a text area in a document creation device that can easily obtain a text area that does not overlap with a non-text area and maintain high document quality even in the presence of a non-text area. There is.

Means for Solving the Problem> In order to achieve the above object, the text area creation method of the first invention is based on the outline of the non-text area arranged at a predetermined position, It divides the received text area, assigns a ranking that matches the format of the text to the divided small areas, and also determines whether the small area is adjacent to other small areas with the dividing line as the boundary. A method of determining the type of text and allowing the placement of character strings that cross the dividing line if they are adjacent to other small areas, and prohibiting the placement of character strings that cross the dividing line if they are adjacent to non-text areas. It is.

However, if the adjacent small areas obtained by dividing have the same width along the dividing line, the corresponding small areas can be integrated to form a larger small area. It is preferable that there be.

The text area creation device of the third invention divides the text area affected by the non-text area or the small area obtained by dividing the text area based on the outline of the non-text area arranged at a predetermined position. A dividing means is used to integrate the corresponding small areas to create a larger small area, provided that the adjacent small areas obtained by dividing have the same width along the dividing line. an integrating means for determining whether the small area is adjacent to another small area with the dividing line as a boundary; a discriminating means for discriminating;
String placement control that allows placement of strings that cross the dividing line when adjacent to other small areas, and prohibits placement of strings that cross the dividing line when adjacent to non-text areas It includes means.

<Operation> The text area creation method of the first invention divides the text area affected by the non-text area based on the outline of the non-text area when the non-text area is arranged at a predetermined position. , it assigns a ranking that matches the format of the text to be created to the divided small areas, so when a non-text area is placed, there is no need for special work by the operator, and the main text area can be divided into multiple small areas. It can be divided into areas and assigned a ranking. Then, it is determined whether the small area is adjacent to another small area using the dividing line as a boundary, and if it is adjacent to another small area, the placement of the character string beyond the dividing line is allowed, and the If the text area is adjacent to the main text area, it is prohibited to place a character string that crosses the dividing line. Therefore, if the small areas are adjacent to each other, a line composed of character strings that is affected by the dividing line is prohibited. This eliminates the inconvenience of varying spacing between lines, maintains constant line spacing within a range of continuous character strings, and creates high-quality documents.

According to the main text creation method of the second invention, if adjacent small areas obtained by dividing have the same width along the dividing line, the corresponding small areas are integrated. Therefore, even if multiple non-text areas are arranged, it is possible to prevent the main text area from being divided more than necessary, prevent the occurrence of small areas that are too small, and even You can speed up document creation. Furthermore, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience that inappropriate rankings are assigned due to unnecessary division.

With the text creation device of the third invention, the text area affected by the non-text area or the small area obtained by dividing the main text area is divided based on the outline of the non-text area arranged at a predetermined position. If the adjacent small areas obtained by dividing and dividing by the means have the same width along the dividing line, the corresponding small areas are integrated by the integrating means. Make it a larger subregion. Then, the divided or integrated small regions are assigned a rank suitable for the format of the text to be created by the rank assigning means. After that, the determining means determines whether or not the small area is adjacent to another small area using the dividing line as a boundary, and if the small area is adjacent to another small area, the character string arrangement control means crosses the dividing line. The arrangement of character strings is allowed, but when adjacent to a non-text area, the arrangement of character strings beyond the dividing line is prohibited by the character string arrangement control means.

Therefore, when a non-text area is placed, the text area can be divided into multiple small areas and ranked, without requiring any special work by the operator, and each small area can cross the dividing line. Since the character string placement control means controls whether or not to allow the placement of character strings, it eliminates the inconvenience that the spacing between lines composed of character strings changes due to the influence of dividing lines, and allows character strings to be continuous. You can create high-quality documents by maintaining constant line spacing within the specified range.

<Example> Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings showing examples.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the text area creation method of the present invention, in which the drawing area,
The main text area is divided based on non-text areas such as image areas, and in step (■) the divided small areas are integrated, and in step (2), the order for character string arrangement for the plurality of obtained small areas is determined. and
In step ■, it is set for each small area whether or not to allow the placement of character strings that cross the dividing line, and in step ■, the predetermined character strings are sequentially written in multiple small areas, together with the data in the non-text area. By displaying, a document consisting of character strings, figures, and/or images is displayed.

Each of the above steps will be described in detail below, taking as an example a case where a character string is written horizontally.

FIG. 2(A) is a flowchart explaining step 2 in FIG. 1 in detail. (used as a concept)
It is determined whether or not a non-text area exists inside the text area, and if it is determined that there is, it is determined whether or not the upper contour line of the non-text area exists in step ■. , only when it is determined that the upper contour line exists, the text area is divided by straight lines that include the corresponding contour line in step ■, and in step ■ it is determined that the lower contour line of the non-text area exists. Only when it is determined that the lower contour line exists, the main text area is divided into straight lines including the corresponding contour line in step
In step ■, it is determined whether or not the left side contour of the non-text area exists, and only when it is determined that the left side contour exists, the corresponding contour line is added to the body text area in step ■. In step ■, it is determined whether or not the right contour line of the non-text area exists, and only when it is determined that the right contour line exists, the text area is divided in step ■. is divided by a straight line that includes the corresponding contour line, and in step [phase] it is determined whether processing has been completed for all text areas, and it is determined that there are text areas for which processing has not been completed. In this case, the determination in step (2) is carried out again, but if it is determined that the processing for all text areas has been completed, the series of processing is directly terminated. Incidentally, if it is determined in step (2) that there is no non-text area within the text area, the determination in step [phase] is directly performed. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 2(B), if a non-text area B is arranged for a text area A,
The text area is vertically divided by a straight line including the upper contour line of the non-text area B, and then the divided text area is divided by the left contour line of the non-text area B.

FIG. 3(A) is a flowchart illustrating step (2) in FIG. 1 in detail. It is determined whether the coordinate values match or not, and in step ■ it is determined whether the widths of both small areas match, and if it is determined that both the coordinate values and the widths match, the lower side is determined in step ■. Deleting the small area, expanding the upper small area to the lower outline of the deleted small area in step ■, determining whether or not processing has been performed on all the small areas in step ■, If it is determined that all the small areas have been processed, the series of processes ends. However, if it is determined that there are small areas that have not been processed, the process returns to step ■. Make a judgment. Furthermore, if it is determined in step (2) that there is no match, the determination in step (2) is directly performed. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3B, there are two non-text areas Bl for the main text area A.

As a result of arranging B2, multiple small areas C1,
When C2...C8 is generated, the small area CB
, C7 are both determined to match in the determination of step ■■, so as shown in FIG.
7 are integrated into one small area.

FIG. 4(A) is a flowchart illustrating step ■■ in FIG. 1 in detail. Whether the end positions are both on the upper side,
It is determined whether the arrangement start position and the arrangement end position of the character string in the small area S are both on the upper side, and if it is determined that the small area a is on the upper side, the small area a is given priority in step ■. If it is determined that the small area A is on the upper side, the priority of the small area A is set higher than the small area A in step (3).

Then, if it is determined that both are No in step ■■, it is determined in step ■ whether or not the arrangement start position of the character string in small area a is on the left side, and it is determined that it is on the left side. In this case, in step ■, the small area a
On the other hand, if it is determined No in step (2), the priority of small area (A) is set higher than that of small area (a) in step (2). Furthermore, after any of the processes in step ■■■■ is performed, it is determined in step ■ whether or not the processing for all small areas has been completed, and if it has been completed, in step The priorities for all small areas are determined based on the magnitude relationship of the priorities thus determined, and the series of processing is completed. Conversely, if it is determined that there is a small area for which processing has not been completed, the next small area is extracted in step [phase], and the determination in step (2) is performed again. Therefore, when seven small areas are obtained as shown in Figure 3(C), priority is given to each small area by giving priority to the left and top, so as shown in Figure 4(B), , small areas C1, C2°, . . . C8 are given priority in this order.

FIG. 5(A) is a flowchart illustrating step (2) in FIG. 1 in detail. However, as information for each small area,
As shown in Fig. 5(B), area information indicating the starting point and ending point of the divided area, and information indicating the starting point and ending point when performing processing between small areas, margin processing within a small area, etc. It includes display information and a variable flag indicating that it is necessary to display outside the area.

In step ■■, it is determined whether a non-text area is adjacent to the right or left side of the extracted small area, and if it is determined that a non-text area is adjacent to either side, In step ■■, it is determined whether a non-text area is adjacent above or below the small area. If it is determined that a non-text area is adjacent to either the left or right side, and that no non-text area is adjacent to the vertical side, the variable flag is turned ON in step In other cases, the variable flag is turned OFF in step (3). After the processing in step ■ or step ■ above is performed, in step Set equal and step ■
It is determined whether or not all the small areas have been processed in , and if it is determined that all the small areas have been processed, the series of processes is terminated, but N
If it is determined as o, the next small area is extracted in step (2), and the process of step (2) is performed again. Therefore, if the text area A is divided into three small areas C1, C2, and C3 by the non-text area B as shown in FIG. The variable flags of the other small areas C1 and C3 are turned OFF.

Regarding the upper small area C1, considering that it will be displayed outside the small area C2, the upper side of the area indicated by the broken line is set to the lower side of the actual display area.

Also, if the non-text area is set to the same width as the full width of the main text area or small area, for the small area below the non-text area, set the top edge of the actual display area based on the top edge of the area. The user may select either one of the following processes: or correcting the character string to the position where it would be displayed if it were assumed that the character string was also displayed in the non-text area. Note that this selection may be left to the operator's manual power, but it may also be made automatically depending on whether it is one-column or two-column.

If the correction is automatically selected in accordance with the two-column structure, the line positions of the left and right character strings can be aligned, and the quality of the document can be improved.

FIG. 6(A) is a flowchart explaining step ■ in FIG. 1 in detail. In step ■, only one line of character string is displayed, and in step The process in step (2) is repeated until it is determined that If it is determined that it has exceeded the
In step ■, it is determined whether or not the variable flag is ON. If the variable flag is ON, it is determined in step ■ whether one line can be displayed. If possible, step ■ Displays only one line of character strings, sets the value of the lower side included in the actual display information in step ■, determines whether processing of all small areas has been completed in step ■, and if it has completed. The series of processing is completed, but if it has not been completed, the next small area is extracted in step (2), and the processing in step (2) is performed again. Further, if the determination in step (2) or step (2) is No, the process in step (2) is immediately performed without displaying the character string. Therefore, as shown in Figure CB),
If a small area that is sufficiently wide (able to display one or more lines of text) is adjacent to the bottom of the small area where the variable flag is ON, the string will extend beyond the lower border of the small area where the variable flag is ON. On the other hand, if there is a narrow small area (one line of text cannot be displayed) adjacent to the small area where the variable flag is ON, as shown in FIG. variable flag is O
Character strings cannot be displayed beyond the boundaries of N small areas.

As is clear from the above description, in this embodiment, the text area is automatically divided based on the non-text area arbitrarily placed with respect to the text area, and is integrated as necessary.
Priorities matching the document format are assigned to the obtained plurality of small areas, and character strings can be sequentially displayed in each small area based on the priorities. Then, when small areas are adjacent to each other, a variable flag that allows character strings to be displayed across the boundaries of the areas can be automatically turned ON, and for areas where the variable flag is ON, character strings can be displayed across the boundaries. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the inconvenience of fluctuations in line spacing due to division into small areas and achieve high-quality document creation.

Note that this embodiment has been described for the case of creating a horizontally written document, but when creating a vertically written document, it is sufficient to adopt left and top priority instead of top and left priority, and the above embodiment Similarly, high-quality documentation can be achieved.

<Embodiment 2> FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the text area creation device of the present invention, which includes a non-text area holding unit (1) that holds the coordinates of a non-text area set and input from the outside; , a dividing unit (2) that divides a small area affected by the non-text area out of the main text area or the divided small area based on the coordinates of the non-text area read from the non-main text area holding unit (1);
An integration determining unit (3) that determines whether or not adjacent small regions can be integrated among the divided small regions, and an integration unit that integrates the small regions determined to be able to be integrated to form a larger small region. part (4), a ranking part (5) that assigns a ranking that matches the format of the document to be created to the divided or integrated small areas, and a ranking part (5) that assigns a ranking that matches the format of the document to be created to the divided or integrated small areas; An adjacency determining unit (6) that determines whether or not the small area is adjacent to another small area as a boundary, and determines whether the other adjacent small area has a size that can display at least one line of character strings. displayability determination unit ■, the determination result indicating that the area is adjacent to another small area, and at least a
It includes a character string arrangement control section (8) that allows the arrangement of character strings beyond the dividing line in the corresponding small area based on the determination result indicating that the area is large enough to display lines.

The dividing unit 0 calculates the upper, lower, left, and right contour lines based on the coordinates of the non-text area, and based on the calculated contour lines, the division unit 0 calculates the upper, lower, left, and right contour lines in the order that fits the document format (in the case of horizontal writing, top, left priority,
In the case of vertical writing, priority is given to the right and top), and the text area or divided small area affected by the non-text area is divided into a plurality of rectangular areas.

The integrated discrimination unit (3) extracts small areas adjacent to each other in a direction determined based on the document format (top and bottom for horizontal writing, left and right for vertical writing), and extracts small areas in a direction orthogonal to the above direction. It is determined whether or not integration is possible based on whether or not the sizes are equal.

The integrating unit (4) deletes one of the small areas determined to be able to be integrated, and expands the other small area to include the deleted small area. Note that it is preferable that the small area to be deleted be the lower small area in the case of horizontal writing, and the small area on the left side in the case of vertical writing, but the reverse may be possible.

The ranking section (5) sorts the small areas obtained by dividing and merging in an order compatible with the document format, and assigns a ranking for displaying character strings to each small area in accordance with the sorting result. It is something to do.

The adjacency determination unit (6) determines whether or not the small areas are adjacent to each other in a direction orthogonal to the direction determined based on the document format, and if it is determined that the small areas are adjacent, there is no For small areas that are not adjacent to the main text area, a variable flag indicating that it is necessary to display outside the area is set to ON.

The character string arrangement control section (8) displays the character string in the corresponding small area based on the variable flag and the displayability determination result.

The operation of the text area creation device having the above configuration is as follows.

Once the non-text area is set, the upper, lower, left, and right contour lines are determined for each non-text area, and the text area or small area that is affected by the non-text area is determined.
The corresponding main text area or small area is divided in the order determined by the document format. Note that the division based on the division portion is repeated multiple times if there are multiple non-text areas.

Then, when the division by division part (2) is completed,
The integration determining unit (3) determines whether or not each of the divided small regions can be integrated, and the integrating unit (4) performs integration only for the small regions determined to be possible to integrate, Get a larger subregion.

After all the small areas that can be integrated have been integrated, a ranking section (5) assigns a ranking that matches the format of the document to be created. In addition, the adjacency determination unit (6) determines whether or not the finally obtained small area is adjacent to another small area with the dividing line as a boundary, The displayability determining unit q) determines whether or not the area is large enough to display lines. Then, when sequentially displaying character strings in each small area based on the assigned rank, the determination result indicating that the small area is adjacent to another small area and the other adjacent small area display at least one character string. If a determination result indicating that the area is large enough to display a line is obtained, the string placement control unit (8) allows placement of the string beyond the dividing line for the corresponding small area. If the above determination result is not obtained, the character string is displayed within a range that does not exceed the boundary of the small area.

Therefore, character strings can be displayed only in the range excluding the non-text area, and there is almost no change in line spacing due to the presence of the non-text area, and high-quality document creation can be achieved.

Furthermore, even if the position, size, or number of non-text areas changes, the above series of operations is performed automatically, so there is no need for the operator to perform any work other than setting non-text areas, improving work efficiency. can be significantly improved.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, the first invention allows, when a non-text area is arranged, to divide the text area into a plurality of small areas and assign ranks without requiring any special work by the operator. At the same time, it eliminates the inconvenience that when small areas are adjacent to each other, the spacing between lines made up of character strings changes due to the effect of dividing lines, This has the unique effect of maintaining constant spacing and creating high-quality documents.

In the second invention, even when multiple non-text areas are arranged,
This has the unique effect of preventing the text area from being divided more than necessary, preventing the generation of too small small areas, and increasing the speed of document creation. Furthermore, it has the unique effect of preventing inappropriate rankings caused by the occurrence of small areas that are too small.

The third invention is that when a non-text area is arranged, the text area can be divided into a plurality of small areas and ranked, without requiring any special work by an operator, and each small area can be ranked. Since the character string arrangement control means controls whether or not to allow the arrangement of character strings that cross the dividing line, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience that the spacing between lines composed of character strings changes due to the influence of the dividing line. It has the unique effect of maintaining constant line spacing within a range of consecutive character strings and creating high-quality documents.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the text area creation method of the present invention, FIG. 2(A) is a flowchart explaining step 2 in FIG. 3(A) is a flowchart illustrating step 1 in FIG. 1 in detail; 3(B) and 3(C) are schematic diagrams illustrating area integration operation; is a flowchart explaining step ① in Fig. 1 in detail, Fig. 4 (B) is a schematic diagram showing an example of prioritization, and Fig. 5 (
A) is a flowchart explaining step 1 in Figure 1 in detail, Figure 5 (B) is a schematic diagram showing information for each small area, and Figure 5 (C) is a diagram showing the arrangement of character strings that cross the dividing line. A schematic diagram showing an example of setting whether to allow or not for each small area, Figure 6 (A) is a flowchart explaining step ■ in Figure 1 in detail, Figure 6 (B) is when the variable flag is ON 6(C) is a schematic diagram showing the case where the variable flag is ON and the adjacent small area is narrow. FIG. 7 is the main text area of the present invention. A block diagram showing an embodiment of a creation device; FIGS. 8 and 9 are schematic diagrams illustrating conventional examples of a text area creation method, respectively. ■...Dividing section, (3)...Integration discriminating section, (4)...
・Integration unit, (5)... Ranking unit, (6)... Adjacency determining unit, (7)... Displayability determining unit, (8)... Character string arrangement control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an apparatus for creating a document by appropriately arranging a text area where character strings are placed, a graphic area where figures are placed, and an image area where images are placed, the non-text area is arranged at a predetermined position. The system divides the text area affected by the non-text area based on the outline of the text area, assigns a ranking that matches the format of the text to the divided subareas, and further divides the subarea with the dividing line as its boundary. Determine whether or not it is adjacent to another small area, and if it is adjacent to another small area, allow the placement of the character string beyond the dividing line, and if it is adjacent to a non-text area, A method for creating a text area in a document creation device, characterized in that character strings are prohibited from being placed beyond a dividing line. 2. In the case where the adjacent small areas obtained by dividing have the same width along the dividing line, the corresponding small areas are integrated to form a larger small area. A text area creation method in a document creation device according to claim 1. 3. In a device that creates a document by appropriately arranging a text area for placing character strings, a graphic area for placing figures, and an image area for placing images, based on the outline of the non-text area arranged at a predetermined position, dividing means (2) for dividing a body area affected by the non-body area or a small area obtained by dividing the body area;
An integrating means for integrating adjacent small areas obtained by dividing into a larger small area on the condition that the adjacent small areas have the same width along the dividing line. (3) (4), a ranking means (5) for assigning a rank that matches the format of the text to be created to the divided or integrated small areas; A determination means (6) for determining whether or not the character string is adjacent to a small area, and a character string that allows the placement of a character string that crosses the dividing line if it is adjacent to another small area; 1. A text area creation device for a document creation device, comprising character string placement control means (7) and (8) for prohibiting placement of a character string that crosses a dividing line if there is a separation line.