JPH08161467A - Electronic file device and electronic file system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily process each file generated based on each application program inexpensively as a file resource shared in common to each application program. CONSTITUTION: When each graphic information received from each application program started by a computer system is converted into a prescribed print data form specified by a prescribed operating system by a print driver 6, a QuickDraw - common document converter 10-1 converts print data (converted into a prescribed print data form) into a common document file form directly referenced by plural application programs and a common document 12 according to the converted common document file form is stored in a database 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention registers a document, a table group, an image, etc. created and edited by an arbitrary application in a storage medium and outputs a registered file at any time in response to a request from the arbitrary application. The present invention relates to a possible electronic file device and electronic file system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, since a DTP application stores data in different formats for each manufacturer who develops it, it has been difficult to exchange files between different manufacturers. Various filters have been provided as tools for solving this problem.

[0003]

The required number of filters varies depending on the number of applications used,
For example, the number of combinations of filters required by 10 types of applications is 10C2, and thus enormous filter processing is required.

However, if the method of once dropping to an intermediate file is used, the number of the files will be 10, but it will still be necessary for several minutes of the application.

Further, in order to realize a small and inexpensive electronic filing apparatus, it is inevitable to realize a filing apparatus based on a commercially available personal computer (hereinafter referred to as personal computer).

[0006] The essential functional elements for electronic filing are a scanner, an OCR, a keyword search function,
It is equipped with a (magneto-optical) disk device and the like. Basically, a document printed on "paper" is read by a scanner and saved. At that time, in order to facilitate the search, the OCR processing unit encodes the character information, and the keywords are automatically picked up and stored together.

If it is a dedicated machine, this function is sufficient, but in order to carry out electronic filing based on a personal computer, the target document is not only the document printed on "paper", and the keyboard Therefore, it becomes necessary to handle DTP documents created by inputting from the same.

However, the DTP document has a completely different file format depending on the created application, and if they are saved in the form of a file, the following problems (1) to (4) occur.

(1) When a DTP document stored in a server on the network is accessed from a plurality of personal computers, there is no guarantee that all the personal computers have the same application as the application used at the time of creation.
Even a different version is a problem.

(2) When personal computers of different architectures exist on the network, even files created by the same application usually have different file formats, so they cannot access each other.

(3) Since commercially available applications usually do not have a function of extracting keywords, when electronic filing is performed, file information is transmitted or document information is transmitted via a cut and paste function. However, it is not practical because the operating procedure is complicated and time-consuming, and automation is difficult.

Also, consider data exchange between commercially available applications, for example, scanner applications, word processors, spreadsheet applications, etc., which have very different accuracy. It is very difficult to exchange data between these applications via files.

This is because the file formats generated by applications such as a scanner application, a word processor, a spreadsheet application, etc., which have different personalities, are uniquely defined by each vendor, and there is no compatibility at all.

In addition, "TIFF", "PICT" and "E" are file formats that do not depend on the application.
Industry standard formats such as PS, "GIF", and "TGA" are not universal because they are suitable for applications or not.

Further, when the computer is a Macintosh (product name) or Windows (product name), a mechanism for exchanging data using the "cut and paste" function is prepared, but the format is "PICT" or "PICT". GIF ”.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the objects of the first to sixth inventions according to the present invention are converted into a predetermined print data format by a print driver. By converting print data into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs and managing the same in a storage medium, each file generated based on each application program is shared as a file resource with each application program. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic file device and an electronic file system that can be easily and inexpensively handled.

[0017]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, file information of a document, a table group, and an image created and edited by starting a plurality of application programs conforming to a predetermined operating system can be processed. Computer system, print driver means for converting each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be started by this computer system into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, and a predetermined print driver by this print driver. A conversion unit that converts the print data converted into the print data format into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs, and a storage that stores the shared file according to the common document file format converted by the conversion unit. With means A.

A second invention according to the present invention is provided with a search driver for searching a shared file according to the common document file format stored in the storage means through the conversion means, and the search driver is a general-purpose driver for each application program. It can be incorporated into a computer system.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the print driver analyzes each drawing information transmitted from each application program to obtain a character part, a vector drawing part,
Divide into bitmap image part and halftone image part,
The compressed character data, the vector drawing portion, the bitmap image portion, and the halftone image portion are compressed to generate compressed data.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the conversion means is
The compressed data converted by the print driver into a predetermined print data format is converted into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is provided with optical character recognition processing means for analyzing a bitmap image portion and a halftone image portion divided by a print driver to recognize and extract character information. The character information extracted by the character recognition processing means is added to the already divided character portion.

A sixth invention according to the present invention is a computer system capable of processing file information of documents, tables and images created and edited by activating a plurality of application programs conforming to a predetermined operating system,
Print driver means for converting each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be started in this computer system into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, and this print driver converts into a predetermined print data format. An electronic device including a conversion unit that converts the generated print data into a common document file format that can be directly referred to by the plurality of application programs, and a storage unit that stores the shared file according to the common document file format converted by the conversion unit. A plurality of file devices are connected via a predetermined network.

[0023]

According to the first aspect of the invention, when the drawing driver converts each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be activated in the computer system into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, the conversion means. Converts the print data converted into a predetermined print data format into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs, and stores a shared file according to the converted common document file format in a storage medium. The drawing information transmitted from each application program to the print driver can be managed as a file that can be shared by each application program.

In the second aspect of the invention, the search driver incorporated in the computer system as a general-purpose driver for each application program searches the shared file according to the common document file format stored in the storage means through the conversion means, and the shared file is stored. It can be processed directly by each application program.

In the third invention, the print driver analyzes each drawing information transmitted from each application program and divides it into a character portion, a vector drawing portion, a bitmap image portion, and a halftone image portion, It is possible to generate compressed data that has been compressed into the divided character portion, vector drawing portion, bitmap image portion, and halftone image portion, and to minimize the data volume registered in the storage medium.

In the fourth invention, the converting means converts the compressed data, which has been converted into a predetermined print data format by the print driver, into a common document file format which can be directly referred to by the plurality of application programs, and each application program. The compressed data obtained by compressing the drawing information transmitted from the printer driver to the print driver can be managed as a file that can be shared by each application program.

In the fifth invention, the optical character recognition processing means analyzes the bit map image portion and the halftone image portion divided by the print driver to recognize and extract the character information, and the extracted character information is extracted. The character image in the image information can be used as the character information in addition to the already divided character portion.

In the sixth aspect of the invention, a shared file can be transferred between electronic file devices via a predetermined network, and a file generated by each application program on the network can be processed as a shared file.

[0029]

Embodiments will be described below in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments. [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the arrangement of an electronic file device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numerals 1, 2, and 3 are commercially available applications, for example, a scanner application, a word processor, and a spreadsheet application. It is very difficult to exchange data between these applications via the files 4 and 5. This is because the formats of the files generated by the scanner application, word processor, spreadsheet application, etc. are uniquely determined by the respective vendors, so there is no compatibility at all.

However, when these applications print, the data passed to the printer driver is Maci.
QuickDraw for ntosh (first computer system)
(First output data), in the case of Windows (second computer system), it is unified to GDI (second output data).

As shown in FIG. 1, when the first computer system applications 1, 2 and 3 pass the print data to the printer driver 6, most of the applications are QuickD, although there are exceptions in some Postscript applications.
Raw drawing commands 7, 8 and 9 are passed to the printer driver 6.

The present invention pays attention to this feature and realizes the document conversion / accumulation function in the printer driver 6. That is, the drawing commands of QuickDraw are drawing commands that depend on the computer, and if limited to Macintosh only, there is a language common to most applications.
GDI command is used in ows and it is not compatible. Therefore, the QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-1 makes it easy to save the data in a general document in the database 13, that is, the common documents 12 and 14.
Convert to.

The common documents 12 and 14 may be drawn, painted or mixed. Draw is a drawing method that expresses the thickness, color, and coordinate point of the drawing line by numerical values, and the receiving side must also have the function of decoding the numerical values.

On the other hand, paint is a bitmap image, and although the data size is large, the decoding function on the receiving side is unnecessary.

Reference numeral 10-2 is an OCR device, which is used when encoding a bitmap image, but bypasses the process in the case of draw type information.

Reference numeral 10-3 is a keyword extracting device, which is a QuickD
It is for picking up a word that can be used for a search from the common document converted from raw and accessing it with the common document.

Reference numeral 10-4 is a database API for connecting to a remote database 13 which is connected locally or via a network (LAN) 11.

The printer driver 6 is adapted to the one provided by the system, but since the printer driver 6 is intended only for printing, the data flow is usually one-way, and the document drawn from the database 13 is QuickDraw.
It cannot be converted back to a command and sent to the applications 1, 2 and 3.

In order to solve this problem, the printer driver 6 of the present invention is in the form of a general-purpose driver. In order to perform bidirectional document conversion via the printer driver 6, it is necessary to change the OS and application.
If dedicated document retrieval software is used, bidirectional document conversion can be realized. The common document 12 is sent to the database 13 via the LAN 11.

In order to use this apparatus as a document filing system, a document is usually read by the scanner 15.
The control is performed by the scanner application 1, but when the application prints, it is also converted into QuickDraw 7 and transmitted to the printer driver 6.

Even though it is QuickDraw 7, since the content is a bitmap in the case of a scanned image, QuickDraw
-The common document conversion device 10-1 restores the bitmap, and if necessary, compresses the image with a compression circuit (not shown).

The printer driver 6 needs to support all the QuickDraw commands supported by the OS of the personal computer. Otherwise, print requests from all applications cannot be met.

On the other hand, there is no problem if the applications 1, 2, and 3 support only some QuickDraw commands for their own convenience. However, in order to make the printer driver 6 bidirectional and to be able to display the QuickDraw commands output by the QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-1, all the QuickDraw commands must be supported.

This is because the document may have been created by an application having higher functionality than itself.

Therefore, if the draw command to be transmitted to the application is rejected by the application driver because it cannot be understood, the printer driver 6 converts it into paint data and retransmits it.

For applications without these error control functions, a standard is set for QuickDraw operation.
If it is known that it is not understood even if it is classified into the first, second, and third levels, such as the IS Kanji code, and then transmitted, it may be converted into a low-level QuickDraw command in advance and transmitted. . [Second Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of an electronic file device showing a second embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

Although FIG. 1 has described the storage of documents in the database 13 from the commercially available applications 1, 2, and 3, the commercially available applications are not designed for document storage / retrieval, and therefore speedy. A dedicated search application (application program) 16 is required for the search. This search app 16 is QuickDra
w-Direct connection with the common document conversion device 10-1. The data format is the common document format 17, not QuickDraw. QuickDraw-Common Document Converter 10-1
Is built as a generic driver. [Third Embodiment] FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of an electronic file device showing a third embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

FIG. 3 shows the OCR accelerator 10
This is an example of using -5.

The OCR accelerator 10-5 is an OCR
Since it takes a long time to convert, it is usually realized by hardware in order to speed up the processing by substituting it for dedicated hardware.

Further, QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10
-1 is realized by software as a printer driver / general-purpose driver.

On the other hand, the OCR 10-2, the keyword extraction device 10-3, and the database API 10-4 are realized by software or hardware as a general-purpose driver that runs in the background, and other operations of the operator can be performed even when these are processed. Do not interrupt.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the data processing system in the electronic file device shown in FIG.

In the figure, 10-6 is a print queue,
10-7 is a buffer memory.

The QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-1 operates exclusively with the printer driver 6, and outputs to the print queue 10-6 in the foreground.

On the other hand, the OCR 10-2 and below receive the document data from the print queue 10-6 in the background,
Processes in parallel with applications 1, 2, 3, and 16 simultaneously. The memory 10-7 is used by the print queue 10-6 to temporarily store document data. [Fourth Embodiment] FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an electronic file system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, the left half is the same as that of the personal computer in FIG. 1, and the numbers necessary for explanation are provided with a branch number of "a".

On the other hand, the right half is the second personal computer to which the branch number of "b" is added is the same as the element of the same number with the branch number of "a". The first personal computer (left) is described with the scanner 15 left as it is, but the second personal computer (right) is described without a scanner.

In this case, the OCR, keyword search, and database API functions are unnecessary, so the functions are stopped and used as shown by the slanted lines in the figure. As long as the data flowing on the network is a common document, the interface with the application may be a common document or another format, that is, QuickDraw.

Since the printer driver 6 converts the data from the scanner 15 into a common document, mutual communication is possible without any problem. [Fifth Embodiment] FIG. 6 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of an electronic file device showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, 20-1 is a QuickDraw-common document conversion driver interface, and 20-2 is a unit, which is a set of an OCR unit, a syntax analysis unit, and an inverse PDL unit. 20-3 is a file construction routine. In 20-1, the drawing code at the time of printing is analyzed by QuickDra and divided into a character part, a vector drawing code part, a bitmap image part, and a halftone image part. The bitmap image portion and the halftone image portion are subjected to OCR, and the character portion is extracted as a code.

The vector drawing code part is processed by the inverse PDL unit in units of a set of some drawing codes,
It is divided into functional elements such as "table", "image", "mark", and "closed curve". Those that do not fit into the functional elements are "lines",
"Circle", "Square", "Ellipse", "Arc", "Freeform curve"
Etc.

The parsing unit of unit 20-2 is
Primarily parses the syntax of the text part and uses it as "title", "chapter", "section", "paragraph", "header",
It is divided into "sentence", "footer", "page", "date", etc. Those that do not fall into those categories are treated as "text". The common document thus classified and analyzed is dropped into the common document 12 by the file construction routine 20-3.

Once dropped in the common document 12, the editing application 19 capable of understanding the file format can re-edit it through the interface 18 of the standard OS.

Correspondence between the present embodiment and each means of the first to sixth inventions and their functions will be described below with reference to FIGS.

A first invention is a document created and edited by activating a plurality of application programs (application programs 1, 2, 3) conforming to a predetermined operating system (DOS / V, Kanji Talk, UNIX, etc.), A computer system capable of processing table information and image file information, and a print for converting each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be started in this computer system into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system. Driver means (printer driver 6) and conversion means for converting the print data converted into a predetermined print data format by the print driver 6 into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs (in the present embodiment, Print dora QuickDraw has a configuration incorporating a sub-driver Bas 6 - Common document conversion device 10
1) and a storage unit (database 13) for storing the shared file according to the common document file format converted by the conversion unit, and each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be started by the computer system When the print driver 6 converts the print data into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, the QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-1 converts the print data converted into the predetermined print data format into the plurality of application programs. Is converted into a common document file format that can be directly referred to, a shared file (common document 12) according to the converted common document file format is stored in a storage medium, and drawing information transmitted from each application program to the print driver. For each application program It can be managed as a file that can be possessed (see FIGS. 1, 2, 3, etc.).

In the second invention, a search driver (search application 16 or the like (see FIG. 3) incorporated in a computer system as a general-purpose driver for each application program is shared according to a common document file format stored in a storage means (database 13). QuickD files
The shared file can be directly processed by each application program by searching through the raw-common document conversion device 10-1.

In the third invention, the print driver 6 analyzes each drawing information transmitted from each application program and divides it into a character portion, a vector drawing portion, a bitmap image portion, and a halftone image portion. It is possible to generate compressed data that has been compressed to the divided character portion, vector drawing portion, bitmap image portion, and halftone image portion, and to minimize the data volume registered in the storage medium.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the conversion means (QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-1) is a common structure in which the plurality of application programs can directly refer to the compressed data converted into a predetermined print data format by the print driver. It is possible to manage the compressed data, which is converted into a document file format and compressed drawing information transmitted from each application program to the print driver, as a file that can be shared by each application program.

In a fifth aspect of the invention, the optical character recognition processing means analyzes the bit map image portion and the halftone image portion divided by the print driver 6 to obtain character information from the OCR device 1.
0-2 (configured as a sub-driver of the print driver 6 in the present embodiment) to be extracted and added, and the extracted character information is added to the already-divided character portion to obtain the character image in the image information. Can be used as character information.

A sixth aspect of the present invention makes it possible to transfer a shared file between electronic file devices via a predetermined network (see FIG. 5 etc.), and each application program (application programs 1, 2, 3) on the network.
The file generated by is processed as a shared file.

According to each of the above embodiments, paying attention to the fact that the data format output by the application when printing is standardized for each OS, the "conversion function to unified file format" is added to the printer driver section. , "OCR function", "Keyword search function"
We were able to save documents created by any commercial application in one unified format regardless of the architecture of the personal computer.

Further, according to this embodiment, the document storage / retrieval device, which has been conventionally provided as a stand-alone machine for both hardware and software, is based on a commercially available computer, and is used as a front end for a number of commercially available applications. It is possible to provide an inexpensive system by freely incorporating the end document storage / search function.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

The file processing method in the electronic file system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing an example of the main processing procedure of the file processing method in the electronic file system according to the present invention. Note that (1) to (5) indicate steps on the application side, (6) to (13) indicate steps on the OS side, and (14) to (19) indicate steps on the filing driver side.

In the present embodiment, the processing operation of the application, the OS and the driver behaves as apparently independent tasks not only when the OS is multitasking but also when the OS is single tasking. As shown, describing as three independent tasks does not pose any problem. The part indicated by the dotted line arrow in the figure is actually a function call, but it is common to use the expression "message" in the programming language (C ++) and class definitions. Let's learn from that example.

First, when the application creates a document (1) and files it in the electronic file system according to the present invention, the same operation as a normal printing operation is performed. When the print menu is selected (2), a print start message is sent to the OS. At this time, the OS executes various OS services (6), enters the event loop (7), and upon receiving the print start message, activates the driver (8).

The filing driver executes initialization processing such as register setting and memory space reservation (1
4) Return an initialization complete message to the OS. During this time, O
S waits for a reply from the driver in a loop (9).

Then, a message indicating that the driver is ready is sent to the application (1
0). In response to this, the application exits from the loop of step (3) and should be drawn on the printer.
The DI code is output (4). The OS that has received the GDI code uses the GDI code as it is if the printer (driver) is a GDI printer, and if it is a bitmap printer, rasterizes the GDI code in the OS and passes it to the printer driver (11). . The file driver emulates a printer driver, and GDI
You need to declare that it is either a printer or a bitmap printer. Either of them can be realized.

If the GDI printer is declared as a GDI printer, the GDI code is sent from the OS as it is. Therefore, the GDI code can be easily analyzed in the driver, and if the bitmap is required, the OS can be used. It can be rasterized by calling the system call of.

If the printer is declared to be a bitmap printer, G which converts GDI into a bitmap in the OS
The DI service is executed (11), and the bitmap is passed to the filing driver (15). The OS is
In the case of Windows, even if it is a bitmap, since the original GDI code is written in one corner of the bitmap code, the present invention declares the bitmap.

The filing driver receives the GD
The I code is analyzed (16), the feature of the content written in the manuscript is extracted (17), and the feature is stored in the database (18). When a print completion message arrives from the filing driver to the OS, the process exits the loop (12) waiting for the driver to process, sends a print completion message to the application (13), terminates the filing driver, and ends the memory space. Swap out from. Upon receiving the print completion message from the OS, the application ends the print sequence (5). It should be noted that the filing driver executes the step (1
After saving in the database in 8), the memory space is released (19).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the detailed procedure of GDI code analysis and feature extraction processing by the filing driver shown in FIG. In addition, (20) to (2
9) shows each step.

When the GDI code passed from the application via the OS is acquired (20), the GDI code is analyzed (21) and it is discriminated whether it is an image, a character or a draw (21) to (23). Incidentally, in the present embodiment, the drawing means drawing using a line figure and a surface figure by a set of vector information.

If YES in step (21), the GDI code representing the image is set to JBIG, JPEG,
It is compressed using a compression algorithm such as MMR and stored in the image buffer (24).

On the other hand, in the case of YES in step (22), the GDI code representing the character is stored in the character buffer, and after the character buffer processing determines whether the character is a title, various information regarding the character ( Character code,
The style and character color) are saved and registered as keywords (25).

On the other hand, in the case of YES at step (23), the GDI code of the draw part is subjected to the determination of the table and the figure in the draw information processing routine (details will be described later) and further subjected to the statistical processing (27). ).

On the other hand, in step (23), NO, that is,
If the GDI code is neither of the above, it is a control code, and therefore the control code is processed in step (26). The contents of the control code may be, for example, paper size designation, paper orientation designation, resolution designation, margin designation, page number designation, print number designation, and page break.

Then, that is, step (24),
After (25), (26), and (27), preparations are made to obtain the next GDI code (28). If the control code is the end code, the analysis of the GDI code ends, but if not, the process loops to step (2) to obtain the next GDI code.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the detailed procedure of the processing routine of the character buffer shown in FIG. It is to be noted that (30) to (38) indicate respective steps, in which the character information stored in the character buffer is analyzed to determine whether or not it is a title character, and to perform processing of registering as a keyword.

In the case of the GDI code, the character code is not always expressed as a series of strings (sentences). The application for emitting the GDI code of the string is about software called an editor, and the higher the level of the DTP application, the more the characters are drawn one by one. Since a high-level DTP application expresses a high degree of text that exceeds the expression ability of the GDI code, it is often the case that each character is drawn.

First, the distance from the previous character is calculated (3
0), it is judged whether it is narrower than 1/2 of the height of the character (31), and if NO, that is, 1/2 of the height of the character.
If it is more than the above, it is judged to be a word break (32), and the keyword is registered.

Among them, the character that seems to be the title is
Save it specially and use as a title character for searching.
The algorithm for determining a title determines that the target character is within 1/4 of the vertical dimension of the document (33), and if it is the largest size character in the document, it is a title (34), (35). . Other characters are registered as keywords other than the title (36). Needless to say, the title itself is also a keyword.
On the other hand, if the result of the determination in step (31) is YES, that is, if the height of the character is smaller than 1/2, it is determined that the word forms a word together with the previous character (37), and the word To find the break, the character information is written to the character buffer (38) and the routine ends.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the detailed procedure of the draw information processing routine shown in FIG. In addition, (40 to (50) indicates each step.
The processing operation will be described with reference to the draw information example shown in FIG.

First, it is judged whether the GDI code is a straight line (40), and if it is a straight line, a routine for judging whether it is a table or not is entered. , Curves, etc., and simply add (49) to the draw group and save.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (40) that the line is a straight line, it is determined whether or not it touches a line in the already registered straight line group (41). The determination method is that any of the X and Y coordinates of the two points (start point and end point) of the straight line matches any one of the two coordinates of the lines in the straight line group, and the other coordinates If is within a predetermined range, it can be determined that they are in contact with each other. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when it is determined whether two lines A and B are in contact with each other, X1
It is only necessary to check whether or not = X3.

Since it is known that the lines A and B are not diagonal lines, X1 = X3 = X4. Furthermore, line B
The Y coordinate of must be between the start and end points of A, so Y4 ≦ Y1 ≦ Y3. That is,
Of the four types of X and Y coordinates having two straight lines, a component in which three coincide with each other is examined, and if they coincide with each other, another line is provided between the other components of the straight line having both coincident components. If the same minute coordinates are entered, it can be determined that they are in contact. When this holds for both the X and Y coordinates, t2 straight lines A and B form a right angle.

Therefore, the straight line which is determined not to be in contact with any straight line group in step (41) is registered as forming a new straight line group by itself (5
0).

On the other hand, a straight line which is found to be in contact is added as a member of the straight line group (42).

Of the X and Y coordinates having a certain straight line group, the maximum and minimum four are defined as the rectangular area of the straight line group. This rectangular area is recalculated each time a new straight line is added (43). X of the straight line group
The number of types of only coordinates or only Y coordinates is obtained, and the number obtained by subtracting "1" therefrom is derived as the number of cells (44).

Similarly, the X-coordinate component and the Y-coordinate component are separately arranged in the order of size, and the difference between adjacent coordinates is the cell size (45).

It is determined whether or not a character is included in the rectangular area of this straight line group (46). If a character is included, the character is specially registered as a character in the table (4
7) and the straight line group is determined to be a table (4
8). A straight line group that does not contain any characters is not considered to be a table.

[0104]

As described above, the first aspect of the present invention
According to the invention, when each drawing information transmitted from each application program that can be activated in the computer system is converted into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system by the print driver, the conversion means determines the predetermined print data format. The print data converted into the print data format is converted into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs, and a shared file according to the converted common document file format is stored in a storage medium. The drawing information transmitted from the program to the print driver can be managed as a file that can be shared by each application program.

According to the second invention, since the search driver incorporated in the computer system as a general-purpose driver for each application program searches the shared file according to the common document file format stored in the storage means through the conversion means, the shared file is shared. Files can be processed directly by each application program.

According to the third invention, the print driver analyzes each drawing information transmitted from each application program and divides it into a character portion, a vector drawing portion, a bitmap image portion and a halftone image portion. Since the compressed data is generated by compressing the divided character portion, vector drawing portion, bitmap image portion, and halftone image portion, the data volume registered in the storage medium can be made as small as possible.

According to the fourth invention, the converting means converts the compressed data, which has been converted into a predetermined print data format by the print driver, into a common document file format which can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs. The compressed data obtained by compressing the drawing information transmitted from the application program to the print driver can be managed as a file that can be shared by each application program.

According to the fifth invention, the optical character recognition processing means analyzes the bitmap image portion and the halftone image portion divided by the print driver, recognizes and extracts the character information, and extracts the extracted character. Since the information is added to the already-divided character portion, the character image in the image information can be used as the character information.

According to the sixth aspect of the invention, since the shared file can be transferred between the electronic file devices via the predetermined network, the file generated by each application program on the network is processed as the shared file. be able to.

Therefore, there is an effect that each file generated based on each application program can be easily and inexpensively handled as a file resource shared by each application program.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic file device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic file device showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic file device showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data processing system in the electronic file device shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic file system showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic file device showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of a main processing procedure of a file processing method in the electronic file system according to the present invention.

8 is a GD according to the filing driver shown in FIG.
It is a flow chart which shows a detailed procedure of I code analysis and feature extraction processing.

9 is a flowchart showing a detailed procedure of a processing routine of the character buffer shown in FIG.

10 is a flowchart showing a detailed procedure of a draw information processing routine shown in FIG.

11 is a diagram showing an example of the draw information used in the draw information processing routine shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 application 2 application 3 application 6 printer driver 10-1 QuickDraw-common document conversion device 10-2 OCR device 10-3 keyword extraction device 10-4 database API (application program interface) 12 common document

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A computer system capable of processing file information of documents, tables, and images created and edited by activating a plurality of application programs conforming to a predetermined operating system, and each application that can be activated by this computer system. Print driver means for converting each drawing information transmitted from the program into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, and print data converted by the print driver into a predetermined print data format by the plurality of applications. An electronic file device comprising: a conversion unit that converts a common document file format that a program can directly refer to; and a storage unit that stores a shared file that is converted by the conversion unit and that conforms to the common document file format. 2. A search driver for searching a shared file according to a common document file format stored in a storage means through a conversion means, and the search driver can be incorporated into a computer system as a general-purpose driver for each application program. The electronic filing device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The print driver analyzes each drawing information transmitted from each application program and divides the drawing information into a character portion, a vector drawing portion, a bitmap image portion, and a halftone image portion, and the divided portions. The electronic file device according to claim 1, wherein compressed data is generated by performing compression processing on a character portion, a vector drawing portion, a bitmap image portion, and a halftone image portion. 4. The conversion means converts the compressed data, which has been converted into a predetermined print data format by the print driver, into a common document file format that can be directly referenced by the plurality of application programs. Electronic file device. 5. An optical character recognition processing unit for recognizing and extracting character information by analyzing a bitmap image portion and a halftone image portion divided by a print driver, and extracted by this optical character recognition processing unit. The electronic file device according to claim 3, wherein the character information is added to the already-divided character portion. 6. A computer system capable of processing file information of a document, a table group, and an image created and edited by starting a plurality of application programs conforming to a predetermined operating system, and each application that can be started by this computer system. Print driver means for converting each drawing information transmitted from the program into a predetermined print data format defined by the predetermined operating system, and print data converted by the print driver into a predetermined print data format by the plurality of applications. An electronic file device having a conversion means for converting to a common document file format that can be directly referenced by a program and a storage means for storing a shared file according to the common document file format converted by the conversion means, via a predetermined network. Compound An electronic file system characterized by multiple connections.