JPH09146948A - Document preparation support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document preparation support device which easily lay out objects in a document. SOLUTION: Restriction conditions of arrangement among objects are set as a rule base and a mechanism which enables a user to roughly determine arrangement positions is provided, and those conditions are stored in the rule base 64 and a layout meeting the user's desire and restriction conditions is automatically generated by an automatic layout engine part 52 and stored in layout information 68, and presented When the user corrects the layout information 68, layout corrected information 66 is stored and utilized to propose a layout next time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for supporting the creation of electronic documents, such as a computer and a word processor, and particularly handles not only electronic documents but also various other multimedia materials. The present invention relates to a document creation support device that creates / edits these and arranges them on a screen, page, or time axis.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a document creating device for laying out document data centering on character information, graphic data, moving image data, etc., a layout editing device, a DTP (Desk T
Op Publishing) devices are now widely used. Generally, in these devices, document data, graphic data, etc.
How the data that can be handled as one lump (referred to as "media material") is arranged on the screen is edited by the operator's operation. The media material includes audio data in addition to the above-mentioned document data, graphic data, moving image data and the like.

Since a plurality of types of media materials are handled in this way, the operation of such a device becomes complicated. Further, since it is necessary for the operator to have sensitivity in order to improve the cohesion of the completed document as a whole, it is a great burden on the operator in addition to the knowledge for operating the apparatus described above.

Several proposals have been made so far for avoiding such a problem. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-1
Document No. 01052 (filed on October 4, 1991) makes it easy to create a document that looks good as intended without requiring the document creator to have knowledge of document design. A support device is disclosed. In this document creation support device, inference is performed using document information and document design knowledge information to determine the optimum document design. Further, a function of pointing out the defective point of the created document by proposing the knowledge base of the information indicating the defective point of the document is also proposed.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-108641 (filed on October 17, 1991) discloses a similar document style design support device. The apparatus disclosed in this publication uses the document style design knowledge information to make an inference to determine the optimum document style design.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-223061 (filed on January 27, 1993) proposes a document creation processing device which enables a balanced layout. In the document creation processing device described in this publication, reference lines are provided between objects (sentences, ruled lines, graphics, etc.) that make up a document and on a page. Then, by predetermining the relation between the reference lines, it is possible to balance the layout of the text data and the graphic data arranged on the page.

[0007]

It is considered that the types of document constituent elements (media materials) handled in a document will increase. As the variety of such media materials increases, the operations for handling the device must be complicated in order to properly arrange them in the document. In addition, it is necessary to rely on the feeling of the document creator as to how to arrange them so as to obtain a proper arrangement for the document. Furthermore, as the world of multimedia expands, the problem of how to arrange elements such as hypertext that includes links between texts and materials (such as videos) that include the time axis,
Since it is necessary to understand these problems including the contents of the media material, there is a problem that the operator is required to have very complicated knowledge.

[0008] Such problems, in particular, how to arrange the media material (hereinafter referred to as "object") as a unit in a document or in a document having a time axis Becomes a problem. With respect to such a problem, the above-mentioned conventional technique has a problem that it is difficult for an operator having knowledge of an object to arrange them at an appropriate position in a document with an appropriate size. It is not easy to operate. Further, the layout determination based on the reference line as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-223061 is not effective for a document having a time axis as described above.

Therefore, an object of the invention described in claim 1 is to provide a document creation support apparatus which can easily arrange an object at an appropriate position in a document.

An object of the invention described in claim 2 is to provide a document creation support apparatus capable of easily arranging an object at an appropriate position in a document by a simple operation.

An object of the third aspect of the present invention is to provide a document creation support apparatus which can easily arrange an object at an appropriate position in a document with a minimum amount of user operation.

An object of the invention described in claims 4 to 8 is to provide a document creation support device capable of designating the placement position of an object in a document by a simple operation.

The objects of the inventions set forth in claims 9 to 12 are:
It is an object of the present invention to provide a document creation support device capable of designating the size of an object in a document by a simple operation.

It is an object of the invention as set forth in claim 13 to provide a document creation support device capable of easily arranging an object at a position in a document that more appropriately reflects a user's wish.

[0015]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention described in claim 1 of the present application is a document creation support apparatus for processing a document in which arbitrary objects are integrated. The layout management mechanism includes a layout management mechanism for managing the layout when arranging the object in the document, and an input unit for receiving the user's wishes regarding the arrangement of an object in the document from the user and giving the layout management mechanism. The layout management mechanism has a function of proposing a layout position of an object in a document according to a user's request.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration described in the first aspect, the document creation support device further includes a display unit for displaying the layout of the document. And the input means is
Position designation means for designating an arbitrary position on the display of the display means, and a rough position designated on the display screen in response to the user performing a specific operation using the position designation means And means for interpreting. The layout management mechanism has a function of proposing a layout position of an object in a document with reference to the rough position.

In addition to the configuration described in claim 1, the document creation support apparatus according to the invention described in claim 3 further includes storage means for storing information for defining a default position according to the type of object. . Then, the layout management mechanism has a function of proposing arranging an object at a corresponding default position before receiving a user's request.

According to a fourth aspect of the document creation support apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, the input means sets a constraint condition regarding a distance between an object and another element in the document. Includes means for entering. The layout management mechanism proposes the placement position of an object,
It has a function of determining the arrangement position so as to satisfy this constraint condition.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document creation support apparatus which further includes a display means for displaying the layout of a document in addition to the configuration of the first aspect. The input means includes position specifying means for specifying an arbitrary position on the display of the display means. The layout management mechanism is
Arrangement of a certain object so that an object having a predetermined relationship with a certain area on the display screen is arranged in response to the user performing a specific operation of specifying a certain area using the position specifying means. Determine the position.

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, in addition to the configuration of the fifth aspect, the layout management mechanism allows the layout management mechanism to perform a specific operation for designating a certain area by the user. Depending on what is done, the placement position of the object is determined so that the object is always placed in the above-mentioned certain area on the display screen.

In the document creation support apparatus according to the invention described in claim 7, in addition to the configuration described in claim 5, the layout management mechanism performs a specific operation for designating a certain area by the user using the position designating means. Accordingly, the arrangement position of this object is determined so that the object in a certain area on the display screen is roughly arranged.

In the document creation support apparatus according to the present invention of claim 8, in addition to the configuration of claim 5, the layout management mechanism performs a specific operation for designating a certain area by the user using the position designating means. Accordingly, the arrangement position of the object is determined so that at least a part of the object is arranged in the area.

According to a ninth aspect of the document creation support apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, each of the objects has size information indicating its size. It further includes means for allowing the user to specify that the size information is unchanged. Then, the layout management mechanism determines the arrangement position of the object according to the size information of the object when it is specified that the size information of the object is not changed.

According to a tenth aspect of the document creation support apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, each object has size information indicating its size, and displays the layout of the document. The display device further includes a display unit for displaying the object, and a unit for allowing the user to specify a variable range of the size of the display on the display when arranging the object. Then, the layout management mechanism determines the size of the object display according to the designation of the variable range of the display size of the object.

According to the document creation support apparatus of the eleventh aspect of the invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect, each of the objects has size information indicating its size, and displays the layout of the document. And a means for enabling the user to specify on the display the positional relationship between the object and the object already displayed by the display means when arranging a certain media material. Including further. And the layout management mechanism
According to the designation of the positional relationship between an object and the object already displayed by the display means, the display size and the arrangement position of the object are determined.

According to a twelfth aspect of the invention, in addition to the configuration of the eleventh aspect, the document creation support apparatus has a positional relation and a size relation between the plurality of objects when arranging a plurality of certain objects. Further includes means for allowing the user to specify. Then, the layout management mechanism determines that the positional relationship between the plurality of objects and the objects already displayed by the display means, the positional relationship between the plurality of objects, and the size relationship are designated. Accordingly, the display size and the arrangement position of the plurality of objects are determined.

According to the document creation support apparatus of the thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of any one of the first to twelfth aspects, the user can further correct the layout proposed by the layout management mechanism. And a correction information storage unit for storing correction information regarding the correction made through the correction input unit. Then, the layout management mechanism has a function of interpreting the modification information accumulated by the modification information accumulating means as a constraint condition between objects and determining the content of the proposal of the object arrangement.

[0028]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
2 shows a hardware configuration of the document creation support device. With reference to FIG. 1, the document creation support apparatus includes a bus 30 and a bus 3.
It includes a CPU (central processing unit) 32 which is connected to 0 and realizes many of the functions described in the claims of the present application by executing a predetermined program. This device also includes various other components as described below, all of which are connected to the bus 30 and can be updated between the CPU 32 and other components via the bus 30. is there.

The device further includes a pen 36 and a mouse 38.
A pointing device such as the like and a keyboard 40 are connected to each other, and a key CPU 34 that controls an input device used when these users input data, and a VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) 48 coupled to a display device 46.
And a RAM (Ra
memory 50 composed of ndom access memory) and CPU 3
2 and a ROM (Read) for storing a program for implementing most of the functions of the document creation support apparatus.
Program memory 42 consisting of only memory) and FD
(Floppy disk drive), HD (hard disk), external file device such as CD-ROM (Compact-Disc ROM) device, and I / O (input / output) port 44 that can be connected to a network connected to another system. Including. There may be a secondary storage and its management system, and a client at the end of the network.

The apparatus further includes a ROM / RAM area for storing an automatic layout engine section 52, which will be described later with reference to FIG.

With reference to FIG. 2, the system configuration of the document creation support apparatus of the present application realized by the components shown in FIG. 1 and software executed by the CPU 32 will be described. Referring to FIG. 2, the document creation support apparatus includes a user interface management unit 60 for managing user operations using the keyboard 40, the pen 36 and the mouse 38 shown in FIG. 1, and a user interface management unit 60. A layout management unit 62 for managing the layout information of the objects handled in the document based on the received user operation information, and a screen display based on the layout information held by the layout management unit 62 in response to a display command regarding the objects. A display management unit 70 for managing
Under the control of the display management unit 70, the VRAM shown in FIG.
48 and a display unit 72 for controlling screen display by the display device 46.

The system of this apparatus further includes an object editor group 74 for editing / creating each object data in response to an instruction from the user interface management section 60 and the layout management section 62. The object editor group 74 includes object editors 76, 78, ... Of types corresponding to the types of objects. The system of this apparatus further includes an object data group 80 made up of object data handled in the document. This object data group 80 includes a plurality of object data 82, 84, ... Handled in the document.

The system of this apparatus further receives the current layout information obtained from the layout management unit 62 and the layout command from the user, and creates an appropriate layout. Information 68 showing the layout of
And layout correction information 66 accumulated when the user corrects the layout presented by the automatic layout engine unit 52, and a rule base 64 used by the automatic layout engine unit 52 for automatically generating the layout.
And

The relationship between each element shown in FIG. 2 and each hardware element shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The user interface management unit 60 of FIG. 2 has the key C shown in FIG.
It is realized by a program for user interface management stored in the PU 34 and the program memory 42. The display unit 72 shown in FIG. 2 is the VRAM 48 shown in FIG.
Is equivalent to However, the display unit 72 may be in the form of a server and may exist in an external system via a network in some cases. The layout management unit 62, the display management unit 70, and the object editor group 74 shown in FIG. 2 are all realized by the CPU 32 executing a program stored in the program memory 42 shown in FIG. The object data group 80, the rule base 64, the layout correction information 66, and the layout information 68 are shown in FIG. 1 when the document is edited.
Is stored in the memory 50, and when the document is saved, it is stored in the file system of the storage device in the HD or another system on the network via the I / O port 44.

The automatic layout engine section 52, which is a feature of the present invention, is stored in the ROM / RAM area 52 for the automatic layout engine section shown in FIG. Therefore, by simply adding the automatic layout engine unit 52 to the conventional system, the existing system can be easily expanded to realize the document creation support apparatus according to the present invention. Of course, the automatic layout engine section 5
2 may be stored in the program memory 42.

FIG. 3 shows the object data 82 of FIG.
An example of the format of 84 is shown. As shown in FIG. 3, the format of the object data includes its type, its ID, its name, and its width and height. It should be noted that specific option information is added to the specific type of the object after the height.

FIG. 3 shows an example of five object data. Object I of these objects
D is 1, 100, 101, 102, 110, respectively, and the names are ObjC, ObjA, ObjB, O, respectively.
bjD and ObjX. The types of these objects are frame, image, text, movie,
It is a text. A frame object is an object corresponding to the frame of a document. The image object represents image data. The text object indicates normal text data. Movie objects are
Indicates moving image data.

Next, the format of the layout information 68 shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. Referring to FIG. 4, the general format of the layout information is "positionio" indicating that the layout information is at the head of the format.
It has a tag "n" followed by the ID of the object
And the X and Y coordinates of the display position of the object. Note that these coordinates are often used, for example, with the upper left corner of the document or display screen as the origin, the right direction as the X coordinate axis, and the downward direction as the Y coordinate axis. Further, the layout information has a data flag indicating the display attribute after the Y coordinate, but this flag can be omitted. Flag = 0 is set for objects that are not displayed. Therefore, of the five examples shown in FIG.
Each one is displayed at the corresponding position, but the lower two objects are not displayed. However, the arrangement position is determined even for an object that is not displayed.

An example of the layout correction information 66 shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. With reference to FIG. 5, the format of the layout modification information includes information called "action", which is a tag indicating how the position of the object has been modified, the ID of the object, and the type of action tag. And the parameters determined according to the parameters.

An action is a tag indicating how the arrangement of objects has been modified as described above.
ove (moved), size (resized), etc. Depending on the type of this action tag,
The required parameters are determined. For example, in the case of move, a parameter indicating that the coordinate (x, y) has been moved by the coordinate difference (dx, dy) is added. The two examples shown in FIG. 5 are both examples of move, but the ID is 1
For object 00, coordinates (10,100)
Is moved by (1,10) from ID = 1
In the case of the object of 01, it is indicated that the coordinates (50, 200) are moved by (0, -10).

FIG. 6 shows the rule base 64 shown in FIG.
The format of the general rule is shown below. The rules defined by this format are general rules that are defined without pointing to a specific object such as object type or object class. The rule base defined by this general rule includes a default rule applied when there is no other applicable specific rule, a rule created or modified by learning, and the like.

In the general rule shown in Example 1 of FIG. 6, the type is image (imgobj) or movie (movie).
object obj1 belonging to obj) and object obj belonging to type (textobj)
It is a condition definition between the two and the distance (dista
nce) must be 10 or more. That is, the first line of the format of this rule specifies the type of object to which this rule applies. Then, in the body part, the conditions that these two objects must satisfy are defined in a script format.

The general rule can also be written in the form shown in Example 2. In the rule shown in Example 2, a so-called wild card of "*" is specified where type1 should be specified. Therefore the object ob
All object types correspond to j1.
Also, the type of this object obj2 is fr
me is specified. This object type called frame indicates a document frame. Therefore, the rule of this Example 2 is that all the objects obj1 and the document frame obj2 are
Indicates that the distance must be 10 or more.

FIG. 7 shows a format of a rule for setting a condition for a specific object or a specific type of object in the rule base 64 of FIG. The rule shown in FIG. 7 is for making a “constraint condition between objects regarding arrangement of objects” set by the user into a rule base. However, FIG.
The format shown in is not directly visible to the user.

In the example 1 of FIG. 7, the object ID = 100.
Object obj1 and object ID = 101
Is a condition definition with the object obj2 of. The condition is defined in the part beginning with "Let", and indicates that the distance between the two must be 20 or more and 100 or less.

The constraint condition of the specific object can be described in the form as shown in Example 2. According to the rule of Example 2, the object obj1 with the object ID = 100
And the object obj2 whose type is image (imgobj) are shown. This rule applies for all objects of type imgobj. The rule of this Example 2 indicates that the distance between an object with an ID of 100 and all objects with a type of imobjj must be 20 or more.

The description of the format of the general rule of FIG. 6 and the format of the rule of the constraint condition of FIG. 7 can be considered to be almost the same. However, in the format of the general rule shown in FIG. 6, the object cannot be directly specified by the ID. By doing so, it is possible to make a semantic distinction that the description by <rule> indicates a generalized rule, and the rule (constraint condition) described by <condition> is a rule of an individual object. However, inside the system, both can be treated in much the same way.

These rule bases can also be used to determine the default position of an object when the user does not enter any wishes. In that case, the user may modify the default position as desired.

The operation of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described below. Prior to that, the procedure for instructing or changing the object arrangement in the apparatus of the present invention will be described. Conventionally, when arranging a new object, the user strictly specifies the reference position and size of the object. Further, when the arrangement is changed, which object is changed to which position and what size is changed by strictly instructing the reference point of the object in the document. A method of designating an area will be described as an example of such processing.

FIG. 8 shows a typical area designating method using a pointing device which has been carried out in a conventional apparatus. Referring to FIG. 8, in order to specify the area, two points P1 and P2 representing the diagonal of the rectangular area are designated in order. As a method of designating P1 and P2, there is a so-called drag method. Taking a mouse as a pointing device for dragging, for example, press the mouse button at P1, move the mouse pointer to P2 at the diagonal position of P1, and move the mouse pointer at P2. Release the button. As a result, two points P1 and P2 are designated, and a rectangular area having these two points as a diagonal is specified. Alternatively, there is also a designation method in which the mouse button is pressed once in P1 and the mouse button is pressed again in P2. Various other patterns are used as the method for specifying the area. However, a characteristic common to these conventional methods is that the user specifies the clear points P1 and P2, and the rectangular area clearly specified by the user at that time is defined.

However, specifying such a strict area does not match the general feeling of the user. Generally, the user wants to place an object "about this area", and does not think about the strict position as described above. However, in the conventional device, such a user's feeling cannot be directly reflected in the operation of the device.

In the apparatus of the present invention, in order to deal with such a problem, the area designation "about this area" is permitted. A method of designating such an area is shown in FIG.

FIGS. 9A and 9B show two separate methods of the allowed methods. FIG. 9A shows a method of starting from point A1 and designating a shaded area by enclosing the area to be designated with a pointing device. In this case, the boundary surrounding the area is shown by a broken line having a width so that the area includes a gray zone. When such a gray zone is included, the central portion of the area is surely included in the area, but a point near the boundary cannot be distinguished at a glance whether it is included in the area or not. For example, a point near the boundary may be recognized as outside the area even if it is included in the shaded area in FIG. 9A at the position on the display screen. On the contrary, on the display screen of FIG. 9A, even a point outside the shaded area may be recognized as inside the area.

FIG. 9B shows a case where an area including such a gray zone is designated in the same manner as the method shown in FIG. In this case as well, the two points B1 and B2 are designated to specify the area, but this area includes the gray zone.

In the present apparatus, whether to specify a clear area as shown in FIG. 8 or "generally specify" as shown in FIG. 9 is specified before the area is specified. Can be set.

FIG. 10 shows the positional relationship between the area and the object when the object is specified or selected when the area is specified by the arbitrary figure as shown in FIG. 9A. In FIG. 6, the designated area Y is indicated by a diagonal line and a boundary broken line, and the target object is temporarily indicated by a rectangular area. The reference point of the object is P, which is indicated by a symbol X in FIG.

The reference point of an object is a point which is defined in layout management of a certain object and which represents the object. The area occupied by the object can be determined by the reference point of the object and the size information (for example, width and height) of the object.
The reference point of the object is managed by the layout management module.

The reference point can be represented by X and Y coordinates in a device which manages in two dimensions of XY. Further, when managing in three dimensions, it can be expressed by x, y, z coordinates. Further, it is possible to specify an object whose reference point is when the reference point includes time information. In FIG. 10, the object is represented as a two-dimensional plane for convenience of illustration.

FIG. 10A shows the reference point P of the object.
Shows that the object is included in the designated area Y on the display screen, but part of the object is out of the designated area Y. FIG. 10B shows a case where the entire object including the reference point P is included in the designated area Y on the display screen.

FIG. 11 schematically shows the arrangement information for obtaining the size and the reference point position of the displayed object. As an example, as shown in FIG. 13, a case where three objects ObjA, ObjB, and ObjC are already displayed is taken as an example. The object ObjC represents a document frame.

As shown in FIG. 11, the placement information of each object consists of the coordinates and size of the reference point.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the format of the representation of the area (information held inside the device). As described above, there are two types of regions, a region having a clear boundary and a region having an ambiguous boundary such as "roughly specified". As normal areas, a rectangular area, an elliptical area, a polygonal area, and a point set area are shown as examples. The parameters (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) of the rectangular area data indicate the coordinates of two diagonally upper left corners and lower right corners of the rectangular area. Elliptic region data parameters (x1, y1), (x2, y
2) shows the diagonal coordinates of the upper left corner and the lower right corner of the rectangular area inscribed by the ellipse. The parameter of the polygonal area is composed of the number of strokes n and the coordinates (x1, y1), (x2, y2) of each vertex. The point set region is the number n of points in the set and
The coordinates (x1, y1), (x2, y2), ... Of each point are included.

In the case of "generally designated", "fuzzy_" is added to the expression format of the corresponding normal area, and its parameter is the same as the parameter of the data of the corresponding normal area, but the boundary is further defined. A line width w is added. Further, on the boundary line, the effectiveness as the region gradually decreases as it goes outside. As for the point set area, the effectiveness w1 and w2 as the area are added to each point.

When an arbitrary area Y (ObjY) is specified by using the pen as shown in FIG. 13, the user specified area data can be acquired as the area Y as follows.

Y = fuzzy_poli {n, (x_y
1, y_y1), (x_y2, y_y2), ..., W} This apparatus will be described below by exemplifying a case where the object ObjX is arranged in the area Y which is “generally designated” in this way.

Referring to FIG. 14, at least an object display area 194 and an object list area 190 are displayed on the display area of the display device 46, and buttons for selecting various operations are displayed. ing.
The user creates a document by selecting these buttons using the pen 192, drawing an arbitrary figure in the object display area 194, or dragging an object in the object list area 190 onto the object display area 94. Go.

FIG. 15 shows an operation for placing a specific object 196 in the object list area 190 at a specific position 198 on the object display area 194. First, select the object 196 with the pen 192, drag the object 196 as it is,
The reference point is located at a desired position on the object display area 194. As a result, the object 196 is arranged on the display area so that the reference point of the object 196 is accurately located at the point designated by the pen 192.

In FIG. 16, let us consider a case where the object 196 is arranged on the object display area 194 on the object display area 194 according to "roughly specified".
In this case, the user operates the pen 192 in the order shown by 1, 2, and 3 in FIG. That is, first, the object 196 is selected and dragged to draw a circle with the pen 192 as indicated by the numbers 1 and 2. After that, the circle 3 is drawn with the pen 192 in the vicinity of the lower right corner of the rectangular area to be "roughly specified". As a result, the area 200 having an ambiguous surrounding is designated as a rectangular area having vertices at corresponding positions of the two "generally designated" portions.

FIG. 17 shows the concept of constraints defined between objects which are the constituent elements of a document. Referring to FIG. 17, object ObjA and object ObjB
A constraint condition Cond (A, B) is provided between them.
In FIG. 17, the existence of the constraint is shown in chain form. Cond (A, B) is a condition that the distance between the center of the lower edge of the object A and the designated point on the upper edge of the object B is kept constant.

A constraint condition Cond (B, C) is provided between the object B and the object C.
This Cond (B, C) indicates that the distance between the lower right corner point of the object B and the lower left corner point of the object C is kept constant. Furthermore, the constraint condition Cond (C, C,
W) is provided as a constraint condition. This condition specifies that the right side of the object C and the right side of the document frame W are kept at a constant distance. Of course, the display as shown in FIG. 17 is only an example of the display, and the display of each chain merely shows that there is some constraint condition between the objects. It is not necessary that such a display be displayed on the screen. For example, only these constraint conditions may be displayed or set in a part different from the display area.

The constraint conditions between objects can be set variously as necessary. Different constraints can be set for the same points. For example, Cond (A, B) in the above example specifies that the distance between the center of the lower side of object A and the specified point on the upper side of object B is the same as the distance between object A and object C. Good.

When such a constraint condition is designated, the automatic layout engine unit 52 shown in FIG. 2 calculates each object position so as to satisfy the constraint condition.

FIG. 18 shows an example of a screen display when setting or canceling a constraint condition between objects. In the example shown in FIG. 18, by selecting the processing for setting the constraint condition 214 between the two objects 210 and 212 displayed in the object display area 194, the display 216 for selecting the condition setting and the condition release appears. By selecting one of them with the pen 192, condition setting and condition cancellation can be performed. Since the object for which the constraint condition is set can be arbitrarily selected in advance, the constraint condition can be set between arbitrary objects or between the object and the document frame. The document frame itself can also be considered as one object.

Here, again, a method of determining whether or not a certain object belongs to the defined area will be described. First, consider the case where the regions have well-defined boundaries. In this case, the following three (1) to (3) can be considered as criteria for determining whether or not a certain object is within the boundary.

[0075]

(Equation 1)

In the above equation, Y is a designated area, and a point in the object X is represented as x. (1)
This is a condition for determining that the object X is in the area Y when the reference point P of the object X is in the area Y. (2) is a condition for determining that the object X exists in the area Y when all the points x in the object X exist in the area Y. The condition (3) is a condition for determining that the object X is in the area Y when any one of the objects X is located in the area Y.

On the other hand, in the case of "generally designated" as shown in FIG. 10, the above conditions cannot be applied as they are. Therefore, in the system according to the present invention, such a case is determined according to the following conditions.

[0078]

(Equation 2)

The first half of the above equation indicates that "if all the points in the object X are in the area Y, it is determined that the object X is in the area Y".
It is considered that this criterion is consistent with a normal user's feeling.

The latter half of the above equation is "roughly specified".
Is a characteristic judgment method related to. L in this formula is each point x1, x2, ... In the target object.
Represents the weighted sum of the distances s1, s2, ... When a point in the object is within the display area Y, the corresponding distance s = 0, and when the point x is outside the area Y, the shortest distance between the point x and the area Y is defined as this point x. The distance S to the area Y is set.

The method of such determination will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20.

FIG. 19 shows a case in which the reference point P of the object Obj is displayed within the area Y, but a part of the area of this object is outside the area Y. FIG.
A conceptual view of the cross section of both the region Y and the object along the line Q-Q shown in (A) is shown in FIG. 19 (B). The part where this object Obj and the area Y are common, that is, the area Y of the object Obj
FIG. 19 shows that only the portion belonging to the display is extracted.
In (C), a portion of the region Obj that belongs to the region Y is shown as a shaded portion 310.

With reference to FIG. 19D, using the distance defined as described above, in the object Obj,
Considering the distance between x and the region Y, the polygonal line 312 shown in FIG. 19 is obtained.

On the other hand, each object has its type,
It is assumed that in addition to the name, the size, each of the points forming the name, the shape of the object, each point includes a weighting coefficient a given in advance. An example thereof is shown in FIG. FIG.
In FIG. 9, each point on the QQ cross section in the object Obj is given a weight a as shown by a curve 314 in FIG. Using this weight to calculate L shown in "Equation 2" above, the curve shown in FIG. 9F is obtained, and the value corresponding to the area is shown by L.

If L thus obtained is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that the object Obj belongs to the area Y, and if not, it is determined that the object Obj is outside the area Y.

FIG. 20 illustrates the case where all the points x in the object Obj are included in the display area Y. 20 corresponds to FIGS. 19A to 19F, and
It is shown separately as (F). In particular, with reference to FIG. 20C, since all the points in the object Obj belong to the area Y, a hatched area 320 having the same width as the entire width of the object Obj can be considered. As shown in FIG. 20 (D), since all the points x are included in the region Y,
When the distance between x and the region Y is shown as a graph, a curve 320 that matches the horizontal line is obtained. That is, the distance is 0.

Assuming that the object Obj is shown in FIG.
Even if the weighting factor represented by the curve 324 shown in (E) is given, since the distance between each point x and the region Y is 0, the weighting distance also matches the horizontal axis in FIG. 20 (F). As shown by the curve 326, it becomes 0, and the weighted sum L also becomes 0. Therefore, when all the points x in the object are included in the area Y on the display, it can be understood that the judgment is made only by the special case of FIG.

Under the conditions as described above, the "approximately position designation" by the user can be realized.
In the present invention, this function is performed by the automatic layout engine unit 52.
(See FIG. 2).

However, in this apparatus, when determining the position of the object, it is necessary to specifically determine the reference position of the object. Therefore, the reference position P of the object is determined by using the following formula instead of the formula of "Equation 2" described above.

[0090]

(Equation 3)

(4) shows how to determine the reference position p when all the points in the object can be included in the designated area Y. In this formula, σ1, σ2, ... Respective points a1, a2, ...
It shows the distance to.

(5) shows the case where all the objects cannot be stored in the area.

By properly using the above equation (4) or (5) depending on the case, the reference position of the object when arranging the object can be determined.

In the above equations (4) and (5), it is not necessary to apply the above equation to all points in the object. For example, a plurality of representative points may be set in advance according to the shape of the object, and the above formula may be calculated only for those representative points. For example, when the object area is shown by a rectangle, the reference point P may be calculated by applying the above formula (4) or (5) only to the four vertices of the rectangle. Considering the amount of calculations, it is more practical to do so.

Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 13 again, the object ObjX not currently placed in the display area is
The operation of the device of the present application will be described by taking as an example a case in which the user arranges the device so that the user can place it in the region Y designated by the dotted line. As shown in FIG. 13, it is assumed that the objects ObjA, ObjB, ObjC are already arranged on the screen. The area Y designated by the dotted line is designated by the user by drawing with a pen or the like. Object O
The object types of bjA, ObjB and ObjX are image, text and text as shown in FIG. The object ObjC is an object type Frame representing a document frame.

An outline of the processing flow will be described with reference to FIG. The document creation support apparatus according to this embodiment can handle several objects. In this case, each object is managed as object data 82, 84, ... In the document creation support device. The object data itself can be edited by the object editor 7 for each object.
6, 78, ... are in charge. Object editor 76,
78, ... Can receive the user's operation on the data of each object via the user interface management unit 60, and can edit / create the data. However, the object editors 76, 78, ... Can not manage the positioning and arrangement of the object in the document.

The layout management unit 62 manages how these objects are arranged in the document or on the screen. The layout management unit 62 manages information about how the objects are arranged on the screen, the relationship between the objects in the document, and the like. The layout management unit 62 further manages information such as how objects exist in the time space if the document has a time axis. Then, the layout management unit 62 issues a display command of the object on the current screen to the display management unit 70.

The user interface management unit 6 once receives a screen change instruction from the user, an instruction to change the relationship between objects, and an instruction to create a new object.
0 is received and then transmitted to the layout management unit 62. The layout management unit 62 corrects the layout information 68 according to the instruction of the user 2 and notifies the object editors 76, 78, ... Of the correction as necessary. Specific instructions related to the modification to be notified to the object editor include an object creation instruction, a size change instruction, and a redisplay instruction. If there is no effect on the display area managed by each object editor, such as when the positions of objects that do not overlap each other are changed, the layout management unit 62 causes the display management unit 70 to display the changed layout information. A display command is sent to it.

In a document preparation apparatus that handles multimedia data, some object data, such as moving images and audio, have their own time axis. The update timing of these display / outputs is different from the case of only the graphic still image, so the configuration of the layout management unit needs to be slightly different from the above.

For example, when only the object data is of a type having a time axis and the document does not have a time axis, the processing procedure is the same as that described above. This is for the following reason. When reproducing a moving image or the like, the reproduction instruction is often given by the user pointing to the object. At this time, the user interface management unit 60 may simply notify the object editor managing the object data that the user is acting on the object. Notification of such actions is not limited to those with a time axis such as videos,
Similar to what is done for normal objects. Including objects with a time axis like that,
Generally, the object editor corresponding to the specified object may operate according to the action.

On the other hand, when the document itself also has a time axis, it becomes necessary to establish consistency (synchronization) of both time axes. This role is also handled by the layout management unit 62 or its submodule.

According to the present invention, in order to reflect the user's feeling "about this area" in the operation of the apparatus, FIG.
The automatic layout engine unit 52 shown in FIG. When creating a new object, the user has to
The size is instructed to this document creation support device. At this time,
As described above, the user interface management unit can be instructed "about this". Upon receiving such an instruction from the user, the layout management unit 62 once outputs the user instruction to the layout information 6
8 and further transmits the user instruction to the layout engine unit 52. When there are such instructions for some objects, all of these instructions are transmitted to the automatic layout engine unit 52.

When the automatic layout engine section 52 receives the approximate position and size information of each object,
While referring to the rule base, the user's instruction information is satisfied, and the position and size information corresponding to the document is calculated. The automatic layout engine unit 52 updates the layout information 68 with the calculated layout information. When this update is performed, layout management unit 62 issues a display command to display management unit 70 based on the information.

FIG. 21 shows the processing flow in this case, divided into user operation and corresponding processing in the system. In FIG. 21, the processes are arranged vertically in time series,
Data flow is indicated by dotted arrows.

Referring to FIG. 21, the user first sets the designation method (90). The target to be specified in this case is
Whether to turn on or off the "roughly specified" as described above, and how to specify the area,
It is. As the area format, there are a method of designating an arbitrary figure as described above, a method of designating a rectangle by two points on a diagonal, or a method of dragging.

The method designated in this way is given to the user interface management unit 62 in the system.

Then, the user specifies an object to be newly arranged (92). Specifically, this process corresponds to, for example, a process of selecting the object 196 from the object list area 190 shown in FIG. Data specifying the object designated in this way is provided to the corresponding object editor 76 in the system, for example.

The object editor 76 assigns the object ID to the layout management section 6 according to the given data.
No. 2 to the automatic layout engine unit 52 via the object data 78.

Further, the user designates the placement area of the object by an operation according to the designation method set in step 90 (94). The position information thus designated is given to the layout management unit 62. Layout management unit 6
In response to the information about the designation method given by the user interface management unit 60, the ID of the selected object given by the object editor 76, and the position information given by the step 94, the layout information 68 is displayed. With respect to the position information, the object ID and the designation method are given to the automatic layout engine unit 52.

Further, the user instructs the apparatus to start the placement process (96). In response to this instruction, the automatic layout engine unit 52 refers to the layout information 68, the object data 78, the rule base 64 and the layout correction information 66 shown in FIG. 2, and determines the optimum layout position of the selected object. Is determined and given to the display management unit 70 via the layout management unit 62 shown in FIG. The display management unit 70 controls the display unit 72 to display this new object at the determined position. The user confirms the object thus displayed on the screen (98).

With reference to FIG. 22, a detailed flowchart of the processing performed by the automatic layout engine section 52 will be described. When the layout of a new object is instructed, the automatic layout engine unit 52 acquires the current layout information of the object currently displayed in the layout management unit 62 (see FIG. 2) (110). This placement information may include previous setting information of this object, and when this object is newly created, it also includes information indicating default designation or provisional setting placement.

Next, the user's area designation condition and constraint condition for each object instructed by the user interface management unit 60 to the layout management unit 62 are read (112). These conditions are stored in the rule base 64 of FIG. 2, and the contents have already been described. The acquisition of the constraint condition is performed by extracting only the objects related to the objects defined on the screen from the rule base 64 shown in FIG. The extraction is performed by searching the general rule and the constraint condition in the rule base for the matching ID and type, using the ID and type of the object on the screen as keys.

In order to avoid an infinite loop, the rule count is set to 0 (114) and the main loop of processing is entered (116 to 130). In this main loop, first, the loop counter is incremented by 1 (116). Then, it is checked whether the loop count has exceeded a preset maximum number of loops (118). If the loop count exceeds the maximum number of loops, it means that the arrangement information that satisfies the condition could not be found, and this processing ends in error (120). If the loop count does not exceed the maximum number of loops, the rule base 64 shown in FIG. 2 is referred to, and the position of the reference point that meets the constraint condition of each object is calculated (122). Further, an object size that meets the constraint condition of each object is calculated (124).

The layout management unit 62 may correct the position / size of the object calculated through the above process by the layout management unit 62. In that case, the layout correction information is stored as layout correction information 66 (see FIG. 2). Therefore, with reference to FIG. 23, it is checked whether or not the layout modification information of the object exists (126 in FIG. 3). If there is correction information, the current position / size is changed according to this information (128), and the first position / size is obtained.

It is checked whether or not the position / size thus obtained satisfies the constraint conditions of all objects (130). If the constraint condition is not satisfied, the steps 116 to 130 described above are repeated to gradually integrate the position / size of the object. If there is one satisfying the condition, the layout information of each such object is stored in the layout information 68, and the process is ended (132).

Referring again to FIG. 2, when the process of the automatic layout engine unit 52 ends normally, the layout management unit 62 reads the layout information from the newly calculated layout information 68, and causes the display management unit 70 to read it. The object is displayed again by issuing a display command.
After this, the user can change the arrangement of the objects. This correction information is very effective in realizing the arrangement according to the user's wish when setting the position / size next time, and is therefore stored as the layout correction information 66. However, if the user makes a too large correction, the use of the correction information is limited. Therefore, it is most effective that the information stored as the layout correction information 66 is the correction information of the fine adjustment level.

FIG. 24 shows a detailed flowchart of the process shown in step 122 of FIG. Referring to FIG. 24, first, the object ObjX is selected as the object ObjT to be processed (160). Then, the reference position of the object ObjT is acquired (162).
The reference position of the object has already been described.

Subsequently, it is judged whether or not there is an arrangement of the object ObjT such that all the objects ObjT are included in the area Y designated by the user (164). If there is such an arrangement (see Figure 20)
The reference point P is calculated according to the equation (4) of "Equation 3" described above. If there is no arrangement in which all the objects ObjT are included in the region Y (see FIG. 19), the calculation as shown in the equation (5) of “Equation 3” is performed to calculate the reference point P (166).

Further, it is judged whether all constraint conditions are checked (170). If all constraint conditions have been checked, the process ends. If there is a constraint condition that is not checked, the constraint condition is acquired (172). Then, it is checked whether the arrangement calculated as described above satisfies the constraint condition acquired in step 172 (174). If satisfied, the process returns to step 170 to perform the process for the next constraint condition. If the condition is not satisfied, the reference point is changed so that this constraint condition is satisfied (17
6). At this time, the change of the reference point is selected so that the change amount (dx, dy) becomes as small as possible. Also in this case,
All the information of the reference points changed in this way is sequentially stored in the temporary memory as the reference point history, and when the reference point is changed, it is assumed that the reference point history exists as the already selected reference point. Don't select a different position. By doing so, it is possible to avoid repeatedly calculating the same content.

The reference point thus changed is added to the reference point history (178), and the process returns to step 170 and thereafter. The temporary memory that stores the reference point history is discarded when the layout engine completes a series of operations.

Next, with reference to FIG. 25, a detailed flowchart of the processing of “calculating the size of the object by referring to the rule base” performed in step 124 of FIG. 22 will be described.

First, the object ObjX is selected as the target object ObjT to be processed (140). Next, it is judged whether the size of this object ObjT can be changed (142). This determination is because the document creation support apparatus according to the present embodiment allows the user to specify not to change the size of the object. If the user does not want to change the size of the object, such designation can be used to calculate the placement of the object such that the size of the object is not changed. If the size of the object ObjT cannot be changed, the following processing is skipped.

If the object can be resized,
Gets the size information of the object ObjT (14
4). Then, the weighted distance L described in "Equation 2" is calculated for this object ObjT, and it is determined whether this weighted distance L is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value. If it is less than or equal to the threshold value, the process proceeds directly to step 150, but if it is not less than or equal to the threshold value, in step 148, the size of this object ObjT is changed so that this weighted distance L becomes less than or equal to the threshold value. Processing is performed. In this case also, the change amount (dw, dx)
Resize so that is as small as possible.

Next, it is judged whether all constraint conditions have been checked (150). When all the constraints have been checked, the entire process ends. If some constraint conditions are not checked, the constraint conditions are acquired (152). Then, for this constraint condition, it is checked whether the size of the object obtained as described above satisfies this constraint condition (154). If satisfied, the process returns to step 150, and the processes of steps 150 to 154 are repeated for the next constraint condition. If the condition is not satisfied, the size is changed so as to satisfy the condition (156). Also in this case, the size is changed so that the size change amount (dw, dx) becomes as small as possible. After step 156, the control returns to step 150, and the processes of steps 150 to 156 are repeated as many times as necessary.

As described above, the size of the object is changed according to the rule-based constraint condition. When changing the size, the reference point is not changed. Also,
Generally, various sizes of objects that satisfy the constraint conditions are calculated, but the size of the change is calculated in the smallest range.

According to the correction information thus obtained, the layout information is corrected in step 128 of FIG. For example, the correction information

[0127]

(Equation 4)

If it looks like this, the object O
The reference position of bjX is moved by 1 in the x direction and by 10 in the y direction.

The document creation support apparatus according to the above-described embodiment is characterized by the method of designating the placement position of the object. That is, not only the area designation as shown in FIG. 8 as in the prior art but also the area designation as shown in FIG. 9 can be performed. In all of these, the user interface management unit 60 has a function of interpreting such designation, and further, an automatic layout engine unit 52 capable of calculating the arrangement position of the object based on the instruction of the user interface management unit 60 is provided. Realized by

Note that, in FIG. 9, the boundaries of the regions are indicated by broken lines to show that the boundaries are not clear. However, as in the case of FIG. 8, it is necessary to specify clear boundaries. You can also In this case, the boundaries are not shown by broken lines as shown in FIG. 9, but are shown by solid lines. Similarly, such a designation is also interpreted by the user interface management unit 60, and the automatic layout engine unit 52 has a function of calculating the layout.
As the method of calculating the layout, in this embodiment, in the case of FIG. 10A (where the boundary of the region Y is a solid line), the object is interpreted as not inside the region Y. Then, in the case of FIG. 10B, it is determined that the object is within the area Y.

Further, in the document creation support apparatus of the present invention, as described above, the boundary of the area Y is made ambiguous as shown in FIG. 10 to specify the arrangement position of the object "about this". Can be done. Although it is clear that the object is included in the area Y in FIG. 10B, whether or not the object is included in the area Y depending on the degree of overlap between the object and the designated area even in the arrangement shown in FIG. May change and may or may not be included in the area. FIG.
Whether or not the object having the reference point P of (A) is included in the region Y depends on each of the objects in the object used in the calculation of the weighted total L when the condition of the above-mentioned “Equation 2” is applied. It depends on how to set the point weighting coefficients a1, a2, ... And how to set a threshold value to be compared with the sum L. Details thereof are shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, particularly (D), (E) and (F). The automatic layout engine unit 52 has a function of determining whether or not an object is included in the area Y thus formed.

Further, as one condition for determining that an object is included in a certain area, there may be a condition that only the reference point of the object needs to be included in that area. If a part of the object is included in the designated area, it may be determined that the object is included in the area. As a mechanism for checking whether or not a part of the object is included in the designated area, the rule (3) of “Equation 1” may be applied and mounted on the automatic layout engine unit 52.

Further, in the document creation support apparatus of this embodiment, the user can make a designation such that the size of the object is not changed. If such designation is made, it is determined that the size cannot be changed in the process shown in step 142 of FIG. 25, and the size of the object is not changed. This function is also realized by the automatic layout engine unit 52 described above.

Further, in the document creation support apparatus of the present embodiment, it is assumed that the variable range of the object size can be designated by the maximum size and the minimum size at the stage of specifying the object size by the user. This instruction is stored as a constraint condition of the rule base 64 (see FIG. 2). As a result, in step 154 of FIG. 25, it is checked whether the object size is within the specified maximum and minimum ranges.
If it does not fall within the specified range, the layout is calculated again in step 156.

In the document creation support apparatus of this embodiment, constraint conditions between objects can be designated as shown in FIG. This constraint condition is stored in the rule base 64 of FIG. 2 as a constraint condition. The automatic layout engine unit 52 checks in step 174 of FIG. 24 and step 154 of FIG. 25 whether such a constraint condition is satisfied, and if not satisfied, changes the object size and the arrangement position. Processing is performed. However, in this case, only the object to be processed is changed, and the position and size of the object whose arrangement has already been determined are not changed. This is clear from FIGS. 24 and 25. However, there may be a realization method in which the arrangement of existing objects is changed by specifying some condition.

When there are a plurality of objects to be newly arranged, only the constraint condition between the newly arranged objects can be set, and the relationship of the new objects is added as a constraint condition. By adding such a constraint condition, it is possible to arrange an object that satisfies the set condition for a newly displayed object. It is also possible to provide not only a new object but also a constraint condition with an already placed object.

Further, in the document creation support apparatus of the present embodiment, the user can further modify the layout proposed by the automatic layout engine unit 52 by the above processing. Such information is stored in the layout modification information 66 of FIG.

An example of layout modification information is shown below. In the following, the case where the layout information does not include time information is taken up.

[0139]

(Equation 5)

In the above notation, "<" to ">" represent one record information. The word immediately after "<" is a tag indicating what this record information represents.
The tag "position" indicates that this record is the layout information of the object in which this record exists. In each of the following items, the item name and its value are connected by "=". Objid is an ID added to identify each object, x is the x coordinate of the reference point of the designated object, and y is the Y coordinate of the reference point of the designated object. Therefore, in the above example, it can be seen that the user has made the following corrections (1) and (2).

(1) The object indicated by objid = 100 is moved from position (10,100) to (11,11).
Moved to 0).

(2) The object indicated by objid = 101 is changed from the position (50,200) to (50,19).
Moved to 0).

The layout modification information corresponding to such layout modification is the one already shown in FIG.

By storing the layout correction information in this way, the next time the document creation support apparatus proposes the layout of the document, by providing a rule as shown in FIG. Can have an effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a document creation support device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a document creation support device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a format of object data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format of layout information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a format of layout correction data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a format of a general rule in a rule base.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a format of constraint conditions of a specific object in the rule base.

FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a method of designating a rectangular area by designating two points.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a method for "roughly specifying" an area.

FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing a positional relationship between a “generally designated” area and an object.

FIG. 11 is a diagram schematically showing an object size and a reference point position.

FIG. 12 is a diagram schematically showing how to represent a region.

FIG. 13 is a diagram schematically showing a state of a display area when a new object is arranged.

FIG. 14 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a document creation screen of the document creation support apparatus.

FIG. 15 is a diagram schematically showing an operation for accurately arranging an object at a specific position on the object display area.

FIG. 16 is a diagram schematically showing an operation method of “roughly specifying” the size of a region when designating that an object is arranged in a certain region on the display region.

FIG. 17 is a diagram schematically showing constraint conditions between objects.

FIG. 18 is a diagram schematically showing a screen for setting and releasing constraint conditions between objects.

FIG. 19 is a diagram schematically showing a process of determining whether or not an object is in the specified area Y when only a part of the object is in the specified area Y;

FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of determining an inclusion relationship between an object and a designated area when all objects are included in the designated area.

FIG. 21 is a diagram schematically showing the flow of processing of the present system when a new object is placed.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing the first half of the flowchart of the process of the automatic layout engine unit when a new object is placed.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing the latter half of the flowchart of the processing of the automatic layout engine unit when a new object is arranged.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart of a process of calculating the position of a reference point of an object.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a process of calculating the size of an object.

FIG. 26 is a diagram schematically showing a rule corresponding to layout correction information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 32 CPU 34 key CPU 42 program memory 52 automatic layout engine section 60 user interface management section 62 layout management section 64 rule base 66 layout correction information 68 layout information

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A document creation support apparatus for processing a document in which arbitrary media materials are integrated, and a layout management mechanism for managing a layout when arranging media materials in a document, and a certain media material. Input means for receiving the user's wishes regarding the arrangement in the document from the user and giving it to the layout managing mechanism, the layout managing mechanism according to the user's wishes of the document of the certain media material. A document creation support device having a function of proposing an arrangement position in the document. 2. The display device further includes a display unit for displaying a layout of the document, wherein the input unit includes a position specifying unit for specifying an arbitrary position on the display of the display unit, and the position specifying unit. And a unit for interpreting that a rough position on the display screen is designated in response to a user performing a specific operation using the layout management mechanism. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 1, which has a function of proposing an arrangement position of a media material in a document. 3. A storage unit for storing information for defining a default position according to the type of media material, wherein the layout management mechanism sets the corresponding default position to the corresponding default position before receiving a user's request. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 1, having a function of proposing placement of a certain media material. 4. The input means includes means for inputting a constraint condition regarding a distance between a certain media material and another element in the document, and the layout management mechanism arranges the arrangement of the certain media material. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a function of determining a layout position so as to satisfy the constraint condition in the position proposal. 5. The layout management mechanism further includes a display unit for displaying a layout of the document, the input unit includes a position designating unit for designating an arbitrary position on the display of the display unit. Is arranged such that the certain media material is arranged in a predetermined relationship with the certain area on the display screen in response to the user performing a specific operation of designating the certain area using the position specifying means. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement position of the certain media material is determined as described above. 6. The layout management mechanism, when the user performs a specific operation of designating a certain area by using the position designating means, the certain medium is always present in the certain area on the display screen. Determine the placement position of the certain media material so that the material is placed,
The document creation support device according to claim 5. 7. The layout management mechanism, in response to a user performing a specific operation of designating a certain area using the position designation means, the certain media material existing in the certain area on the display screen. Determines the arrangement position of the certain media material so that
The document creation support device according to claim 5. 8. The layout management mechanism, in response to a user performing a specific operation of designating a certain area using the position designation means, the certain media material existing in the certain area on the display screen. 6. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the arrangement position of the certain media material is determined so that at least a part of the above is arranged. 9. Each of the media materials has size information indicating its size, and further includes means for enabling a user to specify that the size information is not changed when arranging the media material. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the layout management mechanism determines the arrangement position of the media material according to the size information of the media material when it is specified that the size information of the media material is not changed. 10. Each of the media materials has size information indicating its size, and a display means for displaying the layout of the document and a variable range of the size of the display when arranging the media materials are provided. Means for allowing the user to specify on the display, wherein the layout management mechanism displays the media material display in response to a specified range of the size of the display of the media material being specified. 2. The size of is determined within the range.
Document creation support device. 11. Each of the media materials has size information indicating its size, display means for displaying a layout of a document, and when arranging a certain media material, the certain media material and the already displayed information. Further comprising means for enabling a user to specify on the display the positional relationship between the media material being displayed by the means, the layout management mechanism comprising:
The document creation support according to claim 1, wherein the display size and the arrangement position of the certain media material are determined in response to designation of the positional relationship with the media material already displayed by the display means. apparatus. 12. The layout management mechanism further comprises means for allowing a user to specify a positional relationship and a size relationship between the plurality of media materials when arranging the plurality of media materials. Means that the positional relationship between the plurality of media materials and the media material already displayed by the display means, and the positional relationship and the size relationship between the plurality of media materials are designated. The document creation support apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the display size and the layout position of the plurality of media materials are determined according to the above. 13. A correction input means for allowing a user to further correct the layout proposed by the layout management mechanism, and a correction for accumulating the correction information made through the correction input means. The layout management mechanism further has a function of interpreting the correction information stored by the correction information storage means as a constraint condition between media materials and determining a proposal content of the arrangement of the media materials, The document creation support device according to claim 1.