JPH1021224A - Information processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable continuous switching between applications without completely finishing an application even if memory capacity is not enough and no special hardware such as an MMU is provided. SOLUTION: A document structure in internal format which is read out of a document file and obtained by converting an external format by a document analyzing device 105 is held in a memory by a document structure management device 103, and used for display on a display device 106. The document structure management device 103 when switching and displaying a document stores a document state storage file 107 with document state information including a scroll position and a cursor position indicating the state of the document which is currently displayed. To switch and display the document, the document structure management device 103 switches and displays a target document based on the document state information on the new document to be displayed on condition that the information is saved in the document state storage file 107.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for mainly executing a plurality of application programs in parallel or switching between applications, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus suitable for switching and displaying documents. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the advance of software technology, an S (operating system) that can simultaneously execute a plurality of application programs (hereinafter simply referred to as applications) on one information processing device has become common. I have. For example, a spreadsheet (spreadsheet) can be started as one application, and another application, for example, a mail system can be started at the same time without terminating the spreadsheet.

To realize these functions on an information processing device, a sufficient amount of memory and a high-speed processing device are required. For example, in order for a plurality of applications to fit in a memory at the same time, it is necessary to preliminarily estimate the number of applications running at the same time and the amount of memory consumed by the applications, and to mount memory corresponding to the number.

[0004] However, it is difficult to accurately estimate the required memory amount for an unspecified application.
Therefore, more memory than necessary is mounted. However, since the memory is very expensive, it is not economically appropriate to increase the memory carelessly.

[0005] For this reason, a virtual storage technique has been widely used in which a part of data in a memory can be saved in a secondary storage device such as a low-cost disk device and taken into the memory as needed.

[0006] However, the implementation of the virtual memory system requires the MMU.
Special hardware called a (Memory Management Unit) is required. On the other hand, in portable information processing devices aimed at low prices, which are generally carried and used by individuals, it is not possible to mount a large amount of expensive memory or implement a virtual storage method that requires an MMU. , Not realistic. Therefore, in this type of information processing device, it is impossible to run a plurality of applications at the same time, or the number of applications that can run at the same time is limited.

[0007]

As described above, in the conventional technology, it is impossible to run a plurality of applications at the same time on an information processing device having a small memory or a virtual memory system is not mounted. Or, because the number of applications that can run at the same time is limited, when the user wants to run another application, select an application that does not need to be terminated from the applications that are already running. After terminating the application, it was necessary to run another desired application.

Further, in order to resume the work performed by the user with the terminated application, it is necessary to restart the application and reproduce the state at the time of termination by the user. There was a problem that was a target.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and has as its object to continuously execute an application without completely ending the application even if the memory capacity is not sufficient and no special hardware such as an MMU is provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing device capable of switching between applications in a general manner.

[0010]

An information processing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention stores input means for receiving an input from a user and a document in a first format (external format) independent of the device. A document storage unit and a document stored in the document storage unit are analyzed, and the format of the document is converted from the first format to a second format (internal format) suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus. Document analysis means, document structure management means for managing the document structure converted into the second format, and display means used for presenting a user with a document structure and the like managed by the document structure management means. Document status storage means for storing document status information necessary for reconstructing the information in the second format to be managed by the document structure management means. Is the sentence being displayed When switching to another document is requested, the document status information of the document that has been displayed is generated and stored in the document status storage unit, while the document status information of the requested document is stored. Is stored in the document state storage means, a target document is switched and displayed based on the document state information.

In such an information processing apparatus, when a document is switched and displayed, document state information indicating the state of the currently displayed document is generated and stored in the document state storage means. When displaying the document specified by the user, if the document status information of the document is already stored in the document status storage means, the document is switched based on the document status information before. Can be reproduced.

Therefore, when the document is switched and displayed, the document structure of the second format of the currently displayed document needs to be stored in the memory so that it can be reused later. And saves memory.

In particular, if information on the scroll position and the cursor position of the displayed document when the displayed document is switched is provided as document status information, when the document is displayed again, the information in the document storage means is stored. From the document structure of the second format converted and generated from the first format of the document, and the scroll position and the cursor position in the document status information,
The document display state at the time of switching before can be reliably reproduced.

If the display state of each item in the document structure of the second format of the corresponding document is provided in addition to the information of the scroll position and the cursor position in the document state information, this document state From the information alone, the document display state when the document was previously switched can be almost, but not completely, reproduced. In this case, since there is no need to perform a process of converting the first format of the corresponding document in the document storage unit into the second format, the target document can be switched and displayed more quickly.

Next, an information processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention comprises a document structure managed by the document structure management means in place of the document state storage means in the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect. Document display information generating means for generating document display information for displaying the outline of a document including the display coordinate values of each item in the document, and a display for storing the document display information generated by the document display information generating means When a request is made to switch to a document different from the document being displayed on the display means and the document being displayed on the display means, if the document display information of the requested document is stored in the display document storage means, For example, based on the document display information, display data for generating the outline document structure display data for displaying the outline document structure of the document, and switching and displaying the outline document structure of the target document based on the display data. Another and a evening generating means, the following functions to the document structure management unit, i.e. when the document being displayed on said display means to switch to another document has been requested,
Waiting for the requested document format to be converted into the second format by the document analysis means, displaying the converted document structure on the display means, and displaying the schematic document structure by the display data generation means. It is characterized by having a function of switching from.

In such an information processing device, the document structure of the second format, which is managed by the document structure management means, is used to roughly display the document including the display coordinate values of each item in the document structure. Document display information (summary display information)
Is generated and stored in the display document storage unit. When displaying the document specified by the user, if the document display information of the document is already stored in the display document storage unit, the document display is performed. Since the outline of the document can be displayed based on the information included in the information, such as the coordinate value of each item of the document, the first format of the document is converted into the second format by the document analysis means, and The displayed document can be switched at a higher speed than when the document structure of the second format is only displayed from the beginning. Moreover, since it is not necessary to store the document structure of the document in the second format in the memory, the memory can be saved.

The information processing apparatus according to the second aspect is further provided with a document state storage means applied to the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, and utilizing the document display information of the target document. By using the document state information of the document when displaying the outline of the document, it is possible to quickly reproduce the outline of the document display state when the document was previously switched.

Next, an information processing apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is a data processing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the information processing apparatus stores a document managed by the document structure management means instead of the document state storage means. An annotation means for adding an overwrite annotation to the document structure, and an annotation area in which the annotation is overwritten by the annotation means is extracted from the document structure of the document managed by the document structure management means. In addition to having an annotation area extracting means for switching and displaying the document structure portion of the extracted annotation area, the document structure management means has the following function, that is, after displaying the annotation area extracted by the annotation area extracting means, It is characterized by having a function of switching to the display of the document structure managed by itself.

In such an information processing apparatus, when displaying a document, the user first displays the area where the user has overwritten the annotation, so that when searching while turning over the document, it is necessary to identify the area. The likelihood that certain information will be displayed first increases, and the information can be searched at high speed.

The information processing apparatus according to the third aspect is provided with a document display information creating means and a display document storage means applied to the information processing apparatus according to the second aspect, and the display document storage means is provided. When the document display information of the target document is registered in the means, it is also possible to extract a comment region from the document display information and display a portion of the region, that is, a summary of a portion where the comment exists. is there. In this case, the area where the user has overwritten the annotation can be displayed at higher speed.

Further, the information processing apparatus according to the third aspect includes:
When a document state storage unit applied to the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect is added and a display document is switched,
Generates and saves document status information indicating the status of the document being displayed at that point in time, and when the document is displayed again, uses the saved document status information to store the internal status of the document. The format may be reconstructed, and the annotation area may be extracted from the reconstructed internal format and displayed on the screen. In this case, since the state when the document was previously switched can be almost reproduced, the possibility that information necessary for identification is displayed first can be further increased.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, taking as an example a case where an application for displaying a document (page) is applied as an application type. [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes an input device including a keyboard and a mouse for receiving an input from a user; 102, a control device for processing an inputted command and executing a corresponding operation; 103, a display (operation) target Is a document structure management device that manages a document structure of a document to be stored in a memory (not shown).

Reference numeral 104 denotes a file (document file) in which various documents are stored. 105 reads a document from the document file 104, analyzes its structure, and converts it into a format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus. This is a document analysis device to be passed to the document structure management device 103.

The document file 104 stores various documents (pages) in a certain format (first format). This format is not specific to the device of FIG. 1 and will be referred to as an external format. The external format of this document is, for example, HTML (Hype) used in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) or WWW (World Wide Web).
rtext Markup Language). FIG. 2 shows an example. Each document stored in the document file 104 has an ID that can be uniquely identified. Hereinafter, this ID is called a document ID.

The document analysis device 105 includes the document analysis device 10
5 is analyzed and converted into a format (second format) suitable for screen display for processing by the document structure management device 103. The format for processing by the document structure management device 103 is called an internal format because it is a format used inside the device.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which the document shown in FIG. 2 is converted into an internal format structure. In FIG. 3, a character string portion and an image portion are linked by a linear list including a row of pointers 310 in units of blocks 300. Each pointer 310 is provided for each block 300, and has pointer information indicating the corresponding block 300 and pointer information indicating the pointer (310) of the next block (300). If the next block (300) does not exist, information indicating that fact is used instead of the pointer information.

Each block 300 includes a display device 1 to be described later.
06, an x-coordinate 301 and a y-coordinate 302 indicating a display position when displayed, a tag (identification tag) 303 for identifying a data type such as a character string or an image, and actual character string data or image data are stored. (A file name of the current image file). The process of generating such a document structure from the documents in the document file 104 is generally a time-consuming process.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a screen when the document structure (internal format of the document) shown in FIG. 3 is displayed. Here, it can be seen that the contents such as a character string and an image are displayed at the designated coordinate position on the screen. The process of displaying the internal format of a given document can be performed at high speed because coordinate values and data have already been given as in the example of FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 1, reference numeral 106 denotes a display device for displaying a document structure or the like in an internal format managed by the document structure management device 103, and 107 denotes a document structure managed by the document structure management device 103. This is a document state storage file for storing information (hereinafter, referred to as document state information) necessary for reconstructing all or part of the information in document units.

The document status information stored in the document status storage file 107 has a data structure that can be searched using the document ID as a key. The document ID and the scroll when the document having the document ID is displayed are displayed. Includes position as well as cursor position.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the document status information. FIG.
In the example, the scroll position of the document whose document ID is "123" is "25", and the cursor position is "31". The same applies to a document whose document ID is “456”. Here, the scroll position and the cursor position may be physical coordinate values on the screen or logical character positions.

In the configuration of FIG. 1 described above, the control device 102, the document structure management device 103, and the document analysis device 10
Reference numeral 5 is realized by using, for example, a CPU generally included in an information processing device such as a personal computer and dedicated software (software program) executed by the CPU. This software can be distributed by storing it in a storage medium such as a magnetic disk (floppy disk), an optical disk (CD-ROM, DVD, or the like), or a semiconductor memory. The document file 104 and the document state storage file 107 are realized using a magnetic disk (floppy disk) or the like.

Next, the operation of the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the user inputs some command using the input device 101 (step 601), the control device 102 checks the type of the input command, and if the command is a command for switching a display document ID (a command for switching a page) ( Step 60
2), the document structure management device 103 is notified to that effect.

Then, the document structure management apparatus 103, as shown in FIG. 5, shows the state of the currently displayed document held and managed internally (on the memory), that is, the state of the currently displayed document. The document state information including the document ID of the document, the current scroll position and the cursor position is generated and stored in the document state storage file 107 (step 60).
3). At this time, if the document status information having the same document ID does not exist in the document status storage file 107, the generated document status information is newly registered in the document status storage file 107, and the document status information having the same document ID is stored. Is already registered, the registered document status information is updated to the latest document status information generated above.

Further, the control device 102 controls the document analysis device 10
5 requests analysis of the document specified by the input command. Accordingly, the document analysis apparatus 105 reads a document having the document ID specified by the input command from the document file 104, and changes the document structure from an external format as shown in FIG. 2 to an internal format as shown in FIG. The document is converted into a format and transferred to the document structure management device 103 (step 604).

Then, the document structure management device 103 relates to the document having the document ID specified by the input command (see FIG. 5).
It is checked whether or not the document status information (having the data structure as shown in (1)) is registered in the document status storage file 107 (step 605).

If the document having the designated document ID, that is, the document status information of the document to be newly displayed has already been registered, the document structure management device 103 extracts the scroll position information from the document status information. Then, the value is subtracted from each y coordinate value of the document structure in the internal format (as shown in FIG. 3) passed from the document analysis device 105 (step 606). Here, since the document display according to the internal format of the document is performed from the part where the y coordinate value is 0,
As a result of the processing in step 606, it is possible to reproduce the document display state when the document with the designated document ID was previously switched.

The document structure management device 103 extracts the information on the cursor position from the document state information of the designated document registered in the document state storage file 107, and moves the cursor to the cursor position (step 607).

Then, the document structure management device 103 displays the document on the display device 106 according to the internal format of the document on which the operation of step 606 has been performed (608). On the other hand, if the document status information of the document having the specified document ID is not registered in the document status storage file 107, the document structure management device 103 displays the internal document structure passed from the document analysis device 105 on the display device. 106 (step S
608). In this case, the document is displayed from the top, and the cursor is also displayed at the top position (line).

In the above description, in order to reproduce the display state of the document, the designated document in the external format stored in the document file 104 and the document state related to the designated document registered in the document state storage file 107 are described. Although both of the information are used, it is not always necessary to use both. For example, if it is not necessary to completely reproduce the state of the document, the document state storage file 107 includes, in addition to the scroll position and the cursor position of the displayed document when the displayed document is switched, items used in the internal format of the document. If display coordinates and the like are also stored as document state information, it is possible to almost reproduce the document display state when the document was previously switched using only the document state information. In this case, the designated document in the external format (within the document file 104) is not required, and the syntax analysis and the document format conversion process by the document analysis device 105 are not required, so that the target document can be switched and displayed more quickly. . [Second Embodiment] FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 701 denotes an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse for receiving an input from a user; 702, a control device for processing an inputted command and executing a corresponding operation; 703, a display (operation) target Is a document structure management device that manages a document structure of a document to be stored in a memory (not shown).

Reference numeral 704 denotes a file (document file) for storing various documents. Reference numeral 705 denotes a document read from the document file 704, analyzes its structure, converts the document from an external format to an internal format, and converts it into an internal format. Document analysis device to pass to

Reference numeral 706 denotes a display device for displaying an internal format document structure and the like managed by the document structure management device 703, and 707 denotes a display device for displaying the internal format document structure managed by the document structure management device 703. To display the outline display information (here, the outline display information having the type of each item and the coordinate value of the item together with the document ID) including the coordinate value of each item in the document structure. An information creation device. Here, the outline display information is document display information for displaying an outline of the document (schematic document structure). For example, for a character string portion in the document, each character is not displayed but a character frame is displayed. This is information for displaying only a rectangle corresponding to, or displaying a continuous character string as a line segment. In addition, as for the image, in order to display the image at high speed, the reduced number of colors, the reduced image information, or the image contour figure indicating only the size of the image is the rough display information. In the present embodiment, for a character string, a continuous character string is represented by a line segment (straight line) having a width (corresponding to the height of the character), and for an image, the character string is simplified to represent only the size of the image. It is assumed that the summary display information is used.

Reference numeral 708 denotes a display document storage file for storing the outline display information generated by the document display information creation device 707 in units of documents (document IDs). Reference numeral 709 denotes a document to be displayed when switching the display documents. If the outline display information is stored in the display document storage file 708, display data (outline document structure display data) for displaying the outline (outline document structure) of the document on the screen is generated, and based on the display data. This is a display data generation device that displays a schematic document structure on the display device 706.

The input device 70 according to the present embodiment is
1. The document structure management device 703, the document file 704, and the display device 706 are the same as the input device 101, the document structure management device 103, the document file 104, and the display device 106 in the first embodiment, respectively. The meanings of the external format and the internal format are the same as in the first embodiment.

Next, the operation of the configuration of FIG. 7 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the user inputs a command using the input device 701 (step 801), the control device 702 checks the type of the input command, and if the command is a command for switching the display document ID (step 802), displays the document. Information creation device 707
To that effect.

Then, the document display information creation device 707 sends the currently displayed document held and managed by the document structure management device 703 (that is, the currently displayed document to be switched to the document specified by the input command). ), Outline display information including the coordinate values of each item in the document structure shown in the internal format is generated and stored in the display document storage file 708 (step 803).
At this time, if the summary display information having the same document ID does not exist in the display document storage file 708, the generated summary display information is newly registered in the display document storage file 708 and the summary display information having the same document ID is stored. Is already registered, the registered general display information is updated to the latest generated general display information.

FIG. 9 shows a data structure example of the schematic display information registered in the display document storage file 708. FIG.
As the rough display information of the document whose document ID is “123” (the document whose external format is shown in FIG. 2 and the display image is as shown in FIG. 4), there is a (wide) straight line (line segment) and an image. It is an example. There are a total of four straight lines, such as those having xy coordinates (5, 3) and a length of 12 at the start position and xy coordinates (5, 50) and a length of 12 at the start position. Some images have xy coordinates (12, 13) at the upper left corner and a size of 40 × 30.

The generation of such summary display information uses the internal format of the document held and managed by the document structure management device 703 as described above, so that the processing can be performed at high speed.

When the summary display information of the currently displayed document is registered in the display document storage file 708, the process mainly performed by the document structure management device 703 as described below under the control of the control device 102. (Step 804)
And the processing (step 805) by the document display information creation device 707 and the display data creation device 709 are started simultaneously.

First, the processing in step 805 will be described. The document display information creation device 707 relates to a document having the document ID specified by the input command in response to an instruction from the control device 702 (having a data structure as shown in FIG. 9).
It is checked whether the outline display information is registered in the display document storage file 708 (step 809).

If the summary display information relating to the document having the specified document ID is not registered, the document display information creation device 707 notifies the control device 702 of the fact, and the processing in step S805 ends.

On the other hand, if the general display information relating to the document having the specified document ID is registered, the document display information creating device 707 notifies the control device 702 of the registration. In response to this, the control device 702 activates the display data generation device 709.

Then, the display data generation device 709 reads summary display information on the document (designated document) having the designated document ID from the display document storage file 708 (step 810), and based on the summary display information, generates the designated document. The general document structure display data for displaying the outline of the document structure is generated and displayed on the display device 706 (step 81).
1).

The above is the processing of step 805. Next, the processing of step 804 performed in parallel with the processing of step 805 will be described.

Here, first, the document analysis device 705 is started. In response to an instruction from the control device 702, the document analysis device 705 reads a document having the document ID specified by the input command from the document file 704, and converts the document structure from the external format as shown in FIG. Is converted to an internal format as shown in the above example, and transferred to the document structure management device 703 (step 806).

The document structure management device 703 displays the document on the display device 706 according to the internal format of the document passed from the document analysis device 705 (step 807). The display here is the same as that of the specified document I in the first embodiment.
D is the document status storage file 1
07 is not registered.

The above is the processing of step 804. Here, the summary display information of the designated document is stored in the display document storage file 7.
08, the document structure management device 70
It is obvious that the display data generation device 709 performs the general document structure display of the specified document before the document display according to the internal format of the document by the third document can be performed.

When the document structure management device 703 starts displaying a document in accordance with the internal format of the document (step 807), the control device 702 forcibly forces the operation of the display data generation device 709 (the process of step 805) at that time. By terminating the process, the display is switched from the general document structure display to the document display according to the internal format of the document. Then, the document structure management device 703 displays the final document according to the internal format of the document on the display device 706 (step 808).

As a result, when the target document is displayed, if the general display information of the target document is registered in the display document storage file 708 as shown in FIG. , An outline of the document as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed, and then an actual document as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. In order to display the document as shown in FIG. 4, it is necessary to read the external format of the document from the document file 704 and convert it into the internal format of the document by the document analysis device 705, but without waiting for the processing to end. First, since an outline document as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed, an effect of quickly turning the document (page) can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, when the display document (page) is switched, the summary display information of the document being displayed at that time is generated and the display document storage file 70 is generated.
8, the document state information (the information on the scroll position and the cursor position) indicating the state of the currently displayed document is different from the first embodiment. When a document is displayed in accordance with the internal format of the document in the processing, the document display information creation device 707 generates outline display information of the document using the internal format, and saves it in the display document storage file 708. No problem.

In addition, when the displayed document is switched, document status information indicating the status of the currently displayed document is generated and stored together with the general display information, and when the document is displayed again, By using the stored document state information in the process corresponding to step 805, it is possible to quickly reproduce the outline of the original document display state. By using the information in the process corresponding to step 804,
The original document display state can be quickly reproduced. Third Embodiment FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

The information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 11 includes an input device 101, a control device 102, a document structure management device 103,
An input device 111, a control device 112, and the like corresponding to the document file 104, the document analysis device 105, and the display device 106.
In addition to the document structure management device 113, the document file 114, the document analysis device 115, and the display device 116, an annotation file 117 for storing information of annotations (annotations) overwritten on the document by the user, and the document structure management device 113 An annotation device 118 for adding an overwrite annotation to the internal format of the document to be managed (document structure) in accordance with a request from the user, and an annotation area for extracting a region where the annotation is overwritten from the document An extraction device 119 is provided.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 11, the user uses the input device 111 (for example, a pen (not shown)) to perform an operation for overwriting some annotations on the document displayed on the display device 116. Then, the annotation device 118 is activated by the control device 112.

Then, the annotation device 118 changes the input device 111
According to the input contents from the user, the information of the annotation requested by the user (for example, the vector of the annotation pattern is added to the position requested by the user) with respect to the internal format of the document displayed on the display device 116 by the document structure management device 113. Overwrite the information represented by). As a result, the display device 116 displays the document on which the annotation is overwritten.

FIG. 12 shows a display example when an annotation is added to the document shown in FIG. Here, a situation is shown in which a user has overwritten a circle by hand.
Further, the annotation device 118 adds the coordinate information on the document on which the annotation is overwritten to the information of the annotation overwritten on the internal format of the document, and combines the information with the document ID of the corresponding document to form an annotation file. 117. Note that the storage processing of the annotation information may be performed at the time of switching the display document, similarly to the storage of the schematic display information in the second embodiment.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 11, when the user inputs a command to switch the display document ID using the input device 111, the same processing as in step 604 in FIG. 6 or step 806 in FIG. 8 is performed. Here, the document specified by the input command is read from the document file 114 into the document analyzer 115, and the document structure is converted from an external format as shown in FIG. 2 to an internal format as shown in FIG. Then, it is passed to the document structure management device 113. Accordingly, the document structure management device 113 holds (in the memory) the data structure of the internal format of the specified document passed from the document analysis device 115 in order to switch the displayed document to the document specified by the input command. I do.

At this time, the annotation device 1 is
18 is activated. Then, the annotation device 118 stores the annotation information of the document specified by the input command in the annotation file 1.
It is checked whether or not the annotation information is stored in the annotation file 17, and if so, the annotation information is extracted from the annotation file 117 and passed to the annotation area extracting device 119. Annotation device 118
Overwrites the annotation indicated by the annotation information at the position indicated by the annotation information extracted from the annotation file 117 with respect to the internal format of the designated document held in the document structure management device 113.

The annotation area extraction device 119 is provided with the annotation device 11
8 receives the annotation information of the designated document from the document information management unit 113, based on the annotation information, from the internal format of the designated document held in the document structure management device 113, the portion where the annotation is overwritten, that is, the annotation area. It is extracted and displayed on the display device 116. Here, in order to extract the annotation area, the coordinate value of each item in the document represented in the internal format of the document as shown in FIG. Then, it is sufficient to check whether or not there is an overlap, and to take out the overlap.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a document in which an annotation area of a document to which an annotation has been added as shown in FIG. 12 is extracted and only that part is displayed. The control device 112 requests the document structure management device 113 to display a normal document when a predetermined period of time elapses after the annotation region portion is displayed by the annotation region extraction device 119. Accordingly, the document structure management device 113 displays the corresponding document on the display device 116 according to the internal format of the document held by the document structure management device 113.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when displaying a document, the user first displays the area in which the annotation is overwritten, so that when searching while turning over the document, identification can be performed. The required information is more likely to be displayed first and can be searched at high speed.

In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which, when a displayed document is switched, a comment area is extracted from the internal format of the document and a part of the area is displayed, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the document display information creation device 707 and the display document storage file 708 in FIG. 7 applied in the second embodiment are added to the configuration of FIG. When the outline display information is registered, an annotation region may be extracted from the outline display information, and a portion of the region, that is, an outline of a portion where the annotation exists, may be displayed. In this case, the area where the user has overwritten the annotation can be displayed at higher speed.

As in the first embodiment, when the displayed document is switched, the document structure management device 113 generates document status information indicating the status of the document being displayed at that time (see FIG. 1). When the document is displayed again, the document structure management apparatus 113 uses the stored document state information to store the document in the document state storage file corresponding to the document state storage file 107. The internal format of the document may be reconstructed, and the annotation area extracting device 119 may extract the annotation area from the reconstructed internal format and display the annotation area on the screen. In this case, since the document display state when the document was previously switched can be almost reproduced, the possibility that information necessary for identification is displayed first can be further increased.

As described above, the embodiment of the present invention has mainly been described as an example in which the document is switched and displayed. However, the present invention is not limited to the case where the document is switched and displayed, and the information processing apparatus is turned off. It is also applicable when the same document is displayed again later. That is, conventionally, in order to perform such a thing (generally called a resume mechanism), it is necessary to save all the memory areas occupied by the application in the secondary storage so that the application can be re-executed. Alternatively, it is necessary to keep supplying the necessary power to the memory and the CPU so that the information in the memory is not lost. According to the present invention, there is an effect that the application can be re-executed in a simulated manner even after the power is turned off without doing this.

[0076]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, when a document is switched and displayed, document state information indicating the state of the currently displayed document is generated and stored. , When displaying the document specified by the user,
If the document state information of the document is already stored, the document display state when the document was previously switched can be reproduced based on the document state information, and the document is switched and displayed. At this time, the document structure in the second format (internal format) of the currently displayed document does not need to be stored in the memory so that it can be reused later, and the memory can be saved. In particular, if the document state information has information on the scroll position and the cursor position of the displayed document when the displayed document is switched,
When the document is displayed again, the document structure of the second format converted and generated from the first format of the document, and the scroll position and the cursor position in the document status information,
The document display state at the time of switching before can be reliably reproduced. Also, if the document status information also has the display coordinates of each item in the document structure in the second format of the corresponding document,
From this document state information alone, the document display state when the document was previously switched can be almost, but not completely, reproduced. In this case, since the process of converting the first format of the corresponding document into the second format is not necessary, the target document can be switched and displayed more quickly.

Further, according to the present invention, from the document structure of the second format of the document managed by the document structure management means, the document for displaying the outline of the document including the display coordinate values of each item in the document structure is displayed. By generating and storing the document display information (summary display information), when displaying the document specified by the user, if the document display information of the document is already stored, the document display information is stored in the document display information. Since the outline of the document can be displayed based on the information such as the coordinate values of the items included in the document, the first format of the document is converted into the second format, and the document in the second format is converted. Switching of displayed documents can be performed faster than in the case where the structure is simply displayed from the beginning. Moreover, since it is not necessary to store the document structure of the document in the second format in the memory, the memory can be saved.

Also, according to the present invention, when displaying a document, the user can first display the area where the user has overwritten the annotation.
The information required for identification is more likely to be displayed first, and can be searched at high speed.

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the memory capacity is not sufficient and there is no special hardware such as an MMU, the switching of documents is represented without completely ending the application. Such switching between applications can be performed continuously.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exemplary block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an external format of a document.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the internal format of a document (for the external format in FIG. 2).

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a document screen displayed according to the internal format shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of document status information stored in a document status storage file 107 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the configuration of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the configuration of FIG. 7;

9 is a view showing an example of schematic display information registered in a display document storage file 708 in FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a view showing a schematic display example of a document according to the summary display information.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of an information processing device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a view showing an example in which an annotation is added to the document shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 13 is a view showing a document display example in which only an annotation area is extracted and displayed.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 111, 701: input device, 102, 112, 702: control device, 103, 113, 703: document structure management device (document structure reconstructing device), 104, 114, 704: document file (document storage device), 105, 115, 705: Document analysis device, 106, 116, 706: Display device, 107: Document status storage file (document status storage means), 117: Comment file, 118: Comment device, 119: Comment region extraction device, 707 ... a document display information creation device; 708: a display document storage file (display document storage means); 709: a display data generation device.

Claims (8)

[Claims] An input unit configured to receive an input from a user; a document storage unit configured to store a document in a first format independent of an apparatus; and an analysis unit configured to analyze the document stored in the document storage unit. Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means used to present a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means to a user; and information in the second format to be managed by the document structure management means. Document status storage means for storing document status information necessary for composing, wherein the document structure management means requests switching to a document different from the document being displayed on the display means. Is In this case, the document state information of the document that has been displayed is generated and stored in the document state storage unit, while the document state information of the requested document is stored in the document state storage unit. Then, an information processing device characterized by switching and displaying a target document based on the document state information. 2. An input unit for receiving an input from a user, a document storage unit for storing a document in a first format independent of an apparatus, and analyzing a document stored in the document storage unit, Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means used to present a user with a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means; display coordinates of each item in the document structure managed by the document structure management means Document display information generating means for generating document display information for displaying the outline of a document including a value, and a display document storage for storing the document display information generated by the document display information generating means. When a request to switch to a document different from the document being displayed on the display unit is requested, if document display information of the requested document is stored in the display document storage unit, Display data generating means for generating outline document structure display data for displaying the outline document structure of the document based on the document display information, and switching and displaying the outline document structure of the target document based on the display data The document structure management means, when a switch to a document different from the document being displayed on the display means is requested, the format of the requested document by the document analysis means, Second
An information processing apparatus characterized by displaying the converted document structure on the display means after the conversion to the format, and switching from the general document structure display by the display data generation means. 3. An input unit for receiving an input from a user; a document storage unit for storing a document in a first format independent of the apparatus; and analyzing the document stored in the document storage unit. Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means used to present a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means to a user; and information in the second format to be managed by the document structure management means. A document state storage unit for storing document state information necessary for composing, and a document outline display including a display coordinate value of each item in the document structure managed by the document structure management unit Document display information generating means for generating document display information of the following, display document storage means for storing the document display information generated by the document display information generating means, and the document being displayed on the display means When switching to another document is requested, if the document status information of the requested document is stored in the document status storage means, and the document display information is stored in the display document storage means, respectively, Display data for generating outline document structure display data for displaying the outline document structure of the document based on the document state information and document display information, and switching and displaying the outline document structure of the target document based on the display data. Generating means, the document structure management means, when a request to switch to a different document from the document being displayed on the display means, the document of the document that has been displayed so far While generating status information and storing it in the document status storage means, if the document status information of the requested document is stored in the document status storage means, the target document is stored based on the document status information. An information processing apparatus, wherein the information is displayed on a display means and is switched from a general document structure display by the display data generation means. 4. An input means for receiving an input from a user; a document storage means for storing a document in a first format independent of the apparatus; and analyzing the document stored in the document storage means, Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means for presenting a user with a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means; and overwriting the document structure of the document managed by the document structure management means Annotating means for adding an annotation of, and extracting an annotation area in which the annotation is overwritten by the annotation means from the document structure of the document managed by the document structure managing means. And an annotation area extracting means for switching and displaying a document structure portion of the extracted annotation area, wherein the document structure managing means manages itself after displaying the annotation area extracted by the annotation area extracting means. An information processing apparatus characterized by switching to a display of a document structure. 5. An input unit for receiving an input from a user, a document storage unit for storing a document in a first format independent of an apparatus, and analyzing a document stored in the document storage unit, Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means used to present a user with a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means; display coordinates of each item in the document structure managed by the document structure management means Document display information generating means for generating document display information for displaying the outline of a document including a value, and a display document storage for storing the document display information generated by the document display information generating means. Storing means, annotation means for adding an overwrite annotation to the document structure of the document managed by the document structure management means, and document display information of the document on which the annotation is overwritten by the annotation means. When stored in the display document storage means,
An annotation area extracting means for extracting an annotation area on which the annotation is overwritten from the document display information, and switching and displaying a schematic document structure portion of the annotation area, wherein the document structure management means comprises: An information processing apparatus characterized by switching to a display of a document structure managed by itself after displaying an annotation area extracted by an extraction unit. 6. An input unit for receiving an input from a user, a document storage unit for storing a document in a first format independent of an apparatus, and analyzing a document stored in the document storage unit, Document analysis means for converting the format from the first format to a second format suitable for screen display used inside the apparatus; and a document for managing a document structure converted to the second format by the document analysis means. Structure management means; display means used to present a document structure or the like managed by the document structure management means to a user; and information in the second format to be managed by the document structure management means. A document state storage unit for storing document state information necessary for composing, and a document outline display including a display coordinate value of each item in the document structure managed by the document structure management unit Document display information generating means for generating document display information, display document storage means for storing the document display information generated by the document display information generating means, and managed by the document structure managing means. Annotating means for adding an overwrite annotation to the document structure of the document; andwhere the document state information of the document on which the annotation is overwritten by the annotation means is stored in the document state storage means,
Document structure reconstructing means for reconstructing the document structure of the second format of the document based on the document state information; and the annotation is overwritten from the document structure reconstructed by the document structure reconstructing means. And extracting and displaying the document structure portion of the extracted annotation region. The document structure management unit displays the annotation region extracted by the annotation region extraction unit. An information processing device for switching and displaying the document structure reconstructed by the document structure reconstructing means. 7. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document status information includes information on a scroll position and a cursor position of a displayed document when a displayed document is switched. Information processing equipment. 8. The document status information includes information on a scroll position and a cursor position of a displayed document when a displayed document is switched, and display coordinates of each item in the document structure of the second format of the document. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus includes: