JPH1139499A - Document processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To decrease the frequency of processing for finding an overlap and to shorten the process time by making elements, classified by straight-line patterns, among component elements hierarchical and obtaining final hierarchy information from the component elements and straight-line patterns. SOLUTION: A straight-line pattern decision part 102 sends straight-line pattern information on component elements to an attribute decision part 103 to extract specific properties of the straight-line patterns by checking the straight-line directions. An outline generation part 203 generates outline information on the component elements and an overlap decision part 106 checks the overlap states of the respective elements. Then a straight-line pattern extraction part 107 for division extracts a straight-line pattern for area division by referring to the overlaps of arbitrary attributes and a length rate comparison part 110 compares the length rates of the straight-line patterns; and an object area division part 112 further divides the object area and an object area selection part 113 makes a choice. Lastly, a hierarchy integration part 115 integrates hierarchy information on the component elements and information on the straight-line pattern for division.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a document processing method for creating and editing a document by converting component elements constituting the document into a hierarchical structure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the improvement of performance and cost reduction of personal computers, it has become widespread to incorporate application software for document creation into personal computers and to create documents using the application software for document creation.

However, for an amateur-level general user who is not familiar with how to use application software for document creation, operation of a personal computer and operation of document creation by application software are difficult and time-consuming. Not only that, they often cannot be created with good quality.

In the case of using such application software for document creation, in order to increase the efficiency of document creation, documents created in the past are often referred to or reused. In such a case, the user reuses an arbitrary part of the document. In this case, if the elements of the document constituting the document are structured, it becomes easy to use.

[0005] The idea of handling documents structurally is already becoming popular. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-104729, there is a method in which a document is structured by a set of chapters and sections, and these can be displayed and edited at arbitrary stages as document elements. With such an editing method, the document can be easily reused, but the information to be structured is not used when the operator creates the document.
Must be generated upon instruction.

Accordingly, the present inventors have previously reported in Japanese Patent Application No. Hei.
No. 23270 proposes a document editing apparatus that automatically hierarchizes document components to edit a document. In this document editing apparatus, document components are hierarchized by overlapping two-dimensional spatial positions, and can be used for document editing.

[0007]

By the way, according to the previously proposed method of layering document components by the document editing apparatus, it is necessary to check the overlapping state among the document components by examining all the components. The brute force investigation. Therefore, for example, if the number of components is N, the number of times of checking the overlap is N (N-1) / 2. As described above, the number of calculations increases by the square, and accordingly, as the number of components increases, the processing takes a very long time. For this reason, when using this document editing apparatus, it has developed into a problem that it hinders the editing operation in real time. This is an issue that needs to be resolved immediately.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for automatically hierarchizing the components of a document by their overlap.
An object of the present invention is to provide a document processing method in which the number of times of processing for obtaining an overlap is reduced as much as possible and the processing time is reduced.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, in the document processing method of the present invention, when a document component is converted to a hierarchical structure and a document is edited, The other part elements are classified by the linear figure in the part element, the classified part elements are hierarchized,
The present invention is characterized in that final hierarchical information is obtained from hierarchized component elements and the linear figures used for classification.

The linear figure used for classifying the component elements is, for example, a horizontal or vertical linear figure having no two-dimensional spatial position overlap, and this linear figure has attribute information. Wherein each of the linear figures is identified by attribute information.

As a classification method for classifying component elements, a first processing method for processing linear figures used for classification in the order of the ratio of the length to the size of the entire document, The graphics are classified by any one of the second processing method and the second processing method in which the processing is performed in the order of the size while updating the ratio of the figure to the size of the classification area.

With such various features, in the document processing method according to the present invention, when each component element constituting a document is hierarchized by two-dimensional spatial position overlap, A linear figure is extracted from among them, a linear figure having a predetermined attribute is extracted from them, and a horizontal / vertical direction linear figure is further extracted from them. Then, a linear figure which does not overlap with a component element other than the linear figure at a two-dimensional spatial position is further extracted from among them. Then, the other component elements are classified based on the extracted linear graphic, and the structure of the classified component elements is hierarchized. Then, the linear figure used for classification is added to the hierarchized component element structure to obtain final hierarchical information.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are block diagrams showing the configuration of a document processing apparatus that implements a document processing method according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a processing portion for hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document, and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a processing portion for performing overall document processing.

In the block diagrams of FIG. 1 and FIG.
01 is a drawing order determination unit, 102 is a linear figure determination unit, 10
3 is an attribute determining unit, 104 is a horizontal / vertical straight line graphic determining unit, 1
05 is a contour generation unit, 106 is an overlap judgment unit, 107 is a division straight line figure extraction unit, 108 is a length comparison unit, 109 is a length ratio calculation unit, 110 is a length ratio comparison unit, and 111 is a component element position judgment Unit, 112 is a target region dividing unit, 113 is a target region selecting unit, 114 is an overlapping knitting unit, 115 is a hierarchy integrating unit, 116 is a ratio calculation mode storage unit, 201 is an information input unit, 202 is an operation information storage unit, 203 Is a document information storage unit, 204 is a document information editing unit, 205 is a document information display unit, 206 is a component element hierarchy unit, 207 is a hierarchy information storage unit, and 208 is a hierarchy information display unit.

First, with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2, a description will be given of a general method of document processing from input creation of a document to hierarchization of component elements. A method of hierarchizing the parts constituting the document will be described later with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a document processing apparatus for carrying out overall document processing.
As shown in the figure, the information input unit 201, the operation information storage unit 20
2, a document information storage unit 203, a document information editing unit 204, a document information display unit 205, a component element layering unit 206, a layer information storage unit 207, and a layer information display unit 208.

In the document processing apparatus having such a configuration,
The operation information of the operation by the operator and the information of the document element which becomes the material of the document are taken in from the information input unit 201. The information input unit 201 sends the fetched operation information to the operation information storage unit 202 and stores it there. Further, the material of the document and the information of the edited document which are taken in from the information input unit 201 are sent to the document information storage unit 203 and stored therein.

An editing process for creating a document is performed in the document information editing unit 204. The display of the created edited document is displayed by the document information display unit 205. The process of hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document here is performed by the component element hierarchy unit 206. The hierarchical information of the component elements of the hierarchical document is stored in the hierarchical information storage unit 207, and the information of the hierarchical document is displayed by the hierarchical information display unit 208.

Next, an example of a simple document will be described, and a processing method of hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a document composed of a plurality of component elements, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a list of each component element constituting the document shown in FIG.

The document here is composed of, for example, characters, images and figures as shown in FIG. Here, when these are handled in the finest unit, they are referred to as component elements.
For example, in the case of a figure, a straight line or a square is a component element.
In the example of the document shown in FIG. 3, each of the component elements constituting the document is assigned a component number 41 as shown in FIG. Registered at 40. Part number 4 here
1 is a unique number given by a system (document processing system) when a component element is input and created, and is given as O1, O2,. In the example of this document, the document is composed of 13 component elements. Information on the component elements of this document is stored in the document information storage unit 203.

Next, in a document constituted by a plurality of component elements as described above, a processing portion for hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document will be described. The configuration of this processing part is shown in the block diagram of FIG. This will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, the document information storage unit 203
Stores information of the material of the document and information of the edited document, and performs a process of hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document from the information of the document. First, the drawing order determination unit 101
Extracts the document information and checks the drawing order of the component elements. The straight-line figure determining unit 102 checks whether or not the component element is a straight-line figure and extracts the information.
To send to. The attribute determination unit 103 determines whether the shape of the extracted linear graphic has a predetermined attribute (whether the straight line is not an arrow).
Check for and extract. Then, the horizontal / vertical straight-line figure determination unit 104 checks whether or not the extracted straight-line figure having a predetermined attribute is a straight line in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction, and extracts it.

On the other hand, the contour generation unit 105 obtains the information on the outline of the component element from the document information in the document information storage unit 203. Examine the overlap condition. That is,
Check the overlap between the component elements. Then, the dividing straight-line figure extracting unit 107 refers to the result of the overlap determination from the extracted horizontal and vertical straight-line figures of any attribute, and
A linear figure used for dividing a region is extracted. The straight-line figure extracted by the straight-line figure extracting unit 107 is used for area division. For this reason, the length comparing unit 108 compares the lengths of the dividing linear figures, and the length ratio calculating unit 109 calculates the ratio of the size of the dividing linear figure to the target area.

The length ratio comparing unit 110 compares the ratio of the size of the dividing linear figure with respect to the target area, and the component element position determining unit 111 checks the type of the position of the component element with respect to the dividing linear figure. Then, the target area dividing unit 112
, The target area is further divided by the dividing straight line. The target region is selected by the target region selection unit 113 for the divided target region. Since the information for hierarchizing the component elements has been created by the processing so far, the overlap knitting unit 114 generates the hierarchy information from the result of the overlap determination.

Finally, the hierarchical integration unit 115 performs a process of matching the hierarchical information of the component elements with the information of the linear graphic for division. Here, the ratio calculation mode storage unit 116 stores control information for determining whether to process in the order of the length ratio of the dividing straight figure or to perform processing while updating, and to control the processing. Processing proceeds according to the information.

The hierarchical information of the component elements constituting the document is created by the processing operation of such a processing unit. This will be described more specifically.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for hierarchizing the component elements constituting the document. This will be described with reference to FIG. When the process is started, first, in step 501, a process of obtaining the contour information of all the component elements by the contour generating unit 105 is performed. The contour information is vector information of a polygonal line representing an arbitrary shape, but may be information of a circumscribed rectangle. Although not particularly limited here, the former is used when importance is placed on accuracy, and the latter is used when importance is placed on ease of processing and speed. Next, in step 502, the drawing order determination unit 101 checks the drawing order of all component elements. Next, in step 503, a process (FIG. 6) for examining a linear graphic (linear graphic for division) used for dividing the component element is performed. Here, in the document example shown in FIG.
3, a straight line 2 of the part number O6, and a straight line 2 of the part number O8.
, A straight line 4 of a part number O10, and a straight line 4 of a part number O1.
The two straight lines 5 are examined and extracted.

Next, at step 504, based on the result of the check at step 503 of the previous process, it is determined whether or not the extracted linear graphic can be used as a linear graphic for division among all the component elements. Is determined. As a result of this determination, in the next determination processing of step 505, step 50
It is determined whether or not there is a straight line graphic for division that meets the determination criterion of No. 4. If there is a linear figure for division, the process proceeds to step 506; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 512.

In the next step 506, information on the ratio calculation mode representing the way of using the dividing linear figure is read from the ratio calculation mode storage section 116. The ratio calculation mode includes a mode in which the ratio of the length of the dividing linear figure to the size of the document is processed in order when using the dividing linear figure, and a mode in which the document is divided while being divided. There are two modes: a mode in which processing is performed in order while updating the ratio of the length of the dividing linear figure to the area.

Next, in step 507, the information of the ratio calculation mode read out by the processing of the previous step 506 is determined. If the ratio calculation mode is a mode in which processing is performed in order of length ratios, the process proceeds to step 508, in which component element classification processing is performed using a dividing linear figure in accordance with the length ratio order. In the determination process of step 507, if the information of the ratio calculation mode is a mode of sequentially processing while updating the length ratio, the process proceeds to step 509, where the component element using the dividing linear figure according to the length ratio order update. Is performed.

Then, in step 510,
For the component elements classified by the processing of step 508 or step 509 by the overlap determination unit 106,
The presence or absence of an overlap in the two-dimensional spatial position is checked between them, and the component elements are hierarchized together with the result of the drawing order checked by the drawing order checking unit 101. Then, next, in step 511, the hierarchical integration unit 115
The information of the linear figure for division is integrated with the hierarchical result of the component elements obtained in step 510 to obtain final hierarchical information, and the process is terminated.

In the determination processing of the previous step 505,
If there is no linear graphic that can be used as a dividing linear graphic among the component elements, the process proceeds to step 512 and proceeds to step 512.
, A normal layering process is performed. In other words, the overlap determination unit 106 checks whether or not there is an overlap in a two-dimensional spatial position among all the component elements, and determines the component elements based on the result of the drawing order checked by the drawing order determination unit 101. Hierarchy. The contents of the processing in step 510 and the processing in step 512 are the same.

The ordinary layering process in step 512 is not essential in the present invention, so a detailed description will be omitted, but its outline will be described with reference to a document example shown in FIG. Will be described.

In the example of the document shown in FIG. 3, when the occurrence of overlap among the 13 component elements constituting the document is examined, the frame of the rectangle 1 of the component number O4 and the component number O
5, a character group of a character 2 of 5, an ellipse 1 of a part number O9, a straight line 4 in an oblique direction of a part number O10, and a triangle 1 of a part number O11. These and other component elements are categorized separately, and are not related to the processing here.

From the overlapping relation in this case, for example, in the rectangle 1 of the part number O4 and the character 2 of the part number O5 (the character in the frame), the rectangle of the rectangle 1 of the part number O4 is Since the drawing order is earlier, a hierarchical relationship is formed in which the frame of the rectangle 1 of the part number O4 is placed first. Those with no overlap are positioned in parallel on the same layer and hierarchized.

Next, a description will be given of a process of checking the presence or absence of a dividing linear figure in step 503 in the process of the flowchart described above. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing this processing.

Referring to FIG. 6, first, step 601 is executed.
In step (1), the linear figure determining unit 102 checks whether or not all of the component elements are linear figures, and extracts a linear figure from the result. The information of the component elements constituting the document here generally describes the types of data such as characters, images, and figures, and, in the case of figures, the types of shapes such as points, straight lines, and polygons. Therefore, the type may be checked. Next, in step 602, the attribute determining unit 1
In step 03, the attribute information is checked for the linear graphic extracted by the processing in step 601. Based on the result, a linear graphic having a predetermined attribute is extracted. The predetermined attribute here is, for example, an attribute in which the type of the shape of the straight line is an arrow. It is checked whether the attribute is the attribute, and a linear figure having an arbitrary attribute other than the arrow shape is extracted.

Next, in step 603, the horizontal / vertical straight line figure judging section 104 checks whether the direction of the line figure having the attribute extracted by the process of step 602 is horizontal or vertical. Then, a horizontal or vertical straight line figure is extracted from the result.
In the example of the document shown in FIG. 3, the straight line figures extracted by the processing up to this point are the straight line 1 of the part number O3, the straight line 2 of the part number O6, the straight line 3 of the part number O8, and the part number O12.
4 is a straight line figure.

Next, in step 604, the overlap judging section 106 checks whether or not the horizontal / vertical straight-line figure having the attribute extracted in the processing in step 603 overlaps with other component elements. . The overlap here is an overlap at a two-dimensional spatial position,
This is checked using the coordinate information of the horizontal / vertical linear figure and the coordinate information which is the outline information of the component element. Then, in the next step 605, as a result of the determination in step 604, the straight-line figure that does not overlap with the other component elements is extracted from the horizontal-vertical straight-line figure having the predetermined attribute by the dividing straight-line figure extracting unit 107. It is a straight line figure for division. That is, as a result of this determination, in the example of the document shown in FIG. 3, four straight lines, that is, a straight line 1 of the part number O3, a straight line 2 of the part number O6, a straight line 3 of the part number O8, and a straight line 5 of the part number O12. , And are extracted as divisional linear figures.

Next, the processing of step 508 in the above-described flowchart (FIG. 5) will be described. FIG.
9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of sequentially classifying the ratio of the length of a dividing linear graphic to the size of a document and classifying other component elements by the dividing linear graphic.

Referring to FIG. First, in step 701, the length ratio calculation unit 109 obtains the ratio of each length to the size of the entire document for all of the dividing linear figures. Next, in step 702,
The calculated values of the ratios of the lengths in all the linear figures for division are compared with each other, and the order from the larger one is obtained. This is performed using the length ratio comparison unit 110. Next, in the process of step 703, all the component elements other than the dividing linear figure are regarded as one group and are grouped.

Then, in the next step 704, reading is performed from the dividing linear graphic having the largest length ratio, and in the next step 705, the read one dividing linear graphic is The positional relationship between the position of each component element and the straight line is examined. This process is performed by the component element position determination unit 111. Then, step 706
In, the component elements are classified into two groups according to the result checked by the processing in step 705.

Next, in step 707, the dividing straight line figure read out in the processing of step 704 is used.
Divide the selected target area. This division is for updating the target area when the component elements are further classified. Then, in the next step 708, it is checked whether or not the classification processing has been performed by reading out all the linear figures for division. If the processing has been completed, the processing of this flowchart is terminated. If not, the processing returns to step 704. The processing from step 704 is repeated.

FIG. 8 is a view for explaining a specific example of the process of obtaining the ratio of the length of the linear figure in the process of step 702 described above. As shown in FIG. 8, the ratio of the length of the linear figure is calculated based on the size of the document. The width which is the size in the horizontal direction is L (H), and the height which is the size in the vertical direction is L (V). For example, as described above, among the four divisional linear figures extracted from the document of the document example shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 8 shows a figure of a straight line 1 with a part number O3. The length of the linear figure for division is assumed to be l (H). Since this linear figure is horizontal, the ratio of its length to the size of the entire document is l.
(H) / L (H). If the dividing straight figure is in the vertical direction, it is obtained by using the length in the vertical direction.

The length ratio values of all the divided linear figures obtained here are compared with each other by the length ratio comparing unit 110, and the order from the larger one is obtained (step 702). FIG. 9 shows a state in which the order of the length ratio is shown.

The order of the magnitudes of the values of the length ratios for the four dividing linear figures is as follows: the straight line 1 of the part number O3, the straight line 2 of the part number O6, the straight line 5 of the part number O12, and the straight line of the part number O8. 3, so in this case, as shown in FIG.
And line 3 is in that order. Then, all the component elements other than the dividing straight line graphic (straight line 1, straight line 2, straight line 3, and straight line 5) are regarded as one group.

In this case, the area for determination for hierarchizing the component elements in the document is divided by the dividing linear figure, and this is performed in the order of increasing length (step 704). . In this case, the straight line 1 of the part number O3 has the largest proportion of the length among the four divisional straight line figures, so reading is started from that, and the one divisional straight line read out by the component element position determination unit 111 is read. With respect to the figure, the relationship of the position of each part element other than the dividing straight figure with respect to the straight line is checked, and the part elements are classified into two groups according to the check result.

The component elements of the document example will be specifically described. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining how to classify component elements. Referring to FIG. 10, since the straight line 1 of the part number O3 having the largest ratio of the length read first is in the horizontal direction, the position of the component element with respect to this straight line in the vertical direction is checked, and the two groups are divided into two groups. Classify. This part number O
The position where the component element is classified by the straight line 1 of No. 3 is where the straight line 1 is located, and the position is indicated by a dashed line in FIG.

As a result of this classification, the nine component elements other than the dividing linear graphic (straight line 1) are the component element of the component number O1 and the component of the component number O2 located above the dividing linear graphic of the component number O3. A group consisting of elements, a part element of part number O4, a part element of part number O5, a part element of part number O7, a part element of part number O9, a part element of part number O10, and a part element of part number O11 located below. It is classified into a group consisting of a component element and a component element with a component number O13.

Next, the target area selected by the dividing linear figure is divided (step 707), and the same processing as described above is repeated for each divided area. That is, this division is for updating the target area when the component elements are further classified. Then, it is checked whether or not the classification processing has been performed by reading out all the divisional straight-line figures. If the processing has been completed, the processing ends. As a result,
When all the component elements have been classified, each component element on the document is divided into six divided areas as shown in FIG. Each divided area includes a component element. When the layering of the component elements for each of the divided regions is performed based on each of the divided regions, the layering information as shown in FIG. 12 is obtained for the component elements other than the dividing linear figure.

Next, the processing of step 509 in the above-described flowchart (FIG. 5) will be described. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process of classifying the other component elements by the dividing linear graphic in that order while updating the ratio of the length of the dividing linear graphic to the size of the document.

A description will be given with reference to FIG. First, in step 801, all the component elements other than the dividing linear figure are grouped into one. That is, all the component elements other than the dividing linear figure are regarded as one group.
Next, in step 802, the area is selected as a processing target for classifying all the component elements other than the dividing linear figure. At the very beginning, the entire document is the target area.

In the next step 803, the size of the target area selected by the processing in the previous step 802 is calculated. Here, the size of the target region is the length in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction. Then, in the next step 804, a dividing linear figure included in the selected target area is extracted. Next, in step 805, the length comparing unit 108 checks the length of the horizontal dividing linear figure among the dividing linear figures extracted by the processing in step 804, and extracts the longest dividing linear figure. I do.

In the next step 806, the length ratio calculation unit 109 calculates the ratio of the length of the horizontal line graphic for division extracted in the previous step 805 to the horizontal length of the selected target area. Ask. In the next step 807, the length comparing unit 108 makes the previous step 804
, The length of the vertical dividing straight-line figure in the extracted dividing straight-line figures is checked, and the longest dividing straight-line figure is extracted.

In the next step 808, the length ratio calculating unit 109 calculates the ratio of the length of the dividing vertical straight line figure extracted in the previous step 807 to the vertical length of the selected target area. Then, in step 809, the ratio obtained by the processing in step 806 is compared with the ratio obtained in step 808, and the linear graphic for division having a larger value is extracted.

Next, in step 810, the component element position determining unit 111 compares the one divided linear figure extracted in step 809 with a part other than the divided linear figure included in the selected target area. Examine the position relationship of the position of the element with respect to the straight line. The processing in step 810 is the same as the processing in step 705 described above. Then, in the next step 811,
The component elements are classified into two groups according to the result checked in the process of step 810. This step 81
Step 1 is the same as step 706 described above.

Subsequently, in the next step 812, the selected target area is divided by the dividing linear figure extracted in the processing of the previous step 809. Then, in step 813, for all the dividing straight line figures,
It is checked whether or not the reading process has been performed, and if the process has been completed, the process is terminated here. If the processing has not been completed for all the linear figures for division, the process returns to step 802, and the processing from step 802 is repeated.

As described above, in the processing here, the processing is first started from the first selected straight line graphic for division (the longest straight line graphic), and the target area is divided by the straight line graphic for division. The classification is advanced while updating the ratio of the figure length. Therefore, as described above,
In the case of the component element of the document example shown in FIG. 3, the order of the length ratio of the dividing straight figure is as shown in FIG. That is, a straight line 1 of the part number O3, a straight line 2 of the part number O6,
The straight line 3 of the part number O8 and the straight line 5 of the part number O12 are arranged in this order. Therefore, in this case, the straight line 1, the straight line 2, the straight line 3, and the straight line 5 are in that order. When all the component elements have been classified in order to perform the layering of the component elements in each area by this area division processing, the document becomes as shown in FIG.

That is, when all the component elements have been classified, each component element on the document is divided into five areas as shown in FIG. Each area includes a component element. When the component elements of each area are hierarchized based on each area, hierarchical information as shown in FIG. 12 is similarly obtained for the component elements other than the dividing linear figure.

Then, with respect to the component elements constituting the document classified as shown in FIG. 12, the respective component elements are hierarchized, the information of the classification linear figure is also integrated, and finally the hierarchization is performed. Is performed, the result is as shown in FIG. 16, and information in which each component element is hierarchized is obtained.

[0060]

As described above, in the document processing method of the present invention, in order to hierarchically arrange the component elements constituting a document, when the hierarchical structure is formed by overlapping two-dimensional spatial positions, The area is divided by a linear figure having a predetermined attribute in the horizontal or vertical direction that has no overlap among the elements, and the respective component elements are classified and the component elements are hierarchized, so that the data processing amount can be reduced. As a result, the processing time is shortened.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processing portion for hierarchizing component elements constituting a document.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a processing portion that performs overall document processing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a component element.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a process of hierarchizing component elements.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process for checking the presence / absence of a dividing linear figure.

FIG. 7 shows the order of the length of the straight line graphic for division in order,
It is a flowchart of a process of classifying a component element.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state of showing the order of lengths when the ratio of the length of the straight line graphic for division is made in order.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state in which the order of length ratios is shown.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a manner of classifying component elements.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a manner of classifying on a document in order of length ratio.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the contents of document classification information in order of length ratio.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a process of sequentially classifying component elements while updating the ratio of the length of the dividing linear graphic.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a state in which the length ratio is updated and the order of the length ratio is shown.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a manner of classifying a document after updating the length ratio.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating the content of information that is finally hierarchized.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: drawing order determination unit, 102: linear figure determination unit, 1
03: attribute determination unit; 104: horizontal / vertical straight line graphic determination unit;
105: contour generation unit, 106: overlap determination unit, 107 ...
Linear figure extracting unit for division, 108... Length comparing unit, 109.
Length ratio calculation unit, 110: length ratio comparison unit, 111: component element position determination unit, 112: target area division unit, 113 ...
Target area selection unit, 114: overlapping knitting unit, 115: hierarchical integration unit, 116: ratio calculation mode storage unit, 201: information input unit, 202: operation information storage unit, 203: document information storage unit, 204: document information editing Unit, 205: document information display unit, 206: component element hierarchy unit, 207: hierarchy information storage unit, 208: hierarchy information display unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] In a document processing method for converting a component element constituting a document into a hierarchical structure and editing a document, other component elements are classified by a linear figure in the component element. A document processing method, wherein component elements are hierarchized, and final hierarchical information is obtained from the hierarchized component elements and the linear figure used for classification. 2. The document processing method according to claim 1, wherein the linear graphic is a horizontal or vertical linear graphic having no two-dimensional spatial position overlap. . 3. The document processing method according to claim 2, wherein the linear graphic is a linear graphic having attribute information, and each linear graphic is identified by the attribute information. 4. The document processing method according to claim 1, wherein, as the classification method for classifying the component elements, the linear figures used for the classification are processed in the order of the ratio of the length to the size of the entire document. Classification is performed by one of a first processing method and a second processing method of processing the linear figure in the order of the size while updating the ratio of the linear figure to the size of the area according to the classification. Document processing method to be performed.