The specification discloses a method for submitting a number of documents to be printed in a limited memory word processing system in which printing is a separate, nonconcurrent foreground task with typing functions. A set of print task programs is loaded into the system. A background print process is initialized for printing one or more documents. A document is submitted for printing by entering document identification information in a print queue. The document identification information includes the document name, the diskette name where the document is stored and the first and last pages of the document to be printed. The background print process sequentially prints each of the documents corresponding to the document information entered in the print queue on a first-in, first-out basis. The operator may cancel a document previously submitted for printing by deleting the document identification information corresponding to the document to be cancelled from the print queue. The operator may also change the print order of a designated document by moving document information corresponding to the designated document to a position in the queue immediately after the document which is currently being printed. The foreground print task and thus the background print process is thus terminated only when no print activity remains to be performed.

A data handling terminal includes a microcomputer and a memory, the microcomputer preferably being intended for connection to a central computer. The data handling terminal (1) is characterized in that it includes a feed path (5) arranged to advance a so-called time card (29), in that arranged along the path (5) is a reader (18), which is arranged to read a bar code (30), a printer (19) and a sensor (21), which is arranged to transmit a signal to the microcomputer (2) when the time card (29) occupies a pre-determined position in relation to the printer (19). The terminal is further characterized by a first control circuit which is arranged to control the printer (19) in response to signals arriving from the microcomputer, and by an identifying device which is arranged to read a code individual to a respective employee, and in that the microcomputer is arranged to store in the memory information corresponding to the bar code (30), the bar code and information printed by the printer (19) containing the time concerned.

This disclosure is concerned with automatically identifying authorized break, meal and other time intervals in check-out and check-in of employee timecards in time-recording systems and the like and accommodating for the same in computing total working hours in such systems.

A time-clock recording and computation apparatus of which operation is controlled by a microcomputer, includes computation means comprising a data storage unit (107) in which attendance data based on a predetermined attendance system are stored, and a processing unit (100) effecting predetermined calculation based on the data stored in said data storage unit. The apparatus further includes optional rest processing means provided in the computation means. The optional rest processing means is operative to execute predetermined processing comprising the steps of storing parameters in respect of an optional rest in the data storage unit, effecting comparative judgement between the data indicative of entering and leaving and optional rest processing patterns based on said parameters, and sequentially summing up the processed results in the data storage unit. Thus, with the optional rest processing means, it is possible to output as to whether the actual optional rest is suitable or not with respect to the attendance system, a region whether an optional rest is obtainable and a time interval to be obtained on the basis of the summed up data. Accordingly, the apparatus of the invention makes it possible to properly deal with time in connection with the optional rest, and to automatically record the results thereof.

A time card recorder for recording an employee's clocking times, such as his clocking-in and clocking-out times at the beginning and end of a work period, upon a time card and for indicating a relationship between such clocking times and a working schedule which has been assigned to that employee. The time card recorder includes apparatus for storing each of a plurality of possible working schedules and apparatus for reading a symbol from the employee's time card which identifies the working schedule associated with that card. The symbol is the same for a plurality of time cards of different employees associated with the same working schedule.