Formatting text/graphics using plural independent formatting mechanisms

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. In an automatic typographic page formatter having means to receive coded text digital signals, including means to receive formatting commands with said text signals, and formatting means coupled to said receiving means for formatting a page of text using said received text digital signals and in accordance with said received formatting commands;

the improvement including in combination:

first means in said formatting means coupled to said receiving means and being capable of receiving said text digital signals and said formatting commands for assigning said received text digital signals to successive pages of text and indicating ending formatting of each page whereby a document having a plurality of pages of text can be created from said received text digital signals;

said first means including format limiting means for sequentially placing text on each of said successive pages such that successively vertical portions of each page sequentially receive text; and

named area control means coupled to said first means and said receiving means for sequentially receiving said text digital signals and said formatting commands and being responsive to named area ones of said formatting commands to select predetermined ones of said text digital signals for insertion onto predetermined ones of said pages of text independently of said first means and said sequence of receipt whereby text inserted by said named area means has a format and page location independent of the said first means sequentially created text format and the sequence of receipt of said text digital signals.

2. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 1 further including, in combination:

define area means in said named area control means and being coupled to said receiving means to be responsive to second ones of said embedded commands to create named areas for receiving text and graphic digital signals and indicating location thereof, said created named areas including section named areas to be located with respect to predetermined ones of said predetermined portions and page named areas for receiving text and graphic digital signals for text and graphics to be located anywhere on a page being formatted independently of said portions;

section named area means in said named area control means having said section named areas and being coupled to said receiving means to be responsive to first ones of said embedded commands to format received predetermined text and graphic digital signals to section named areas;

page named area means in said named area control means and having page named areas and being coupled to said receiving means to be responsive to said first ones of said embedded commands to format predetermined received text and graphics digital signals to said page named areas; and

named area placement means coupled to said page and section named area means and to said first means for being responsive to said first means indicating end of formatting said portions on a page to place text formatted to any of said page named areas on said page just ended and being further responsive to received third ones of said embedded commands to place text formatted to any of said section named areas to said page being formatted to a one of said portions.

3. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 2 further including, in combination:

named area galley means coupled to said define area means and to said page and section named area means for indicating defined named areas and indicating whether or not either said page or section named area means have formatted text or graphics to the indicated respective named areas;

named area chain means having first chain means for chaining all of said page named areas and second chain means for chaining all of said section named areas and being coupled to said page and section named area means for receiving indications of text being formatted to said page and section named areas, respectively; and

scan means coupled to said first and second means and to said named area chain means for being responsive to said first means indicating placement of text and graphics from said page named areas on a page to scan said first chain means for finding all of said page named areas having text or graphics formatted thereto and being coupled to said named area placement means to activate same in response to said scan means finding any page named areas having text or graphics to place such found page named areas to the page and being further responsive to said second means indicating placement of said section named areas to scan said second chain means for activating said named area placement means to place on the page being formatted any section named areas having text or graphics formatted therein.

4. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 2 wherein said section named area means includes means for limiting placing text digital signals onto a page and further having means coupled to said first means for ending placing of said text signals onto a page for starting a new page based upon text digital signals from a section named area such that a plurality of pages can be formatted via said first means and said section named area means using text signals of said section named areas for determining pagination.

5. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 4 wherein said section named area means includes maximum depth means for each section named area and having placement means for placing a plurality of text signals from a plurality of section named areas to a single one of said vertical portions on a page and determining the maximum depth of said portion as being the largest maximum text depth of said section named areas.

6. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 5 wherein said named area placement means includes means for placing text signals from a plurality of said section named areas including means for enabling overlay of such text signals within any single portion of a page and inhibiting overlay of such text signals from said section named areas in diverse ones of said portions.

7. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 2 wherein said named area control means includes page specifying means coupled to said receiving means and to said named area placement means for responding to a page one of said formatting commands for assigning text signals in a corresponding one of said named areas to a specific page within the document.

8. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 7 wherein said section named area means includes said page specifying means for specifying text signals from specific ones of said section named areas to specific ones of said pages.

9. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 2 wherein said define area means includes means for defining a plurality of named areas and said named area means includes means for formatting text signals to a plurality of said named areas and including means in said named area placement means coupled to said receiving means for determining when said text signals formatted to the respective named areas are to be placed on a page including formatting in a sequence other than the sequence of the received text signals.

10. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 9 further including means in said first means for terminating formatting to a page;

said named area control means being coupled to said terminating means and responsive thereto for scanning predetermined ones of said named areas for identifying formatted text signals stored therein and then placing predetermined portions thereof on the page which said first means had just terminated formatting.

11. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 9 further including means in said section named area means and coupled to said first means for being responsive to first ones of said embedded commands for terminating the formatting of text signals to any portion of said page currently being formatted and for placing text signals from predetermined ones of said section named areas onto said page beginning at the end of said just-terminated portion and then placing pages said text signals onto said page and ensuing pages from said predetermined ones of said section named areas.

12. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 11 further including page end means in said section named area means coupled to said placement means and to said first means for monitoring the placement of said text signals onto said page and upon determining terminating placement of said formatted text signals from all of said predetermined ones of said section named areas to said page and actuating said first means to initiate a new page and then to continue placement of said formatted text signals from said predetermined ones of said section named areas until all of the formatted text and graphic signals in the predetermined ones of said section named areas have been placed on said pages.

13. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 12 further including means in said page named area means coupled to said page end means in said section named area means for being responsive to termination of a page for placing predetermined portions of formatted text signals stored in said page named areas onto the page just terminated.

14. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 11 wherein said first ones of said embedded commands include one of three possible parameters an ON parameter, OFF parameter and a PUT parameter and said section named area means being responsive to said ON parameter to begin formatting text signals to a section named area and further means being responsive to the OFF parameter to stop formatting text signals to a section named area and further means in said section named area means responsive to said PUT parameter to place the formatted text and graphic signals formatted to a given section named area to a page irrespective of the time said ON and OFF parameters were placed in the received text signals.

15. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 14 wherein said first ones embedded commands further include a REPLACE, DELETE and TOP parameters and said named area means including means responsive to the REPLACE parameter to delete the predetermined text signals of a predetermined named area and replace same with ensuing text signals received in said text data stream and DELETE means responsive to said delete parameter to erase the formatted text and graphic signals from predetermined named areas and further means coupled to said named area placement means responsive to said TOP parameter to first format ensuing text and graphic signals to a pseudo-named area and then actuating said named area placement means upon completion of said formatting to place the formatted text signals in the pseudo-named area at the top of a predetermined one of said named areas.

16. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 9 further including means in said named area means coupled to said receiving means for receiving other ones of said embedded commands for concatenating text and graphics formatted to predetermined ones of said named areas when placing same onto a page.

17. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 1 wherein said named area control means includes section named area control means coupled to said first means and said receiving means for formatting received text signals to section named areas and for placing same onto a page within predetermined ones of said vertical portions; and

page/body named control area means in said named area control means coupled to said first means and said receiving means for formatting text signals to an indeterminate length in page or body named areas and having first placement means for placing predetermined ones of said named areas anywhere on the page independent of said portions and having second placement means for placing text signals formatted to body ones of said named areas to body ones of said portions; and

means in said first means coupled to said named area control means for indicating which of said portions are body ones of said portions.

18. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 17 wherein said named area control means includes EOP means coupled to said first means for being responsive to said first means terminating formatting to a page for moving predetermined portions of the text signals formatted to said page and body named areas to a page just terminated, including limiting the transfer of said predetermined text signals to a maximum depth per page such that the text and graphic signals formatted to either the page or body named areas are successfully placed on a plurality of pages independent of the time the text signals were formatted to such named areas.

19. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 18 wherein said section named area control means includes means for limiting the vertical depth of text and graphic signals to be transferred at any given transfer time from any section named area to a page and including means for repeatedly generating a new portion of text from the transferred text signals on a page equal to such maximum depth and including means coupled to said EOP means for indicating end-of-page processing of text signals from a section named area such that a plurality of pages can be generated from text signals formatted to a single section named area.

20. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 17 including page end means in said named area control means for identifying pages being formatted with respect to predetermined text formatted to any of said named areas such that the formatted texts are only transferred to such specified pages.

21. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 20, wherein said page end means includes means coupled to said section named area control means for limiting placement of formatted text signals stored in any of predetermined ones of said section named areas to specific ones of said pages.

22. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 17, wherein said first one embedded commands selectively include an ON parameter, an OFF parameter, a PUT parameter and means in said section named area control means responsive to the PUT parameter to place all text from predetermined ones of said section named areas onto one or more pages being formatted and said named area control means being responsive to the ON parameter to format ensuing received text signals to a designated named area and having means responsive to the OFF parameter to terminate such formatting of text signals to a named area.

23. The automatic typographic page formatter set forth in claim 17, wherein said named area control means includes define area means coupled to said receiving means for receiving a define area embedded command for establishing parameters for ensuing received text signals to be formatted to a named area define in parameters of said define area command which include width and other typographic parameters independent of the first means formatting; and

area control word means in said named area control means coupled to said receiving means for receiving an area control word for beginning formatting of received text and graphic signals to named areas defined by said define area means.

24. The machine-implemented method of composing text and graphics to a plurality of pages for presenting information in a predetermined format, including the machine-executable steps of:

receiving a stream of sequential text/graphics representing digital signals (hereafter text/graphics signals) having embedded control words defining composing functions to be performed, in response to said embedded control words:

dividing each page into a plurality of mutually-exclusive-vertically-separate portions, making each such portion a mutually-exclusive text/graphics-receiving vertical portion of each page;

establishing a plurality of first named areas for having text/graphics placeable anywhere on each page independently of said portions and having a location on the page specific to each such first named area and with each named area being capable of receiving text/graphics signals independently of said portions, each such first named area being capable of receiving an indeterminate extent of said text/graphics signals,

assigning a predetermined text/graphics extent from any one of said first named areas to any one of the pages being composed;

while composing predetermined ones of said pages using said portions (1) selectively interleaving formatting said received text/graphics signals to predetermined ones of said first named areas independently of said portions; and (2) determining that a page being composed is to receive text/graphics signals from said first named areas; in response to said determination, scanning all of said first named areas and then placing text/graphics signals composed to any of said first named areas on said page up to said predetermined extent for each respective first named areas;

ejecting the page of formatted text/graphics signals for conversion to a visual presentation; and

starting a new page to be composed and repeating all of the above recited steps until all text/graphics signals have been formatted to a plurality of such pages.

25. The machine-implemented method set forth in claim 24 further including the machine-executable steps of:

establishing a plurality of second named areas for receiving text/graphics signals of indeterminate text/graphic extent;

while formatting text/graphics signals to said vertically-separate portions interleaving formatting of said received text/graphics signals to said second named areas, then continuing to format received text/graphics signals to said vertically-separate portions after interleaving formatting of text/graphics signals to one or more of said second named areas; and

receiving a first one of said embedded control words for transferring all of the formatted text/graphics signals in said second named areas to a successive ones of said vertically-separate portions beginning at the last vertically-separate portion formatted previously to said received first embedded control word.

26. The method set forth in claim 25, further including the steps of:

when establishing said second named areas specifying which page the section named areas are to be placed upon; and

when placing text/graphics signals from a second named areas selecting those text/graphics signals from all of the named areas which do not have a page specifier while limiting the selection of text/graphics signals from the page specified second named areas to said specified pages whereby placement of text and graphics onto a page within a document being composed has a sequence independent of the sequence of receipt of said text/graphics signal.

27. The method set forth in claim 26 further including the steps of:

detecting an end of a page being formatted and in response to said detection, placing text/graphics signals from said first named areas onto said page up to predetermined maximum text/graphics extents for the respective first named areas.

28. The method set forth in claim 27 wherein said division of the page into a plurality of mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions includes a plurality of vertically-adjacent body portions; and

establishing said first named areas into page named areas which can be placed anywhere on the page independent of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portion and having body named areas ones of said first named areas for placement of text/graphics signals onto body ones of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions.

29. The method set forth in claim 25 further including the steps of:

defining a plurality of said first and second named areas including parameters of typographic significance; and

receiving an area control word as a one of said embedded control words and responding to said receipt by establishing a first named area in accordance with said define named area indicated parameters.

30. The method set forth in claim 24 wherein said dividing step includes establishing a plurality of said mutually-exclusive vertically-separate portions in a sequence in accordance with the sequence of received text/graphics signals and establishing said first named areas by formatting received text/graphics signals thereto independent of said sequential formatting of said portions; and

receiving a first embedded control word indicating that the formatting to said mutually-exclusive vertically-separate portions is to stop and that text/graphics signals formatted to said first named areas are to be formatted beginning at the bottom of the last one of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate formatted portions.

31. The method set forth in claim 30 further including the steps of:

monitoring the transfer of said formatted text/graphics signals in a first named area to said page and generating an end-of-page indicator for paginating the names in accordance with said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions such that a plurality of said pages are formatted based upon the text/graphics signals of said named areas.

32. The method set forth in claim 30 further including the steps of:

when establishing said first named areas specifying which page such named areas are to be placed on when such pages are being formatted in accordance with said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions.

33. The method set forth in claim 30 wherein each of said first named areas are assigned a maximum depth for each placement on a page such that the text/graphics signals formatted to a named area are placed upon a plurality of said pages as determined by said specified maximum depth.

34. The method set forth in claim 33 including the step of overlapping text/graphics signals of one named area with another named area.

35. The method set forth in claim 33 including the steps of ending a page of said vertically-separate portions when the text/graphics signals from a named area being transferred to a page fill the page and starting a new page with text/graphics signals then transferred from the named area and repeating the steps until all of the text/graphics signals from a named area are placed on a plurality of successive pages.

36. The method set forth in claim 24 wherein said dividing the page follows the sequence of receipt of text/graphics signals such that the page formatting follows the sequence of the received signal; and

assigning the predetermined text/graphics extent from any of said first named areas anywhere on the page independent of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portion and including the step of limiting predetermined ones of said first named areas to body ones of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions.

37. The method set forth in claim 36 further including the steps of:

establishing page ones of said first named areas and body ones of said first areas and placing the page ones of said first named areas anywhere on the page independent of any other formatting and placing the body ones of said first named areas only in body ones portions of said mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions independently of any overlap.

38. The method set forth in claim 37 further including the steps of:

when establishing a plurality of said first named areas, selecting predetermined ones of said established first named areas as being specific to predetermined ones of pages being formatted and assigning said predetermined text/graphics extents only to such specified pages.

39. The method set forth in claim 37 further including the steps of:

specifying during said establishing step a maximum depth of text/graphics signals to be placed upon a given page such that text and graphics signals formatted to a given first named area are assigned to a plurality of said plurality of pages in a predetermined order.

40. The method set forth in claim 37 further including the steps of:

establishing a plurality of second named areas; and

assigning the predetermined text/graphics from said second named areas to a series of mutually exclusive vertically-separate portions established after the last mutually-exclusive vertically-separate portion was established through the stream of sequential text/graphics signals in accordance with a predetermined received embedded control word including establishing a plurality of pages receiving all of the text/graphics signals formatted to all of such second named areas.

41. The method set forth in claim 40 further including the steps of:

each time a page is generated based upon text/graphics signals from a second named area, placing predetermined text and graphics from all of said first named areas each time a new page is generated from such second named area text/graphics signals.

42. The method set forth in claim 40 further including the steps of:

for each of the named areas, either the first or second type, establishing a maximum depth of such text/graphics signals for each of the respective pages such that predetermined text/graphics signals from the respective named areas are placed upon respective ones of said pages and including the step of starting a new page based upon text/graphics signals being formatted from said second named areas; and

placing text/graphics signals from the first named areas onto the page each time a page is terminated and then only up to the predetermined extent such that the text/graphics from the first and second named areas are placed upon the plurality of successive pages in accordance with said predetermined depths.

43. A computerized composer comprising input means for supplying a sequence of unformatted text/graphics signals with embedded control words which indicate desired composition parameters and composing functions to be performed by a computerized composer, computer means coupled to the input means for receiving said sequence of text/graphics signals and embedded control words for responding to said embedded control words to compose a document based upon the sequence of said text/graphics signals for generating a second sequence of text/graphics signals which are arranged with pagination indications of logical page extents and other composed-page indicating signals for enabling a visual presentation device to present information represented by such text/graphics signals, output means coupled to the computer means for receiving said composed text/graphics signals for visually presenting the composed document;

said computer means having storage means and program indicia for constituting a composing page formatter for enabling the computer means to respond to said received unformatted text/graphics signals in accordance with said embedded control words as follows;

first indicia in said computer means for enabling the computer means to receive said unformatted text/graphics signals and analyze said embedded control words;

second indicia in said computer means for enabling the computer means to couple to said first indicia and to format said unformatted received text/graphics signals in sequence as received including paginating pages in accordance with assignment of text/graphics signals that fill page extents;

third indicia in said computer means for enabling the computer means to respond to named area embedded control words received via said first indicia enablement of the computer means to divert named area indicated ones of the received unformatted text/graphics signals for storage separate from said page formatted text/graphics signals but formatted by said first indicia enablement of the computer means; and

fourth indicia in said computer means for enabling the computer means to respond to said received text/graphics signals and to the embedded control words for selectively placing said diverted text/graphics signals to a said logical page independently of where in the unformatted received text/graphics signals such diverted text/graphics signals were received.

44. The computerized composer set forth in claim 43 wherein said fourth indicia further includes additional fourth indicia for enabling the computer means to select predetermined ones of said text/graphics signals from said separate storage for insertion onto respective predetermined ones of said pages independently of said sequential formatting via said second indicia enablement such predetermined portions of that said diverted text/graphics signals from a single one of said named areas are disposed on a plurality of said logical pages.

45. The computerized composer set forth in claim 44 wherein said second indicia includes additional second indicia for enabling the computer means to sequentially format text/graphics signals to logical pages in top of the page portions, body of the page portion and bottom of the page portions, all of said portions being mutually-exclusive and vertically-separate on each respective logical page.

46. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said third indicia includes section named area indicia for enabling the computer means to divert predetermined text/graphics signals into said separate storage for named areas which are placeable on the logical page only within said body portion as a separate independent entity therein; and

further including page/body named area indicia for enabling the computer means to divert text/graphics signals for separate storage and formatting to such named areas for placement on said pages independent of said formatted portions.

47. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said third indicia further includes page named area indicia for enabling the computer means to divert said text/graphics signals for separate storage into page named areas wherein the diverted text/graphics signals are placeable on a given logical page independent of said portions and for overlaying any of said portions; and

said third indicia further including body named area indicia for enabling the computer means to divert other predetermined ones of said text/graphics signals for separate storage into body named areas whereat the formatted text/graphics signals of the body named areas are placeable only in said body portion of said page independent of text/graphics signals formatted to such body portion.

48. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said third indicia further includes section named area indicia for enabling the computer means to divert said text/graphics signals from formatting to a page into formatting to a section named area; and

said fourth indicia including area put indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to an area put one of said control words for placing said diverted text/graphics signals formatted to a section named area onto said page immediately following the last sequential text formatted to said body portion and for continuing placing all of said diverted text/graphics signals in a section named area to body portions of respectively successive ones of said logical pages until all of the text/graphics signals diverted into such section named areas are placed on a succession of said pages, including enabling the computer means to actuate the second indicia actuate the computer means in accordance with the enablement of said second indicia to paginate pages based upon placement of said diverted text/graphics signals of such section named area.

49. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said third indicia includes segmenting indicia for enabling the computer means to receive through the enablement by said first indicia a maximum depth indicator for each page for text/graphics signals diverted to a one of said named areas; and

said fourth indicia including limiting indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to said maximum depth indicator to limit the placement on any given page of text/graphics signals which were diverted to a named area to an extent in accordance with said maximum depth whereby such diverted text/graphics signals are segmented among a plurality of said pages.

50. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said embedded control words include a define area control word and an activate area control word;

said third indicia including define named area indicia for enabling said computer means to respond to said first indicia receipt of a define area control word to establish in a separate storage a plurality of parameter indicators of the typographic type relating to a named area for receiving diverted text/graphics signals; and further including activate area control word indicia responsive to the embedded activate area control words for selecting predetermined ones of said received unformatted text/graphics signals for diversion for separate storage in accordance with the defined named area and for enabling said computer means to utilize the second indicia for formatting such selected unformatted text/graphics signals to be formatted to said separate storage for later placement on a logical page.

51. The computerized composer set forth in claim 50, further including concatenating indicia within said define area indicia for logically linking named areas in a predetermined sequence such that said diverted text/graphics signals to the individual separate storages for the respective named areas are logically connected independent of the sequence of receipt in the unformatted text/graphics signals and independent of the time of diversion for separate storage for the respective named areas.

52. The computerized composer set forth in claim 50, further including page indicator means in said define area control word and said third indicia including page indicating means for enabling the computer means to respond to the page indicating means for permitting placement of said diverted text/graphics signals only to specific ones of pages; and

said fourth indicia including page selecting placement means for enabling the computer means to respond to said page indicating means of said third indicia for managing the placement of said diverted text/graphics signals to a logical page in accordance therewith.

53. The computerized composer set forth in claim 45 wherein said second indicia includes running footer/header indicia for respectively formatting footer and header type of text/graphics signals respectively to the top and bottom of page portions with the formatting continuing through a plurality of pages in the sequence of receipt of such unformatted text/graphics signals;

said third indicia including section named area indicia for placing said diverted text/graphics signals to the section named areas on a plurality of pages including enabling said computer means to use said second indicia enablement for starting a plurality of pages such that said running footer and header text/graphics signals are placed on a plurality of pages in accordance with said second indicia enablement as stimulated by the placement of said diverted text/graphics signals in a section named area.

54. The computerized composer set forth in claim 43 wherein said third indicia includes section named area indicia and page named area indicia respectively for enabling the computer means to divert text/graphics signals to section and page named area portions of said separate storage; and

said fourth indicia including section named area placement indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to a put one of said embedded control words to place all of the diverted text and graphics signals to section named areas to a logical page; and

further including page named area indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to said paginating to place said diverted text and graphics signals from a page named area to a logical page in accordance with predetermined criteria.

55. The computerized composer set forth in claim 54 wherein said third indicia section named area indicia enables said computer means to place the diverted text and graphics signals on a page independent of the sequentiality of the received unformatted text/graphics signals and once initiating the placement of such diverted text/graphics signals to a page, then sequentially within the section named areas placing all of the diverted text/graphics signals of a section named area to one or more pages in accordance with the second indicia enablement of said computer means.

56. The computerized composer set forth in claim 55 wherein said fourth indicia page named area placement means enables the computer means to respond to pagination of either said second indicia enablement or said section named area placement indicia enablement of the computer means.

57. The computerized composer set forth in claim 56 wherein said third indicia includes page specific indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to received embedded control words having page specifying indications to enable the computer means to place the diverted page/graphics signals using said fourth indicia enablement only to pages specified by said page indications.

58. The computerized composer set forth in claim 43 wherein said embedded control word includes define area control words which define the typographic parameters of a named area and area control words having ON and OFF parameters; and

said third indicia in said computer means including define area indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to said define area control words for establishing definitions within the computer means of a named area for receiving diverted text/graphics signals in separate storage, area control word indicia in said third indicia for enabling the computer means to begin diverting said received text/graphics signals in response to an ON parameter and to stop said diversion in response to an OFF parameter for predetermined ones of said named areas.

59. The computerized composer set forth in claim 58 wherein said third indicia further includes replace indicia for enabling the computer means to respond to a replace parameter of an area control word for replacing previously diverted text/graphics signals of a named area with ensuing text/graphics signals being received, delete indicia in said third indicia for enabling the computer means to delete previously diverted text/graphics signals from separate storage of a named area, put indicia in said fourth indicia for enabling the computer means to put all of the diverted text/graphics signals from a plurality of named areas onto a page beginning with the last formatted text/graphics signals from said unformatted text/graphics signals received and formatted in accordance with said second indicia enablement of the computer means and to continue putting all of the diverted text/graphics signals onto the pages in accordance with predetermined criteria on a plurality of pages.

60. The machine-implemented method of composing text and graphics to a plurality of pages for presenting information in a predetermined formatted form, including the machine-executable steps of:

receiving a stream of text/graphics having embedded control words defining composing functions to be performed;

in response to said embedded control words:

dividing each page into a body portion, top formattable portions, and bottom formattable portions, each such portion being a mutually-exclusive text/graphics-receiving vertical portion of each page;

dividing said body portion into a plurality of horizontally-extending, mutually-exclusive, vertically displaced sections;

establishing a plurality of first named areas placeable anywhere on each page independently of said portions and sections with each named area being capable of receiving text/graphics independently of said portions and sections, each such named area capable of receiving an indeterminate extent of text/graphics, assigning a predetermined text/graphics extent from any predetermined ones of said first named areas to any one of the pages being composed;

establishing a plurality of second named areas placeable within predetermined ones of said sections and each such second named area being capable of receiving an indeterminate extent of text/graphics, assigning a predetermined text/graphics extent from each one of said second named areas to any one of said sections;

while composing predetermined ones of said pages being composed when using said portions, selectively interleaving formatting predetermined ones of said first and second named areas independently of said portions using said portions formatting;

while composing certain of said pages being composed by using said portions including some of said predetermined one pages, responding to an AREA PUT control word to end a first section being composed in said body portion so that said first section is a previous section and then scanning said second named areas for text/graphics to be composed to said page in a second section of the body portion, assigning a vertical depth to said second section equal to a maximum vertical depth in a one of said second named areas having text/graphics composed therein into said second section up to said maximum vertical depth and saving any remaining text/graphics from said second named areas for sections yet to be composed;

determining that a page being composed is to be ended (EOP);

in response to said EOP, scanning all of said first named areas and then placing text/graphics composed to any of said first named areas on said page up to said predetermined extent for each respective first named areas;

ejecting the page for visual presentation;

starting a new page to be composed; and

repeating all of the above-recited steps until all text/graphics have been composed on a plurality of pages.

61. The method of operating an automatic page formatter having means to receive coded text digital signals and including means to receive formatting commands with said text signals and formatting means coupled to said receiving means for formatting a page of text using said received text signals and in accordance with said received formatting commands;

the improvement including the following steps, in combination:

receiving a first named area command by said formatting means for establishing a named area in like positions in a plurality of successive pages of text for receiving text independently of the remaining portions of the page of text having such named area;

receiving a plurality of said commands and responding thereto for formatting text on successive ones of said pages of text independently of said named area; and

receiving second named area commands and responding to said received second named area commands for moving a portion of text positioned on each of said pages and inserting same in the respective named area positioned on such page independently of said plurality of commands.

62. In a page composer, the combination of:

a first text formatter for sequentially formatting and placing first text and graphics onto a succession of logical pages in accordance with first predetermined criteria;

a second text formatter for sequentially formatting second text and graphics to a named area in accordance with second predetermined criteria;

a page control coupled to the first and second text formatters for defining the ending of said logical pages; and

text placement means coupled to said first and second text formatters and to said page control for selecting in accordance with third predetermined criteria predetermined portions of said named area formatted second text and graphics for placing such selected text and graphics into respective ones of said logical pages independently of said first text and graphics formatted and placed by said first text formatter whereby the first text formatter formats first text and graphics sequentially to said logical pages and said second text formatter and said text placement means format second text and graphics to said logical pages in a predetermined sequence independently of said first formatter and place such second text and graphics independently of said formatted and placed first text and graphics.