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Claims  |
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What we claim is:
1. A method of operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office
processing equipment including a processor, video display, keyboard,
memory and printer, and comprising the steps of:
creating a form template on said video display for a pre-printed form, said
template consisting of blank lines of the same length and in the same
relative positions to each other as blanks on the pre-printed forms, and
having captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of
information to be entered thereon, the form template being created by
positioning a form in the printer and, by means of the keyboard through
the processor, controlling relative movement of the form in the printer as
the processor monitors the form movement to indicate the locations of
blanks in the form;
storing said form template in said memory of said processing equipment;
retrieving said form template from said memory and displaying it on said
video display when it is desired to enter information for said last
mentioned pre-printed form;
entering appropriate information onto the blank lines on said form template
displayed on said video display; and
storing the information entered onto the blank lines of said form template
displayed on said video display.
2. A method of operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office
processing equipment including a processor, video display, keyboard,
memory and printer, and comprising the steps of:
creating a form template on said video display for a pre-printed form, said
template comprising blank lines of the same length and in the same
relative positions to each other as blanks on the pre-printed forms, and
having captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of
information to be entered thereon,
the form template being created by positioning a form in the printer and,
by means of the keyboard through the processor, controlling relative
movement of the form in the printer as the processor monitors the form
movement to identify the position and length of each blank on said
pre-printed form to said processor;
storing the data representing the position and length of each blank on said
pre-printed form;
displaying said blanks as blank lines on said video display using said
stored data, wherein each said line is of the same length and in the same
physical positions to each other as said blanks on said pre-printed form;
and
editing the last mentioned display on said video display to add captions
adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of information to be
entered onto the line, said lines and said captions creating said form
template;
retrieving said form template from said memory and displaying it on said
video display when it is desired to enter information for said last
mentioned pre-printed form;
entering appropriate information onto the blank lines on said form template
displayed on said video display; and
storing the information entered onto the blank lines of said form template
displayed on said video display.
3. A method of operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office
processing equipment including a processor, video display, keyboard,
memory and printer, and comprising the steps of:
creating a form template on said video display for a pre-printed form, said
template comprising blank lines of the same length and in the same
relative positions to each other as blanks on the pre-printed forms, and
having captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of
information to be entered thereon, the form template being created by
positioning a form in the printer and, by means of the keyboard through
the processor, controlling relative movement of the form in the printer as
the processor monitors the form movement to indicate the locations of
blanks in the form;
storing said form template in said memory of said processing equipment;
retrieving said form template from said memory and displaying it on said
video display when it is desired to enter information for said last
mentioned pre-printed form;
entering appropriate information onto the blank lines on said form template
displayed on said video display; and
storing the information entered onto the blank lines of said form template
displayed on said video display;
wherein the information entered onto said form template creates an
information record and many information records are created using said
form template, the method further comprising the steps of:
feeding ones of said pre-printed forms into said printer;
selecting one or more of the stored information records entered via said
form template to be printed onto said pre-printed forms;
controlling said printer using said selected information records to print
the information in the blanks on ones of said pre-printed forms.
4. The method in accordance with claim 3 further comprising of the steps
of:
listing all said stored information records entered at different times
using said form template;
selecting from said list ones of said last mentioned information records to
be printed into the blanks of ones of said pre-printed forms using said
printer; and
printing each selected information record in the blanks of one of said
pre-printed forms.
5. The method in accordance with claim 4 further comprising the steps of:
lising all said stored information records entered using said form
template;
selecting ones of said stored information records to be deleted from
storage in said memory; and
deleting said last mentioned selected ones of said stored information
records from said memory.
6. The method in accordance with claim 5 further comprising the step of:
modifying selected ones of said stored information records entered using
said form template.
7. The method in accordance with claim 6 further comprising the steps of:
selecting a form document having blanks thereon to be filled in to complete
the form document; and
merge print appropriate information from said stored information records
with said form document to complete same.
8. The method in accordance with claim 2 wherein the information entered
into said form template creates an information record and many information
records are created using said form template, and further comprising the
steps of:
feeding ones of said pre-printed forms into said printer;
selecting one or more of the stored information records entered via said
form template to be printed onto said pre-printed forms; and
controlling said printer using said selected information records to print
the information in the blanks on ones of said pre-printed forms.
9. The method in accordance with claim 8 further comprising of the steps
of:
listing all said stored information records entered at different times
using said form template;
selecting from said list ones of said last mentioned information records to
be printed into the blanks of ones of said pre-printed forms using said
printer; and
printing each selected information record in the blanks of one of said
pre-printed forms.
10. The method in accordance with claim 9 further comprising the steps of:
listing all said stored information records entered using said form
template;
selecting ones of said stored information records to be deleted from
storage in said memory; and
deleting said last mentioned selected ones of said stored information
records from said memory.
11. The method in accordance with claim 10 further comprising the steps of:
modifying selected ones of said stored information records entered using
said form template.
12. The method in accordance with claim 11 further comprising the steps of:
selecting a form document having blanks thereon to be filled in to complete
the document; and
merge print appropriate information from said stored information records
with said form document to complete same.
13. Apparatus for creating and storing a
template for a pre-printed form having blanks thereon in which information
is to be entered, and the template is used for storing and later printing
out said information entered into said blanks on the form comprising:
a microprocessor;
a keyboard functioning with said microprocessor;
a printer having a rotatable platen and a movable print head, both of which
are responsive to said microprocessor and to said keyboard to place the
print head first at a corner of the pre-printed form, then at the
beginning and the end of each blank space on said pre-printed form in
which information is to be entered, to identify to said microprocessor the
location of each blank space; and
a video terminal;
said microprocessor being programmed to respond to inputs to said keyboard
to display on the video terminal lines of the same length and in the same
positions to each other as the blanks on said pre-printed form as the
print head is placed adjacent to blanks on the form and to respond to
inputs to said keyboard to cause captions to be placed adjacent to said
lines, said captions indicating the type of information to be entered on
the lines, and said lines and said captions making up said form template.
14. The invention in accordance with claim 13 further comprising,
a memory in which said form template is stored after creation, and said
form template is read out of said memory and displayed on said video
terminal under control of said keyboard and said microprocessor, said
keyboard being used to enter information into said form template and to
indicate to said processor to store said information entered on said
template form; and
a cursor on said video display responsive to said keyboard and said
processor to be moved to the blank lines on said form template displayed
thereon, to enter information on said blank lines of said displayed forms
template and to indicate to said microprocessor when all information has
been entered so that the information may be stored.
15. The invention in accordance with claim 14 wherein to print said stored
information time said pre-printed form is placed in said printer and its
platen and print head are moved to each blank space on the form under
control of the microprocessor using the form template blank line location
information, and the appropriate stored information is printed on the
blank lines of the pre-printed form. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electronic office processing equipment and more
particularly to apparatus and a method for entering information into such
equipment and later printing it out on a pre-printed form.
What is disclosed is apparatus and a method for quickly and easily adapting
electronic office processing equipment to create, enter, edit and store
information on templates for pre-printed business forms, and later have
the information printed on the forms in specific blank spaces.
In the prior art the use of electronic office processing equipment to
automate data entry tasks is well known. In one mode of operation a
standard business form is entered into the equipment with blanks on the
form to be filled in identified in a special way. In operation a user,
such as an insurance claims processor, calls up an appropriate standard
form to be displayed on a video display and uses a keyboard to enter
appropriate information into the blanks of the form displayed on the
screen. After the form is filled in, a key operation by user causes only
the data that has been entered into the blanks to be stored. In this
manner, the form itself is not stored a multiplicity of times. When it is
desired to print outputs of the standard form, filled in which earlier
entered and stored data, a special print function is used to print the
form with the blanks filled in with a set of previously entered data.
One shortcoming with the above described prior art forms technique is that
a form must be typed into the system via the keyboard in order to
implement the forms mode. This is impossible for forms that have other
than alpha numeric characters thereon.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the teaching of the present invention, we teach
apparatus and a method for implementing a forms mode in an electronic
office processor used in an office environment. The electronic processor
has a video terminal a keyboard, a microprocessor whether located in the
terminal or in a separate box, memory, and a daisy wheel printer. The user
of our system first selects our novel forms mode as the mode of operation.
A pre-printed form with anything printed thereon is placed in the daisy
wheel printer and the print head thereof, operating under control of the
microprocessor, is moved using cursor keys on the key board. Using the
print head moved with cursor keys, the user locates the position of, and
the beginning and end of each space on the pre-printed form in which
information is to be entered via the keyboard to complete the form. At the
same time as the print head and platen of the printer are being moved to
place the print head at the beginning and end of each such space, lines
are drawn on the video display of the same length as the blank spaces on
the form, and in the same relative position to each other on the display
as on the form in the printer. This is the beginning of a form template
which is then edited to give it a title and to put brief information
adjacent to each line on the display to indicate what information should
be entered thereat. The end result is a form template on the display which
is then stored in the memory which is part of the electronic office
processor. The actual pre-printed form is never actually entered and
stored in the system memory.
Thereafter, when it is desired to enter information into a particular form,
the appropriate form template is read out of the system memory and
displayed on the screen. The user enters the appropriate information onto
the lines of the template, prompted by the captions adjacent to each line,
and when finished the user operates a key which causes the newly entered
information to be stored in the memory.
At a later time it may be desired to generate completed forms with any
blanks thereon filled in with the aforementioned entered and stored
information. The particular stored information to be printed on the forms
is selected and the daisy wheel printer is loaded with a supply of the
pre-printed forms either by an automatic sheet feeder, or by an endless
type supply where the forms are attached end to end but are perforated for
later separation. The forms may also be manually fed into the printer by
the user. The selected information is printed in the appropriate blanks on
the pre-printed forms to produce completed forms.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Our invention will be better understood on reading the following detailed
description in conjunction with the drawing in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic office processing system
utilizing the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a presentation of a pre-printed form on which are blanks to be
filled in;
FIG. 3 is a representation of the resulting forms template for the form in
FIG. 2 and created using our invention;
FIG. 4 is the first menu appearing on the display screen when the forms
creation mode is called;
FIG. 5 is the forms printing menu appearing on the display screen when
pre-printed forms are to be automatically filled in with previously
entered and stored information;
FIG. 6 is the utilities menu appearing on the display screen identifying
miscellaneous operations with our novel forms mode;
FIG. 7 is a sub-menu appearing on the display screen following a selection
on the utilities menu;
FIG. 8 is a another sub-menu appearing on the display screen following a
selection on the utilities menu;
FIG. 9 is a sub-menu appearing on the display screen following a selection
on the forms printing menu;
FIG. 10 is a representation of the storage of a form template and
information entered and stored using the particular form template, and a
selection and condensation of this stored information for subsequent merge
type printing on a document different than the pre-printed form from which
the form template was made;
FIG. 11 shows a system diagram of an electronic office processing system
utilizing the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In FIG. 1 is shown a block diagram of an electronic office processing
system shown in FIG. 11 incorporating our invention. There is a video
terminal including a keyboard 10 with the video terminal being a visual
output from the system to the user, and the keyboard being an input by the
user to the system. Microprocessor 11 functions under control of operating
system software and applications software that are stored in memory 12 in
a manner well-known in the art. Memory 12 is also used for storage of
information being processed while the electronic office processing system
shown in FIG. 1 is in operation. A daisy wheel printer 13 is another
output from the system and is used in implementing our novel forms mode of
operation, as well as to be used for standard printing operations.
Diskette unit 14 is well known in the art and uses standard industry
floppy diskettes for storage and retrieval of information. Diskette unit
14 and memory 12 are used with the present invention for the storage of
forms templates and information records generated using forms templates in
accordance with the teaching of our invention. Networking and
communications interface 15 permits connection to other systems via
communications networks such as telephone systems, or to other electronic
office processing equipment hooked together in a local network
arrangement, both in a manner well know in the art. With the local network
arrangement hard disk memories (not shown) may be utilized for long-term
storage and retrieval of forms templates and information records generated
therewith.
The electronic office processing system shown in FIG. 1 may be the type
disclosed in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 440,668, entitled
Management Communication Terminal System, filed Nov. 10, 1982, now U.S.
Pat. No. 4,587,633, in the names of A. Wang, S. Fry, S. Ho, J. Smutek, and
assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. The information
generated in the form of records created using our novel forms template
mode of operation may be stored in a memory using data storage techniques
such as taught in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 538,682, entitled Image
Storage And Retrieval now U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,206, filed Oct. 3, 1983 in
the names of M. Smutek, R. Wenig, N. Webb and A. Waisman, and assigned to
the same assignee as the present patent application.
In FIG. 2 is shown a representation of a pre-printed document or form 20 on
which is printed alpha numeric material, such as that represented by
reference numbers 22, 24 and 28, but on which are also located a number of
blank spaces 21, 23, 25, 26 and 27 which are to be filled in to complete
the form. Form 20 may also include pictorial or graphic material not shown
in FIG. 2.
FIG. 3 shows a representation of the form template created or the exemplary
form represented in FIG. 2 using our invention. The user of the electronic
office processing equipment shown in FIG. 1 places form 20 in FIG. 2 into
daisy wheel print 13. Daisy wheel printer 13 is well known in the art and
has a platen-type roller feed 50 and a moveable daisy wheel print head 52
which moves horizontally along the length of the platen. The print head is
moved to print characters on a piece of paper around the platen. Once form
20 is inserted into printer 13 the use of the electronic office processing
system selects the Forms Mode of operation in a manner described in detail
further in this detailed description. In the Forms mode the user operates
the up, down, left and right cursor keys 54 on the keyboard 56 of video
display terminal 10 to operate the platen of printer 13 and to move the
print head along the platen. As the left cursor key 58 is operated, the
print head moves to the left side of the platen, and as the right cursor
key 60 is operated the print head is moved to the right end of the platen.
As the user operates the up cursor key 62 on the keyboard the platen
roller is rotated to move a piece of paper upward, and as the down cursor
key 64 is operated the platen roller is rotated to move a piece of paper
therein downward. By using the four cursor keys it can be appreciated that
the daisy wheel print head may be moved in conjunction with the platen
roller to place the daisy wheel print head anywhere on a piece of paper in
the platen roller. This direct control is known in the prior art in the
Wangwriter marketed by Wang Laboratories, Inc.
In the forms mode, form 20 in FIG. 2 is inserted into the platen roller of
daisy wheel printer 13. By operating the four cursor keys on the keyboard
the user is first able to place the daisy wheel print head at the upper
left corner of document 20 as a reference point and operates the EXECUTE
key 66 on the keyboard to provide an indication of same to microprocessor
11. The user repeats this process to place the print head at the left end
of blank line 21 on document 20. The user operates the MARK key 68
indicating to microprocessor 11 that this is the left hand end of blank
21. The user then operates the right cursor key to move the daisy wheel
print head to the right along the platen roller to the right end of blank
line 21. The user again operates the MARK key indicating to the system
that the daisy wheel print head is positioned at the right hand end of
blank line 21. At the same time the system draws a line 31 on video
display 10 as shown in FIG. 3. The user next operates the cursor keys to
move the print head to the left hand end of blank line 23 on form 20,
operates the MARK key to indicate the beginning of the blank line, then
moves the print head to the right hand end of blank line 23 using the
cursor keys and again operates the MARK key to indicate the end of the
blank line. On video display terminal 10, line 33 is drawn representing
blank line 23. This procedure is repeated for each of blank lines 25, 26
and 27 on pre-printed form 20. In FIG. 3 it may be seen that lines 31, 33,
35, 36 and 37 are displayed on video terminal 10 in the same position, and
having the same lengths as the corresponding blank lines on pre-printed
form 20. The COPY key 70 may be used to repeat whole fields, such as the
multiple lines in space 26, 36. If the user doesn't wish to add captions
32, 34, 38 and 39, they operate the SAVE key 72 which indicates to the
system that the template entered is completed and is to be saved. The
system stores the template in a file having file name assigned by the
system user as shown in FIG. 4 and described further in this
specification.
In the pre-printed form 20 shown in FIG. 2, there is typically appropriate
information printed thereon indicating what information should be entered
into each blank. For example, alpha numeric information 22 indicates what
information should go in blank line 21, alpha numeric information 24
indicates what information should go in blank line 23, and alpha numeric
information 28 indicates what information should go in blank line 27. If
the user had wanted to add captions 32, 34, 38 and 39 to the field lines,
rather than operate the SAVE key after entering the blank lines 31, 33,
35, 36 and 37 the REF reference key 74 would be operated. The user uses
the cursor keys to move the cursor 75 to the beginning position of each
caption and then enters each caption 32, 34, 38, and 39. After all
captions have been entered the SAVE key is operated and the template with
captions (template 30 in FIG. 3) is stored in memory. Such storage will be
on a floppy diskette recorded using Diskette Unit 14, or on a hard disk
(not shown) via networking interface 15. Form template 30 has all the
blank lines that exist on pre-printed form 20 with sufficient descriptive
information as captions to indicate what should be entered onto the blank
lines. All other pre-printed information on form 20 is not entered into
form template 30. The user is not prevented from entering all the
alpha-numeric information on pre-printed form 20 into form template 30.
However, graphical material may not be entered into Form template 30, but
this is not necessary. This operation is described in greater detail
herebelow with reference to FIG. 4.
At a later time when it is desired to utilize form template 30 to enter
information into the system, the user of the system tells the system via
the keyboard and a menu on the display screen that they want the
Enter/Change Form Information operation, identifies the form template to
be utilized, and the digital representation of the form template is
transferred to memory 12 within the processing system. The system then
displays the selected form template on the display screen of video
terminal 10 and the user enters information therein. This operation is
described in greater detail below.
In practical business applications our novel forms mode of operation would
be useful in any business in which standard forms are utilized every day.
For example, an insurance company claims department receives telephone
calls for insurance claims all the time. A claims clerk receiving these
calls would use the keyboard 10 to indicate to the system an insurance
claim form template to be utilized and then uses the displayed form
template to record information pertaining to an insurance claim. Assuming
that template 30 in FIG. 3 is the selected claim form template, template
30 would be displayed on the screen of video terminal 10 used by the
claims clerk. In response to each telephone claim, the claims clerk would
enter basic pertinent information onto blank lines 31, 33, 35, 36 and 37.
Upon template 30 being called upon the screen of video terminal 10, the
cursor would initially be located at the left end of blank line 31. The
clerk knows from caption 32 that the claimant's name is to be entered onto
line 31. As the claims clerk types in the name of the claimant, it appears
on blank line 31 on the screen of the video display. After entering the
claimant's name, the RETURN key 76 followed by the EXECUTE key is operated
and the cursor moves to the left end of blank line 33. The claims clerk
knows from caption 34 that the data the claim is being made is to be
entered onto blank line 33. The claims clerk types in the date which then
appears on line 33 and then operates the TAB key. The cursor moves to the
left end of blank line 35 and the claims clerk knows from the adjacent
caption that the address of the claimant is to be entered onto line 35.
Following entry of the claimant's address, the clerk again operates the
TAB key and the cursor then moves to the left end of blank line 36.
Similarly, blank lines 36 and 37 are filled in with such information as
details establishing the claimant's claim and the name of the claims
clerk. After all blank lines on forms template 30 are filled in, the
operation of the CANCEL key 80 followed by the EXECUTE key indicates to
the system that the form is filled in and the entered information is
stored.
The above described procedure is repeated many times each day by many
claims clerks entering insurance claims, and thereby creates a large data
base of claims information.
At a later time, maybe at the end of each day or the following day, it may
be desired to generate a filled in pre-printed form. To accomplish this a
single form, such a pre-printed form 20, may be placed in daisy wheel
printer 13 and the print head positioned at the upper left corner of the
form. Due to the movement of the daisy wheel printhead and the platen
roller of daisy wheel printer 13 during creation of form template 30, the
system is now able to move the printhead and the platen roller to position
the printhead at the left end of each of blank lines 21, 23, 25, 26 and 27
in succession. At each of these blank lines, a particular set of stored
information (information record), entered using form template 30, is
printed on these blank lines to thereby complete the form. As it would be
a tedious task to hand feed individual pre-printed forms into daisy wheel
printer 13, in actual operation the forms would be fed by an automatic
form feeder or would be linked end-to-end with rip-off perforations
between the forms. In this manner daisy wheel printer 13 is operated under
control of microprocessor 11 in the Forms Print template mode of operation
to fill in the blank lines of a multiplicity of forms with the appropriate
stored information from the data base of stored information records.
Turning now to FIG. 4, therein is shown a Forms mode menu that appears on
the screen of video terminal 10 after this mode of operation is selected
from another menu, not shown, that lists many functions such as word
processing, typewriter and the forms mode. As may be seen in FIG. 4 the
user of the system in the forms mode has five basic operations that may be
selected. The user may select Create New Form, Enter Information to select
a form for information entry, Print Completed Form wherein the pre-printed
forms have their blanks filled in with stored information, Change
Information which allows the user to edit already stored information, and
a Forms Utilities mode providing miscellaneous functions which are
described in detail further in this specification. For any one of these
five selections, the user also enters the name of a form, which for
entering, printing, changing or utilities is a previously created form
name; but for the creation of a new form template requires selecting and
entering a new form name. After the appropriate function is selected by
using the RETURN key to place the cursor adjacent thereto, the EXECUTE key
is operated indicating to the system the function to be performed. The
cursor moves to the Please Enter Form Name blank line, the user enters a
form name using the keyboard of video terminal 10, and again operates the
EXECUTE key. This indicates to the system the form to be worked with. For
the Create New Form function the user makes up a form name and enters it
into this blank. For the other functions the user enters an existing form
name.
When the Enter Information function is selected the system uses the form
name entered via the menu of FIG. 4 to locate the particular form template
and display it on the display screen of video terminal 10. The user then
enters information and stores same as described earlier in this
specification.
Turning now to FIG. 5, therein is shown the screen menu displayed after the
system user selects Print Completed Form from the menu in FIG. 4. The
header of this menu is entitled FORMS PRINTING and has a blank in which
the form name is entered. The user usually does not have to enter the form
name as they already did so in the screen menu of FIG. 4. The form name is
automatically carried forward and displayed in this space to indicate to
the user the name of the form that they have selected. The blank line is
on the menu of FIG. 5 so that when the user is printing many forms, as may
often be the case, they do not have to return to the menu of FIG. 4 every
time to do so. They merely initiate a print process for one form and then
change the form name in the Form Name line of FIG. 5 by overwriting and
deleting in a manner well known in the art, and the reinitiate printing.
In this manner the form name entered b | | |
