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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This present invention relates to a document processing method and a
document processing system each using a multiwindow, and in particular, to
a document processing method and a document processing system in which a
display content of a window established in a display screen is copied into
a specified region of another window and which is suitable for generating
a document including a patch region.
A display system having a function to display an edited image, a portion of
which is obtained by insetting a partial image extracted from another
image, is proposed, for example, in a U.S. application Ser. No. 594,690,
now U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,404 dated Dec. 29, 1987, by K. Tabata et al.
Further, a multiwindow system has been developed recently as an apparatus
to support office jobs which has a function to display a plurality of
windows on a screen at the same time, to extract a portion of document
materials or original data displayed in a window, and to bring the
extracted portion into a portion of a new document being generated in
another window. A system capable of the document processing accomplished
by an extracting and insetting operation of another original data as
described above has been described e.g. in the "Nikkei Communication",
Feb. 10, 1986, pp. 69-103, the "Nikkei Communication" being issued every
second week from the Nikkei McGraw Co., Ltd.
In the multiwindow system, application programs are assigned to the
respective windows to enable the users to concurrently access a plurality
of programs. Each program, assuming a window assigned thereto as a
dedicated terminal equipment, outputs a processing result in response to
an instruction from the user. Consequently, in a case where a document
comprising, for example, a text region and graph region is desired, a
character input operation on the text region is achieved in a first window
by use of a first program having a document processing function and a
desired graph is subsequently drawn in a second window by using a second
program including a function to automatically draw graph from numeric data
inputted thereto; finally, a particular region (copy source region)
including the graph specified in the second window is extracted and is
moved into a specified region (copy destination region) in the first
window, which enables to generate a document having a complex content at a
high speed by effectively using the functions of the respective programs.
However, in the prior art multiwindow system, for an update of the content
of the copy destination region of the document generated by combining the
processing results of the plurality of application programs, even when the
sizes and position of the copy source and destination regions are
unchanged, the sizes and the positions are required to be specified for
each copy operation. As a consequence, when a document processing is
achieved by combining the contents generated in another window in a
trial-and-error fashion, the operator must repeatedly effect a complex
operation.
Moreover, in the example above, after the second window in cleared in the
screen, if the content of the copy region to the first window is required
to be changed, the operator must achieve a procedure to restore the copy
source region by setting the window, initiating the second program, and
reading the previously used data from the file.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a document
processing method and a document processing system each facilitating the
change or modification of the contents of a document generated by use of
the multiwindow.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a document processing
method and a document processing system capable of automatically calling a
program related to a document generated in a window into another window on
the display screen.
In order to accomplish the objects, according to the present invention,
there is provided a document processing method using a multiwindow system
including a display device having a display screen in which a plurality of
windows are established, virtual screen memory means in which a plurality
of virtual screens each corresponding to programs are formed to output
results of data processing by programs, memory means for storing therein a
window control table defining corresponding relationships between the
virtual screens and the windows, and control means for referencing the
window control table and for outputting contents of each said virtual
screen in a window associated with the virtual screen on the display
screen, said method comprising the steps of:
a first step for memorizing copy source attribute data including an
identifier of a second window established on the display screen and data
defining a second partial region in the second window with a
correspondence with respect to a first partial region in a first window
established on the display screen;
a second step for outputting to the second window results of data
processing effected by use of a program; and
a third step, responsive to a command inputted by an operator while
pointing to or designating the first partial region displayed in the first
window, for copying the display contents of the second partial region of
the second window into the first partial region of the first window based
on the copy source attribute previously memorized corresponding to the
first partial region.
The first step, for example, to copy display data of the second partial
region into the first partial region, is executed in response to a first
copy command inputted by the operator while specifying the first partial
region as a copy destination in the first window and the second partial
region as a copy source in the second window.
According to the present invention in order to copy the contents displayed
in the second window of the display screen into a document being displayed
in the first window, only if the position and the size of the partial
region as the copy destination and those of the partial region as the copy
source are first specified by the operator, the copy operation can be
automatically achieved with a simple command input when the copy source is
changed thereafter.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention, the copy source
attribute data stored in association with the first partial region
includes an identifier of a program to generate document material to be
copied into the first partial region, a store address of data used by the
program, and data defining the second partial region in the virtual screen
in which the results of data processing of the program are stored. With
the provision of the copy source attribute data, in response to a command
inputted by the operator to call the copy source onto the display screen
while pointing to the first partial region displayed in the first window,
a program indicated by the copy source attribute data can be automatically
initiated so as to display on the second window of the display screen
document material attained by processing data read from the defined
address.
According to the second embodiment, when document data generated in the
first window and stored in a data file is thereafter called into a window
again, the display of the copy source corresponding to the first partial
region can be effected through a simple operation. Consequently, an
environment to modify data of the copy source can be supplied to the
operator at a high speed. Moreover, after the data of the copy source is
modified, the display content of the copy source can be copied into the
first partial region also through a simple operation like in the first
embodiment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other objects, manner of operation and novel features of
the present invention will be understood from the following detailed
description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings in
which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining relationships between a copy
destination region and a copy source region in a display screen;
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram useful for explaining relationships
between windows and virtual screens;
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the window control
table;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conceptual configuration of
the virtual screen;
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a data layout in
the virtual screen;
FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the overall configuration
of the multiwindow system according to the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a program flowchart used when a copy request is issued to copy
the contents of a copy source region into a copy destination region in a
first embodiment of the document processing method of the present
invention;
FIG. 8 is a program flowchart to be executed when an automatic copy request
is issued to modify the contents of the copy destination region in the
first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of the window
control table used in a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating the primary portion of a
virtual screen data record used in the second embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating the contents of a document data
file in the second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a program flowchart to be effected in the second embodiment of
the present invention;
FIG. 13 is a program flowchart illustrating details of a document
processing routine 300 of FIG. 12;
FIG. 14 is a program flowchart illustrating in detail a copy source region
processing routine 400 of FIG. 12;
FIG. 15 is a program flowchart illustrating datails of a copy source update
processing routine 600 of FIG. 12;
FIG. 16 is a program flowchart illustrating in detail an automatic copy
processing routine 700 of FIG. 12; and
FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram illustrating the format of copy source data
record by use of an example of graph data.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
First, referring to FIG. 1, a description will be given of a document
creation through a patching (copy) operation using the mutliwindow. FIG. 1
shows a display screen 7 in which two windows 21-22 are established. In
the first window 21, a document including a text indicated by X's is
generated, for example, by use of a document processing program having a
word processing function; whereas, in the second window 22, information to
be patched or copied into a subregion specified in the first window 21 is
created. For example, in the case where the information to be patched is a
graph, a program dedicated to a graph is used in the second window 22, the
program having a function which enables to automatically draw a graph only
by specifying a graph type such as a bar chart or a broken-line chart,
display items of the abscissa and the ordinate, and numeric data to be
displayed as a graph. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a state
where a subregion 24 including a graph is sliced in the second window and
the contents of the subregion 24 are copied into a subregion 23 of the
first window. When the size of the subregion (to be referred to as a copy
source region herebelow) 24 including original information is different
from the size of the subregion (to be referred to as a copy destination
region) 23 in which the copy is effected, the image extracted from the
copy source region 24 is enlarged or reduced according to the size of the
copy destination region 23. When a table is required in a copy
destination, a program having a table generate function is used in the
second window. A portion of another document already created in advance
may be used as a copy source to copy the contents thereof into a copy
destination region.
The windows 21-22 established in the display screen 7, as conceptually
shown in FIG. 2, respectively correspond to virtual screens 31-32
generated in a virtual screen memory 8 which will be described later, and
the contents of partial regions 321 and 322 in the virtual screens 31 and
32, respectively are displayed on the actual screen 7. Ordinarily, the
sizes of the partial regions 321-322 in the virtual screens 31-32 are
respectively matched with the sizes of the windows 21-22; however; the
contents of the partial regions 321-322 may be magnified or reduced before
the contents are displayed in the respective windows 21-22. Each of
application programs for a graph generation, a document processing, and
the like handles a corresponding virtual screen as a display device
dedicated thereto and outputs the processing results to the virtual
screen. The copy destination region 23 specified in the window 21 in the
actual screen and the copy source region 24 specified in the window 22
therein respectively correspond to the partial region 323 in the virtual
screen 31 and the partial region 324 in the virtual screen 32. The feature
of the present invention resides in that when an operation to copy the
contents of the copy source region 24 into the copy destination region 23
is made while designating in the actual screen 7 the position P and the
size (a, b) of the copy source region and the position q and the size (h,
w) of the copy destination region, the position and the size of the copy
source region 324 in the virtual screen 32 are memorized with a
correspondence established with respect to the copy destination region 323
in the virtual screen 31. As described above, since the corresponding
relationships between the copy destination and the copy source are
memorized, when the contents of the copy destination region 23 in the
window 21 are required to be modified, a copy operation can be simply
effected after a modify operation of the display contents is achieved in
the window 22 without necessitating the operation to specify the positions
and the sizes of the copy source region 24 and the copy destination region
23.
The operation to establish the windows 21-22 on the actual screen 7 and the
control to output data from the virtual screens to these windows are
effected by means of a window control program. To achieve the control of
data output to the display screen, the window control program uses a
window control table 40 as shown in FIG. 3, for example. The window
control table 40 includes records W1, W2, etc. for each window, and each
record comprises a display level 41 of the window in the display screen, X
and Y coordinate values of a representative point of the window, for
example, an upper-left corner of the window in the display screen, X and Y
coordinate values 43 of the representative point in the virtual screen,
and horizontal and vertical sizes 44 of the window along the abscissa and
the ordinate. The window control program refers to the window control
table 40 to output the contents of a particler region of the virtual
screen to a particular location of the real screen 7. In the case where at
least two windows have a positional relationship, for example, the windows
overlap with each other in the real screen 7, a window having a lower
display level 41 is partially concealed by a window having a higher
display level 41. When a scroll instruction is issued for a window, the X
and Y coordinate values 43 of the pertient record are changed in the
scroll direction in the window control table 40 and the position of the
partial region in the virtual screen to be displayed in the window is
shifted. Since such a multiwindow control method has already been well
known, details thereabout will not be described.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the virtual screen 31 in detail.
In the case where the operator generates a document including a text, a
photo, a diagram, or a table, the document is split into a plurality of
regions. The virtual screen 31 of FIG. 4 comprises four regions 51-54
having representative points Q.sub.1 -Q.sub.4, respectively. For example,
the regions 51 and 53 are used to display text data, the region 52
displays a table or image data, and the region 54 is assigned as a region
to display a graph.
FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of a data layout associated with the virtual
screen 31 or 32 to be stored in the virtual screen memory 8. Reference
numeral 60 indicates a header portion of each virtual screen and includes
a pointer to point to a store position of a body 61 of a data record.
Each data record includes a field 62 indicating the number of regions
contained in a virtual screen and a field 62-i denoting a definition data
of each region. The region define field 62-i comprises X and Y coordinates
63 of the representative point (Q.sub.1 -Q.sub.4 of FIG. 4) of the region,
the vertical and horizontal sizes 64 of the region, a type (classification
of a text, an image, or the like) 65 of data included in the region, a
pointer 66 to a store area 69 of data to be displayed in the pertinent
region, and a copy source attribute data 68. The copy source attribute
data 68 is set when the display data of the region 61 is beforehand
attained by a copy operation of another region (a copy source region) and
includes, in the example of FIG. 5, a number 68A of a virtual screen in
which the copy source region exists, X and Y coordinates 68B of the
representative point (point P of FIG. 2) in the copy source region of the
virtual screen 68A, a size 68C (a and b of FIG. 2) of the copy source
region, and a copy parameter 68D. In place of the sizes of the copy source
region, X and Y coordinates of the lower-right corner of the region may be
recorded. The copy parameter 68D includes, for example, a parameter
determining a layout relationship (e.g. a rotation angle) of the display
contents between the copy source and the copy destination, a parameter
indicating a data type used to select only a particular type of data from
the display data of the copy source, or a parameter determining a logical
operation (a replace operation, an OR logic, or the like) to be effected
between the data existing in the copy destination region and the copy data
to be copied thereinto. In the data store area 69, the display data of the
region 62-1 is stored in a form of a string of character codes if the
display data is a text and in a form of bit map data if the display data
is an image.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the overall configuration of a
document processing system to which the present invention is applied. This
system includes a main controller (microprocessor) 1 controlling the
overall operation of the system, a memory 2 storing various kinds of
programs to be executed by the main controller 1, a work memory 3
temporarily storing data generated in a course of execution of programs, a
data file 4 storing document data referenced or created in the system, a
refresh memory (bit map memory) 5 storing data to be displayed in the
display screen 7, a display controller 6 to sequentially read the contents
of the refresh memory 5 and to output the contents to the display screen
7, a virtual screen memory 8 to store data records (FIG. 5) corresponding
to the respective virtual screens, a memory 9 to store the window control
table 40 of FIG. 3, a memory 10 to store character fonts corresponding to
the character codes, a bit map processor 11 to develop the display data of
the virtual screen in the refresh memory 5 in a form of a bit map, a
memory 12 to store various commands used to operate the bit map processor
11, a keyboard 13 to input various control instructions and data to the
system, and a pointing device (mouse) 14 to point to a position in the
display screen 7 by means of a cursor.
Referring now to the program flowcharts of FIGS. 7-8, a description will be
given of a control routine which is effected by use of the virtual screen
data structure of FIG. 5 to achieve a document processing including a copy
destination region.
The control routine of FIG. 7 is executed in response to a copy request
command inputted by the operator to copy the display contents of the
second window into a partial region established in a document being
generated in the first window. In the control routine, the position (P) of
the copy source region 24 and the size (a, b) thereof designated by the
operator in the second window are read [step 100] and then the position
(q) and the size (h, w) of the copy destination region 23 designated by
the operator in the first window are read [step 102]. The region size can
be attained by use of the X and Y coordinate values of the upper-left and
lower-right corners of the region designated by the operator by means of
the mouse 14. Furthermore, when the operator completely input copy
parameters in [step 104] to indicate the relationship between the display
contents of the copy source region 24 and the copy destination region 23,
the window control table 40 is searched for a record of a window 21 in
which the copy destination region 23 is located [step 106] and then the
position Q of the copy destination region 323 in the virtual screen 31
corresponding to the window 21 is calculated [step 108]. Next, a region
define field (items 63-66) is added to define the copy destination region
323 thus established in the data record 61 related to the virtual screen
31 beforehand recorded in the virtual screen memory 8 [step 110]. In this
case, the data type 65 indicates an image data. After the step 110, the
bit map data located in the copy source region 24 of the refresh memory 5
is extracted and is subjected to a magnification or a reduction according
to a size ratio between the copy source region 24 and the copy destination
region 23, thereby obtaining the bit map data to be displayed in the copy
destination region 23 [step 112]. The display data of the copy destination
region 23 is written in the data store area 69 pointed by the pointer 66
in the copy destination region define field and in the copy destination
region on the refresh memory 5 [steps 114 and 116]. When the contents of
the refresh memory 5 is rewritten, the display screen 7 changes so that
the contents of the copy source region 24 is displayed in the copy
destination region 23 of the first window 21.
Next, in step 118, it is judged whether a request of registration of the
copy source attribute data is present or absent. In the case where there
exists a possibility of a later modification on the contents of the copy
destination region 23 thus established, the operator inputs a command
requesting a registration of the copy source attribute data prior to an
input of a copy request command. This registration request command may be
inputted when the contents of the copy data are displayed in the first
window 21. If an input of the register command is found in the judge step
118, the window control table 40 is searched to detect a record of the
window 22 where the copy soruce region 24 is located [step 120], the
position of the copy source region 324 on the virtual screen 32
corresponding to the window 22 is calculated [step 122], and the copy
source attribute data 68 comprising items 68A-68D is added to the copy
destination region define field 62i [step 124], thereby completing the
routine. When the register command is not inputted or when another command
is inputted, the routine is terminated without executing the steps
120-124.
As described above, when the copy source attribute data is beforehand
registered with a correspondence to the copy destination region, the
modification of the display contents of the copy destination region
becomes to be easier for the operator as follows. That is, the operator
effects a modification operation of the display contents in the second
window 22, locates the cursor to a position in the copy destination region
23 of the first window 21 by use of the mouse 14, and then inputs a
command to instruct an automatic copy. The cursor operation may be here
achieved after the automatic copy command is inputted.
When an automatic copy command is inputted, the routine of FIG. 8 is
executed. First, the position of the cursor is read [step 132] and the
window control table 40 is searched to detect the window 21 in which the
cursor is located [step 134]. When the window 21 is determined, the
position of the cursor in the display screen can be converted into a
position in the virtual screen 31 corresponding to the window 21 [step
136]. Furthermore, by searching the data record 61 corresponding to the
virtual screen 31, the define field 62-i of the region (copy destination
region) 323 including the position of the cursor in the virtual screen 31
can be detected [step 138], and hence it can be judged whether or not the
copy source attributed data 68 has been registered to the region define
field 62-i [step 140].
If the copy source attribute data 68 has not been registered, a message is
outputted to notify that the automatic copy cannot be effected [step 142]
and then the routine is terminated. If the copy source attribute data 68
has already been registered, the position of the representative point P in
the copy source region is converted into a position p in the display
screen by referencing the record in the window control table 40
corresponding to the virtual screen indicated by the item 68A [step 144].
Next, the bit map data of the copy source region in the refresh memory 5
defined by the region size indicated by the item 68c and the position p in
the display screen is extracted and is subjected to a magnification or
reduction processing according to the size ratio between the copy source
region and the copy destination region, thereby generating the display
data to be outputted to the copy destination region 23 [step 146]. The
display data is written in a data area 69 indicated by the pointer 66
included in the copy destination region define field 62i of the virtual
screen [step 148] . In addition, after the region representative point Q
included in the copy destination region define field 62i is converted into
a position q in the display screen by referencing the window control table
40 [step 150], the display data is written in the copy destination region
in the refresh memory defined by the position q and the region size
indicated by the item 64 [step 152]. Through the processing above, the
display contents of the copy destination region 23 are modified on the
display screen.
In the embodiment above, although the display contents of the second window
are copied into a document generated in the first window, it is also
possible to establish a plurality of copy destination regions in the first
window so as to incorporate the display contents of a plurality of other
windows into a document. According to the embodiment above, when modifying
the contents of the copy destination region, the display contents modified
in the copy source can be automatically copied without necessitating to
specify again the positions and sizes of the copy source and destination
regions. Consequently, there is provided an advantage that the operation
of the operator is simplified in a document processing in which the copy
operation is particularly repeated in a trial and error manner.
Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of the present
invention implemented by further modifying the first embodiment described
above.
If the processing results obtained in the second window are incorporated
into the first window and the resultant document is periodically issued,
for example, the operator conventionally calls the application program
previously used in the second window and reads the data previously used
from the data file so as to temporarily restore the processing results
having the contents identical to those of the copy destination region of
the document previously generated, modifies a portion of the restored
results, and then copies the obtained results into the document in the
first window being processed. The similar operations are also necessary in
the case where a processing job on a document is once terminated, the
power supply of the document processing system is turned off, and then the
document processing is restarted to modify the contents of the copy
destination region of the document partially.
According to the second embodiment of the present invention, a call of the
program used in a window as a copy source and a read of the data used from
the file can be effected through a simple operation during a document
processing associated with a copy destination region.
In order to accomplish the object, according to the present invention, an
identifier of the program used in the copy source and an address of data
record including data which are previously used in the copy source are
stored in a data file with a correspondence to the copy destination. In
addition, a program identifier corresponding to each window and a store
address of the used data are stored in he window control table.
FIG. 9 shows the configuration of a window control table 40' used in the
second embodiment of the present invention. Items 41-44 are the same as
those of the first embodiment, reference numeral 45 indicates an
identifier of an application program used in the window, and reference
numeral 46 is a store address of data record constituting the display
contents of the window. The program identifier above is registered to the
window control table 40' corresponding to the window each time the window
is established on the display screen.
In the window control table 40', the first address of the program in the
program memory 2 may be stored in place of the identifier 45 of the
program.
Also in the case of this embodiment, excepting that the copy source
attribute data 68 is changed as shown in FIG. 10, each virtual screen
corresponding to the window is stored in the virtual screen memory 8 in
the same data layout as previously described in conjunction with FIG. 5.
The configuration of FIG. 10 comprises an identifier 68A' of a program used
in the copy source, a store address 68A" of data record used in the copy
source, and items 68B-68D identical to those of the first embodiment.
FIG. 11 shows an example of the data structure of a document file 70
comprising a plurality of pages stored in the data file 4. The data
structure of FIG. 11 includes a document name 71 used to identify a
document or a document file and a page count 72 of pages constituting the
document. The document data comprises a record 73 for each page and each
page record 73 includes a page number 74 identifying the page, a region
count 62 of regions constituting the document of the page, and define data
62-i for each region. Each region define data 62-i comprises items 63-68
and display data in region 69, which corresponds to the data items of the
virtual screen. Although the display data in region 69 and the data items
63-68 are indicated to be allocated in a consecutive store area in FIG.
11, the display data 69 may be stored in another file area to be
designated by a pointer.
The document processed in the first window described above is added as a
new page record 73 to the document file 70. The copy source data (the
processing result in the second window) copied in the document is stored
in the data file 4 in a format varying depending on the kind of the copy
source application program. Here, as an example, the format in the case
where the copy source data is graph data is shown in FIG. 17.
The diagram of FIG. 17 includes a file name 171 identifying the data file
and the total number of data 172 existing in the file. The graph file
comprises records 191, 192, etc. for each graph data and each of the
records 191, 192, etc. can be identified by a data number 173. The
configuration further includes a graph type 174 indicating the type of
graph such as a bar chart or a broken-line graph, a character string of
the graph title 175, a character string 176 representing the unit of the
abscissa, a character string of the header of the abscissa 177, a
character string 179 denoting the unit of the ordinate, and a character
string of the header of the ordinate 180. Reference numerals 181A, 182A,
etc. indicate names of intervals to be displayed below the ordinate,
whereas reference numerals 181B, 182B, etc. are graph values corresponding
to the interval names 181A, 182A, etc., respectively.
Referring now to FIGS. 12-16, a description will be given of a control
routine for the document processing in the second embodiment of the
present invention.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the control program used to select a routine in
the multiwindow system. When the operator inputs a command from the input
device 13 or 14, the command is interpreted in step 200 and a processing
routine is selected depending on the kind of the command in steps 202-212.
For a document processing command, a document processing routine which
will be described in conjunction with FIG. 13 is executed.
In the case of a command instructing a copy source processing, the operator
specifies a program to be used and copy source data (a file name and a
data number). When the program to be used is specified, the start address
of the program is stored as the first parameter [step 220]. For the
specification of the copy source data, a store address of data | | |
