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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document processing system for
processing documents comprising text data and image data such as figures,
tables, and video images, and more particularly to a document processing
system which can automatically lay out image data at appropriate locations
in the text data.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the conventional document processing system such as a wordprocessor,
desired image data such as a figure, a table, or a video image is laid out
or embed in the text data forming a document, in the following method.
First, an operator operates the keyboard of the system, thereby
designating a desired location at which to lay out the desired image data
in the text data. Then, the operator further operates the keyboard,
thereby laying out the desired image at the location thus designated. (The
image data is, in some cases, the data output by an image reader or a
digitizer.) This method has a drawback. When the text data is edited, that
is, corrected and/or altered, the image data may in some cases move to an
undesirable position with respect to the text data. If this is the case,
the operator must operate the keyboard to specify a new location at which
to lay out the desired image data.
In a recently developed document processing system, such as a desktop
publishing (DTP) system, a so-called anchored frame, i.e., a frame
defining an image-data region, is laid out in the text, and then the
desired image is laid out within the anchored frame. Once the anchored
frame has been laid out in the text, it no longer necessary for the
operator to designate the location at which to lay out the image in the
text. In this method, the anchored frame is related to that part of the
text in which the image to be laid out in the anchored frame is referred
to. Hence, the image is automatically laid out near the part of the text,
which will be hereinafter referred to as "image-referring part".
Since an anchored frame is laid within a text frame, i.e., a column of the
text, it cannot be larger than the text frame. Hence, the anchored frame
cannot be larger than the column. In other words, an image larger than the
column of the text data cannot be laid out. Further, since images are laid
out in the text unconditionally, but in the order they are referred to in
the corresponding image-referring parts, they are laid out in disorder and
irregularly, and the edited document is far from neat. To lay out these
images at appropriate locations, the operator must operate the keyboard to
change the locations of the images.
As has been pointed out, in the conventional document processing system,
images cannot be laid out in the text if they are larger than the columns
of text data. Further, the system automatically lays out images in the
text, but not sufficiently neatly. Therefore, the operator of this system
must lay out the images in the text orderly and regularly, spending much
labor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a document processing
system which can prepare a document formed of text data and image data,
with the images appropriately laid out in the text, thus relieving the
operator of much labor which he or she should otherwise spent to lay out
the images properly in the text.
According to the invention, there is provided a document processing system
which can appropriately lay out text data and an image data which is
referred to in the text data, thereby to prepare a document formed of the
text and images laid out at appropriate locations in the text. This
document processing system comprises: format-data storage means for
storing form data including region-attribute data representing at least an
image-layout inhibited region in which to lay out no image data;
reference-data storage means for storing reference data representing the
relationship between any image-referring part of the text data and an
image data which is referred to in that image-referring part; and
data-layout section for laying out the text data and also laying out the
image data outside the image-layout inhibited region, in accordance with
the region-attribute data stored in the format-data storage means and the
reference data stored in the reference-data storage means, thereby to
prepare document data.
As has been pointed out, the format data includes region-attribute data
defining the image-layout inhibited region, and the image is laid out in
accordance with this region-attribute data and also with the reference
data representing the relationship between any image-referring part of the
text data and the image data referred to in that image-referring part.
Therefore, images can be laid out orderly and regularly in the text, by
designating the region-attribute data items. Since the region in which any
image is to be laid out is determined from the reference data and the
region-attribute data, it is unnecessary to set anchored frames in the
text before editing the document. Hence, the region in which to lay out
any image can be larger than the region in which the text data to be layed
out.
Moreover, since each image is laid out in accordance with region-attribute
data which defines an image-layout inhibited region, labor can be reduced
on the part of the operator who edits the documents consisting of text
data and image data.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a document processing
system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing document data to be processed by means of the
system illustrated in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 represents the contents of the image-data title dictionary
incorporated in the system illustrated in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining how an image title is analyzed to be
extracted in the system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 shows a document format defined by the format data stored in the
format-data memory incorporated in the system of FIG. 1;
FIGS. 6A to 6C show region-attribute data items which are included in the
format data and are to be used to lay out images in the text of a
document;
FIGS. 7A to 7C illustrate documents each including the images which have
been laid out in accordance with the region-attribute data items shown in
FIGS. 6A to 6C;
FIG. 8 is a flow chart explaining how a document is edited by means of the
system illustrated in FIG. 1;
FIG. 9 is a flow chart explaining how location candidates for images are
defined in the system of FIG. 1;
FIGS. 10A to 10E illustrate documents, each including images laid out at
the location candidates formed by the operation performed as is shown in
the flow char of FIG. 9;
FIGS. 11A to 11D illustrate documents which have been laid out
inappropriately;
FIGS. 12A to 12D show documents, each including images laid out at
appropriate location candidate;
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a document which has been laid out by means of
another embodiment of the present invention; and
FIGS. 14 and 15 schematically show two examples of region-attribute data
items which are used in still another embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the
accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a document processing
system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As is shown in
this figure, the system comprises an input device 1, an input device
controller 2, a storage section 3, a forming processing section 4, a
display controller 5, and a display device 6.
The input device 1 is operated by an operator, to input text data, image
data, format data, text-image reference data, and command data to the
system. The device 1 can have one or more data-input devices such as a
keyboard and/or a mouse. The input device 1 operates under the control of
the input device controller 2. The text data, the image data, the format
data, and the other data, all input by operating the device 1, are stored
in the storage section 3.
The storage section 3 has a document-data storage 31 for storing text data
and image data, a format-data storage 32 for storing format data, a
reference-data storage 33 for storing the text-image reference data, an
image-title dictionary 34, an image-referring part extracting section 35,
and an image-title extracting section 36. The image-title dictionary 34,
the image-referring part extracting section 35, and the image-title
extracting section 36 are used to determine the relationship between any
image-referring part of the text and the image which is referred to in
that image-referring part.
The forming processing section 4 comprises a control section 41 for
controlling forming processing, an image-location candidate forming
section 42 for forming location candidates for the images to be laid out
in the text, under the control of the control section 41, and a selecting
section 43 for selecting the most appropriate image-location candidate
from the candidates formed by the section 42.
The display controller 5 controls the display device 6. The device 6
outputs the document formed from the document data prepared by the forming
processing section 4. The display device 6 comprises an image display
and/or a printer. The image display can be a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), a
liquid-crystal display, or a plasma display.
In operation, the text data and the image data, both input by operating the
input device 1, are stored into the document-data storage 31. They are
combined, thus forming the document data illustrated in FIG. 2. The text
data contains key data items such as "FIG. 1," "Table 1," and "FIG. 2,"
which are referred to in the text. From these key data items there are
automatically obtained text-image reference data items, each showing the
relationship between an image-referring part of the text and the image
referred to in this image-referring part. The text-image reference data
items, obtained automatically, are stored into the reference-data storage
33. Alternatively, the operator can operate the input device 1, thus
designating said relationship and then inputting text-image reference data
item representing this text-image relationship.
More specifically, the reference data items are obtained in the following
way. First, the image-referring part extracting section 35 chops the text
data into sentences, in accordance with the punctuation marks and the
carriage-return codes contained in the text data. Then, the section 35
performs matching process, that is, it compares each of the sentences with
the image-title data items stored in the image-title dictionary 34, each
consisting of an image classification word, an alphanumeric expression,
and/or an additional word. The image-title data items for "FIG. 1," "Table
1," and "FIG. 2" are each analyzed as being:
[image classification word+alphanumeric expression]
A rule is registered in the system, that such a character data item is data
rule for discriminating the corresponding key data item which represents
an image to be referred in an image-referring part of the text. Based of
this rule, the corresponding key data is extracted from the text data in
accordance with the image-title data item. Some key data items have
additional word such as "No.," in addition to an image classification
word, as is illustrated in FIG. 3. The image-title extracting section 36
performs matching process, that is, it collates each character data item
included in the image data stored in the document-data storage 31 with the
image-title data items stored in the image-title dictionary 34. More
precisely, as is shown in FIG. 4, character data item, "FIG. 2 SYSTEM
CONFIGURATION," is analyzed to be a combination of:
[image classification word+alphanumeric expression+noun phrase]
A rule is registered in the system, that a character data item of this kind
represents an image title. Based on this rule, any image title can be
distinguished. Of the image title extracted from the section 36, [image
classification word+alphanumeric expression] must be identical or similar
to the [image classification word+alphanumeric expression] of the key data
item which has been output by the image-referring part extracting section
35 and which represents that image-referring part of the text in which the
image of said title is referred to. Therefore, when the key data item
output by the section 35 is compared with the key data item extracted by
the section 36, the text-image reference data item can be obtained which
represents that the image-referring part is related to the image of that
title. This text-image reference data item is stored into the
reference-data storage 33.
The format data input by operating the input device 1 is stored into the
format-data storage 32. The format data is formed of data representing the
layout format of the text and attribute data representing the layout
attribute of the images.
FIG. 5 illustrates an example of the text-layout format. This format
consists of a page frame and two text frames 1 and 2 located within the
page frame in double-column setting. The text data is to be laid out
within the text frames 1 and 2, whereas the image data is to be laid out
within the page frame 2. The attribute data specifies whether or not image
frames can overlap the text frames. It represents regions related to the
page frame or the text frame 1, in which no images should be laid out.
More specifically, the attribute data represents whether or not images
should be laid out in the upper or lower parts of the frames 1 and 2, as
can be understood from FIGS. 6A and 6B. Alternatively, it can designate
whether or not images can be laid out in the left text frame 1 or the
right text frame 2, and in the upper or lower half of either text frame,
as can be evident from FIG. 6C. If the format data contained no attribute
data representing an image-layout inhibited region, a text and images
would be laid out as is illustrated in FIG. 7A, with the images, i.e.,
FIGS. 1 and 2, located close to those image-referring parts of the text in
which FIGS. 1 and 2 are referred to. When the attribute data is the one
shown in FIG. 6A, FIGS. 1 and 2 will be laid out below those
image-referring parts in which these figures are referred to, as is
illustrated in FIG. 7B. When the attribute data is the one shown in FIG.
6B, FIGS. 1 and 2 will be laid out in the right text frame 2, as is
illustrated in FIG. 7C. Obviously, the documents shown in FIGS. 7B and 7C
are more neat than the document shown in FIG. 7A.
The image-layout attribute data are not limited to the data items described
above and shown in FIGS. 6A to 6C. For instance, the attribute data can
designate whether or not an image should be laid out within a rectangle
whose diagonal extends from the position of the c-th column of the 1-th
line to the position of the c'-th column of the 1'-th line. Alternatively,
the attribute data can designate whether or not an image should be laid
out within a circle whose center is located at the c-th column of the 1-th
line.
After the document data (i.e., the text data and the image data), the
format data, and the reference data have been stored into the storage
section 3, the forming processing section 4 starts performing a forming
processing. The forming processing will be explained, with reference to
the flow chart shown in FIG. 8.
First, the page memory incorporated in section 4 is initialized (S1). Then,
one page of the text data is read from the document-data storage 31 into
this memory, sentence by sentence (S2). It is determined whether or not
each sentence includes a key data item referring to an image (S3). If YES,
it is determined whether or not the image can be laid out in the page of
the text data (S4). If YES, the image is laid out in steps S5, S6, and S7.
If NO, the image is registered in layout-waiting queue, so that the image
can be laid out in any following page (S8). After the image has been laid
out in steps S5, S6, and S7, if it is determined the image thus laid out
overlaps the test region, the text, already layed out is laid out again
such that it is located outside the image (S9 and S10). The text is laid
out, character by character (S11). Every time one character is laid out,
it is determined whether or not the next page must be opened (S12). If NO,
it is determined whether or not there is any other character to be laid
out (S18). If YES, the operation returns to step S11. If YES in step S12,
the next page is opened (S13). Then, steps S14, S15, S16, and S17 are
executed, thereby laying out the image registered in the layout-waiting
queue. After the image has been laid out in step S17, the operation goes
to step S19. Also, if NO in step S14, the operation goes to step S19. In
step S19, it is determined whether or not there is any other character to
be laid out. If YES, the operation goes to step S2. Hence, steps S2 to S19
are repeated until there is no other character to be laid out.
In steps S5 and S15, image-location candidates are formed. In steps S6 and
S16, the most appropriate image candidate is selected.
It will now be explained, in detail, how image-location candidates are
formed, and how one of these candidates is selected, with reference to the
flow chart shown in FIG. 9.
Image-location candidates are formed by performing the following processes
sequentially:
(1) It is determined whether or not the image can be laid out within the
text frame containing the key data item (S21). If YES, image-location
candidates are formed in accordance with the image-layout attribute
specific to the text frame (S22).
(2) If NO in step S21, that is, if the image cannot be laid out within the
text frame, it is determined whether or not the image can be laid out in
the next text frame on the same page (S23). If YES, image-location
candidates are formed in accordance with the image-layout attribute
specific to this text frame (S24).
(3) If NO in step S23, it is determined whether or not the image can be
laid out within the page frame (S25). If YES, image-location candidates
are formed in accordance with the image-layout attribute specific to the
page frame (S26).
(4) If NO in step S25, it is determined whether or not the image can be
laid out within the first text frame on the next page (S27). If YES,
image-location candidates are formed in accordance with the image-layout
attribute specific to the first text frame of the next page (S28).
(5) If NO in step S27, it is determined whether or not the image can be
laid out within the page frame next to the page frame including a part of
the text in which the image is referred to (S29). If YES, image-location
candidates are formed in accordance with the image-layout attribute
specific to the next page frame (S30).
When each of the processes (1) to (5) is carried out, at least one
image-location candidate is formed. FIGS. 10A to 10E are diagrams showing
one-page documents, specifying the image-location candidates formed by
performing the processes (1) to (5), respectively. To form image-location
candidates for the following pages, it suffices to repeat the processes
(1) to (5). Since the image-location candidates have been formed in
accordance with the image-layout attributes, the images can overlap the
text frame, thereby to prepare a neat document.
Since the image-location candidates have been formed in accordance with the
image-layout attributes of the respective text frames and page frames, the
document containing images laid out at the locations defined by these
candidates is fairly neat. However, it is possible that the images are
laid out as is shown in FIGS. 11A to 11D. In the case of the documents
shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B, the images are not laid out in the order of
the serial numbers assigned to them. In the case of the documents shown in
FIGS. 11A and 11C, all images are not laid out close to one another. In
the case of the document illustrated in FIG. 11D, an image extends into a
text region, shaping the text region in the form of letter C. The images
must therefore be laid out at more appropriate locations or be reduced, in
the documents shown in FIGS. 11A to 11D, thereby to render these documents
more neat. It is the selecting section 43 (FIG. 1) that selects the most
appropriate image-location candidate for each image and, if necessary,
reduces the image. As a result, the documents are laid out again to become
more neat, as is illustrated in FIGS. 12A to 12D. The selecting section 43
can perform its function, either automatically or partly in response to
the commands input by the operator. Even if the operator inputs commands
to the section 43, he needs not spend much labor to edit documents to make
them neat, since image-location candidates are formed for each image, and
the most appropriate candidate is selected for the image.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, in
which images are assigned to page frames or text frames. Instead, images
can be assigned to adjacent text frames, in which case the images can be
laid out as is shown in FIG. 13. Further, a title region in which the
title of a document is laid out can be treated as a kind of an image
region. In this case, the title (image 1) can be laid out as is shown in
FIG. 13.
Moreover, the image-layout attribute data can designate specific
image-locations within one page frame, but also specific pages in which
the images are to be laid out, as can be understood from FIGS. 14 and 15.
More precisely, as is shown in FIG. 14, the image-layout attribute data
can specify that images be laid out on odd-numbered pages only, whereas
the text be laid out on even-numbered pages. As is shown in FIG. 15, the
image-layout attribute data can specify that images be laid out on the
pages of the second half of the document, whereas the text be laid out on
the pages of the first half of the document. Further, if necessary, a
different image-layout attribute can be assigned to each page of a
document.
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