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Claims  |
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I claim:
1. A document editing device for editing a document having a plurality of
headings, said document being divided into a plurality of elemental
documents of a hierarchical structure, each elemental document including a
parent elemental document in a first hierarchical level and child
elemental documents included in said parent elemental document, said child
elemental documents being in a second hierarchical level which is lower
than said first hierarchical level, each of the elemental documents having
a heading with a heading number, the device comprising:
a first memory for storing text data with control characters including
first control characters, second control characters, and new line
characters, said first control characters indicating transition of the
first hierarchical level of said parent elemental document changes to said
second hierarchical level of said child elemental document by a position
of the first control character, and said second control characters
indicating that a parent elemental document immediately ahead of said
second control character ends at the position of the second control
character, the new line characters each indicating that a new line in said
parent or child elemental document is to be started from said new line
character, said control characters being located at positions in the text
data corresponding to the headings;
a second memory for storing management information including (i) a sequence
of characters of each heading and (ii) data indicative of the heading
number corresponding to each of the hierarchical levels of said elemental
documents; and,
a processor including:
a first means comprising a means for reading the text data with control
characters from said first memory and a means for detecting each control
character included within the read text data with control characters, and
a second means which is initiated in response to the detection of each
control character by the means for detecting for determining the heading
number of the heading corresponding to each control character and for
replacing each control character with the corresponding heading including
the corresponding heading number and the character sequence by referring
to the management information stored in the second memory,
such that the processor outputs the text data with the corresponding
heading to an output device.
2. A document editing device according to claim 1 wherein said management
information is stored in said second memory as first management records
and second management records, said first management records including a
first identifier for indicating the hierarchical level of each elemental
document, a second identifier for indicating said parent elemental
document to said child elemental document, a third identifier for
indicating one child elemental document at a first position from a
plurality of child elemental documents included in a parent elemental
document, and a fourth identifier for one child elemental document at a
last position from a plurality of child elemental documents included in a
parent elemental document, and said second management records including,
an identifier assigned to each elemental document in the order of
preparation, the character sequence of each of the headings, a page number
of a first line in each elemental document, a line number of the first
line in each elemental document, a parent elemental document identifier of
a parent elemental document to which each child elemental document
belongs, a preceding elemental document identifier for identifying the
elemental document which is immediately ahead of each elemental document,
a succeeding elemental document identifier for identifying the elemental
document which is immediately behind each elemental document, and a child
elemental document identifier for identifying a lower level elemental
document to the parent elemental document.
3. A document editing device for editing a document having a plurality of
headings, said document being divided into a plurality of elemental
documents of a hierarchical structure, each elemental document including a
parent elemental document in a first hierarchical level and child
elemental documents included in said parent elemental document, said child
elemental documents being in a second hierarchical level which is lower
than said first hierarchical level, each of the elemental documents having
a heading with a heading number, the device comprising:
a first memory for storing text data with control characters including
first control characters, second control characters, and new line
characters, said first control characters including third control
characters and fourth control characters, said third control characters
indicating that said first hierarchical level changes to said second
hierarchical level, a position of the third control characters and said
fourth control characters indicating that said second hierarchical level
changes to said first hierarchical level, and said second control
characters indicating that a parent element document immediately ahead of
one of the said second control characters ends at the position of the one
second control character, each new line character being included in at
least one of the first, second, third and fourth control characters, the
new line characters each indicating that a new line in said parent or
child elemental document is to be started from said new line characters,
said control characters being located at positions in the text data
corresponding to the headings;
a second memory for storing management information including (i) a sequence
of characters of each heading and (ii) data indicative of the heading
number corresponding to each of the hierarchical levels of said elemental
documents; and,
a processor including:
a first means comprising a means for reading the text data with control
characters from said first memory and a means for detecting each control
character included within the read text data with control characters, and
a second means which is initiated in response to the detection of each
control character by the means for detecting for determining the heading
number of the heading corresponding to each control character and for
replacing each control character with the corresponding heading including
the corresponding heading number and the sequence of characters by
referring to the management information stored in the second memory,
such that the processor outputs the text data with the corresponding
headings to an output device.
4. A document editing device according to claim 3, wherein said management
information is stored in said second memory as first management records
and second management records, said first management records including a
first identifier for indicating hierarchical level of each elemental
document, a second identifier for indicating said parent elemental
document to said child elemental document, a third identifier for
indicating a child elemental document at a first position in a plurality
of child elemental documents being included in a parent elemental
document, a fourth identifier for indicating a child elemental document at
a last position in a plurality of child elemental documents being included
in a parent elemental document, a fifth identifier for indicating a name
according to level of each elemental documents, a sixth identifier for
indicating a numeral type of each heading numbers, and a seventh
identifier for indicating a format of each of the heading numbers, and
said second management records including an identifier assigned to each
elemental document in the order of preparation, character sequence of each
of the headings, a page number of a first line in each elemental document,
a line number of the first line in each elemental document, a page number
of a last line in each elemental document, a line number of the last line
in each elemental document, a parent elemental document identifier of a
parent elemental document to which each child elemental document belongs,
a preceding elemental document identifier for identifying the elemental
document which is immediately ahead of each elemental document, a
succeeding elemental document identifier for identifying the elemental
document which is immediately behind each elemental document, and a child
elemental document identifier for identifying a lower level elemental
document to the parent element document. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an editing method of a document having a
hierarchical structure of chapters and sections by using a document
processing system such as a word processor, and a device therefor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A word processor usually comprises an input device, a memory, a display and
a printer, and displays input document data on the display for editing
such as correction, addition and deletion of characters.
The document to be processed has, in many cases, an array of hierarchical
structure such as chapters and sections as will be discussed in detail
below.
A method for efficiently editing the document by utilizing the hierarchical
structure has been proposed (see JP-A-60-17522). However, since the
proposed document editing device relates to a technique to detect a
heading of a chapter or section in the text data inputted by a user of the
device, it cannot process the document in the following case.
In the document having the hierarchical structure, a heading (normally a
serial number and a heading title) is, in many cases, added at the
beginning of chapter, section or sub-section.
When a display format of characters or symbols representing the serial
number of the text data having the headings is to be changed, the headings
of all of the corresponding chapters and the headings of all sections and
subsections which include the chapter numbers of those chapters in the
serial numbers must be searched for correction. Accordingly, a long
correction time is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an editing
method which efficiently edits text data of a document having an
hierarchical structure.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a document editing
method which collectively corrects and amend headings of chapters,
sections and subsections of a document having a hierarchical structure of
chapters, sections and subsections.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a document
editing device adapted to realize the above method.
In order to achieve the above objects of the present invention in the
device comprising an input device for inputting text data and commands for
indicating functions of a processor, a data memory for storing text data
and an output device for displaying a document based on the text data, the
document editing method comprises the steps of storing in the memory at
least one set of control characters indicating change of level of the
hierarchical structure of the document and a control character indicating
the end of element text data of the level, instead of the heading of the
text, when the text data is stored in the memory; storing, in a management
information memory, management information for sets and elements of the
levels of the text, and when the control character is read from the
document data memory to edit the document, converting the text data to
heading data by using the management information read from the management
information memory and outputting the heading data to the display or
printer.
In accordance with the present invention, when the document is edited by
the word processor and the display formats of the serial numbers and
titles of the headings of chapters and sections of the text are to be
collectively changed, only the definition information on the display of
the serial numbers and titles stored in the management information memory
need be changed. Accordingly, the operation is very simple.
In the document data memory, each heading element is represented by the
control character and the control character is substituted by the element
heading when the text is outputted (i.e. printed or displayed).
Accordingly, there is no need for amendment of the document data memory.
The above and other features and objects of the present invention will
become more apparent by reference to the following description taken in
con]unction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of a document editing device
of the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows an example of display of a document page having a hierarchical
structure.
FIG. 3 shows the document structure of the page as shown in FIG. 2 in a
hierarchical structure.
FIG. 4 shows the content of the document data memory of the document
editing device of FIG. 1.
FIGS. 5 and 6 show set management information and element management
information stored in the management information memory.
FIGS. 7 and 8 show flowcharts (PAD=Problem Analysis Diagram) for displaying
a document page by using the device of the invention.
FIG. 9 shows a flow chart for modifying the display of the document page
when the definition information including the element title and serial
number is to be modified.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of a text editing device of
the present invention.
Numeral 1 denotes an input device for inputting document data and document
editing commands. The character and command data from the input device 1
are converted to code data corresponding to the keys of the input device 1
by an input control device 3 and the code data are supplied to a processor
or central processing unit 4 such as a microcomputer. Numerals 11, 12 and
13 denote memories. The memory 11 is a ROM (read-only memory) which stores
a program necessary to operate the processor, and the memory 12 stores
variables for editing the document. The memory 12 may be integral with the
memory 11.
The memory 10 stores document data shown in FIG. 4 and layout information.
The memory 13 stores management information and has a collective
management information memory 13-1 shown in FIG. 5 and an element
management information memory 13-2 shown in FIG. 6. The memory bus 9
connects the processor and the memories 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Numeral 5 denotes a display control device for generating image data to be
displayed on a display 7, and numeral 6 denotes a print control unit for
printing the edited document by a printer 8.
In order to make it easy to understand the explanation of the present
invention, the content of the document to be edited by the present
invention is now explained.
FIG. 2 shows an example of display (or printout) of a document page 201
having a hierarchical structure of chapters and sections. Numerals 202 to
204 denote heading lines for Chapters 1 to 3, respectively, and numerals
207, 208, 209 and 210 denote text data (primarily characters) of the
respective chapters. Numerals 205 and 206 denote heading lines for
Sections 1 and 2 of the Chapter 2, and numerals 211 and 212 denote text
data of the respective sections. In the present example, the chapter
headings 202 to 204 each includes a chapter title and a chapter serial
number having a format of: (chapter number) followed by "."; the section
headings 205 and 206 each includes a section title and a section serial
number having a format of: (chapter number) followed by "." followed by
(section number). The chapter number and section number are represented by
Arabic numerals.
Since the hierarchical structure of the document including chapters and
sections and the expression format of the headings of the chapters and
sections differ depending on the type of document and a writer, it is
necessary that a user of the document editing device can define them in
any desired manner.
FIG. 3 represents the document structure of the page of FIG. 2 by a
hierarchical structure. As shown, the document is composed of a
three-level hierarchical structure which comprises a first level having a
single element 301 representing a document as management concept, second
level below the first level 301 having a set 302 of elements 303-305
corresponding to chapters of the document, and a third level below the
second level 302 having a set 306 of elements 307 and 308 which correspond
to sections of chapter 2.
The first level text 301 corresponds to the entire document and it is
automatically prepared when the document is prepared and is not an object
of operation by the user of the document editing device. Since the element
301 does not have the same level element, it is an element which has no
set.
In accordance with the present invention, the first memory 10 for storing
the document having the hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. 3 as the
text document data (character data representing the content of the
document to be displayed or printed) with a control character indicating
change of level of the hierarchical structure and/or a control character
indicating the end of element being added at a position in the text data
corresponding to the heading, and the second memory 13 (13-1 and 13-2) for
storing management information for the respective sets and the respective
elements of the sets. When the edited document is to be outputted
(displayed or printed), the control character is detected from the text
data read from the first memory 10, the heading (serial number and title
of the heading) corresponding to the detected control character is read
from the second memory 13, and the heading is outputted in place of the
control character.
FIG. 4 shows the content of the memory 10 of FIG. 1 (which stores the text
character data and control characters) Specifically, it shows a layout of
the text data of the document page 201 of FIG. 2. Numerals 401 and 413
(SS.s) denote set starts which indicate that elements of child sets of the
elements (document 301 and element 304 of Chapter 2 of FIG. 3) immediately
ahead of the positions of SS start from the position of SS. Numeral 402
(SE) denotes set end which indicates that the set of elements (set 306 of
the low order sections of Chapter 2 in FIG. 3) behind the position of SE
ends at the position of SE. Numerals 403, 414, 415 and 416 (EE) denote
element ends which indicate that the elements (element 303 of Chapter 1,
element 307 of Section 1, element 308 of Section 2 and element 304 of
Chapter 2 in FIG. 3) ahead of the positions of EE end at the positions of
EE. Numeral 404 (NL) denotes a new line which indicates start of a new
line. The control characters 401 to 403 and 404 are automatically inserted
into the text data when the sets and elements ar prepared.
There is no text data in the lines of the headings 202 to 206 of FIG. 2 but
only the set start, element end and new line are arranged. When the
document page is to be displayed or printed, the headings of the
corresponding elements are formed out of the management information in the
memory 13. The set end 402 and the preceding element end 403 are not
displayed or printed because they do not correspond to the headings of the
elements. Numerals 407 to 411 denote character data.
FIG. 5 shows set management information stored in the memory 13-1, which
includes the followings.
Set Management Information
(5a) SET IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier (.noteq.0) assigned to each set
(for example, 302 or 306 in FIG. 3) in the order of preparation.
(5b) SET NAME is a name assigned to each set by a user.
(5c) PARENT ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier assigned to an element
which is at next higher level to each set (for example, the element 304 of
Chapter 2 of FIG. 3 for the set 306 of the lower level sections of Chapter
2) in the order of preparation. It is "0" if no parent element exists.
(5d) FIRST ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier of a first element of
each set (for example, the element 307 of Section 1 of FIG. 3 for the set
306 of lower level sections of Chapter 2).
(5e) LAST ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier of a last element of
each set (for example, the element 308 of section 2 of FIG. 3 for the set
306 of lower level sections of Chapter 2).
(5f) EXISTENCE OF TITLE indicates whether a title is to be assigned to each
element of each set or not.
(5g) EXISTENCE OF SERIAL NUMBER indicates whether a serial number is to be
assigned to each element of each set.
(5h) FORMAT OF SERIAL NUMBER indicates format of a serial number of each
element of each set (for example, ".sctn." followed by (parent element
No.) followed by "." followed by (element No.).
(5i) NUMERAL TYPE OF SERIAL NUMBER indicates numeral type of a serial
number of each element of each set (for example, Alabic numerals [1, 2, .
. . ], Roman numerals [I, II, . . . , or i, ii, . . . ], Alphabet [A, B, .
. . , or a, b, . . . ])
FIG. 6 shows element management information stored in the memory 13-2,
which includes the following.
Element Management Information
(6a) ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier (.noteq.0) assigned to each
element in the order of preparation. The element identifier of the
document 301 of FIG. 3 is "1" (constant).
(6b) ELEMENT NAME (TITLE) is a name (title) assigned to each element by a
user.
(6c) PAGE NO. OF FIRST LINE is a page number of a first line of each
element. The page number is assigned in the order of page starting from
the beginning of the document.
(6d) LINE NO. OF FIRST LINE is a line number of a first line of each
element. The line number is assigned in the order of line starting from
the first line of the pages.
(6e) PAGE NO. OF LAST LINE is a page number of a last line of each element.
(6f) LINE NO. OF LAST LINE is a line number of a last line of each element.
(6g) SET IDENTIFICER (id) is an identifier of a set to which each element
belongs (for example, the set 302 of chapters for Chapter 2 (304) of FIG.
3).
(6h) PRECEDING ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier of an element which
is immediately ahead of each element (for example, Chapter 1 (303) for
Chapter 2 (304) of FIG. 3). It is zero if there is no preceding element.
(6i) SUCCEEDING ELEMENT IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier of an element
which is immediately behind each element (for example, Chapter 3 (305) for
Chapter 2 (304) of FIG. 3). It is zero if there is no succeeding element.
(6j) CHILD SET IDENTIFIER (id) is an identifier of a set which is at an
immediately lower level to each element (for example, the set 306 which is
a lower level section of Chapter 2 (304) of FIG. 3). It is zero if there
is no subset.
The hierarchical structure of the document such as chapters and sections
are represented by the sets and elements which include the above
management information. The set names "Chapter" or "Section" may be
arbitrarily assigned to the sets by the user, and the element titles such
as "SUMMARY OF SYSTEM" or "SPECIFICATION OF HARDWARE" and the serial
numbers may also be arbitrarily set by the user. The element serial number
(parent element No.) followed by "." followed by (element No.) or ".sctn."
followed by (parent element No.) followed by "-" followed by (element No.)
and the numeral type used for the set may be arbitrarily selected by the
user. Thus, (5b), (5f)-(5i) and (6b) are information which the user may
freely set and modify, and other information may be set and modified by a
program on the processor.
FIGS. 7 and 8 show flowcharts for displaying a document page by using the
document editing device of the present invention. In order to simplify the
description, it is assumed that all character data and control characters
are one-byte data. A step 701 is a loop to repeat steps 702-706 for each
of line numbers (lno) O-L, L is a maximum line number in the page. In a
step 702, a position (first column of line [pno] [lno]) of the start of
the line (lno) of the page (pno) in the entire text data is substituted
for a numeric variable (pos) in the memory 12. The (line) has been stored
in the document data memory 10 as layout information to the page of the
text data. In a step 703, the text data (text [pos]) at the position (pos)
is substituted for a character variable (c) in the memory 12. The (text)
has been stored in the document data memory 10 as text data. In steps 704
and 705, whether (c) corresponds to the control character ETX (End of
Text) indicating the end of text data or not is checked, and if it
corresponds, the process is terminated. The (break) in the step 705 means
going out of the loop (loop 701). In a step 706, a step 707 is repeated.
In the step 707, whether (c) is the set start (SS) or the element end (EE)
is checked. This step corresponds to the step by the control character
detection unit 14 of FIG. 1. If (c) is other than any of the above control
characters, steps 708 and 709 are executed. If (c) is any one of the set
start and the element end, a step 710 is executed. In the step 708, the
text data from the position (pos) to the position corresponding to the end
of the line is determined by two variables (line) and (text) and it is
displayed. In the step 709, the process goes out of the loop 706. In the
step 710, if (c) is the set start, steps 711 and 712 are executed, and if
not, steps 713 and 714 are executed. In the step 711, the heading of the
element for the set start is displayed. In the step 712, the process goes
out of the loop 706. Details of the steps 711 and 715 will be explained
later with reference to FIG. 8. In the step 713, the text data (text
[pos+1]) which is one column ahead of the position (pos) is put into (c).
In the step 714, if (c) is not the set end, the heading of the element
corresponding to the element end is displayed in the step 715. In the step
716, the process goes out of the loop 706. If (c) is the set end, the text
data (text [pos]) (=element end) and text [pos+ 1] (=set end) do not
correspond to the heading of the element. Thus, (pos) is incremented by
two in a step 717, and the text data (text [pos]) at that position is put
into (c) in the step 718. Then, the loop 706 is repeated.
FIG. 8 shows a detail of the heading display step (steps 711 and 715) of
FIG. 7. Steps 801-822 correspond to the operation of the heading
preparation unit 15 of FIG. 1. It is assumed that the management
information given by 5f and 5g in FIG. 5 indicates the presence of the
title and serial number of the element. In the steps 801 and 802, set
identifier and element identifier of the element corresponding to the
heading line (page number (pno) and line number (lno)) (the element is
hereinafter called a required element and the set identifier and element
identifier are hereinafter called heading set identifier and heading
element identifier, respectively) are determined. In the step 801, the set
identifier of the child set of the element (element identifier=1)
corresponding to the document is substituted for the set identifier, and
the first element identifier of the set is substituted for the element
identifier. The set identifier, element identifier, heading set identifier
and heading element identifier are numeric variables in the memory 12. In
the step 802, steps 803-810 are repeated. In the step 803, the position
(page number, line number) of the first line of the element designated by
the current element identifier (hereinafter called a current element) is
determined from the element management information memory 13-2, and
whether it is behind the heading line position (pno, lno) or not is
checked. If it is behind, the required element is not a succeeding element
of the current element. Thus, in the steps 804 and 805, the element
identifier and set identifier of the parent element of the set to which
the current element belong are determined from the set management
information memory 13-1 and the element management information memory 13-2
and they are assigned as the heading element identifier and heading set
identifier, respectively. In the step 806, the process goes out of the
loop 802. The steps 804 and 805 are executed after it has been determined
in the steps 811 et seq that the heading line corresponds to the element
of the child set. In the step 807, whether the last line position of the
current element is ahead of the heading line position or not is checked.
If it is ahead, the required element is one of the succeeding elements of
the current element. Thus, in the step 808, the succeeding element
identifier of the current element is substituted for the element
identifier. In the step 809, the process returns to the step 803. The
(continue) in the step 809 means to return to the start of the loop. The
step 810 is executed when the heading line is between the first line and
last line of the current element. Since the required element may be an
element of a lower level set to the current element, the presence or
absence of a child set is first examined. If the child set identifier is
not zero (indicating the presence of a child set), the child set
identifier and the child set first element identifier are substituted for
the set identifier and element identifier, respectively. Then, the process
returns to the step 803. If the subset identifier is zero the current
element is the required element. Thus, in the step 813, the element
identifier and the set identifier of the current element are substituted
for the heading element identifier and heading set identifier. In the step
814, the process goes out of the loop 802. In the steps 815 and 816, the
element number of the element determined in the steps 801 and 802 are
determined. In the step 815, the heading set identifier and the first
element identifier of the set designated by the heading set identifier are
set as the set identifier and element identifier, respectively, and the
element number is set to one. The element number is a numeric variable in
the memory 12. In the step 816, the step 817 is repeated for each of the
elements from the first element to the last element of the set identified
by the heading set identifier. (The termination condition is "element
identifier=0" because it corresponds to the fact that the succeeding
element identifier to the last element is "0"). In the step 817, if the
element identifier of the current element is equal to the heading element
identifier, the process goes out of the loop 816 in the step 818. If it is
not equal, the succeeding element identifier of the current element is
substituted for the element identifier in the step 819, and the element
number is incremented by one and the loop 816 is repeated. In the step
820, the element identifiers of all elements (excluding the element
corresponding to the document) which are at the higher levels than that of
the element determined in the steps 801 and 802 are determined from the
set management information memory 13-1 and element management information
13-2, and they are converted into the element numbers as are done in the
steps 815-819. In the step 821, the higher level element numbers and
element number are formated according to the numeral types and formats of
the serial number which are definition information of the set in order to
prepare the element serial number. In the step 822, the element heading is
prepared based on the element title and element serial number. In the step
823, it is displayed. When no element title is set, the element serial
number may be used as the element heading in the step 822. When no element
serial number is set, the steps 801-821 may be omitted and the element
title may be used as the element heading in the step 822.
FIG. 9 shows a flowchart for modifying the display of the document page
when the definition information including the element title and serial
number is to be modified. In a step 901, the set identifier of the element
designated by the user whose definition information is to be modified is
determined. In a step 902, the definition information of the set is
modified as designated by the user. In a step 903, whether the element of
the set whose definition information has been modified is included in the
page currently displayed on the display 7 or not is examined based on the
first and last line positions of each element. If it is not included, the
process is terminated. In steps 904-908, whether each element of the set
is currently displayed or not is examined, and if it is displayed, the
headings of that element and all elements of all lower level sets are
modified. In a step 904, the first element identifier of the set is
substituted for the element identifier. In a step 905, the steps 906 and
908 are repeated for each of the elements from the first element to the
last element (the termination condition is "element identifier=0" because
it corresponds to the fact that the succeeding element identifier of the
last element is zero). In the step 906, whether the current element is
included in the currently displayed page or not is examined. If it is not
included, the headings of that element and all elements of all lower level
sets are modified in a step 907. The headings are prepared and displayed
in accordance with the modified definition information, as are done in the
steps 815-823 of FIG. 8. In a step 908, the succeeding element identifier
of the current element is substituted for the element identifier, and the
loop 905 is repeated.
The hierarchical structure of the document shown in FIG. 3 is traced in the
order of the set levels and element numbers to output the headings of all
elements so that a table of contents of the document may be prepared. When
the definition information including the element title and serial number
is modified, the headings of all elements of that set and all elements of
all lower order sets are modified so that the table of contents is
automatically modified.
In the present embodiment, the definition information of the set consists
of only existence of element title and serial number, format and numeral
type, although it may also include information on whether the element
numbers of other higher level elements are to be included in the serial
number or not, and whether a page is changed at the last line of the
element. The definition information on the existence of the serial number
may be provided to the element so that the absence of the serial number
may be designated to some elements of the set whose existence of serial
number is designated as presence.
The text data is used as document data in the present embodiment. When
other kinds of data such as graphic, table, image and graph are mixedly
present, the document page may be managed by dividing it into rectangular
areas one for each attribute and the attribute data as well as positions,
sizes, attributes of the areas and addresses of the attribute data may be
stored in the document data memory 10. The area number (for each page) may
be numbered among the layout information of the text data and the position
information of the first and last lines of the elements, and the line
number may be assigned for each area. A loop to trace all text areas in
the page (areas in which the text data is present) may be provided as
outer loop of the loop 501 of FIG. 5.
In accordance with the present invention, when the definition information
on the titles of chapters or sections of the document and the serial
numbers are to be collectively changed, the users need only designate the
modification of the definition information on the set which manage
collectively the information of all the elements. When the headings of the
chapters and sections are to be modified due to the modification of the
definition information, only the control character and new line for
modifying the set and elements are arranged on the lines corresponding to
the heading lines and they are substituted for the headings when the
document page is displayed and printed. Accordingly, the text data per se
need not be modified and the document page need only be redisplayed or
reprinted.
* * * * *
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