JP2004158024A - Provision system of template for printing - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily distribute a template for printing to many users, and of easily recover its production/distribution costs. <P>SOLUTION: When the template for printing for software having a printing function is downloaded over the Internet, an advertisement related to the template for printing is displayed on a browser screen of a person intending to download it. Since the template for printing can freely be downloaded by the user over the Internet, a large number of the templates for printing can extensively be distributed at a low cost, and since an advertisement corresponding to the template for printing can automatically be distributed, the advertisement can effectively be carried out. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing template providing system.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printing functions of software have become extremely sophisticated, and printing on various types of paper in various modes has become possible. However, as the functions become more sophisticated, various settings related to printing (paper size, number of lines, number of characters, margin size, number of columns, fonts, and the like) become more complicated, and there is also a tendency that it becomes more difficult to use. Therefore, a plurality of printing templates (models) in which various settings are made are prepared, and these are appropriately selected and used.

  It is desirable to provide as many types of such templates to software users as possible, but it is not easy to distribute the latest ones that are produced sequentially to many users, and the production and distribution costs are high. It becomes something.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing template providing system that can easily distribute a printing template to a large number of users, and can easily collect the production and distribution costs.

  As a means for achieving the above object, a printing template providing system according to the first aspect of the present invention is a storage device storing a large number of printing template files for software having a printing function, and A template data server having a database for managing the user terminal, a transmitting means for connecting a user terminal via the Internet, and transmitting a template selection screen to a browser of the user terminal when the user terminal is connected; Receiving means for receiving template selection information on the template selection screen, and reading means for reading a corresponding template file from the storage device of the template data server based on the selection information received by the receiving means; The template read by the reading means A WWW server for transmitting a client file to the user terminal by the transmission means, a storage device for storing a large number of advertisement data in association with the plurality of template files, and an advertisement data server having a database for managing the same. When transmitting the template file to the user terminal by the transmission unit of the WWW server, a read unit that reads the advertisement data associated with the template file from a storage device of the advertisement data server, and a read unit that reads the advertisement data. Advertisement distribution means having transmission means for transmitting the advertisement data obtained and displaying the advertisement in a pop-up screen of a browser of the user terminal.

  Here, as the advertisement associated with the transmitted print template, an advertisement of the manufacturer or seller of the paper targeted by the print template or the template prints a label such as a CD-R. In such a case, an advertisement of the manufacturer or seller of the CD-R is conceivable. Further, although there is no direct relationship with the printing template itself, an advertisement for a product related to printing, for example, an advertisement for a printer, a computer, or peripheral devices thereof may be associated with the printing template.

  According to the present invention, when the user of the software connects the user terminal to the WWW server via the Internet, the printing template is read from the template data server and downloaded. Then, when the download is detected by the advertisement distribution means, the advertisement corresponding to the downloaded print template is read from the advertisement data server and distributed to the browser of the user terminal.

  In this way, the user can freely download the print template via the Internet, so that a large number of print templates can be distributed widely and at low cost, and advertisements corresponding to the print templates can be distributed. Since it can be automatically distributed, effective advertisement can be performed. In addition, the cost of producing and distributing a new printing template can be covered by utilizing the advertising revenue.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, a WWW server 10 is connected to the Internet, and a template data server 30 and an advertisement data server 40 are connected to the WWW server 10 via an advertisement distribution unit 20.

  The template data server 30 includes a magnetic disk device 31 that stores a printing template for a printing function of general-purpose application software such as “WORD”, “Ichitaro”, and “Clarisworks” (all are registered trademarks), It has a template database 32 for managing this. The template database 32 has, for example, a data structure shown in FIG. Printing templates are prepared corresponding to various types of paper such as business cards, cards, postcards, system notebooks, address sticks, tacks for FD / MO, envelopes, and pamphlets provided by various paper product manufacturers. These are recorded on the magnetic disk device 31 with different template file names.

  On the other hand, the advertisement data server 40 also includes a magnetic disk device 41 which also stores a large number of advertisement data bodies (advertisement image files), and an advertisement database 42 for managing the same. The advertisement database 42 has the structure shown in FIG. In the advertisement database 42, the template file described above is associated with the advertisement image file name of the corresponding advertisement, and a URL to which a jump is made when the advertisement is clicked is described. In this embodiment, the “advertisement corresponding to the template file” is, in this embodiment, a paper product maker that manufactures paper to be printed by the template or a paper product sales company that sells the paper. It is an advertisement.

Then, the WWW server 10 displays a predetermined homepage screen on the browser screen of the user terminal 50 when the user of the application software connects the terminal 50 via the Internet.
The printing template providing system 60 described above is operated, for example, by the management company, and the template file is produced by the management company. Further, the paper product maker or the paper product sales company pays an advertisement fee to the management company, thereby covering the operation cost of the system.

The operation of the system 60 will now be described with reference to FIG.
When the user connects the user terminal 50 to the WWW server 10 via the Internet, the top page screen is transmitted from the WWW server 10 to the browser of the terminal 50 (Step S1). Then, in order to search for a desired printing template, the user inputs or selects conditions such as a software type and a paper type from a screen and transmits them to the WWW server 10 side (step S2). A template file name to be searched is searched, and the search result is returned to the user terminal 50 (step S3). An example of the screen is as shown in FIG. Therefore, when the user selects a template to be sought from the list of search results and clicks the download button 51 (step S4), the WWW server 10 reads the corresponding template file from the magnetic disk device 31 and stores the binary in the user terminal 50. The data is transmitted as data (step S5). At this time, on the browser screen of the user terminal 50, a pop-up screen 52 indicating that downloading is in progress is displayed (FIG. 5B).

  Next, after starting transmission of the template file, the advertisement distribution unit 20 searches the advertisement database 42 for advertisement data associated with the template file being transmitted. Then, the advertisement distribution means 20 displays a window screen corresponding to the advertisement size on the browser screen of the user terminal, reads the advertisement image file from the magnetic disk device 41 and transmits it to the user terminal 50, and displays the advertisement image file in the pop-up window. (Step S6). This screen example is as shown in FIG. 5 (C), for example, information on the paper corresponding to the template being downloaded (the image, the manufacturer name, the product name, the product number, the number of pieces, the price, etc.). Here, by clicking the "order paper" button 54, the user can jump to the paper order screen on the homepage of the manufacturer.

  When the above-described advertisement is displayed only for a limited period for a sales promotion campaign or the like, the display start date and time and the display end date and time of the advertisement database 42 are referred to and transmitted to the user terminal 50 only during that period. It has become so.

  Then, when the transmission (download) of the template file is completed, the screen indicating that downloading is in progress is closed, but the pop-up window remains. Therefore, the user can continue to see the advertisement and print information or order paper if he is interested, or close the pop-up window if he is not interested.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the user can connect the user terminal 50 to the WWW server 10 via the Internet, search for a necessary template, and download it. When the download is performed, an advertisement relating to the paper corresponding to the template is displayed on the browser screen of the user terminal 50. Therefore, the user can freely obtain information regarding the paper by looking at the advertisement, You can order paper, which is extremely convenient.
Since the advertising fee for the advertisement is received by the management company of this system, the management company can cover the production cost of the template and the operation cost of the system from the advertising fee, and the operation of this system is This can promote the use of the template without imposing a burden on the user.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention, and furthermore, besides the following, within the scope not departing from the gist. Can be implemented with various modifications.
(1) In the above-described embodiment, information such as a product number and a price relating to paper used by the template is displayed as an advertisement associated with the template file to be downloaded. However, the present invention is not limited to this. May be an advertisement for a paper company used by the company or an advertisement for another product of the company.

  (2) In the above embodiment, the pop-up window of the advertisement is opened while the template file is being downloaded. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the advertisement is displayed immediately after the download is completed. Is also good.

  (3) In the above embodiment, an example in which a template of word processing software is provided has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. A template for a printing function of another business application such as accounting software or dedicated software such as postcard printing software is provided. It can also be applied to templates for

1 is a block diagram of an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Data structure diagram of template database Advertising database data structure diagram State transition diagram between user terminal and WWW server Screen diagram showing browser screen of user terminal

Explanation of reference numerals

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... WWW server 20 ... Advertising distribution means 30 ... Template data server 40 ... Advertising data server 50 ... User terminal

Claims (1)

A storage device storing a large number of printing template files for software having a printing function, and a template data server having a database for managing the same;
Transmitting means for connecting a user terminal via the Internet, transmitting a template selection screen to a browser of the user terminal when the user terminal is connected, and selecting template selection information on the template selection screen. Receiving means for receiving, and reading means for reading a template file corresponding to the selected template file from the storage device of the template data server based on the selection information received by the receiving means, and reading the template file read by the reading means. A WWW server for transmitting to the user terminal by the transmitting means;
A storage device storing a large number of advertisement data in association with the plurality of template files, and an advertisement data server having a database for managing the storage device;
When the template file is transmitted to the user terminal by the transmission unit of the WWW server, a read unit that reads the advertisement data associated with the template file from a storage device of the advertisement data server, and a read unit that reads the advertisement data. Advertisement distribution means having transmission means for transmitting the advertisement data obtained and displaying the advertisement in a pop-up screen of a browser of the user terminal.

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