JP2007128325A - Printing control apparatus and means therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To import a document having a chapter structure, the attribute attached to the chapter is once cleared, but only the chapter configuration information is imported. However, when importing, I want to be able to select whether to keep the chapter structure. Also, when importing multiple files, I want to do simple operations.
When a file is imported by drag and drop on a file selection screen of a wizard, a dialog asking whether to retain chapter configuration information at the time of import is displayed. When a plurality of files are imported simultaneously, the result of the first inquiry is applied to the settings of all remaining files, so that a plurality of files can be imported with one selection.
[Selection] FIG. 29

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, an information processing system, and a program for executing an information processing method.

  In the case of an application that prints text on an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, various electronic data are taken in and print data is created. Also, the application can make various print style settings for the print data, and can output a printed matter desired by the user.

  However, it is not easy for all users to combine various types of electronic data and create a setting for performing a printed matter desired by the user from scratch. Therefore, for the purpose of facilitating the creation of new print data and the setting of the print format, a new interface for print data can be interactively created and set using the wizard interface.

For example, Patent Document 1 can be cited as a conventional example.
JP 2003-85178 A

  In the printing system as described above, when new print data is created, the base electronic data is taken in. In addition, the original electronic data may have a document structure. In this case, the user can select whether to retain the document structure, and can capture it while retaining the document structure. It becomes.

  However, the electronic data to be captured is not necessarily a single one, and is often a plurality of electronic data, and a plurality of electronic data having a document structure can be captured. In that case, it is necessary for the user to select whether or not to retain the document structure of the original electronic data after fetching as many times as the number of electronic data having the document structure. There is a problem that the user's effort increases in proportion to

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses the following method. That is, in a system comprising a printing apparatus and an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer connected directly or indirectly to the printing apparatus, an interactive new document that can create new document data using an interactive interface Creating means, document data analyzing means for analyzing the document structure of the input document data, document structure holding and fetching means for allowing the document structure to be held while holding the document structure, and expanding without holding the document structure And a document structure development / inquiry unit that makes it possible to ingest the document structure, and a document structure holding inquiry unit that inquires about holding the document structure after taking in the data holding the document structure.

  And a plurality of data input means for allowing a plurality of document data to be input simultaneously.

  And a document structure holding inquiry storage unit for holding an answer to the document structure holding inquiry.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when a plurality of electronic data having a document structure is captured on the printing system, the user can select whether to retain the document structure. Further, when capturing a plurality of electronic data, the user is not asked multiple times as to whether the document structure is retained, so that the user can capture a plurality of electronic data with less effort.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<System overview>
First, an outline of a document processing system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The document processing system includes an electronic manuscript writer that converts a data file created by a general application into an electronic manuscript file, and a bookbinding application that provides a function for editing the electronic manuscript file. It is possible to create and edit a document in which the above are integrated, improve the operability thereof, and efficiently edit the document.

<System configuration and operation>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the document processing system according to the present embodiment. The document processing system is realized by a digital computer 101 (hereinafter also referred to as a host computer) which is a preferred embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention. A general application 101 shown in FIG. 1 is an application program that provides functions such as word processing, spreadsheet, photo retouching, drawing, painting, presentation, and text editing, and has a printing function for the OS. These applications use a predetermined interface (generally called GDI) provided by an operating system (OS) when printing application data such as created document data and image data. That is, the application 101 transmits an OS-dependent output command (referred to as a GDI function) to the OS output module that provides the above-described interface in order to print the created data. . On the other hand, the output module that has received the output command converts the output command into a format that can be processed by an output device such as a printer, and outputs the converted command (referred to as a DDI function). Since the format that can be processed by the output device varies depending on the device type, manufacturer, model, etc., a device driver is provided for each device, and the OS uses that device driver to convert commands and generate print data. A print job is generated by enclosing with JL (Job Language).

  The electronic manuscript writer 102 is an improvement of the above-described device driver and is a software module provided for realizing the document processing system. However, the electronic document writer 102 is not intended for a specific output device, and converts the output command into a format that can be processed by the bookbinding application 104 and the printer driver 106 described later in detail. The format after conversion by the electronic document writer 102 (hereinafter referred to as an electronic document format) is not particularly limited as long as a document in units of pages can be expressed in a detailed format. Of substantial standard formats, for example, PDF format or SVG format by Adobe Systems can be adopted as the electronic document format.

  When using the electronic document writer 102 from the general application 101, the electronic document writer 102 is designated as a device driver used for output, and printing is executed. However, the electronic document file as created by the electronic document writer 102 does not have a complete format as an electronic document file. Therefore, the bookbinding application 104 designates the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver, and conversion of application data into an electronic document file is executed under the management of the bookbinding application 104. Then, the bookbinding application 104 completes the new incomplete electronic document file generated by the electronic document writer 102 as an electronic document file having a format described later. Hereinafter, when it is necessary to clearly identify this point, a file created by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is called an “electronic manuscript file”, and an electronic manuscript file given a structure by the bookbinding application 104 is called a “book file”. Call. If there is no need to distinguish between them, a document file, an electronic manuscript file, and a book file generated by an application are all referred to as a document file (or document data).

  In this way, by specifying the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver and printing data by the general application 101, the application data is electronic in units of pages (hereinafter referred to as logical pages or document pages) defined by the application 101. It is converted into a document format and stored as an electronic document file 103 in a storage medium such as a hard disk. The hard disk may be a local drive included in a computer that implements the document processing system of the present embodiment, or may be a drive provided on the network when connected to the network.

  The bookbinding application 104 reads an electronic original file (or book file) 103 and provides a user with a function for editing the electronic original file (or book file) 103. However, the bookbinding application 104 does not provide a function for editing the contents of each page, but provides a function for editing the structure of a chapter or book, which will be described later, configured with a page as a minimum unit.

  When the book file 103 edited by the bookbinding application 104 is printed, the bookbinding application 104 activates the electronic document despooler 105. The electronic document despooler 105 is a program module installed in the computer together with the bookbinding application, and is a module used to output drawing data to the printer driver when printing a document (book file) used in the bookbinding application. It is. The electronic manuscript despooler 105 reads out a designated book file from the hard disk and generates an output command suitable for the OS output module described above to print each page in the format described in the book file. Output to the output module. At that time, the printer driver 106 for the printer 107 used as the output device is designated as the device driver. The above-described output module converts the received output command into a device command and outputs the device command to the designated printer driver 106 for the printer 107, and the printer driver 106 converts the command into a command such as a page description language that can be interpreted by the printer 107. Convert. The converted command is transmitted from the printer driver 106 to the printer 107 via a system spooler (not shown), and the printer 107 prints an image corresponding to the command.

  FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of the computer 100. 2, a CPU 201 executes programs such as an OS, a general application, and a bookbinding application that are stored in a program ROM of the ROM 203 or loaded from the hard disk 211 to the RAM 202, and the software configuration in FIG. Realize the procedure. The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201. A keyboard controller (KBC) 205 controls key input from a keyboard 209 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 206 controls display on the CRT display 210. A disk controller (DKC) 207 controls access to a hard disk (HD) 211, a flexible disk (FD), or the like that stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files (to be described later), and the like. The PRTC 208 controls the exchange of signals with the connected printer 107. The NC 212 is connected to the network and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network.

<Electronic manuscript data format>
Before referring to details of the editing application 104, the data format of the book file will be described. The book file has a three-layer structure that mimics a paper medium book. First, the upper layer is called a “book”, imitating one book, and attributes related to the book in general are defined. The middle layer below it corresponds to the chapter in the book and is also called “chapter”. For each chapter, attributes for each chapter can be defined. The lower layer is “page”, which corresponds to each page defined by the application program. For each page, attributes for each page can be defined. Further, one book may include a plurality of chapters, and one chapter may include a plurality of pages.

  FIG. 3A is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a book file format. As shown in the figure, in this example, the book, chapter, and page in the book file are indicated by corresponding nodes. One book file contains one book. Since the book and chapter are concepts for defining the structure of the book, they include defined attribute values and links to lower layers as entities. The page has data for each page output by the application program as an entity. Therefore, a page includes a document page entity (document page data) and a link to each document page data in addition to the attribute value.

  Note that a print page when outputting to a paper medium or the like may include a plurality of document pages. This structure is not displayed by a link, but is displayed as an attribute in each hierarchy of a book, chapter, and page.

  In FIG. 3, a book 301 has a book attribute defined therein and two chapters 302A and 302B are linked. By this link, it is displayed that chapters 302A and 302B are included in book 301. The chapter 302A is linked to pages 303A and 303B, indicating that these pages are included. Each page 303A, 303B has an attribute value defined, and includes links to the original document page data (1), (2). These links indicate the data (1) and (2) of the original page data 304 as shown in (B) of FIG. 3, and the entities of the pages 303A and 303B are the original page data (1) and (2). Is displayed.

  FIG. 4 is a list of book attributes. For items that can be defined overlapping with the lower layer, the attribute value of the lower layer is preferentially adopted. Therefore, for items included only in the book attribute, the value defined in the book attribute becomes a valid value throughout the book. However, items that overlap the lower layer have meanings as default values when they are not defined in the lower layer. Each illustrated item does not specifically correspond to one item, but may include a plurality of related items.

  5 is a list of chapter attributes, and FIG. 6 is a list of page attributes. The relationship between chapter attributes and page attributes is the same as the relationship between book attributes and lower layer attributes.

  As is apparent from FIGS. 4 to 6, items unique to the book attributes are six items: printing method, bookbinding details, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break. These are items defined throughout the book. As printing method attributes, three values of single-sided printing, double-sided printing, and bookbinding printing can be designated. Here, bookbinding printing is a method of printing in a format that allows bookbinding by bundling a separately designated number of sheets into two and folding the bundle. As the bookbinding details attribute, when bookbinding printing is designated, the spread direction, the number of sheets to be bundled, and the like can be designated.

  The front cover / back cover attribute includes designation of adding sheets as a front cover and a back cover when printing an electronic document file to be collected as a book, and designation of print contents on the added sheet. The index sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of index sheets with ears separately prepared in the printing apparatus as chapter breaks and designation of print contents in the index (ear) portion. This attribute can be used when a printing device used by an inserter having an insert function for inserting a sheet prepared separately from the printing sheet into a desired position, or a plurality of paper cassettes can be used. Effective in some cases. The same applies to the slip sheet attribute.

  The slip sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of a sheet supplied from an inserter or a sheet feed cassette as a chapter break, and designation of a sheet feed source when a slip sheet is inserted.

  The chapter break attribute includes designation of whether to use a new sheet, use a new print page, or do nothing in particular at the chapter break. During single-sided printing, the use of a new paper and the use of a new print page have the same meaning. In double-sided printing, if “use new paper” is specified, consecutive chapters will not be printed on one sheet, but if “use new print page” is specified, consecutive chapters will be 1 It may be printed on the front and back of a sheet of paper.

  As for chapter attributes, there are no items unique to chapters, and all items overlap with book attributes. Therefore, if the definition in the chapter attribute is different from the definition in the book attribute, the value defined in the chapter attribute has priority. Items common only to the book attribute and chapter attribute are five items: paper size, paper orientation, N-up printing designation, enlargement / reduction, and paper discharge method. Among these, the N-up print designation attribute is an item for designating the number of document pages included in one print page. Examples of arrangements that can be specified include 1 × 1, 1 × 2, 2 × 2, 3 × 3, and 4 × 4. The paper discharge method attribute is an item for designating whether or not stapling is performed on the discharged paper, and the validity of this attribute depends on whether the printing apparatus to be used has a stapling function.

  Items unique to the page attribute include a page rotation attribute, zoom, layout designation, annotation, and page division. The page rotation attribute is an item for designating a rotation angle when placing an original page on a print page. The zoom attribute is an item for designating the scaling factor of the original page. The scaling factor is specified with the size of the virtual logical page area as 100%. The virtual logical page area is an area occupied by one original page when the original page is arranged in accordance with designation of Nup or the like. For example, if it is 1 × 1, the virtual logical page area is an area corresponding to one print page, and if it is 1 × 2, each side of one print page is an area reduced to about 70%.

  Attributes common to the book, chapter, and page include a watermark attribute and a header / footer attribute. Here, the watermark is a separately designated image or character string that is printed over data created by an application. The header / footer is a watermark printed on the upper margin and the lower margin of each page. However, items that can be specified by variables such as page numbers and date / time are prepared in the header / footer. The contents that can be specified in the watermark attribute and the header / footer attribute are common to the chapter and the page, but the book is different from them. In the book, the contents of the watermark and header / footer can be set, and how the watermark, header and footer are printed throughout the book can be specified. On the other hand, for a chapter or page, whether or not to print a watermark or header / footer set in the book can be specified for the chapter or page.

<Book file generation procedure>
The book file has the structure and contents as described above. Next, a book file creation procedure by the bookbinding application 104 and the electronic document writer 102 will be described. The book file creation procedure is realized as part of the book file editing operation by the bookbinding application 104.

  FIG. 7 shows a procedure when the bookbinding application 104 opens a book file. First, it is determined whether the book file to be opened is to be newly created or is an existing one (step S701). In the case of new creation, a new book file not including a chapter is created (step S702). In the example of FIG. 3, the newly created book file is a book node that has only the book node 301 and does not have a link to the chapter node. As the book attribute, a set of attributes prepared in advance for new creation is applied. Then, a user interface (UI) screen for editing the new book file is displayed (step S703). FIG. 11 shows an example of a UI screen when a book file is newly created. In this case, since the book file has no substantial content, nothing is displayed on the UI screen 1100.

  On the other hand, if there is an existing book file, the designated book file is opened (step S703), and a user interface (UI) screen is displayed according to the structure, attributes, and contents of the book file. FIG. 10 is an example of a UI screen that displays a book file designated from an existing book file. The UI screen 1100 includes a tree portion 1101 that shows a book structure, and a preview portion 1102 that displays a printed state. The tree portion 1101 displays chapters included in the book and pages included in each chapter in a tree structure as shown in FIG. A page displayed in the tree portion 1101 is a manuscript page. In the preview area 1102, the contents of the print page are reduced and displayed. The display order reflects the book structure.

  In the opened book file, application data converted into an electronic manuscript file by the electronic manuscript writer 102 can be added as a new chapter. This function is called an electronic document import function. By importing an electronic document into a newly created book file by the procedure shown in FIG. 7, an entity is given to the book file. This function is activated by dragging and dropping application data on the screen of FIG.

  FIG. 8 shows an electronic document import procedure. First, the application program that generated the specified application data is activated, the electronic document writer 102 is specified as a device driver, and the application data is printed out to be converted into electronic document data (step S801). When the conversion is completed, it is determined whether or not the converted data is image data (step S802). This determination is performed based on the file extension of the application data under the OS. For example, if the extension is “bmp”, it is determined as bitmap data, if “jpg”, it is determined as jpeg-compressed image data, and if “tiff”, it is determined as image data in the tif format. In the case of such image data, since it is possible to generate an electronic document file directly from the image data without starting an application as in S8010, the processing in S8010 can be omitted.

  If it is not image data, the electronic document file generated in step S801 is added as a new chapter to the book of the book file that is currently open (step S803). As the chapter attribute, the value of the book attribute is copied for those that are common to the book attribute, and for those that are not, the preset value is set in advance.

  In the case of image data in step S802, a new chapter is not added in principle, and each original page included in the electronic original file generated in step S801 is added to the designated chapter ( Step S804). However, if the book file is a newly created file, a new chapter is created, and each page of the electronic document file is added as a page belonging to the chapter. As for the page attribute, an attribute value is given to an attribute common to the upper layer attribute, and a value is given to an attribute that inherits the attribute defined in the application data in the electronic document file. For example, when Nup designation or the like is designated in the application data, the attribute value is inherited. In this way, a new book file is created or a new chapter is added.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a procedure for generating an electronic document file by the electronic document writer 102 in step S801 shown in FIG. First, a new electronic document file is created and opened (step S901). An application corresponding to the designated application data is started, and an output command is transmitted to the output module of the OS using the electronic document writer as a device driver. The output module converts the received output command into electronic document format data by the electronic document writer 102 and outputs the converted data (step S902). The output destination is the electronic document file opened in step S901. It is determined whether the conversion has been completed for all the designated data (step S903). If the conversion has been completed, the electronic document file is closed (step S904). The electronic manuscript file generated by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is a file including the manuscript page data entity shown in FIG.

<Edit book file>
As described above, a book file can be created from application data. With respect to the generated book file, the following editing operations are possible for chapters and pages.

(1) New addition (2) Delete (3) Copy (4) Cut (5) Paste (6) Move (7) Rename chapter (8) Rename page number (9) Insert cover (10) Insert paper Insert (11) Insert index sheet (12) Page layout for each document page.

  In addition, an operation for canceling an editing operation once performed, and an operation for redoing the canceled operation are possible. With these editing functions, for example, integration of multiple book files, rearrangement of chapters and pages in the book file, deletion of chapters and pages in the book file, layout change of manuscript pages, insertion of slip sheets and index sheets, etc. Operation becomes possible. When these operations are performed, the operation results are reflected in the attributes shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, or in the book file structure. For example, if a blank page new addition operation is performed, a blank page is inserted at a designated location. This blank page is treated as a manuscript page. If the layout of the original page is changed, the changed content is reflected in attributes such as a printing method, N-up printing, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break.

<Output book file>
The book file created and edited as described above has a final purpose of print output. Here, when the user selects a file menu from the UI screen 1100 of the bookbinding application shown in FIG. 10 and selects print from there, the output is printed by the designated output device. At this time, the bookbinding application 104 first creates a job ticket from the currently opened book file, and passes the job ticket to the electronic document despooler 105. On the other hand, the electronic document despooler 105 converts the job ticket into an OS output command, for example, a GDI function, and transmits it to an output module, for example, GDI. The output module generates a command suitable for the device by the designated printer driver 106 and transmits the command to the device.

  Here, the job ticket is data having a structure in which the original page is a minimum unit. The structure in the job ticket defines the layout of the manuscript page on the paper. One job ticket is issued per job. For this reason, there is a document node at the top, and attributes of the entire document, such as double-sided printing / single-sided printing, are defined. Below that, a paper node belongs, and includes attributes such as an identifier of a paper to be used and designation of a paper feed port in the printer. Each paper node includes a node of a sheet printed on the paper. One sheet corresponds to one sheet. A print page (physical page) belongs to each sheet. For single-sided printing, one physical page belongs to one sheet, and for double-sided printing, two physical pages belong to one sheet. Each physical page has an original page arranged thereon. The physical page attribute includes the layout of the original page.

  The electronic document despooler 105 converts the above-described job ticket into an output command to the output module.

<Other system configurations>
The outline of the document processing system of this embodiment is as described above. Although this is a stand-alone system, a book file can be created and edited with almost the same configuration and procedure even on a server client system that is an expanded system. However, book files and print processing are managed by the server.

  FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server client type document processing system. The client document processing system has a configuration in which a DOMS (Document Output Management Service) driver 109, a DOMS print service module 110, and a DS (Document Service) client module 108, which are client modules, are added to a stand-alone system. . A document management server 1201, a print central management server 1202, and a print server 1203 are connected to the client document processing system 1200. These servers are normally connected to the client document processing system via a network, but are connected by inter-process communication that simulates communication between networks when the server also functions as a client at the same time.

  In the example shown in FIG. 12, both the document management server 1201 and the print central management server 1202 are connected to the client, but only one of them may exist on the network. For example, if the connected server is a document management server, the document management server client system 1201SC including the client module 108 is used. If the connected server is the print central management server 1202, the print management server client system 1202SC including the client module is used. Will be added to the stand-alone document management system.

  The document management server 1201 is a server that stores book files created and edited by the bookbinding application 104. When a book file is managed by the document management server 1201, the book file is stored in the database 1211 of the document management server 1201 instead of or in addition to the local HD of the client PC. Saving and reading of book files between the bookbinding application 104 and the document management server 1201 are performed via the DS client 108 and the DS core 1212.

  The print central management server 1202 is a server that manages printing of book files stored in the client document management system 1200 or stored in the document management server 1201. The print request in the client is transmitted to the DOMSWG server module 1221 of the print central management server 1202 via the DOMS driver 109 and the DOMS print service module 110. The centralized print management server 1202 passes the electronic document data to the electronic document despooler 105 via the client's DOMS print service module 110 when printing with the client printer, and when printing with the print server 1203, the print server 1203. To the DOMS print service module 1203. For example, the centralized print management server performs a security check on the qualification of the user who issued the print request to the saved book file, and saves a print processing log. As described above, the document processing system can be realized as a stand-alone or a client-server system.

<Contents of preview display>
As described above, when the book file is opened by the bookbinding application, the user interface screen 1100 shown in FIG. 10 is displayed. The tree portion 1101 displays a tree showing the structure of an open book (hereinafter referred to as “target book”). In the preview section, three display methods are prepared according to the user's designation. First, a mode called a document view that displays a document page as it is. In this document view mode, the content of the document page belonging to the book of interest is reduced and displayed. Note that the layout is not reflected in the display of the preview unit 1102. Next, the second is a print view mode. In the print view mode, the document page is displayed on the preview unit 1102 in a form that reflects the layout of the document page. The third is a simple print view mode. In this simple print view mode, the contents of each original page are not reflected in the display of the preview portion, but only the layout is reflected.

<Stapling control>
Next, stapling control performed by the bookbinding application 104 of the computer 100 connected to a printer having a stapling function will be described.

  FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the staple control system. As shown in the figure, the staple control system includes the host computer 100 shown in FIG. 2 and a printer 107 having a staple function.

  Hereinafter, the configuration of the printer 107 will be described. If the function of the present invention is realized, a single device or a system composed of a plurality of devices can be connected and processed via a network such as a LAN or WAN. The present invention can be applied even to a system.

  As shown in the figure, in the printer 107, reference numeral 1301 denotes a printer CPU, which is connected to a system bus 1304 based on a control program stored in a program ROM in a ROM 1302 or a control program stored in an external memory 1303. An image signal as output information is output to the printing unit (printer engine) 1306 via the printing unit I / F 1305. In addition, the program ROM in the ROM 1302 stores a control program of the CPU 1301, and the font ROM in the ROM 1302 stores font data used for generating output information. The ROM stores information used on the host computer 100 in the case of a printer that does not have an external memory 1303 such as a hard disk.

  The CPU 1301 can perform communication processing with the host computer 100 via the input unit 1307 and can notify the host computer 100 of information in the printer 107 and the like. The RAM 1308 is a RAM that functions as a main memory, a work area, or the like of the CPU 1301 and is configured so that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown).

  The RAM 1308 is used as an output information expansion area, environment data storage area, NVRAM, and the like. Access to the above-described external memory 1303 such as a hard disk (HD) or IC card is controlled by a memory controller (MC) 1309. The external memory 1303 is connected as an option and stores font data, an emulation program, form data, and the like. In addition, the operation panel 1311 includes switches for operation, LED indicators, and the like.

  The external memory 1303 described above is not limited to one, and a plurality of external memories 1303 are provided. In addition to the built-in font, a plurality of external memories storing option cards and programs for interpreting printer control languages with different language systems can be connected. May be. Furthermore, an NVRAM (not shown) may be provided, and printer mode setting information from the operation panel 1311 may be stored.

<Description of wizard>
Next, a new book file creation wizard that supports user creation of a new book file will be described.

  FIG. 15 is an operation flow of the new book file creation wizard. Creation of a new book file by the wizard is performed according to this flow.

  Reference numeral 1501 denotes a “file selection” flow for selecting an electronic file used for creating a book file. You can add to the file list by pressing the “Add” button or dragging and dropping file objects. In addition, a file name can be deleted from the list by selecting the file name from the list and pressing the “Delete” button. The order of the file list is equivalent to the order in the newly created book file.

  Reference numeral 1502 denotes a “Chapter exception setting presence / absence” flow, in which whether or not to perform exception setting for each file (for each chapter in the new book file) can be set.

  Reference numeral 1503 denotes a “device setting” flow, in which a device to be output can be set. When function information can be acquired from the device, a function list can be displayed.

  Reference numeral 1504 denotes a “format setting for the entire document” flow, in which a print method setting, a binding direction, an opening direction, an original is moved to the binding position, an output paper size, an output paper orientation, a page layout, Appearance settings such as arrangement order can be made.

  Reference numeral 1505 denotes a “chapter exception setting” flow. When a chapter exception is desired in 1502, a chapter exception can be set for each chapter. A chapter can be set in appearance such as page layout, arrangement order, and rotation of a manuscript page.

  Reference numeral 1506 denotes a “staple / punch hole setting” flow, in which detailed setting can be made as to whether stapling, punching holes, and Z-folding are performed.

  Reference numeral 1507 denotes a “cover setting” flow, in which whether or not to insert a cover can be set.

  Reference numeral 1508 denotes a “stamp setting” flow, in which stamp setting and stamp preview can be performed.

  Reference numeral 1509 denotes a “header / footer setting” flow, in which setting of whether to perform header / footer, detailed setting of header / footer, preview of header / footer, and the like can be performed.

  Reference numeral 1510 denotes a “chapter break setting” flow, in which setting for switching between pages and sheets at chapter breaks can be performed.

  Reference numeral 1511 denotes a “setting confirmation” flow, in which the settings performed in 1501 to 1510 can be confirmed. Pressing the “Finish” button creates a book file that matches the settings. If the “Print immediately after completion of wizard” check box is checked, printing is automatically performed after the “Done” button is pressed.

  FIG. 14 is a data structure diagram showing the original electronic data information structure.

  FIG. 16 is an operation screen of the “file selection” flow.

  FIG. 17 is an operation screen of the “presence / absence of chapter exception setting” flow.

  FIG. 18 is an operation screen of the “device setting” flow.

  FIG. 19 is an operation screen of the “Appearance setting for entire document” flow.

  FIG. 20 is an operation screen of the “Appearance setting for entire document (bookbinding)” flow. When the print method setting is “bookbinding” in FIG. 20, it is displayed in FIG. 21.

  FIG. 21 is an operation screen of the “Chapter exception appearance setting” flow.

  FIG. 22 is an operation screen of the “staple / punch hole setting” flow.

  FIG. 23 is an operation screen of a “staple / punch hole setting (binding)” flow. Displayed when the printing method is set to “bookbinding” in FIG.

  FIG. 24 is an operation screen of a “cover setting” flow.

  FIG. 25 is an operation screen of a “stamp setting” flow.

  FIG. 26 is an operation screen of the “header / footer setting” flow.

  FIG. 27 is an operation screen for a “chapter setting” flow.

  FIG. 28 is an operation screen of a “setting confirmation” flow.

  Next, an embodiment of the present invention in the above-described system will be described.

  The present invention proposes a process for fetching a plurality of files.

  According to the present invention, when a file having a document structure exists when a plurality of files are imported, it is confirmed whether or not the document structure is retained at the first check and the result is retained. Thus, the second and subsequent files can be imported with the same settings as the first file.

  FIG. 29 is a screen displaying a dialog for confirming whether or not the document structure is retained for the first file.

  FIG. 30 shows a processing sequence for fetching a plurality of files.

  This process saves the selection result when importing the first first file, and applies the same result to the remaining files. Eliminates the need to make choices regarding structure retention. Hereinafter, the sequence of FIG. 30 will be described.

  In step 3001, when dragging and dropping, files that cannot be imported are selected.

  In step 3002, when the “add” button is pressed, an “open file” dialog is displayed.

  In step 3003, it is checked whether a document structure is included in the file to be captured.

  In step 3004, a file having no document structure and not storing the document structure is added to the list.

  In step 3005, the document configuration information of the file is acquired.

  In step 3006, it is checked whether a dialog for confirming the maintenance of the document structure has been displayed.

  In step 3007, it is determined whether to keep the document structure based on the previous confirmation result.

  In step 3008, a document structure retention confirmation dialog is displayed.

  In step 3009, based on the document configuration information acquired in step 3005, the document structure is added to the list so as to be captured with the setting for retaining the document structure.

  In step 3010, it is checked whether there is an error file in the list file.

  In step 3011, an error dialog is displayed and an error file is displayed.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration example of a stand-alone document processing system according to the present exemplary embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example which implement | achieves the document processing system of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the structure of a book file. It is a figure which shows the list of book attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of chapter attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of page attributes. It is a flowchart which shows the example of a procedure which opens a book file. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure for importing an electronic document. It is a flowchart of the procedure which produces | generates an electronic manuscript file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening the existing book file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening a new book file. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration example of a client server type document processing system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a staple control system. It is a data structure figure showing the original electronic data information structure. It is a figure showing the operation flow of the wizard. It is a figure of the "file selection" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "presence / absence of chapter exception setting" screen of the wizard. It is a figure of the "device setting" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "Appearance setting to the whole document" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "Appearance setting to the whole document (bookbinding)" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "Chapter exception appearance setting" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the “staple / punch hole setting” screen of the wizard. FIG. 10 is a diagram of a “staple / punch hole setting (binding)” screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "cover setting" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "stamp setting" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "header / footer setting" screen of a wizard. It is a figure of the "chapter setting" screen of the wizard. It is a figure of the "setting home lesson" screen of a wizard. It is the figure which is displaying the dialog which confirms whether it takes in with the screen of FIG. 16 hold | maintaining a text structure. Processing sequence when importing multiple files.

Claims (3)

In a system consisting of a printing device and an information processing device connected directly or indirectly to the printing device,
An interactive new document creation means capable of creating new document data using an interactive interface;
Document data analysis means for analyzing the document structure of the input document data;
A document structure holding and taking-in means capable of taking in the document structure while holding it;
A document structure expansion / capture means that can be expanded and captured without retaining the document structure;
Document structure holding inquiry means for inquiring about holding the document structure after fetching the data holding the document structure;
A printing control apparatus comprising:   The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of document data are input simultaneously.   2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein answers to the document structure holding inquiry are stored, and a plurality of document structure holding queries are answered using the saved answers.

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