JP7509307B2 - Information processing device and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device and a program.

There are document management devices and software that manage image data read by a scanner and document data created by applications on a personal computer (PC). Examples include document handling software such as DocuWorks (trademark) provided by the applicant and Adobe Acrobat (trademark) from Adobe Systems. This type of document management device can import and manage image data files (e.g., bitmap, TIFF, JPEG formats) obtained by scanning paper documents, and application files created by various applications such as word processors and spreadsheets.

A hierarchical folder structure can be created within the document management device using the OS file system, and users can organize a large number of documents by saving the documents they want to use in appropriate folders within that hierarchical structure.

Patent document 1 describes copying or moving a folder (directory) to another folder (for example, paragraph 0002).

JP 2016-024487 A

A hierarchical structure in which folders have folders inside them is useful for classifying and organizing documents, but even if you open a folder and display a list of the documents it contains, you cannot see the whole picture of the documents in that folder (some of which are contained in folders at a lower level). To see all the documents in a folder, you need to perform the cumbersome process of opening the lower level folders one by one. For purposes that do not require hierarchical classification, such as storing and displaying documents necessary for the current task, a specification that requires such cumbersome operations is only a disadvantage.

The present invention aims to simultaneously display a list of files registered in a workspace having an area that accepts drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created, and to inform the user that a folder created in the first folder cannot be registered in the workspace.

The invention according to claim 1 is a program that causes a computer to simultaneously display on a screen a list of files registered in a workspace having an area that accepts drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created, and when a user performs the drag-and-drop operation on a file registered in the first folder to the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, the file is registered in the workspace, and when a user attempts to perform the drag-and-drop operation on a folder created in the first folder to the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, a message is displayed on the screen indicating that the folder cannot be registered in the workspace.

The invention according to claim 2 is the program according to claim 1, characterized in that files can be registered in the workspace, but folders cannot be registered.

The invention according to claim 3 is an information processing device that includes a processor, and is operable to simultaneously display on a screen a list of files registered in a workspace having an area that accepts drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created, and when a user performs the drag-and-drop operation on a file registered in the first folder to the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, the file is registered in the workspace, and when a user attempts to perform the drag-and-drop operation on a folder created in the first folder to the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, a message is displayed on the screen indicating that the folder cannot be registered in the workspace.

According to the present invention, it is possible to simultaneously display a list of files registered in a workspace having an area that accepts drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created.

Furthermore, the user can be informed that the folder created in the first folder cannot be registered in the workspace.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a document management system to which character recognition processing control according to an embodiment is applied; FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a document management screen provided by the document management system. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen on which a context menu including a menu item "Copy to Workspace" is displayed for a document icon. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the document management screen showing the work space after a new document has been copied. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen displaying a context menu (excluding the menu item "Copy to Workspace") for a folder icon. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an error notification screen displayed when an operation of copying a folder to a work space is performed. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a query screen displayed when an operation of copying a folder to a work space is performed. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a query screen displayed when an operation of copying a folder to a work space is performed in another example. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen for a folder to be opened when the document management system is started up; 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for display control at the time of starting up the document management system. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a document management screen that is displayed when the document management system is started after a document is registered in a work space while the document management system is shut down; FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a document management screen displaying an information view about a document. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen in which information about the location from which each document was copied is reflected in the display of the icon of each document in a work space opened on a document pane. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a document management screen in which a URL on the Internet is displayed as a copy source location in an information view about a document. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen on which document icons are grouped and displayed according to the location of their copy origin. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen displaying a context menu of a document including a menu item for opening the location (folder) of the copy source. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen displaying a list of documents in a work space and documents in folders from which the documents in the work space are copied. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen that displays a context menu for the work space that includes the menu item "tidy up." 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for cleaning up a work space by a cleaning processing unit. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a tidy-up dialog box. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen displayed after a tidying process. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen displaying a context menu including a document "return to workspace" that includes a menu item for a tidying up folder. 13 is a diagram illustrating a procedure for returning a tidy-up folder by a tidy-up processing unit. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a dialog displayed when a cleanup folder is restored. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a document management screen including a button for instructing synchronization between a work space and the cloud. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing that the synchronization button with the cloud side is not displayed when the tidying up folder is open on the document management screen. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of an inquiry screen displayed by a synchronization processing unit. FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a settings screen for a workspace including automatic synchronization settings. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a procedure of a synchronization process. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a batch synchronization screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a decision table for actions for each inconsistency state. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another example of the batch synchronization screen.

<System Overview>
1 illustrates an example of a schematic configuration of a document management system 10 according to the present invention. The document management system 10 is software that provides processing functions such as viewing, editing, and annotation (adding colored markers, sticky notes, stamps, etc.) for registered document files, such as DocuWorks (trademark) provided by the applicant or Adobe Acrobat (trademark) provided by Adobe Systems Incorporated. This software is executed on a computer such as a PC (personal computer) or a server to realize the functions of the document management system 10. The document management system 10 may be a personal system installed on a PC, or may be constructed as a server that provides document handling services to remote users.

The document management system 10 includes the following functional modules: a document capture unit 12, a document processing unit 14, a UI processing unit 16, a setting management unit 18, a cleanup processing unit 20, and a synchronization processing unit 22.

The document import unit 12 is responsible for processing to import (i.e., register) documents (files) generated outside the document management system 10 into the document management system 10. The documents to be imported include files (called application files) in a data format specific to the application generated by application software such as a word processor or spreadsheet, and image files in image data formats such as bitmap, TIFF, and JPEG generated by a scanner or digital camera. The documents imported by the document management system 10 may also include video files and multimedia files. The document files imported by the document import unit 12 are stored in one of the folders (e.g., one designated or pre-set by the user) under the management of the document management system 10. The document import unit 12 imports the application file as it is as a document file, or converts it into a document file written in a specific data description language used by the document management system 10. The data description language used for conversion is PDL (page description language) or other types of languages (PDF data format is one example) that can describe the appearance of a document (image) like a page description language. Document files written in this data description language can contain multiple types of objects, such as text, vector graphics (figures described in vector representation), and continuous-tone images (in data formats such as bitmap, TIFF, and JPEG).

For example, when a user drags and drops the icon of a document in a folder outside the document management system 10, which is displayed on a GUI (Graphical User Interface) screen of a file system (e.g., Microsoft Explorer), onto a folder icon or document pane 120 on the GUI screen (see FIG. 2) of the document management system 10, the document import unit 12 converts the document into a document file such as PDL and stores it in the folder where it was dropped. The user may also call up a virtual printer (document import unit 12, or another program with the same function) for the document management system 10 from an application and output a document handled by the application to the virtual printer. The virtual printer converts the document into a document file such as PDL that can be handled in the document management system 10, and saves it in a specified folder in the document management system 10.

Folders under the management of the document management system 10 (one of which is the workspace, described later) are accessed from the document management system 10, and are not intended to be accessed from the OS file system. In order to perform operations such as adding or deleting documents from these folders, the document management system 10 is basically started up. However, storing documents in the workspace, etc. via the "Copy to workspace" application 24, described later, is an exception to this, and has the function of storing documents in the workspace, etc. when the document management system 10 is not running.

The document processing unit 14 executes processing instructed by the user for folders and document files in the folders under the management of the document management system 10. For example, when a user instructs to view a document file, the document processing unit 14 opens the document file and displays an image of the page of the document file on the screen. The document processing unit 14 also adds or deletes annotations to the opened document file in response to an instruction from the user. The document processing unit 14 also has the functions of "splitting" and "bundling" documents. The splitting process is a process of splitting one document file into a first document file consisting of pages before the specified page and a second document file consisting of pages after the specified page. The bundling process is a process of bundling multiple document files specified by the user into one document file. The bundled document file is a file that has both the pages of the first document file before bundling and the pages of the second document file. The document processing unit 14 also accepts an instruction from the user to create a descendant folder of the user folder 116 or its descendant folder.

The UI processing unit 16 provides a UI (user interface) screen for operating document files and accepts user operations on that screen. For example, the UI processing unit 16 generates a document management screen 100 as shown in FIG. 2 and displays it on the display device of the computer on which the document management system 10 is installed (the document management screen 100 will be described in detail later).

The illustrated document management screen 100 includes a folder pane 110, a document pane 120, and an operation button area 130.

The folder pane 110 is an area that displays a tree structure of folders under the management of the document management system 10. The root of the displayed tree is the document management system 10 itself (shown as an icon 112 in FIG. 2). In the illustrated example, immediately below the root are two folders: a workspace 114, a user folder 116, and a link folder. The workspace 114 is a folder that holds documents for the work that the user is currently performing. The workspace 114 will be described in more detail later. The user folder 116 is a folder that is used to organize and store documents used by the user of the document management system 10. Subfolders such as child folders and grandchild folders can be created hierarchically within the user folder 116. The user creates the necessary descendant folders according to the organization system that he or she has decided, and stores documents in the appropriate folders. The link folder is a link to a folder outside the management of the document management system 10, and when this link folder is "opened," the descendant folders in the linked folder are displayed in the folder pane 110.

The document pane 120 displays a list of icons 122 of document files in a folder selected by the user in the folder pane 110. In this example, each icon 122 of a document file is a thumbnail image of the first page of the document file. By performing an "open" operation such as clicking on an icon 122, the document corresponding to the icon 122 can be opened, and the contents can be displayed on the screen or edited (for example, added, deleted, changed, etc.). For example, the user can drag and drop the icon of a document file onto the icon of another document file to instruct bundling of the two document files. In addition, the user can select the process to be performed on the document file from a menu on the document management screen 100 (not shown) or a context menu that is called up by right-clicking the mouse on the icon. The context menu is a screen that displays a list of options for processing the object (in this case, the document) corresponding to the menu as menu items.

The operation button area 130 is an area that displays buttons 134-138 that indicate various operations for the folders displayed in the document pane 120 and the documents (icons 122) in those folders. In the illustrated example, the operation button area 130 displays a print button for printing the document selected in the document pane 120, a button 134 for instructing copying of the document to the workspace (described below), a tidy up button 136 for instructing temporary tidy up of the workspace (described below), an "Original Location" button 138 for opening the folder from which the document was copied in the workspace, etc.

Returning to the explanation of FIG. 1, the setting management unit 18 accepts input of various setting items for the document management system 10 and holds the values of the input setting items. Examples of setting items managed by the setting management unit 18 include the folders to be displayed in the document pane 120 of the document management screen 100 when the document management system 10 is started, and settings regarding synchronization between the workspace and the corresponding folders on the cloud system.

The tidying up processing unit 20 performs a process of temporarily tidying up documents in the workspace. The function of the tidying up processing unit 20 will be explained in detail later.

The synchronization processing unit 22 executes processing for synchronizing the workspace with the corresponding folder on the cloud system. This processing will be explained in detail later.

Above, we have explained the overview of the document management system 10. Next, we will explain the various features of this system.

<Work space>
As described above, the document management system 10 provides the workspace 114, which is a folder for documents used in the work the user is currently working on. The workspace is a metaphor for the user's workplace (e.g., the top of a desk) and is intended to allow the user to see at a glance the entire work currently being done, i.e., to provide a list of the work. This is in contrast to the hierarchical structure consisting of the user folder 116 and its descendant folders, which is intended to organize documents.

To ensure that work can be viewed at a glance, only documents (files) are stored in the workspace 114. In other words, the workspace 114 does not contain a hierarchical structure consisting of descendant folders. If the workspace 114 had an internal hierarchical structure of folders, all documents used in the current work could not be arranged and displayed in a single document pane 120. In this case, to grasp the entirety of the workspace 114, navigation between hierarchies is required. In contrast, the workspace 114 has a flat structure consisting only of documents, so that it is possible to view a group of icons (thumbnails, etc.) for all documents at a glance on the document pane 120 without having to move between hierarchies.

The workspace 114 is used as a temporary workspace, and documents are stored in a hierarchical set of folders within the user folder 116.

<Registering documents in the workspace>
Registration (storage) of a document in the work space 114 is realized by performing a "copy to work space 114" operation on a document in an existing folder.

3, the document management screen 100 displays a list of document icons 122 in a folder (folder name "ABC Project") in the user folder 116 of the document management system 10 on the document pane 120. A specific operation such as right-clicking the mouse on a document (named "△△ Proposal") in the folder calls up a context menu 124 for that document. In addition to general operation items such as "Open" (opens the document and displays the contents), "Cut", "Copy" 128, "Delete", "Rename", and "Print", this context menu 124 includes an operation item "Copy to workspace" 126. When the user instructs to execute "Copy to workspace" 126 by clicking or the like, the document processing unit 14 creates a copy of the document (file) and saves the copy in the workspace 114. After this operation, when the workspace 114 is opened, a list of document icons in the workspace 114 is displayed in the document pane 120 as shown in FIG. 4.

If the user selects the conventional, general "Copy" 128 operation item, the document is only stored on the clipboard (a temporary storage area for copied (or cut) data provided by the OS). Therefore, to copy the document to the workspace 114, after executing "Copy" 128, the user must then "paste" the copy of the document on the clipboard into the workspace 114. In this way, when using the conventional operation item "Copy" 128, the user is required to perform at least two operations in total: a copy operation and a paste operation.

In contrast, with the operation item "Copy to workspace" 126, the target document can be copied into the workspace 114 with a single touch, i.e., with just one operation of selecting the operation item.

In addition, an operation similar to "Copy to workspace" 126 can also be performed by selecting a document in the document pane 120 and then pressing the "Copy to workspace" button 134 in the operation button area 130.

For each data format that can be imported into the document management system 10, a menu item called "Copy to workspace" may be added to the context menu that corresponds to that data format managed by the OS. This menu item is associated with a "Copy to workspace" application 24 that is installed on the same computer as the document management system 10. This application 24 can be read even when the document management system 10 is not running. When a user calls up a context menu from a document icon displayed on the GUI screen of the OS file system and selects and executes the item "Copy to workspace" in the menu, the OS starts the "Copy to workspace" application 24 and passes the path name of the document. The started "Copy to workspace" application 24 creates a copy of the document indicated by the path name and saves it in the workspace. Note that if the data format of the document is different from the data format (such as PDL format) inside the document management system 10, the data format of the copy may be changed to the internal data format and then saved in the workspace. In this way, documents that are not under the management of the document management system 10 (i.e., documents in folders that do not belong to a folder tree rooted at the document management system 10) can also be copied to the workspace with a single operation, similar to that described above.

It may also be possible to register a document displayed by an application that generates or edits documents, such as a word processor, to the workspace from the UI of the application. For example, this can be achieved by registering "document management system workspace" as a print destination option in the print instruction UI of the application, and associating this option with a virtual printer that performs the same processing as the "copy to workspace" application 24. When a user wants to register a document displayed in an application, such as a word processor, to the workspace, the user can call up the print instruction screen of the application, select "document management system workspace" as the print destination, and instruct the user to print.

In addition, in the above examples, UIs such as a context menu and copy button used when registering a document in a workspace are exemplified, but a similar UI may be used to register a document in a folder other than the workspace in the document management system 10. In this case, the setting management unit 18 may be allowed to set or change a destination folder to be associated with the operation item "Copy to workspace" 126 of the context menu or the "Copy to workspace" button 134 in the operation button area 130. In this case, the character string "Work space" in the operation item "Copy to workspace" 126 of the context menu may be changed to the name of the set destination folder.

The above shows an example of copying a document from a folder outside the workspace into the workspace, but documents can also be registered in the workspace by methods other than copying, such as moving (in which case the document is deleted from the original folder).

<Mechanism to prevent hierarchical folder structure in workspace>
As mentioned above, the workspace does not have a hierarchical structure. The mechanism for maintaining a workspace without a hierarchical structure is described below.

For example, when a folder created in a file system used by the operating system (OS) is used as the workspace 114, in order to prevent the workspace 114 from having a hierarchical structure, the document processing unit 14 does not accept an instruction from the user to create a descendant folder for the workspace 114. For example, a menu item for instructing the user to create a new folder is not displayed on a context menu that is called up by a specific operation (e.g., right-clicking the mouse) on the icon of the workspace 114 in the folder pane 110. Furthermore, when a workspace is open in the document pane 120, an item for creating a new folder is not displayed on the context menu that is called up on the workspace (part other than the document icon).

As shown in FIG. 5, the context menu 140 called up by a right-click operation of the mouse from a folder in the folder pane 110 does not include an item "Copy to workspace". As a result, a folder cannot be copied to the workspace with a single touch. This context menu 140 includes an item "Copy" 142, but when the item is selected by the user, a process of copying the folder (which may include documents and descendant folders) to the clipboard is executed. Even if an operation is performed to paste the folder copied to the clipboard into the workspace, when the document processing unit 14 detects that the object to be pasted into the workspace is a folder, in one example, the document processing unit 14 prohibits the pasting. At this time, the document processing unit 14 displays an error notification screen 200 shown in FIG. 6 via the UI processing unit 16. An error message 202 indicating that the folder cannot be copied to the workspace is displayed on this error notification screen 200.

Similarly, for folders that are not under the management of the document management system 10, the context menu does not include a menu item that invokes the "Copy to workspace" application 24. Furthermore, even if an attempt is made to copy such a folder to the workspace via the clipboard, the document processing unit 14 detects that a folder is being copied and prohibits the copy.

Even if an attempt is made to copy or move a folder from outside the workspace into a workspace opened in the document pane 120 by a drag-and-drop operation, the document processing unit 14, which manages the workspace, will prohibit this. In other words, when the document processing unit 14 detects that the object being saved in the workspace by this operation is a folder, it will prohibit the saving and will display, for example, the error notification screen 200 (Figure 6) described above.

In the above, copying folders to the workspace is prohibited, thereby preventing a hierarchical structure from being introduced into the workspace. As another example, when a user performs an operation to copy a folder to the workspace, the document processing unit 14 may extract the documents inside the folder and copy them to the workspace. Here, the documents copied to the workspace may be limited to only those directly contained in the folder, or all documents contained in the folder and its descendant folders. In either case, the folder itself selected as the target for copying and its descendant folders are not copied to the workspace, and only documents remain in the workspace.

When the document processing unit 14 receives an operation from the user to copy a folder to the workspace, it may display, via the UI processing unit 16, a query screen 210 that displays a message 212 inquiring whether to copy only the documents (files) in the folder, as exemplified in FIG. 7. When the user presses the OK button in the query screen 210, the document processing unit 14 creates copies of each document in the folder, converts the copies to the data format of the document management system 10, and then saves (pastes) them in the workspace. When the user presses the cancel button, the document processing unit 14 cancels the process of copying the folder to the workspace.

In addition, when a user performs an operation to copy a folder to the workspace, the user may be able to set in the setting management unit 18 whether to display an error notification screen 200 without performing the copy ("folder copy prohibited"), or to copy only the documents in the folder ("copy documents in folder"). In addition, in the case of copying only documents in the folder, the setting management unit 18 may be able to set whether to copy only the documents directly contained in the folder, or to copy all documents contained in the folder and its descendant folders. In addition, when the above-mentioned "copy documents in folder" is set in the setting management unit 18, the display of the context menu may be controlled so that the item "copy to workspace" is displayed in the context menu opened for the folder, and when the above-mentioned "folder copy prohibited" is set, the item "copy to workspace" is not displayed in the context menu.

In addition, when the document processing unit 14 extracts documents from a folder and copies them to the workspace in response to a user's instruction to copy the folder to the workspace, the document processing unit 14 may display in the workspace displayed in the document pane 120 of the document management screen 100 that the copied documents are from the same folder. An example of this display is shown in FIG. 8. The example in FIG. 8 is an example in which the purchase order folder 118 is copied to the workspace in which the document A was originally saved. In the document pane 120, the icons of documents B, C, and D newly added to the workspace this time are displayed more emphasized (i.e., in a display mode that is more conspicuous; in the illustrated example, the outline is emphasized) than the icon of the document A that was originally present. In addition, the icons of documents B, C, and D have a common display mode (for example, the outline has the same color), which indicates that the three documents were copied from the same folder. In addition, the icons of the three documents are displayed with file names indicating the path names of the documents from the purchase order folder. In the illustrated example, for example, document B is a file contained directly in the purchase orders folder, whereas document D is a file contained in a folder named "201710" immediately below the purchase orders folder. Also, in the display of FIG. 8, the icon for document D is displayed below the icons for documents B and C, thereby expressing that document D belongs to a lower folder than documents B and C.

<Display at startup>
Next, the display of the document management screen 100 that is displayed when the document management system 10 is started will be described.

In the setting management unit 18, the folder to be opened in the document pane 120 of the document management screen 100 immediately after startup can be set. FIG. 9 shows an example of a setting screen 300 that accepts the setting of the folder to be opened at startup. In this example, the folder to be opened at startup can be selected from three option fields 302: a user folder, a folder that was open when the document management system 10 was previously closed, and the workspace. In normal cases, excluding the exceptional cases described below, the document management system 10 determines the folder to be opened in the document pane 120 at startup according to the setting.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned exceptional case is when a document is registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down (i.e., while the document management system 10 is not in operation). As described above, in this embodiment, even if the document management system 10 is shut down, the document can be registered in the workspace by calling the "Copy to workspace" application 24 from the context menu of the document on the UI of the file system, or by issuing a print instruction to a virtual printer with the workspace as the print destination from an application that creates and edits documents, such as a word processor. In this way, if a document is registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down, it is highly likely that the user intends to work with the document in the workspace. However, if the folder to be opened at startup is set to a folder other than the workspace, the folder that is opened immediately after the document management system 10 is started is not the workspace. Therefore, in order to check the newly registered document in the workspace, it is necessary to perform an operation to open the workspace.

Therefore, in this embodiment, if a document is registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down (i.e., while the document management system 10 is not running, i.e., not in operation), the workspace is opened in the document pane 120 when the document management system 10 is started, regardless of the settings for the folder to be opened at startup. An example of the procedure for display control at startup is shown in FIG. 10.

In the procedure of FIG. 10, when the document management system 10 is started, the UI processing unit 16 first checks whether or not there is a document registered in the workspace after the document management system 10 was previously terminated (S10). The investigation in S10 is performed, for example, by the UI processing unit 16 inquiring of a program (e.g., the "Copy to workspace" application 24 and a virtual printer) that has the function of registering a document in the workspace while the document management system 10 is terminated, as to whether or not a document was registered during the termination period. The program (i.e., a virtual processing device realized by having the computer execute the program) records a log including information on the time when the document was registered in the workspace, and returns the time when the document was last registered in the workspace in response to an inquiry from the UI processing unit 16. If the time responded from the program is between the previous termination time of the document management system 10 (which is recorded by the document management system 10) and the current time, the UI processing unit 16 determines that a document was registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 was terminated. Conversely, the UI processing unit 16 may send an inquiry including the previous end time of the document management system 10 to the program, and the program may respond as to whether or not the program has registered a document since the end time. Instead of making an inquiry to the application, the UI processing unit 16 may make the determination by referring to a log recorded by the program. Alternatively, when the program stores (copies, etc.) a document in the workspace, the flag may be set to a value indicating "stored", and when the document management system 10 is started, the UI processing unit 16 may refer to the flag to determine whether or not the document management system 10 has stored a document in the workspace when the document management system 10 is not in operation, and reset the flag. As yet another example, the document management system 10 may store a list of documents in the workspace at the time of the previous end, and compare this list with the documents in the workspace at the time of the current start to determine whether or not a document has been newly added to the workspace during the end.

If the investigation in S10 determines that a document has been added to the workspace while the document management system 10 was shut down (S12), the UI processing unit 16 displays the document management screen 100 displaying the documents in the workspace in the document pane 120 (S14). On the other hand, if it is determined in S12 that no document has been added to the workspace while the document management system 10 was shut down, the UI processing unit 16 displays the document management screen 100 with the folder corresponding to the setting of "Folder to open at startup" in the setting management unit 18 opened in the document pane 120 (S16).

Figure 11 shows an example of a document management screen 100 that displays documents in the workspace in the document pane 120, as displayed by the processing of S14 when the document management system 10 is started up. This example shows the document management screen 100 that is displayed when the document management system 10 is started up after a new document named "△△ additional materials" is registered during the period of shutdown for a workspace in which only a document named "△△ proposal" existed when the document management system 10 was last shut down. In this example, the icon of the newly registered document "△△ additional materials" in the document pane 120 is displayed in a different display mode than the icon of the existing document "△△ proposal". In particular, the icon of the newly registered document is displayed in a more prominent display mode than the icon of the existing document.

Also, like the document management screen 100 in FIG. 8 described above, the document management screen 100 that opens at startup may reflect information about the folder from which each document registered in the workspace was copied while the document management system 10 was shut down. That is, in the example of FIG. 8, the icon of each document newly registered in the workspace is displayed with a file name including information about the path of the document from which the document was copied. Also, the order of the document icons from the top represents the hierarchy of the folder to which the newly registered document belongs.

In the procedure of FIG. 10, if a document is registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down, the workspace is always opened on the document management screen 100 when the document management system 10 is started up thereafter, but this is just one example. Alternatively, the user may set in the setting management unit 18 whether the folder to be opened on the document management screen 100 when the document management system 10 is started up after a document is registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down should be the workspace, or whether the settings for the folder to be opened at startup should be followed.

In the above example, the operation of the document management system 10 at startup when a document was registered in the workspace while the document management system 10 was closed was described, but a similar operation may be performed for folders other than the workspace. In this case, the user sets the folder to be the target of this operation in the setting management unit 18. When the document management system 10 determines at startup that a document was added to the folder while the document management system 10 was closed, it opens the folder in the document pane 120 of the document management screen 100 that it displays.

<Displaying the original location of a document in the workspace>
The workspace is a virtual workplace where documents stored in a hierarchical folder structure for organization are copied and the copied documents are used for work. In this work, the user may need information on the location (folder) from which the document was copied in the workspace. For example, in the work of correcting a document to be corrected while comparing it with a model document, the model document is copied from a folder containing model documents and the target document is copied from a folder containing the document to be corrected to the workspace. In this case, when the user determines whether each document on the workspace is a model document or a document to be corrected, it is useful to know the location from which each document was copied. In addition, there may be a case where it is necessary to refer to other documents in the folder from which the document in the workspace was copied.

Therefore, the document management system 10 adds information about the storage location of the original document as an attribute to the document copied to the workspace. That is, when a processing unit that has the function of copying a document to the workspace (for example, the document processing unit 14 that registers a document to the workspace while the document management system 10 is running, or the "Copy to Workspace" application 24 that can register a document to the workspace while the document management system 10 is shut down) copies a document in a folder to the workspace, it adds the path name of the original document to the attribute information of the document as an attribute item named, for example, "Original Location". This makes it possible to process documents on the workspace using the "Original Location" attribute.

For example, as shown in FIG. 12, when the UI processing unit 16 receives an instruction to display attribute information of a document selected by a user in a work space opened on the document pane 120, the UI processing unit 16 displays an information view 150 showing the attribute information. In addition to the "location" 152 where the document is stored (e.g., the path name of the document), this information view 150 also displays the value of the document's "original location" 154.

The UI processing unit 16 may also display each document in the workspace opened on the document pane 120, reflecting its "original location." An example of such a display is shown in FIG. 13. In this example, the display manner of the icons 162A to 162F of each document in the workspace opened on the document pane 120 is differentiated by their "original location." For example, documents B, C, and D have the same "original location" folder, so the display manner of the icons 162B, 162C, and 162D of these three documents (e.g., the color of the icon or its outline, the thickness of the line, the brightness, etc.) is the same, and this display manner is different from the display manner of the icon 162A of document A and the icons 162E and 162F of documents E and F, which have different "original location" folders.

In the example of FIG. 13, the icon of each document is displayed with a file name that reflects the "original location" of the document. For example, document A was copied from one of the monthly subfolders of a purchase order folder in a user folder under the management of the document management system 10, and the file name display of the icon 162A of document A is a character string that represents the path from the document management system 10 ("Document Management") to document A (the source of the copy) in that monthly subfolder. Although not shown as an example, for documents copied to the workspace from other local folders not under the management of the document management system 10, a character string that represents the full path of the document's source of copy is displayed in the file name display.

In addition, files on a remote server outside the computer on which the document management system 10 is installed can also be copied to the workspace. The document management screen 100 illustrated in FIG. 13 shows a state in which a cloud service 119 with a document storage function on the Internet is mounted on the document management system 10 and used. Icons 162E and 162F represent copies of documents E and F in a folder in the cloud service 119. Here, the entities of documents E and F exist as temporary files in the computer, but the icons 162E and 162F are provided with file names indicating the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) from which documents E and F were copied so that the user is not aware of this. Note that when an information view 150 similar to that in FIG. 12 is displayed for documents E and F, the URLs are displayed in the original location 154a field as shown in FIG. 14.

Also, as shown in FIG. 15, the UI processing unit 16 may display document icons in the work space expanded on the document pane 120 in groups for documents that were copied from the same folder. In the illustrated example, icons 162 of documents that were copied from the same folder are arranged in an area surrounded by a frame 164 for grouping. In the illustrated example, the nested structure of the frames 164 represents the hierarchy of folders to which each document belongs. For example, the display in FIG. 15 represents that document B is stored in a folder a represented by a frame 164a, and documents C and D are stored in another folder b (represented by a frame 164b) below folder a.

The UI processing unit 16 also has a function of opening the folder of the "original location" of a document in the work space and displaying the documents in that folder. For example, FIG. 16 shows a state in which the user places the cursor on a document icon 162 in the work space expanded on the document pane 120 (i.e., selects the document) and displays a context menu 170 by right-clicking the mouse or the like. This context menu 170 includes a menu item 172 called "Open Original Location". When the user selects this menu item, the UI processing unit 16 displays icons of documents in the "original location" of the document (the folder where the copy source of the document is saved), as shown in FIG. 17. In the example of FIG. 17, the document pane 120 is divided into two parts, top and bottom, and the work space is displayed in the lower pane 120b and the "original location" is displayed in the upper pane 120a. In the illustrated example, the icons of three documents saved in the "original location" are displayed in the pane 120a. The user can open and view documents in pane 120a, or copy documents in pane 120a to lower pane 120b (work space) by dragging and dropping them. In addition, while the "original location" is open, the icon of the document in the work space of lower pane 120b that corresponds to the "original location" (i.e., the document selected to open the "original location") may be displayed in a manner that makes it distinguishable from the icons of other documents in the work space (e.g., highlighted by changing the color or brightness). This informs the user of which document in the work space the open "original location" corresponds to.

In addition, among the documents in the "original location" in pane 120a, the icon of a document with the same name as the document in the lower pane 120b corresponding to that "original location" (i.e., the document to be copied) may be displayed in a manner that makes it distinguishable from the icons of other documents in the "original location".

Furthermore, when the "Original Location" of a document in the workspace is opened in the upper pane 120a from the context menu 170 or the like, the icon of the document in the workspace (lower pane 120b) that has the "Original Location" folder currently open in that pane 120a as its "Original Location" attribute may be displayed in a display form that makes it distinguishable from icons whose "Original Location" attribute has other values. This allows the user to identify documents in the workspace (lower pane 120b) that have the same "Original Location" as the document selected as the focus in the workspace. Being able to identify documents in the workspace that came from the same "Original Location" as the document the user is focusing on can be helpful for the user's work.

In addition, when the icon of a document having the same "Original Location" attribute as the document selected by the user is displayed in the workspace in such a way that it can be distinguished from other documents, the icon of the document in the workspace where the "Original Location" was first opened and the icons of documents in the other workspaces that have the "Original Location" attribute may be displayed in a mutually distinguishable display form in the lower pane 120b. That is, in this example, the icon of the document in the workspace where the "Original Location" was first opened is displayed in such a way that it can be distinguished from the icons of other documents with the same "Original Location". This allows the user to distinguish the document that was originally focused on (the object of the "Original Location" opening operation) from other documents (especially other documents with the same "Original Location"). It is considered that a series of tasks performed by opening the "Original Location" is often positioned as a sub-task performed by interrupting the main task. By marking the document that was opened (first) so that it can be distinguished from other documents, as in this example, a guide can be provided for the user to smoothly return to the original main task.

For example, when a user is working on a document in the workspace and needs to refer to or use another document in the document's "original location," the user can use the function to open the "original location." In addition, a document in the "original location" can be opened and its contents displayed by performing an "open" operation, such as clicking on the document icon displayed in the upper pane 120a.

Also, if the "original location" is a folder not under the management of the document management system 10, the document management system 10 may call up the UI of the OS file system (e.g., Windows (registered trademark) Explorer (trademark)) and open the "original location" folder on the screen of that UI. Of course, in this case too, the "original location" may be opened in a pane or window generated within the document management screen 100, as in the example of FIG. 17.

Similarly, if the "original location" is located in a remote computer connected to the document management system 10 via a network, the document management system 10 similarly obtains the folder information for the "original location" and displays it on the screen.

Button 138 in operation button area 130 is a button for invoking an operation to open the "original location." By pressing this button 138 and selecting the target document from within the workspace, the user can open the "original location" folder of that document on the screen, in the same manner as described above.

The UI processing unit 16 also accepts an instruction to write the document in the workspace back to the "original location". Writing back may be overwriting a document with the same name in the "original location", or writing the document in a folder in the "original location" with a new name. The UI processing unit 16 displays menu items such as "Overwrite to original location" and "Save to original location as" in a context menu called up from an icon of a document in the workspace displayed in the document pane 120 or folder pane 110 of the document management screen 100, and if the former is selected, the UI processing unit 16 overwrites the document with the same name in the "original location", and if the latter is selected, the UI processing unit 16 accepts input of the name of the document and saves the document in the "original location" with that name.

In the above examples, the path name of the document from which the document was copied is recorded as the "Original Location" attribute of the document in the workspace. However, instead of the entire path name, the path name minus the document name at the end (i.e. the path of the folder to which the original document belongs) may be used as the "Original Location" attribute. Even in this case, services can be provided that do not require identifying the original document.

In the above example, information on the original location of documents registered in the workspace from other folders was recorded, and various services were provided according to that information. However, similar handling may also be performed for folders other than the workspace. In this case, the user sets in the setting management unit 18 the folders that are the target of this "original location" service. When a document is registered from another folder in the folder indicated by this setting, the document management system 10 records the "original location" information in the attributes of that document.

<Temporarily clearing up your workspace>
Consider a case where, while a user is working using the workspace, it becomes necessary to execute another task that has higher priority on the document management system 10. In this case, it is efficient to clear (evacuate) the documents for the current task in the workspace to free up the workspace, and then place the documents for the new task in the freed workspace. It is also convenient to be able to expand the documents cleared before in the workspace again after the interrupted task is completed, and resume the interrupted task. The following describes the function of the document management system 10 for temporarily clearing up tasks.

As shown in FIG. 18, when the workspace 114 is open on the document pane 120 and a specific operation such as right-clicking the mouse is performed on the ground part of the document pane 120 (the area without the document icon 122), the UI processing unit 16 displays a context menu 180 for the workspace. The context menu 180 includes a menu item "Tidy up" 182. By selecting this menu item "Tidy up", the user instructs the temporary tidying of the documents in the current workspace. The user can also instruct the temporary tidying of the documents currently held in the workspace 114 by pressing button 136 in the operation button area 130.

When a cleaning instruction is given, the cleaning processing unit 20 (see FIG. 1) is started. The cleaning processing unit 20 executes the procedure shown in FIG. 19, for example. In this procedure, the cleaning processing unit 20 first displays a cleaning dialog 400 (see FIG. 20) on the screen via the UI processing unit 16 (S20). The cleaning dialog 400 displays a message 402 requesting the user to input the name of a folder to be newly created as a destination for cleaning up documents in the workspace, and an input field 404 for the name. When the input field 404 is first displayed, a default name (for example, a character string indicating the current date and time) generated according to a preset naming rule is displayed. If necessary, the user changes the name in the input field 404 to the one he or she desires. If the user decides to create a cleaning folder with the name displayed in the input field 404 and to clean up documents in that folder, the user presses the OK button. On the other hand, if the user wishes to cancel the cleaning, the user presses the Cancel button. If a cleanup folder with the same name as the one entered in input field 404 of the cleanup dialog 400 already exists, the cleanup processing unit 20 does not immediately create a cleanup folder with that name, but instead prompts the user to change the name entered in input field 404. If a name different from that of an existing cleanup folder is entered, a new cleanup folder with that name is generated.

The tidying processing unit 20 determines whether the user pressed the OK or Cancel button (S22), and if the Cancel button was pressed, ends the process.

When the OK button is pressed, the tidying up processing unit 20 creates a new folder (tidying up folder) with the name in the input field 404 directly under the workspace 114 in the hierarchical structure of folders managed by the document management system 10 (S24). The tidying up processing unit 20 then moves all documents in the workspace to the tidying up folder created in S24 (S26). In other words, it saves those documents in the tidying up folder and deletes those documents from the workspace.

In this example, the tidying up folder is a subfolder (child folder) of the workspace, which is an exception to the general rule that workspaces do not have child folders within them. Unlike folders that make up a hierarchical structure for organizing documents, tidying up folders are folders that have a limited role as a temporary storage destination for the workspace, and in this example, only such tidying up folders are allowed to be placed below the workspace. Note that, unlike folders that make up a hierarchical structure for organizing documents, there is no particular significance in the tidying up folder being "lower" than the workspace. If the attribute information of the tidying up folder indicates that the tidying up folder is a storage destination for documents in the workspace, the tidying up folder does not have to be placed below the workspace.

As a result of this tidying process, the document management screen 100 displayed will be, for example, as shown in FIG. 21. In the document management screen 100 of FIG. 21, the icon of the tidying folder 115 is displayed immediately below the icon of the workspace 114 in the folder pane 110. Also, there are no document icons in the workspace displayed in the document pane 120.

In addition, after the documents of the first task have been put into the first cleaning folder, if a second task is started using the workspace and a need arises to perform another task while the second task is being performed, the documents for the second task in the workspace will be further cleaned up. In this case, the cleaning processing unit 20 creates a second cleaning folder separate from the first cleaning folder in the hierarchy immediately below the workspace, and moves (evacuates) the documents in the current workspace to this folder. In this way, multiple cleaning folders can be created.

The tidying up folder 115 is merely a temporary storage location for documents used for work that was done using the workspace, and working using the tidying up folder 115 is prohibited. This is to clarify the principle that work using documents should be done in the workspace.

If the cleanup folder is opened in the document pane 120 and operations such as editing, adding documents, and deleting documents are accepted, the distinction between the work space and the cleanup folder becomes unclear, and multiple work spaces will exist in effect. If this is allowed, the user will have to be constantly aware of whether the work he is currently working on belongs to the work space or to a cleanup folder. For example, suppose that a user opens a cleanup folder and interrupts a task using a document in the folder, closes the document management system 10, and then finds a new document to use for the task. When using the new document for the task, the user must, for example, start the document management system 10, identify and open the cleanup folder that was open before the interruption, and save the document in the cleanup folder. In order to identify the cleanup folder that was open before the interruption, the user must remember that the cleanup folder was the one used for the most recent task. It is also possible to copy a new document to be used in the interrupted work to the workspace without opening the document management system 10, for example by using the "Copy to workspace" application 24, but if the document was being worked on in a tidy folder before the interruption, it would be a mistake to copy the document to the workspace (which is for a different work than the tidy folder). However, if the user is required to specify the workspace or tidy folder to be used as the copy destination, the user's memory will be tested, just as in the case of opening the document management system 10 and then copying the document to the tidy folder before the interruption.

On the other hand, if work is done in the work space and the tidy folder is controlled so that it cannot be used as a work space (i.e. editing, etc. is not allowed), such problems can be eliminated or mitigated.

The document processing unit 14 may accept an operation to open the tidying folder 115 on the document pane 120 or an operation to open a document in the tidying folder 115. This can be used, for example, to allow the user to check the contents of the tidying folder. However, in order to prevent the tidying folder from being used for work, operations to change the contents of the documents in the tidying folder 115 (editing, deleting, etc.), add a new document to the tidying folder 115, or delete a document from the tidying folder 115 are not permitted. For example, when a user drops a document into the tidying folder 115 by dragging and dropping it, the document processing unit 14 does not accept the drop operation, and instead displays an error screen (not shown) via the UI processing unit 16 indicating that adding a document to the tidying folder is prohibited. In addition, when a user performs an operation to open a document in a tidying folder opened on the document pane 120, the document processing unit 14 opens the document on the screen in a read-only state (uneditable).

A workspace is "active" in the sense that it accepts operations that change its contents, whereas a tidy folder, whose contents are not allowed to be changed, can be thought of as an "inactive" workspace.

Next, the resumption of a temporarily put-apart task will be described. In other words, the following describes a case where, after the interrupted second task is completed, the documents of the first task that was put-apart before that are expanded again in the workspace, and the first task is resumed. In this case, the user opens the context menu 190 of the tidy-up folder 115 for which the user wishes to resume the task from within the folder pane 110 of the document management screen 100, as shown in FIG. 22. This context menu 190 includes a menu item 192 called "Return to workspace." When the user selects the menu item "Return to workspace" by clicking or the like, the tidy-up processing unit 20 executes a process for returning the documents in the tidy-up folder to the workspace. FIG. 23 illustrates an example of the procedure of this process.

In the processing procedure of FIG. 23, when the tidying processing unit 20 receives an instruction to return a tidying folder to the workspace, it first determines whether or not there is a current document in the workspace (S30). If there is no current document in the workspace, the tidying processing unit 20 moves all documents in the tidying folder to the workspace (S40), and after the move is complete, it deletes the tidying folder (S42).

If it is determined in S30 that a document currently exists in the workspace, it is necessary to preserve the documents in the workspace. In this case, the tidying up processing unit 20 generates a tidying up folder to save the documents in the current workspace, and moves the documents to that folder. That is, the tidying up processing unit 20 displays a tidying up return dialog 410 as shown in FIG. 24 on the screen (S32). This dialog 410 includes a message indicating that the documents in the current workspace need to be tidyed up in order to return the documents in the tidying up folder to the workspace, a message 412 prompting the user to input the name of a new tidying up folder for this purpose, and an input field 414 for the name. In this input field 414, a default name is displayed, as in the input field 404 of the tidying up dialog 400 in FIG. 20, and the user can change this to a name of his or her choice. If it is determined that a tidying up folder with the name displayed in the input field 414 should be generated and the documents in the workspace should be tidyed up in that folder, the user presses the OK button. On the other hand, if you want to cancel the tidying up, press the Cancel button.

The tidying up processing unit 20 determines whether the user has pressed the OK or Cancel button (S34), and if the Cancel button has been pressed, ends the process. In this case, the tidying up folder that the user selected to return and the workspace are both maintained in their current state.

When the OK button is pressed, the tidying up processing unit 20 creates a new tidying up folder with the name in the input field 414 at the level immediately below the workspace 114 (S36), and moves all documents currently in the workspace to that tidying up folder (S38). This empties the workspace. The tidying up processing unit 20 then moves all documents in the tidying up folder selected to be returned to the workspace (S40). This causes the documents that were previously in the tidying up folder to be retained in the workspace, and the tidying up folder becomes empty. The tidying up processing unit 20 deletes the now empty tidying up folder (S42).

Note that documents in the workspace have attributes that indicate the position of the document's icon on the workspace (i.e., the coordinates where the document's icon is located in the coordinate system of the document pane 120). These attributes are maintained even when documents are put away from the workspace to a tidy folder. When the tidy folder is returned to the workspace, the icon of each document is placed in the position indicated by the attribute on the document pane 120.

In the above example, a restriction was imposed on the tidying up folder that prohibits operations that change its contents, i.e., adding or deleting documents from the tidying up folder, editing documents in the tidying up folder, etc., but it is also possible to allow the user to lift some or all of the restriction according to their wishes. For example, the setting management unit 18 may have setting information for operations on the tidying up folder, and the user may select whether or not to allow each operation in the setting information (e.g., adding or deleting documents from the tidying up folder, editing documents in the tidying up folder).

In the above example, when the current work is interrupted and a new work is started, the documents in the workspace are moved to a newly created cleanup folder in response to a cleanup instruction to free up the workspace. Alternatively, the workspace may be changed to an inactive state, a new workspace for the new work is generated, and the new workspace may be made active. In this case, the document management system 10 makes one selected from the multiple workspaces held active, and manages the other workspaces as inactive. The document management system 10 permits operations to change the contents of the workspace, such as adding, deleting, and editing documents, for the workspace in the active state, but does not permit operations to change the contents of the workspace in the inactive state. The UI processing unit 16 treats the active workspace among the multiple workspaces as the workspace 114 in the folder pane 110 of the document management screen 100, and treats the inactive workspace as the cleanup folder 115 in the folder pane 110.

You can also apply the same temporary cleanup process described above to folders other than the workspace.

<Workspace synchronization>
The process of synchronizing a workspace in the document management system 10 with a folder corresponding to the workspace in another computer will be described. Here, the synchronization of two folders (workspaces are also a type of folder) refers to a process of making the sets of documents held in the two folders match each other. In other words, in two synchronized folders, a document held in one folder is also held in the other folder, and there is no document that is held in one folder but not the other. In addition, the same document held in the two folders will match not only in file name but also in content and last update date and time.

Such synchronization of workspaces is used in the following cases, for example. For example, multiple users put the same document in the workspace in each computer, and each user works using the document in the workspace of his/her own computer, thus realizing a pseudo-collaboration. Also, when the same user works on a computer in a first location at one time and on a computer in a second location at another time, it is necessary to synchronize the workspaces in those two computers. In addition, in the case of collaboration or when the same user works on different computers at different times, it is possible to synchronize the workspace in the first computer with a folder corresponding to the workspace in a server such as a cloud service on the Internet, and then synchronize from the folder on the server to the workspace of the second computer. In the following, an example will be described in which the workspace of the document management system 10 in a certain computer is synchronized with a corresponding folder on the cloud service.

In this example, as shown in FIG. 25, the folder structure of the cloud service 119 used by the user is mounted on the folder structure of the document management system 10. In the cloud service 119, a folder 119a is provided for a user (temporarily named "User A") who is using the document management system 10, and a workspace 119b is provided in this folder 119a. Workspace 119b (actually located in a cloud service on the Internet) is a folder that corresponds to the workspace of User A in the document management system 10, and is provided to synchronize with this workspace. In the illustrated example, a tidying up folder 115 exists below workspace 114 in the folder hierarchical structure.

The operation button area 130 also includes a synchronization button 139. The synchronization button 139 is a button for instructing the execution of synchronization between the workspace in the document management system 10 and the workspace folder in the cloud service 119.

In the example of FIG. 25, a workspace is opened in the document pane 120 of the document management screen 100. In this state, the tidy up button 136, the "Original location" button 138, and the sync button 139 in the operation button area 130 are active (i.e., the user can select them), and the "Copy to workspace" button 134 is in an inselectable state (low contrast display, the user cannot select this operation). In addition, a toolbox 500 for the workspace is displayed in the document pane 120, and this toolbox 500 includes a tidy up button 502, an "Original location" button 504, and a sync button 506. These buttons 502 to 506 have the same role as the buttons of the same name in the operation button area 130. (Note that in the example described using FIG. 4, etc., a similar toolbox 500 for the workspace may be displayed in the document pane 120 that displays the workspace.)

In this example, with workspace 114 open on document pane 120, the user can press synchronization button 139 or 506 (e.g., by selecting by clicking the mouse, etc.) to synchronize workspace 114 with workspace 119b in cloud service 119. That is, in response to pressing synchronization button 139, etc., synchronization processing unit 22 (see FIG. 1) is started, and synchronization processing unit 22 copies documents between workspace 114 in document management system 10 and workspace 119b in cloud service 119, deletes documents, etc., so that the sets of documents held by these spaces match (details will be given in the following section "Resolving inconsistencies during synchronization").

Although not shown in the figure, a menu item for synchronizing with the cloud may be displayed on the context menu called up for an icon in the workspace 114 of the folder pane 110, and synchronization may be performed by selecting this menu item.

When the synchronization processing unit 22 performs synchronization processing between the workspace 114 and the workspace 119b, it only synchronizes the documents in the workspaces 114 and 119b. Even if there are subfolders (i.e., tidying up folders) in the workspaces 114 and 119b, the synchronization processing unit 22 does not automatically synchronize the subfolders as a general rule when synchronizing the workspaces. This aims to reduce the amount of communication between the document management system 10 and the cloud service when synchronizing the workspaces.

Figure 26 shows an example of the document management screen 100 with the tidying up folder 115 open on the document pane 120. When the tidying up folder 115 is open, the "Copy to workspace" button 134, the tidying up button 136, the "Original location" button 138, and the synchronization button 139 in the operation button area 130 are not selectable, and the toolbox corresponding to the toolbox 500 for the workspace is not displayed. Therefore, the tidying up folder 115 cannot be synchronized with the cloud service side at least with a single button operation. Note that a menu item for synchronizing with the cloud may be displayed on the icon of the tidying up folder 115 or on a context menu called up from the document pane 120, and the tidying up folder 115 may be synchronized with the cloud service side by selecting this menu item.

As described above, the tidying up folder 115 is not synchronized with the cloud service side in principle when the workspace is synchronized with the cloud service side. However, when the user instructs synchronization of the workspace, the synchronization processing unit 22 may inquire of the user whether to synchronize the tidying up folder at the same time. An example of an inquiry screen 600 displayed by the synchronization processing unit 22 for this inquiry is shown in FIG. 27. This inquiry screen 600 includes a message 602 prompting the user to select a tidying up folder to be synchronized at the same time as the workspace to be synchronized with the cloud side, and a display field 604 listing the tidying up folders to be selected. The display field 604 lists the names of the tidying up folders included in the workspace. A check box is displayed to the left of the name of the tidying up folder in the list, and the user selects the tidying up folder to be synchronized by checking this check box. If there are many tidying up folders and all of them cannot be displayed in the display field 604, the display range is scrolled using the scroll bar 606 at the end of the display field 604. Here, the order of the tidying up folders in the list displayed in the display field 604 may be, for example, in descending order of the creation date and time of the tidying up folder. In this way, when the inquiry screen 600 is opened, the tidying up folder with the most recent creation date and time is displayed at the top of the display field 604, and the other tidying up folders are arranged below in descending order of the creation date and time.

If the user wishes to synchronize a tidying up folder with the workspace at the same time, the user checks the check box to indicate their selection and then presses the OK button. This causes the synchronization processing unit 22 to synchronize the workspace and the selected tidying up folder with the corresponding folders on the cloud service side.

In the above example, the workspace synchronization is performed in response to a user instruction, but instead, the synchronization may be performed automatically, for example, at regular intervals. For example, the synchronization may be performed automatically when the document management system 10 is started.

In addition, the automatic synchronization may be set by the user. FIG. 28 illustrates an example of a setting screen 700 for a workspace including settings for automatic synchronization. The setting screen 700 includes a setting field 702 for automatic synchronization of the workspace and a setting field 704 for automatic synchronization of the tidying folder. In the setting field 702 for automatic synchronization of the workspace, an option of not performing automatic synchronization and an option of performing automatic synchronization can be selected by radio buttons. For the latter option, the timing of automatic synchronization is listed with check boxes, and one or more of the respective timings can be selected. Options for the timing of automatic synchronization of the workspace include the timing when a change occurs in the workspace, such as the addition or deletion of a document, and regular timing, and for the latter, the interval between the regular timings can be set. In addition, in the setting field 704 for automatic synchronization of the tidying folder, two options can be selected by radio buttons: an option of not performing automatic synchronization and an option of performing automatic synchronization when the tidying folder is generated. Note that the options illustrated in FIG. 28 are merely exemplary, and other options may be available.

As explained above, in this example, the workspace can be synchronized with the cloud service with a single touch, but synchronization of the tidy folder with the cloud service is not permitted, or even if it is permitted, it requires more complicated operations than the workspace (for example, calling up a context menu and making a selection). Also, the timing of automatic synchronization is more limited for the tidy folder than for the workspace.

Note that similar synchronization control can be applied to a method that uses the above-mentioned active and inactive workspaces instead of using a workspace and a cleanup folder. In this case, the active workspace can be treated as the workspace in the above-mentioned synchronization process, and the inactive workspace can be treated as the cleanup folder in the above-mentioned synchronization process.

<Resolving inconsistencies during synchronization>
Next, the synchronization process between the work space 114 in the document management system 10 and the corresponding folder (work space 119b) on the cloud service side will be described in more detail.

For this synchronization process, the synchronization processing unit 22 manages a synchronization management file. The synchronization management file records the update date and time of each document in the workspace 114 and the corresponding folder on the cloud service side at the time of the previous synchronization. Each time synchronization is performed, the synchronization processing unit 22 checks the update date and time of each document in the workspace and the corresponding folder on the cloud service side after the synchronization is completed, and updates the synchronization management file accordingly.

When performing synchronization processing, the synchronization processing unit 22 refers to this synchronization management file to detect additions, deletions, and updates of documents in the workspace of the document management system 10 and in the corresponding folders of the cloud service.

Figure 29 illustrates an example of the procedure of the synchronization process executed by the synchronization processing unit 22. In this procedure, the synchronization processing unit 22 first obtains a list of documents that exist in the workspace of the document management system 10 and a list of documents that exist in the corresponding folder of the cloud service with which the documents are to be synchronized (S50).

Next, the synchronization processing unit 22 compares the document list of the workspace and the document list of the corresponding folder acquired in S50 with the synchronization management file (S52). In this comparison, for example, if a document in the document list of the workspace is not recorded in the synchronization management file, it can be determined that the document was added to the workspace after the previous synchronization. Also, for example, if a document recorded in the synchronization management file is not in the document list of the workspace, it can be determined that the document has been deleted from the workspace. Also, if the update date and time of a document in the document list of the workspace is later than the update date and time of the same document recorded in the synchronization management file, it can be determined that the document in the workspace has been updated. A similar determination is made for documents in the corresponding folder on the cloud service side.

Next, the synchronization processing unit 22 uploads the document that was found to have been added to the workspace in S52 to the corresponding folder on the cloud service side, and similarly downloads the document that was found to have been added to the corresponding folder on the cloud service side to the workspace (S54). Also, if it is found that a document recorded in the synchronization management file has been updated in either the workspace or the cloud service but not updated in the other, the synchronization processing unit 22 may reflect the update in the other. For example, if a document in the workspace is updated and the same document on the cloud service side is not updated, the document in the workspace is overwritten with the same document in the corresponding folder on the cloud service side.

Next, based on the information obtained in S52, the synchronization processing unit 22 lists document inconsistencies between the workspace and the corresponding folder on the cloud side due to document deletion or updating, and generates a batch synchronization screen to accept designation of a solution method from the user for each of these inconsistencies (S56).

The inconsistencies extracted here are limited to those that require the user to make a decision. For example, a document that was added to either the workspace or the corresponding folder on the cloud side, or a document that was updated in one but not the other, as processed in S54, is inconsistent in the broad sense, but in these cases, it is clear that the added document or the updated document should take priority, and there is no need to ask the user for a decision. Also, if a document recorded in the synchronization management file has been deleted from both the workspace and the corresponding folder on the cloud side, it is clear that the document is no longer needed by the user, and there is no need to ask the user for a decision when synchronizing.

The following cases are examples of inconsistencies extracted in S56. One is when a document is deleted from either the workspace or the corresponding folder on the cloud service side, but remains in the other. In this case, the user may want to use the remaining document, so the user is queried as to how to resolve the inconsistency (deletion of only one side). The second case is when the same document is updated in both the workspace and the corresponding folder on the cloud side. This case is called a conflict state. In the case of a conflict state, the user is queried as to which update should be valid (i.e., which should be adopted in this synchronization). The bulk synchronization screen is configured to accept a selection of a solution method from the user for each of these cases of inconsistencies. The bulk synchronization screen will be explained later.

The synchronization processing unit 22 then displays the batch synchronization screen and accepts from the user a selection of a solution (action) for each inconsistency (S58). The inconsistencies are then resolved using the solution selected by the user (S59). This resolution of the inconsistencies (and the processing of S54) achieves synchronization between the workspace and the corresponding folder on the cloud service side.

An example of the procedure for the synchronization process has been described above. Next, an example of the batch synchronization screen 800 displayed in S58 will be described with reference to FIG. 30. This batch synchronization screen 800 includes a message requesting the user to take action, a workspace priority button 802, a cloud priority button 804, and an inconsistency list 810.

Inconsistency list 810, the inconsistencies extracted in S56 are listed. For each inconsistency, inconsistency list 810 includes the document name (file name) of the document in which the inconsistency was detected, a description of the "status" of the inconsistency, and an item for the action (solution method) to resolve the inconsistency. The action item is configured as a pull-down menu, and this menu lists a selection of actions to resolve the "status" of the inconsistency. The user can select an action to resolve the inconsistency from the pull-down menu.

The workspace priority button 802 is a button for selecting an action that prioritizes documents on the workspace side for all inconsistencies in the inconsistency list 810. The cloud priority button 804 is a button for selecting an action that prioritizes documents in the corresponding folder on the cloud service side for all inconsistencies in the inconsistency list 810.

FIG. 31 shows an example of a judgment table for each "state" of inconsistency. This table shows, for each "state," options for actions that can be selected from a pull-down menu, and which of these options will be selected when the workspace priority button 802 or the cloud priority button 804 is pressed. For example, for an inconsistency state in which a document has been deleted from the workspace (the same document remains on the cloud side), the options for actions that can be selected include an action to also delete the document on the cloud, and an action to restore the document from the cloud to the workspace (i.e., download the document from the cloud to the workspace). Among these options for actions, a circle is shown for the one that will be selected when the workspace priority button 802 or the cloud priority button 804 is pressed. For example, when the workspace priority button 802 is pressed, an action to delete the document on the cloud is selected, and when the cloud priority button 804 is pressed, an action to restore the document from the cloud to the workspace is selected.

When the workspace priority button 802 on the batch synchronization screen 800 is pressed, the synchronization processing unit 22 changes the pull-down menu of the action corresponding to each document in the inconsistency list 810 to a state in which the option when the workspace priority button 802 is pressed in the judgment table of FIG. 31 is selected. Also, when the cloud priority button 804 is pressed, the synchronization processing unit 22 changes the pull-down menu of the action corresponding to each document in the inconsistency list 810 to a state in which the option when the cloud priority button 804 is pressed in the judgment table of FIG. 31 is selected. After selecting the action options for each document with inconsistencies collectively with the workspace priority button 802 and cloud priority button 804, it is also possible to reselect the action for each document in the pull-down menu. It is also possible to reselect collectively with the workspace priority button 802 and cloud priority button 804.

When the user presses the OK button on the batch synchronization screen 800, the action currently selected for each document in the inconsistency list 810 becomes the synchronization processing (inconsistency resolution) action applied to that document. The synchronization processing unit 22 executes that action for each of those documents.

In addition, in the bulk synchronization screen 800 illustrated in FIG. 30, a selection fixing means (e.g., a GUI button) that accepts fixing of a selection may be provided in association with the pull-down menu of the action of each inconsistent document. The selection state of the inconsistent document pull-down menu in which the selection is fixed by this selection fixing means in response to a user instruction does not change (i.e., the fixed selection is maintained) even when the workspace priority button 802 and the cloud priority button 804 are pressed.

As shown in FIG. 32, among the types of inconsistencies shown on the batch synchronization screen 800, for conflicts between updates on the local (document management system 10) side and the cloud service side, the update times on the local and cloud sides may be displayed. Such display of the update times serves as reference information when the user decides whether to use the update on the local or cloud side. Note that while it is possible for the synchronization processing unit 22 to automatically select the one with the newer update time, there may be cases where the user prefers to select the one with the older update, so in this example the user is asked to make a decision.

In the examples of Figs. 30 and 31, there are two options for the action for a document with an update conflict: overwriting the other with either the document in the workspace or the corresponding folder on the cloud side. In addition to this, an option "rename and save both" may be added to the options in the case of a conflict. This option is a process of renaming (changing the name) the document related to the conflict in the workspace, uploading the renamed document to the cloud side, and downloading the document related to the conflict on the cloud side (not renamed) to your side. Although this is only one example, a method of renaming may be used, for example, by adding a specific delimiter (e.g., a hyphen) and a serial number (one that does not overlap with the number previously added to the same document name) to the end of the original document name. Also, instead of renaming the document on the workspace side, the document on the cloud side may be renamed. Also, the document on the workspace side and the document on the cloud side selected according to a specific criterion (e.g., the one with the older update date and time) may be renamed. With this synchronization option, both the workspace and cloud versions of the conflicting document are saved in both the workspace and the cloud by renaming one of them.

The document management system 10 and the "Copy to workspace" application 24 exemplified above are realized, for example, by having a computer execute a program representing the function of each of those devices. Here, the computer has a circuit configuration in which, for example, as hardware, a microprocessor such as a CPU, memories (primary storage) such as random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM), an HDD controller that controls an HDD (hard disk drive), various I/O (input/output) interfaces, a network interface that controls connection to a network such as a local area network, and the like are connected, for example, via a bus. In addition, a disk drive for reading and/or writing to portable disk recording media such as CDs and DVDs, a memory reader/writer for reading and/or writing to portable non-volatile recording media of various standards such as flash memory, and the like may be connected to the bus, for example, via an I/O interface. A program describing the processing contents of each of the functional modules exemplified above is stored in a fixed storage device such as a hard disk drive via a recording medium such as a CD or DVD, or via a communication means such as a network, and installed in the computer. The program stored in the fixed storage device is read into the RAM and executed by a microprocessor such as a CPU, thereby realizing the functional modules illustrated above.

(Additional Note)
(((1)))
A specific folder that can store one or more documents and is prohibited from having folders inside;
an edit receiving means for receiving edits to the document in the specific folder;
An information processing device comprising:
(((2)))
The information processing device according to (((1))), further including a normal folder that can have folders therein, and including the specific folder in addition to the normal folder.
(((3)))
The information processing device according to ((1))) or ((2)) further includes an alternative processing unit that, when an instruction to store a folder in a specific folder is received, executes an alternative process instead of storing the folder.
(((4)))
The information processing device according to (((3))), wherein the alternative process is a process of displaying a notification screen indicating that storage of a folder is prohibited in the specific folder.
(((5)))
The alternative processing means, in association with the notification screen, queries the user as to whether or not to store a document in the folder to be stored in the specific folder, and if an instruction is received from the user in response to this query to store the document in the folder in the specific folder, stores the document in the folder in the specific folder.
(((6)))
The information processing device according to ((3)), wherein the alternative process is a process of storing the document in the folder in the specific folder.
(((7)))
a means for receiving a setting for selecting one of options including a first process for not storing the folder and displaying a notification screen indicating that storing a folder in the specific folder is prohibited, and a second process for executing a process for storing a document in the folder in the specific folder, as a process to be performed when an instruction to store a folder in the specific folder is received;
a means for executing a process selected in the setting when an instruction to store a folder in the specific folder is received;
The information processing device according to ((1))) or ((2))).
(((8)))
The information processing device described in any one of ((5)) to ((7)) further includes a means for displaying a list of documents stored in the specific folder, the means for displaying a list of documents stored in the specific folder from the same folder in a display manner that distinguishes the group of documents from other documents.
(((9)))
Computer,
A specific folder that can store one or more documents and is prohibited from having folders inside it;
an edit receiving means for receiving edits to the document in the specific folder;
A program to function as a
(((10)))
An information processing device including a storage processing means for, when receiving an instruction to store an object in a specific folder, storing the object in the specific folder if the object is a file, and executing an alternative process instead of storing the object in the specific folder if the object is a folder.
(((11)))
Computer,
a storage processing means for, when receiving an instruction to store an object in a specific folder, storing the object in the specific folder if the object is a file, and for executing an alternative process instead of storing the object in the specific folder if the object is a folder;
A program to function as a

According to the information processing devices relating to (((1))) to (((3))) and (((10))) and the programs relating to (((9))) and (((11))), it is possible to know the documents in a specific folder with fewer operations than when a hierarchical folder group is used.
According to the information processing device of (((4))), it is possible to inform the user that storing the specified folder in a specific folder is prohibited.
According to the information processing device of ((5))) or ((6)), it is possible to store a document in a specified folder in a specific folder without providing a subfolder in the specific folder.
According to the information processing device of (((7))), it is possible to set in advance the process to be performed when an instruction to store a folder in a specific folder is given.
According to the information processing device of ((8)), in a display of a list of documents in a specific folder, documents stored in the same folder can be distinguished.

10 Document management system, 12 Document import unit, 14 Document processing unit, 16 UI processing unit, 18 Setting management unit, 20 Cleanup processing unit, 22 Synchronization processing unit, 24 "Copy to workspace" application, 100 Document management screen, 110 Folder pane, 112 Icon, 114 Workspace, 116 User folder, 119 Cloud service, 120 Document pane.

Claims (3)

On the computer,
A list of files registered in a work space having an area for accepting drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created, can be simultaneously displayed on the screen;
When the user performs the drag-and-drop operation on the file registered in the first folder into the area of the work space displayed on the screen, the file is registered in the work space;
A program characterized by causing, when a user attempts to perform a drag-and-drop operation on a folder created in the first folder into the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, to display on the screen a message indicating that the folder cannot be registered in the workspace. The program according to claim 1, characterized in that files can be registered in the workspace, but folders cannot be registered. A processor is provided.
The processor,
A list of files registered in a work space having an area for accepting drag-and-drop operations of files, and files registered in a first folder in which folders can be created, can be simultaneously displayed on the screen;
When the user performs the drag-and-drop operation on the file registered in the first folder into the area of the work space displayed on the screen, the file is registered in the work space;
An information processing device characterized in that, when a user attempts to perform a drag-and-drop operation on a folder created in the first folder into the area of the workspace displayed on the screen, a message is displayed on the screen indicating that the folder cannot be registered in the workspace.

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