Method for Dynamically Processing Non-Text Components in Compound Documents

1. Technical Field

This invention relates to compound document composition and processing and more particularly to methods for embedding within a document non-text objects.

2. Background Art

With the advent of modern computer technology, and in particular, with word and text processing applications, it is desirable to expand such application programs to allow the creation of compound documents. A compound document is defined as a document in which non-text objects such as an image, a graphic or an audio component are embedded in the textual data stream. In the prior art, the non-text objects have been represented in the document by an icon.

One problem encountered in the composition and management of compound documents is the great amount of computer memory and secondary storage required for viewing and storing these documents. Depending upon the resolution of the image and whether grey level or color is used, an image can require several million bytes of storage and a graphic representation such as a CAD drawing can require tens of thousands of bytes of storage.

Another problem encountered in the composition and management of compound documents is the ability to represent within the document on a display, particularly on a non image/graphic display, such as an alphanumeric display, the full contextual and visual placement of a non-text object within the text preceding and following it. Depending upon the capabilities of the given display, it is not always possible to visually display both text and non-text components concurrently.

There are several methods known in the prior art for storing such graphics or image/non-text objects. The most direct method is to directly store in the data stream the entire bit map or vector representation or audio representation that is to be incorporated in the document. In this method, any subsequent display of the same non-text object in the document requires that the entire non-text object be stored once again in the data stream. Since many documents will reference and display a figure more than once in the document, this method can become quite storage intensive.

Another method for non-text object storage stores the object in a compressed form, such as the CCITT standards of storage of certain image and graphic non-text objects and similar modes of compressing audio data. In this way, the compressed non-text object is stored in the data stream. To view the text and non-text document in their entirety, any such browsing system must have the requisite decoding or decompressing algorithms resident in on-line code, and the required high intensity computations must be performed as part of the browse operation. Although this method does reduce the amount of storage for multiple incorporations of the same non-text object, or for single non-text objects, it does lead to slow, compute intensive display and browse of a document. The ability to store a non-text object and reference it multiple times in a non-storage and non-computer intensive environment has not been accomplished by any of the prior art methods.

There are few methods known in the prior art for accurate representation of a non-text component on a non image/graphic capable display. One method would be to reserve "white space" in and around the text area of the document for later placement of the non-text component. White space is a reserved area on the screen into which no additional text or input could be placed. This white space would take up the same amount of space as the referenced non-text object requires within the document without displaying the non-text object directly. Documents which contain full page image/graphic objects would thus be represented as multiple pages of white space in the document. This method is generally not deemed user-friendly, since scrolling the document can result in encountering several pages of all white screens.

Another method for representing non-text components in a document is to place an icon or control within the data stream on one line within the document. Although this method significantly reduces the space used to represent the components in the document, it does not provide the user or controlling program the information necessary to understand how a particular component is to be placed within the remaining text of the document.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved means of creating compound documents which contain text and non-text components.

It is another object of the invention to minimize the amount of storage required for multiple inclusion of a single non-text object within a compound document.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved and user-friendly means of presenting a non-text object within a compound document on an alphanumeric display.

It is still another object of the invention to minimize the storage and compute requirements for displaying non-text components.

These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by combining information about various image/graphic/audio or other non-text objects in a compound document, tying that information with the Dynamically Active Image/Graphic/Object Control Field (hereafter referencing or component control) and displaying that information to the user on a single line of text. This invention provides an improved method of storage and multiple referencing of a given non-text object as well as an improved means of locating non-text objects within a textual document without consuming space within the document for subsequent text entry. This is done by providing multiple referencing controls for a given non-text object within the document database while storing the given non-text object only in a single location within the document database. Reference is made to a component index by the data processing system to locate the non-text object within the document.

First, the compound document organized in an external Revisable Form Text/Document Content Architecture (RFT/DCA) data stream is transformed into an internal editing format in the random access memory in the data processing system. The transformation process recognizes the existence of non-text objects within the data stream and extracts information from the data stream about the objects to construct a component index. The component index typically would include the component name, its type, i.e., image/graphic/audio or some other type, an internal system page number containing a pointer/displacement to the first page of the non-text component data followed by a count of the number of sequential pages containing the non-text data, and reserved fields for any related information about the non-text object. This component index is initially created during the document transformation from external RFT/DCA format to internal format. It is kept current in the editing process by updating the index after the successful inclusion of a new image/graphic/audio component within the document data stream. The component index is also utilized when components are deleted from the document or renamed within the document.

The transformation process recognizes the existence of non-text objects or components within the data stream and places a referencing control (also called component control) on the line where the non-text component will be printed in the final document. This control is displayed to the user when a page of text containing non-text components is viewed. At the control, the user has several options open to him: (1) To hot-key to a screen that is capable of displaying the referenced component, (2) To display a menu associated with the component control which includes the control parameters listed for the non-text components, (3) To change the control parameters for the non-text components with or without displaying the menu containing the control parameters. When the third option is taken, the program controlling the page layout will have the information necessary to reflow the document as necessary based on the new control parameters.

Another embodiment of the invention envisions the use of component indexes within more than one document; where while editing a primary document, a second component index is utilized during a view of a second document which also contains non-text components. The same document transformation process is performed on the second viewable only document, thereby creating the second component index. The invention envisions combining a non-text component of the second, viewable only document into the primary editing document. After both component indexes are created, the source non-text component in the second document is defined by the user by selecting the component control associated with the source non-text component. Then a target location in the primary editing document is selected. A referencing control is placed in the primary document at the position where the non-text component from the second document will ultimately be printed in the final document. The invention refers to the second index table for the location of the non-text component in the second document database and extracts the non-text component to the first document database. Then an index entry is added to the first index component which describes the location, size, name, type, etc., of the non-text component in the primary document.

The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be more fully appreciated with reference to the accompanying figures.

FIG. 1 is an architectural block diagram of a data processor, depicting the memory having read therein a first document.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of the process for transforming a document data stream into the document as seen in FIG. 3 and the index table, also as seen in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is an architectural block diagram of the data processor shown in FIG. 1, which depicts the format for the document and the arrangement of the index table after having been produced by the flow diagram of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates the layout of a single entry into the index for an image or a graphic component.

FIG. 5 is a depiction of the appearance of a first document, including the control characters imbedded therein, and showing in particular, the location of image and graphic components to be inserted.

FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 represent pages 1, 2 and 3 of the document depicted in FIG. 5, showing its appearance in final form, which includes the image components and graphic components which are produced in the positions designated by the control characters shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 is an architectural block diagram of the data processor shown in FIG. 1, after a second document has been read into the memory, and a second index table generated for the second document.

FIG. 10 depicts the appearance of the second document, including the control characters which are imbedded therein.

FIG. 11 depicts the appearance of the second document, which includes the arrangement of the graphical components in the locations designated by the control characters shown in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is an architectural block diagram of the data processor shown in FIG. 1, wherein the operation of copying one of the graphical components from the second document into the first document is illustrated.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of the copying function for carrying out the copying of an image or graphical component from a first document into a second document, as was referred to in FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of the operation of adding an entry to an index table.

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of the operation of printing a compound document containing both text, graphical components, and image components, such as is depicted in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an operation to rename an index entry in an index table.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of the operation to delete an entry in an index table.

The invention can be utilized in the distributed data processing system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,735 entitled "Multi-Lingual Processing for Screen Image Build and Command Decode in a Word Processor, With Full Command, Message and Help Support," by K. W. Borgendale, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. The invention disclosed herein can also be implemented in the stand-alone processor such as a personal computer.

The preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a set of programs for controlling a text processing system as shown. The architectural block diagram in FIG. 1 which includes a CPU 20 connected by means of a system bus 22 to a random access memory 24. The random access memory 24 stores the set of program instructions in the form of code modules, to perform operating system functions in the module 26, word processor functions in the module 28, vector graphics functions in the module 30, dot image functions in the module 32, transform code functions in the module 34, display code functions in the module 36, printer code functions in the module 38, multi-document management code functions in the module 40, and document component copying functions in the copy-code module 42. Also included in the data processing system of FIG. 1, is a read-only memory 44, which contains fixed instructions which are executable by the CPU 20 to carry out elementary operations for the processor. The I/O 46, can be connected to communication lines or other I/O equipment for communication by the processor, with external equipment.

An alphanumeric (A/N) display 48 can display text, for example, on a screen of 80 columns wide by 25 lines high, a page of alphanumeric text can be displayed with approximately 2,000 alphanumeric characters. An alphanumeric display, however, is not capable of displaying individual pels of visual information. Therefore, images formed from an array of dots or graphical representations formed from a vector graphics data set, cannot be displayed on an alphanumeric display.

Also included in the data processor of FIG. 1 is an all-points addressable display (APA) 50, which is capable of displaying each individual pel in a dot-image or a vector graphics image, as well as an alphanumeric text. Still further, a dot-matrix printer 52 is connected in the data processor of FIG. 1, which is capable of printing out each individual pel of a dot-image or a vector-graphics image. The disk storage 54 in the data processor of FIG. 1 stores files of the documents such as Document 1, depicted in FIG. 1. Document scanner 56 provides the preferred means of inputting image data into the text processing system to provide an image non-text component, and a digital-audio card can input the data for a digital audio non-text component. Image, graphic, and digital audio non-text components are the primary non-text components contemplated by the preferred embodiment, although other types of non-text components are possible.

Document 1 in FIG. 1 is generally organized to include a format unit, text units, non-text units and an end unit. Document 1 is in a modified revisable form (RFT/DCA) architecture. In accordance with the invention, non-text components such as image data units and vector graphics data units can be included in Document 1. In FIG. 1, the non-text "logo" image, the non-text "salespie" graphic, the non-text "words" image, the non-text "staff" image, and the non-text "arsig" image are included in Document 1. Document 1 can be read in as a single reading operation into the memory 24, or in an alternate embodiment, Document 1 can have its various units sequentially read-in and can be operated upon. In either embodiment, Document 1 will be operated upon by the transform code 34 which is depicted in the flow diagram of FIG. 2, to generate Index 1, as is shown in FIG. 3. An index such as Index 1 includes one or more index entries. An index entry format is shown in FIG. 4.

As Document 1 is operated upon by the transform code 34 of FIG. 2, the transform code 34 checks to see if a non-text component is present, such as the "logo" component. If such a component is present, its characteristics are extracted from the revisable form Document 1 for component index, Index 1, shown in FIG. 3. The transform code 34 determines whether the Index 1 already exists, if not, it begins constructing Index 1 for Document 1. When the Index 1 is constructed, a table header is constructed and then the data necessary for the image entry for "logo," is then entered. The transform code 34 adds the new data for "logo" to the component index to an already existing index entry for "logo" in Index 1, or if none is existing, as would be the case when Index 1 is being constructed, the transform code 34 adds a new index entry ("logo") for the non-text component. Reference to FIG. 3 will illustrate that the component index, Index 1, commences with a table header, followed by the "logo" image index entry. In FIG. 2, the program then inquires as to whether there are additional non-text components to add to Index 1. If there are additional non-text components, it repeats the procedure outlined above for building Index 1. The program flow of FIG. 2 then reviews Document 1 to identify the rest of the non-text components, namely "salespie," "words," "staff," "arsig." These five non-text components are entered into the Index 1, as is shown in FIG. 3.

Reference to FIG. 4 shows the layout of a single index entry in the component index for Index 1. FIG. 4 illustrates that there are several fields present for each entry. An offset refers to the next index entry in the component index. A component-type field designates whether the component is image information, vector graphic information or other type of information such as digital-audio information. The next field will name the component; for Document 1, the first non-text component is "logo," which would be used as the component name on that index entry. The next field provides the internal starting page number, i.e., where the "logo" image is stored within the data stream of Document 1. The next field provides a page count, which is the number of internal 12 K byte pages, which the image entry will occupy. Additional fields can be provided for other characteristics of the component.

After Index 1 is constructed, the user can exercise a number of options. One option is to display the alphanumeric text of the Document 1 on the alphanumeric display 48. The user has the option of displaying the text alone in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form. WYSIWYG form implies that the document displayed to the user is exactly what the document will look like in its ultimate printed form. Alternately, the user can display the control characters, which are embedded in the alphanumeric text, as is depicted in FIG. 5. The characters <RCR>, <CR>, <SKP>, etc., represent the control characters. The control characters show where lines are skipped, new paragraphs made, etc. within the compound document. For example, the characters <CR> stand for carrier return, the characters <SKP> stand for skip lines, the characters <RCR> stand for required carrier return, and so forth. FIG. 5 also illustrates another feature of the invention which is the incorporation of place marker icons which indicate to the user the locations within the alphanumeric text of the referencing controls where the images and vector graphic depictions will be ultimately printed in the final compound document. The icon is a line of asterisks in combination with a file type (image, graphic, audio, etc.), and a file name, i.e., "logo". Alternate ways of depicting the place marker icons are possible. As can be seen in FIG. 5, the "logo" and other non-text components have their places marked where they will appear in the final printed document.

FIG. 5, illustrates yet another facet of the invention. By representing the non-text component by a one-line place marker icon, the drawbacks of the "white-space" prior art method are avoided. In addition, page markers for each page are displayed so that the user knows the placement of the non-text component in the compound document, i.e., what page the non-text component occurs, etc.

If the user elects to print out the compound document, Document 1, it will appear as is shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8, which are the document pages 1, 2 and 3, respectively. As can be seen in FIG. 6, the dot image for the "logo" non-text component is printed at the top of page 1, and reads "Any Company Enterprises" with accompanying graphics as was designated by the user in FIG. 5. This is followed by the alphanumeric text of the first paragraph of page 1, which is then followed by the graphic component "salespie," which occupies the bottom of page 1. FIG. 7 shows page 2 of Document 1, which has the non-text component "words", and FIG. 8 shows page 3, which has the non-text components "staff" and "arsig."

In an alternate embodiment of the invention, the user can elect to combine the elements of more than one document to generate a modified document. This process is illustrated in several Figures. FIG. 9 shows the data processor wherein a second Document 2 has been read into the memory 24 and a corresponding component index, Index 2, has been generated utilizing the transform code 34, in a manner similar to that for the generation of Index 1. FIG. 10 depicts the alphanumeric elements of Document 2. Also, as shown in FIG. 10, there are four different place marker icons (which display the location of referencing controls) to the same graphic entry "America," which is a graphic shown in FIG. 11. As explained previously, the graphic entry `America` is stored in a single location in the document database representing Document 2. FIG. 11 illustrates one of the features of the invention which is the ability to make multiple references to the same vector graphic data base, and depict that graphic in several selected sizes. This is performed by a vector graphics program 30, which processes the vector graphic data in the non-text component "America" and by using the user's designation for the elected size, produces from a single non-text component, any one of several sizes as is shown in FIG. 11 for the graphic. Other graphic vector operations such as image reversal or image rotation may be desired by the user.

In this example, the user elects to insert the non-text component "America," from Document 2 onto page 1 of Document 1. The user makes use of the program flow shown in FIG. 13 to perform the copying process depicted in FIG. 12. First, the user copies the referencing control for "America" at the point in the document where he has elected to insert the non-text component, "America". Then the copy code 42 carries out the flow diagram of FIG. 13 by defining the source data in the non-text component "America" as has been designated by the user in Document 2. The program then places a copy reference in Document 1 at the location designated by the user. Referring to FIG. 12, the user has elected to place the reference in the text page 1 of Document 1. The program flow of FIG. 13 then refers to Document 2, index 2, and copies the characteristics for the graphic entry "America," which are applicable to the user's use of that component in Document 1. The component type always remains the same between documents; "America", in this case is a graphic entry. However, the internal starting page number, that is, where in the system pages the data will exist, will be different for Document 1 than it was in Document 2, and this is specified for the graphic entry "America" being created in Index 1. The page count for the number of internal 12 K pages which the data will span will be a function of amount of data associated with the non-text component "America," as it is to be depicted for Document 1. The copy code 42 then copies the data in the non-text component of Document 2 into the Document 1 at the location shown in FIG. 12. This information is entered into the graphic entry "America" for Index 1. The location of the copied non-text component "America" in Document 1 is recorded in the new index entry for "America" in Index 1.

Thus, according to invention, the user has only copied the referencing control for the non-text component "America", both the component control and associated component data are brought into Document 1. The resulting modified Document 1 can then be printed at the election of the user, with the "America" graphic depiction occurring at the designated location on text page 1 of modified Document 1.

The operation of adding an entry to an index table is shown in the flow diagram of FIG. 14. FIG. 14 begins where the transform code 34 has found a non-text component in a compound document. The transform code 34 searches the component index associated with the document for an index entry corresponding to the non-text component found. If no index entry is found for the non-text component, the transform code 34 adds a new index entry in the component index. If an index entry is found, the exception handler routine is called up. Under the exception handler, the preferred disposition of the non-text component is simply to disallow the entry of a like named non-text component. Optionally, the exception handler could replace the old non-text component with the new non-text component, prompt the user to rename the new non-text component and then add a new index entry to the component index, etc.

A printing operation is carried out according to the invention as is shown in the flow diagram of FIG. 15. The program inputs the document such as the Document 1 and looks for non-text components. When a non-text component is found, the program extracts the non-text data and places it in the output stream with the appropriate size as has been designated by the user. Program repeats the operation of looking for additional non-text components, printing them along with the alphanumeric text as has been ordered by the Document 1. The final compound document will contain both the alphanumeric text, the vector graphics and the dot images, as has been designated by the user in the document.

Other operations which the user can perform include renaming an entry in an index table as is shown in FIG. 16, or alternately deleting an entry from the index table as shown in FIG. 17.

Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood by those having skill in the art that changes can be made to that specific embodiment without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.