Method and apparatus for creating and filing forms

• US 20030188260A1
• Filed: 03/26/2002
• Published: 10/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aatrix Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Aatrix Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Jensen, Arthur D., Lunseth, Steven H. N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,171,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/505
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/226 Validation

Abstract

A data processing system for designing, creating, and importing data into, a viewable form viewable by the user of the data processing system, including: a form file that models the physical representation of an original paper form and establishes the calculations and rule conditions required to fill in the viewable form; a data file containing data for populating the viewable form; and a form viewer program operating on the form file and the data file to perform calculations, allow the user of the data processing system to review and change the data, and create viewable forms and reports.

Claims

1. A data processing system for designing, creating, and importing data into, a viewable form viewable by the user of the data processing system, comprising:

(a) a form file that models the physical representation of an original paper form and establishes the calculations and rule conditions required to fill in the viewable form;

(b) a data file containing data for populating the viewable form; and

(c) a form viewer program operating on the form file and the data file to perform calculations, allow the user of the data processing system to review and change the data, and create viewable forms and reports.

2. The data processing system of claim 1, further comprising a client computer and a server computer.

3. The data processing system of claim 2, wherein the form viewer program executes on the client computer and the server computer executes a database program, and wherein the form file and data file are transmitted from the client computer to the server computer for storing in a database on the server computer.

4. The data processing system of claim 3, wherein the form file and data file are transmitted from the client computer to the server computer over a network.

5. The data processing system of claim 1, further comprising an electronic file creation program that merges data exported from the form viewer program with a template that specifies the final format for electronic filing to create an efile form.

6. The data processing system of claim 5, further comprising a client computer executing the electronic file creation program.

7. The data processing system of claim 6, further comprising a server computer executing an electronic filing program for electronically filing the efile form.

8. The data processing system of claim 7, wherein the efile form may be filed by submitting the efile form on floppy diskette.

9. The data processing system of claim 7, wherein the efile form may be filed by submitting the efile form by the file transmission protocol (FTP).

10. The data processing system of claim 7, wherein the efile form may be filed by submitting the efile form by email.

11. A method for designing, creating, and importing data into, a viewable form viewable by the user of a data processing system, the viewable form replicating a paper form, comprising the steps of:

(a) capturing an image of the paper form and saving the image as a background image;

(b) saving all text appearing on the paper form into a text file;

(c) aligning and adjusting the background image to replicate the paper form;

(d) importing the text from the text file and positioning the text on the background image;

(e) importing data from an application program into the viewable form thereby populating data fields on the viewable form with the imported data;

(f) manipulating the data in the data fields on the viewable form; and

(g) printing the viewable form.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of transmitting the viewable form from a client computer to a server computer and storing the viewable form in a database on the server computer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the viewable form is transmitted from the client computer to the server computer over a network.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of converting the viewable form into an efile form suitable for electronic filing.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of electronically filing the efile form.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of electronically filing the efile form is performed by storing the efile form on a floppy diskette.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of electronically filing the efile form is performed by submitting the efile form over a network by means of the File Transfer Protocol.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of electronically filing the efile form is performed by submitting the efile form by email.

12. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of saving the viewable form as an editable web page.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of converting the viewable form to plain text and exporting the plain text to another computer system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of encrypting the plain text.

22. A method for designing, creating, and importing data into, a viewable form viewable by the user of a data processing system, the viewable form replicating the paper form, comprising the steps of:

(a) converting the paper form into a viewable image that replicates the paper form, the viewable image having a data field for receiving data; and

(b) importing data into the data field.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of manipulating the data in the data field.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of printing the viewable form.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of saving the viewable form as an editable web page.

26. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of converting the viewable form to plain text and exporting the plain text to another computer system.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising the step of encrypting the plain text.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of transmitting the viewable form from a client computer to a server computer and storing the viewable form in a database on the server computer.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the viewable form is transmitted from the client computer to the server computer over a network.

30. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of converting the viewable form into an efile form suitable for electronic filing.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising the step of electronically filing the efile form.