Document processing apparatus having an authoring capability for describing a document structure

• US 6,981,218 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2000
• Issued: 12/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nagao, Katashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hutton, Doug
• Application Number:
  US09/635,390
• Time in Patent Office: 1,966 Days
• Field of Search: 715/536, 715/531, 704/9, 704/4, 704/3
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/137 Hierarchical processing, e.g. outlines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis

Abstract

An apparatus and method are disclosed for easily generating document data (tag file) in a form that makes it possible to perform various processes upon the document data. An original document (plain text) is divided into morphological elements, and morphological information is added thereto. Information representing the hierarchical document structures is also added. Furthermore information indicating referential relations between portions in the original document is also added.

Claims

1. A document processing apparatus comprising:

automatic analysis means for automatically analyzing an electronic document and attaching hierarchical structure information representing a document structure to said electronic document in accordance with the result of said automatic analysis, said automatic analysis means automatically analyzes the document structure of said electronic document in the order from a lowest hierarchical level to a highest hierarchical level;

information presenting means for presenting information about the electronic document including said structure information at each hierarchical level so that a user may correct internal information associated with said electronic document on the basis of said information displayed on a display; and

correction means for correcting said internal information associated with said electronic document in response to an operation performed by the user in accordance with the internal information displayed on the display, said correction means corrects the internal structure of said electronic document by adding, removing, or modifying internal information in the order from the lowest hierarchical level to the highest hierarchical level.

2. A document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said automatic analysis means comprises morpheme dividing means for dividing said electronic document into morphemes and morphological information attaching means for attaching morphological information to each said morpheme.

3. A document processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when candidates of internal information are attached by said automatic analysis means to an electronic document, said information presenting means presents information for prompting a user to select one of said candidates of internal information.

4. A document processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different manners in which said electronic document is divided into morphemes.

5. A document processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different document structures.

6. A document processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different referential relations between portions of said electronic document.

7. A document processing method comprising the steps of:

attaching structure information representing a document structure to an electronic document by automatically analyzing said electronic document in the order from a lowest level to a highest level of the hierarchy of the document structure;

presenting information about the electronic document including said structure information at each level of the hierarchy so that a user may correct internal information associated with said electronic document on the basis of said information displayed on a display; and

correcting said internal information associated with said electronic document at each level of the hierarchy of the document structure in response to an operation performed by the user in accordance with the internal information displayed on the display, wherein said correction step corrects the internal information associated with said electronic document by adding, removing, or modifying internal information.

8. A document processing method according to claim 7, wherein said step of attaching structure information includes the steps of dividing said electronic document into morphemes and attaching morphological information to the respective morphemes.

9. A document processing method according to claim 8, wherein if candidates of internal information are attached in said step of attaching structure information, said step of presenting information presents information so as to prompt a user to select one of said candidates of internal information.

10. A document processing method according to claim 9, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different manners in which said electronic document is divided into morphemes.

11. A document processing method according to claim 9, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different document structures.

12. A document processing method according to claim 9, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different referential relations between portions of said electronic document.

13. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, said program comprising the steps of:

automatically analyzing an electronic document and attaching hierarchical structure information representing a document structure to an electronic document in accordance with the result of said automatic analysis, wherein said hierarchical structure comprises an order from a lowest hierarchical level to a highest hierarchical level;

presenting information about the electronic document including said structure information at each hierarchical level so that a user may correct internal information associated with said electronic document on the basis of said information displayed on a display; and

correcting said internal information associated with said electronic document by adding, removing, or modifying internal information in the order from the lowest hierarchical level to the highest hierarchical level in response to an operation performed by the user in accordance with the internal information displayed on the display.

14. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, according to claim 13, wherein said step of attaching structure information includes the steps of dividing said electronic document into morphemes and attaching morphological information to the respective morphemes.

15. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, according to claim 14, wherein if candidates of internal information are attached in said step of attaching structure information, said step of presenting information presents information so as to prompt a user to select one of said candidates of internal information.

16. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, according to claim 15, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different manners in which said electronic document is divided into morphemes.

17. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, according to claim 15, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different document structures.

18. A storage medium including a computer-controllable program stored thereon, according to claim 15, wherein said candidates of internal information represent different referential relations between portions of said electronic document.