Method and apparatus for creating and filing forms

• US 7,171,615 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2002
• Issued: 01/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Aatrix Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Aatrix Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Jensen, Arthur D., Lunseth, Steven H. N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran; Quoc A.
• Application Number:
  US10/108,055
• Publication Number:
  US 20030188260A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,771 Days
• Field of Search: 715/505, 715/506, 715/507, 715/512, 358/534, 705/31, 705/3, 382/282
• US Class Current: 715/222
• 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 form file creation program that imports a background image from an original form, allows a user to adjust and test-print the background image and compare the alignment of the original form to the background test-print, and creates the form file;

(c) a data file containing data from a user application for populating the viewable form; and

(d) 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, on a digital computer having a memory and a processor executing a stored program, 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 into the computer'"'"'s memory as a background image;

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

(c) executing the stored program to align and adjust the background image to exactly replicate the paper form, thereby producing a representation of a viewable form in the computer'"'"'s memory;

(d) executing the stored program to import the text from the text file and position the text on the background image in the representation of the viewable form in the computer'"'"'s memory;

(e) executing the stored program to import data from another application program into the representation of the viewable form in the computer'"'"'s memory thereby populating data fields on the representation of the viewable form with the imported data;

(f) executing the stored program to manipulate the data in the data fields on the representation of the viewable form; and

(g) printing an exact representation of the paper form with the manipulated data.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the step of saving the viewable form as an editable web page.

13. The method of claim 11, 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.

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.

22. A method for designing, creating, and importing, on a digital computer having a memory and a processor executing a stored program, 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) a form designer executing a forms designer program in the digital computer, the forms designer program allowing the form designer to create a form file that, when subsequently printed, will exactly match an original paper form and will permit calculations and rule conditions required to fill in the form;

(b) executing a data file importing program in the digital computer, the data file importing program seamlessly importing data from an end user application program into a data file; and

(c) subsequently an end user executing a forms viewer program, the forms viewer program generating a viewable form by merging data in the data file with specific fields in the form file, allowing the user of the data processing system to review and change the data, performing calculations on the data, and generating a report that exactly matches the original paper form.

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

24. 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.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of encrypting the plain text.

26. 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.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the viewable form is transmitted from the client computer to the server computer over a network.

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

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising the step of electronically filing the efile form.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of electronically filing the efile form is performed by storing the efile form on a floppy diskette.

31. The method of claim 29, 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.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of electronically filing the efile form is performed by submitting the efile form by email.

33. The method of claim 22, wherein the form file further comprises static text and drawn elements.

34. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of the forms designer capturing an image of an original form and saving it as a background image.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising the step of the forms designer using the forms designer program to place, adjust, and test print the background image and to compare the alignment of the original form to the background test print.

36. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of the forms designer formatting text in specific fields in the form file.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of formatting text in specific fields in the form file further comprises changing text font and text size and changing text type, wherein text type is selected from the group consisting of:

bold, italics, underline, left-justified, right-justified, center-justified, and rotated.

38. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of the forms designer adding graphics to the form file, the graphics being selected from the group consisting of:

lines, boxes, circles, and triangles.

39. The method of claim 22, wherein the data file contains fields having indicia indicating the type of data, the indicia subsequently being used by the forms viewer program to perform calculations on the data.