Document editing support device, program, and storage medium

• US 20080024501A1
• Filed: 07/03/2007
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Yamakado, Hitoshi, Nagahara, Atsushi, Gu, Yu
• Granted Patent: US 8,122,347 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/443
• 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 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A document editing support device includes: an object obtaining unit that obtains at least one object as data representing at least one of a text and an image included in a document as a target to be edited; a split ratio storage unit that stores a predetermined split ratio; a reference line setting unit that extracts two lines from at least one of a circumscribed polygon and a boundary and sets the extracted lines as reference lines, the circumscribed polygon being of an object other than a target object, a location of which is to be determined relative to at least one object obtained by the object obtaining unit, and the boundary being of a layout area where objects are to be located in the document; a virtual line generation unit that generates a virtual line that splits an interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at a split ratio stored in the split ratio storage unit; and a location unit that determines a location of the target object, the location of which is to be determined, along the virtual line generated by the virtual line generation unit, within the layout area.

Claims

1. A document editing support device comprising:

an object obtaining unit that is configured to obtain at least one object as data representing at least one of a text and an image included in a document as a target to be edited;

a split ratio storage unit that is configured to store a predetermined split ratio;

a reference line setting unit that is configured to extract two lines from at least one of a circumscribed polygon and a boundary and sets the extracted lines as reference lines, the circumscribed polygon being of an object other than a target object, a location of which is to be determined relative to at least one object obtained by the object obtaining unit, and the boundary being of a layout area where objects are to be located in the document;

a virtual line generation unit that is configured to generate a virtual line that splits an interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at a split ratio stored in the split ratio storage unit; and

a location unit that is configured to determine a location of the target object, the location of which is to be determined, along the virtual line generated by the virtual line generation unit, within the layout area.

2. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein the split ratio is within a range of

$\sqrt{2}\le$

r ≤

2 



or 



1 2 ≤

r ≤

1 2

where r is the split ratio.

3. The document editing support device according to claim 2, wherein the split ratio is within a range of

$(0.9\times$

1 + 5 2 ) ≤

r ≤

( 1.1 ×

1 + 5 2 ) 



or 



( 0.9 ×

2 1 + 5 ) ≤

r ≤

( 1.1 ×

2 1 + 5 ) .

4. The document editing support device according to claim 3, wherein the split ratio is

$r=\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}$



or 



r = 2 1 + 5 .

5. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the two reference lines is extracted from a circumscribed rectangle of the object other than the target object.

6. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein the reference line setting unit is configured to extract two lines from at least one of the circumscribed polygon of the object other than the target object, the boundary of the layout area, and virtual lines which have already been generated by the virtual line generation unit, and is configured to set the extracted lines as the reference lines.

7. The document editing support device according to claim 1, further comprising

a correspondence information storage unit that is configured to store information indicative of correspondence between an object and a virtual line that is generated using as a reference line a line extracted from a circumscribed polygon of the object.

8. The document editing support device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an editing unit that is configured to change a size or position of an object included in the document, to edit the object; and

an update unit that is configured to update a virtual line by use of a reference line, after an object is edited by the editing unit, the virtual line being defined as corresponding to the object by the information stored in the correspondence information storage unit, and the reference line being extracted from a circumscribed polygon of the object edited by the editing unit.

9. The document editing support device according to claim 1, further comprising

a correspondence information storage unit that is configured to store information indicative of correspondence between the boundary of the layout area and a virtual line which is generated using as a reference line a line extracted from the boundary.

10. The document editing support device according to claim 9, further comprising:

an editing unit that is configured to change a size or position of the layout area in the document, to edit the layout area; and

an update unit that is configured to update a virtual line by use of a reference line, after the layout area is edited by the editing unit, the virtual line being defined as corresponding to the layout area by the information stored in the correspondence information storage unit, and the reference line being extracted from the boundary of the layout area edited by the editing unit.

11. The document editing support device according to claim 8, wherein

the correspondence information storage unit is configured to further store information indicative of correspondence between a virtual line generated by a reference virtual line generation unit and an object located along the virtual line, and

after a virtual line is updated by the update unit, an object that is defined as having been located along the virtual line according to the information stored in the correspondence information storage unit is relocated along the updated virtual line.

12. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein

the split ratio storage unit is configured to store a plurality of split ratios,

the target object, the location of which is to be determined, includes attribute information indicating an attribute of the object,

the document editing support device further comprises a split ratio selection unit that is configured to select one split ratio from the plurality of split ratios stored in the split ratio storage unit, on the basis of the attribute information included in the target object, the location of which is to be determined, and

the virtual line generation unit is configured to generate a virtual line which splits the interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at the split ratio selected by the split ratio selection unit.

13. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein

the split ratio storage unit is configured to store a plurality of split ratios,

the document includes layout information indicative of a location of the at least one object included in the document,

the document editing support device further comprises a split ratio selection unit that is configured to select one split ratio from the plurality of split ratios stored in the split ratio storage unit, on the basis of the layout information included in the document, and

the virtual line generation unit is configured to generate a virtual line which splits the interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at the split ratio selected by the split ratio selection unit.

14. The document editing support device according to claim 1, wherein

the split ratio storage unit is configured to store a plurality of split ratios,

the document includes background information indicative of a background,

the document editing support device further comprises a split ratio selection unit that is configured to select one split ratio from the plurality of split ratios stored in the split ratio storage unit, on the basis of the background information included in the document, and

the virtual line generation unit is configured to generate a virtual line which splits the interval between the two reference lines set by the reference line setting unit, at the split ratio selected by the split ratio selection unit.

15. The document editing support device according to claim 1, further comprising a display controller that causes a display to show a symbolic figure overlapped on the virtual line.

16. A program causing a computer device having a split ratio storage unit that stores a predetermined split ratio to execute a process, the process comprising:

obtaining at least one object as data representing at least one of a text and an image included in a document as a target to be edited;

extracting two lines from at least one of a circumscribed polygon and a boundary, and setting the extracted lines as reference lines, the circumscribed polygon being of another object than an object as a target whose location is to be determined among the obtained at least one object, and the boundary being of a layout area where objects are to be located in the document;

generating a virtual line which splits an interval between the two reference lines set, at a split ratio stored in the split ratio storage unit; and

determining a location of the target object, the location of which is to be determined, along the generated virtual line, within the layout area.

17. A computer readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer device having a split ratio storage unit that stores a predetermined split ratio to execute a process, the process comprising:

obtaining at least one object as data representing at least one of a text and an image included in a document as a target to be edited;

extracting two lines from at least one of a circumscribed polygon and a boundary, and setting the extracted lines as reference lines, the circumscribed polygon being of an object other than the target object, the location of which is to be determined relative to the obtained at least one object, and the boundary being of a layout area where objects are to be located in the document;

generating a virtual line which splits an interval between the two reference lines set, at a split ratio stored in the split ratio storage unit; and

determining a location of the target object, the location of which is to be determined, along the generated virtual line, within the layout area.