In a word processing system
Contents
1. new page 2 The ability to insert a Required Page End control The semantics of the Reouired Page End control are redefined as follows the control ends a page causes a page break just as a Page End control and is never moved or deleted by a Paginate function 3 An Automatic Paginate function which automati cally makes page ending decisions based on the line count for each page or the occurrence of a Page End control or Required Page End control and causes sub sequent text to be placed on the next page The Auto matic Paginate function always keeps blank lines at the end of a paragraph on the same page as the paragraph a blank line is never placed as the first line on a page 4 An Interactive Paginate function which automati cally makes page ending decisions based on the line count for each page or the occurrence of a Required Page End control and allows the user to view each page ending decision and optionally accept the page break location or reposition the page break location higher on the page The Interactive Paginate function deletes Page End controls and only leaves Page End controls in the document if the accepted page break location is not the default the location used by the Automatic Paginate function The new method provides both superior ease of use characteristics and power to a word processing pro gram by 1 automatically handling blank lines at the end of a page in the Automatic Paginate function 2 tr2. the basic system operations by changes made to the BIOS program which would then be readily loadable into the random access memory 6 An application program such as the IBM Display Write 1 word processing program may also be loaded into the memory 6 to provide instructions to the micro processor 1 to enable a comprehensive set of word processing tasks including the creation and revision of text documents along with the automatic paginate and interactive paginate functions of this invention to be performed by the personal computer system shown in FIG 1 An application program loaded into the mem ory 6 is said to run in conjunction with the disk operat ing system previously loaded into the memory 6 Refer now to FIG 2 for a description of the flow diagram of the operations included in the automatic pagination function of this invention The operation begins by a test at block 20 to determine if a current character in the text being tested is the type of contro code which can be used to end a line If not this auto matic pagination process is exited at this point since a page must end at a line boundary If the character being tested at block 20 is the tvpe of control which may be used to end a line the operation proceeds to block 22 wherein a test is made to determine if the line number plus the line spacing is greater than the last body text line which is a preset page format value based on the page length less the bottom margin ar
3. 38 wherein a Page End control code is inserted in the text datastream at the new cursor location Accordingly it will be understood that in those cases in which the operator chooses to accept the prompted page break location no Page End control code is in serted in the text datastream If such a Page End control code was stripped out of the text datastream at block 32 it is not reinserted at block 38 unless the reinsertion is in response to the operator s moving the cursor up from the prompted cursor location to a higher position on the page At block 33 if the current character being considered is a Required Page End control code then at block 34 the following character is considered The user is then prompted to accept this page break location in which case no additional page end control code will be in serted into the text datastream However if as de scribed above the operator moves the cursor to a higher position on the page then a Page End control code is inserted at block 38 The following programming design language is an other form of the above description of the interactive paginate function of this invention This listing parallels the operation described above relative to FIG 3 do get the next character if the current character is a Page End control then Delete the Page End control else if the current character is a Reouired Page End control or we are not at the top of a new page as determined by automatic
4. G 26 acter a Line Ender Page Exit Ender NO 21 treat current character as a Page Ender Exit U S Patent Nov 24 1987 Sheet3of3 4 709 348 rent char acter a Page End con at top of new page as determined by auto pagi nate Page End con trol cur sor at original lo cation for prompt 7 FIG 3 4 709 348 1 INTERACTIVE PAGE LENGTH ADJUSTMENT WITH AUTOMATIC PAGINATION DESCRIPTION TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to word processing systems in general and more particularly to a technique dynami cally adjusting page boundaries during the creation or revision of a text job while accommodating an interac tive page length adjustment process BACKGROUND ART One of the inherent problems in computer systems from the end user s standpoint is the trade off between ease of use useability and function power Product positioning for programmed computer systems is often illustrated as a two dimensional graph showing useabil ity versus power The challenge to the developer of computer systems and in particular the software is to maximize both useability and power In word processing programs this problem is illus trated in the variety of methods used to divide a text document into pages Some word processing programs have attempted to optimize useability while allowing th user little control or flexibility in de
5. United States Patent ra Horn et al 54 INTERACTIVE PAGE LENGTH ADJUSTMENT WITH AUTOMATIC PAGINATION Gary R Horn Robert C Mikelait both of Austin Tex International Business Machines Corporation Armonk N Y 21 Appl No 873 753 75 Inventors 73 Assignee 22 Filed Jun 13 1986 51 A e EE GO06F 9 00 52 U S Che EE 364 900 58 Field of Search 2 0 0 0 cesses 364 200 900 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 417 322 11 1983 Berry etal en 364 900 4 498 150 2 1985 Gaudet et al enn 364 900 OTHER PUBLICATIONS IBM DisplayWrite 1 User s Guide Mar 1984 Interna tional Business Machines Corporation pp 4 12 4 13 6 32 6 38 and 6 39 IBM Writing Assistant First Edition May 1984 Inter national Business Machines Corporation Software Pub 3 4 KEYBOARD 4 709 348 Nov 24 1987 11 Patent Number 45 Date of Patent lishing Corporation Chapter 7 Changing the Page Layout pp 7 1 7 9 PFS Write Users Manual Barbara Langworthy first printing Sept 1984 Software Publishing Corporation Mountain View CA 94043 Changing the Page Lay out pp 6 1 6 10 Primary Examiner Thomas M Heckler Assistant Examiner John G Mills Attorney Agent or Firm Douglas H Lefeve 57 ABSTRACT A comprehensive pagination facility is described which combines an automatic pagination function with an interactive paginate function With this technique the operator is a
6. control said processing the improved method for editing and adjusting the length of text pages comprising automatically ending a page responsive to a preset line count during creation of said page ending said page shorter than said automatic ending upon operator entry of a page end control code during said creation of said page and automatically deleting said page end control code during a subsequent page length editing adjustment operation after said creation of said page when said page end control code is positioned on said page prior to said preset line count whereby text editing of page length may be automatically updated prior to printing to correct operator inserted page and control codes during text entry 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising wm 20 30 35 45 50 55 65 8 ending said page shorter than said automatic ending upon operator entry of a required page end control code during said creation of said page and retaining said required page end control code during said page length adjustment operation subsequent to said creation of said page 3 The method claim 1 wherein said step of automati cally ending a page further comprises including blank lines between paragraphs on the same page as the paragraph which precedes the blank lines 4 The method of claim 3 wherein said page length adjustment operation further comprises displaying a suggested page ending location respon sive to said pre
7. ea If not the process is exited since this test indicates that the next line of text will fit on the current page If at block 22 the line numher plus line spacing ex ceeds the last body text line then the operation proceeds to block 23 to determine if the line ender is detected while in a header or footer mode If so the process exits since there cannot be multiple pages in a header or footer If not the operation proceeds to block 24 wherein a test is made to determine if a paragraph adjust routine is in progress If so the process exits to allow 4 709 348 5 the paragraph adjust routine to complete the adjustment of the paragraph even if the paragraph will end up being split between two pages This will prevent the situation which could otherwise exist of having the line lengths adjusted for a paragraph until the end of the page is reached and then displaying the remainder of the para graph without properly adjusted line lengths on the following page Assuming at block 25 that the system is not in the paragraph adjust mode the operation then proceeds to block 25 wherein the character following the control tested above is examined This character being exam ined at block 25 is the first character of the succeeding line of text If this character is the type of control code that can be used to end a line or a page the process is exited at this point to avoid placing blank lines at the top of a page If however this character i
8. eating a Required Page End control as causing a page break and 3 having the Interactive Paginate function remove Page End controls that are not necessary be cause they fall at the point where the Automatic Pagi nate function will cause a page break without them The foregoing and other objects features extensions and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the ac companying drawing BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING FIG 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system which includes a stored program for performing word processing functions including the functions of this invention FIG 2 is a flow diagram of the operations included in the automatic pagination function of this invention FIG 3 is a flow diagram of the operations included in the interactive paginate function of this invention BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Beginning with reference to the block diagram of FIG 1 a typical personal computer architecture is shown such as the configuration used in the IBM Per sonal Computer The focal point of this architecture comprises a microprocessor 1 which may for example be an Inte 8088 or similar microprocessor The micro 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 65 4 processor 1 is connected to a bus 2 which comprises a set of data lines a set of address lines and a set of co
9. es page ending decisions based on the line count for each page or the occurrence of a Required Page End control and allows the user to view each page ending decision and optionally accept the page break location or reposition the page break location higher or lower on the page The Interactive Paginate function repositions Page End controls to the accepted page break locations The user can avoid widow lines a situation in which the first line of a new paragraph appears as the last line on a page and orphan lines a situation in which the last line of a paragraph is the first line of a page by repositioning the page break up or down one or more lines before accepting the page break 20 25 35 40 45 50 60 65 2 location The Interactive Paginate function always keeps blank lines at the end of a paragraph on the same page as the paragraph a blank line is never placed as the first line on a page f These functions allow the user complete control over the page breaks in a document but have several limita tions that affect the useability of the program First as the user creates a new document if he wishes to view the page breaks as he is typing he must manually insert Page End codes at the appropriate locations A user may type an entire document without entering any page breaks but in this case the user must subsequently per form the Interactive Paginate function The program does not have the capability to automa
10. ilized to determine page breaks which are utilized by the interactive paginate function to automatically sug gest page ending points At block 31 assuming that the character being tested is not a Page End control code the operation proceeds to block 33 wherein a test is made to determine if the character is a Required Page End control code If not at block 35 a test is made to determine if the character is to be placed at the heginning of a new page as de scribed relative to the final phase of the automatic pagi nation function descrihed above If the character is not one to be positioned at the top of a new page the opera tion again proceeds to block 39 whereby the operation is directed back to block 30 assuming the end of the document has not been reached 5 20 25 30 35 45 50 60 65 6 If at block 35 the currently tasted character is to be positioned at the top of a new page the operation pro ceeds to block 36 and the user is prompted to accept the page break location At this point the operator has two choices The prompted and suggested page break loca tion can be accepted or the cursor can be moved up to end the page with less lines than currently make up the page being displayed to the operator If the operator chooses to end the page at the originally prompted location then the operation proceeds from block 37 to block 39 If the operator moves the cursor the opera tion proceeds through block
11. llowed to insert both Page End and Re quired Page End controls although the automatic pagi nation function makes page ending decisions during both the creation and revision of text The operator can then interactively paginate the document while being allowed to view each page ending decision and option ally accept the page break location or reposition the suggested page break location to a different line on the page 7 Claims 3 Drawing Figures H 6 t 8 DISPLAY DISKETTE MEMORY PRINTER ER ADAPTER ADAPTER ADAPTER ADAPTER ADAPTER ADAPTER 9 40 MM 1 13 44 BUS 4 MICROPROCESSOR cur tent chor actera Line nomber line spacing gt last body text line Head er Foater Mode 9 look ot the follow ing choracter cter o Line Ender Poge Ender Exil ireat current chorocter as a Page Ender 4 709 348 Sheet I of 3 U S Patent Nov 24 1987 HOS SJJ0Yd OY IW H 0r 6 by E H H7LdVOu Y3ld YAV Y3ldvav YsLdVaV Yd1dVOV H7LdVON EN YJLNI d AYNOWIW 3LLINSIO AW1dS10 OHVO 79 U S Patent Nov 24 1987 Sheet2o0f3 4 709 348 20 cur rent char S NO actera Line Exit look at the follow Ender ing character YES 22 f line number line spacing gt last body text line NO Exit YES 23 Head er Footer Mode YES Exit NO 24 Para graph Ad just Mode YES Exit NO FI
12. ntrol lines A plurality of I O devices or memory or storage devices 3 8 are connected to the bus 2 through separate adapters 9 14 respectively For example the display 4 may be the IBM Personal Computer Color Display and the adapter 10 may accordingly be the IBM Color Graphics Adapter The other devices 3 and 5 8 and adapters 9 and 11 14 are either included as part of an IBM Personal Computer or are available as plug in options from the IBM Corporation For example the random access memory 6 and the read only memory 8 and their corresponding adapters 12 14 are included as standard equipment in the IBM Personal Computer although additional random access memory to supple ment memory 6 may be added via a plug in memory expansion option Within the read only memory 8 are stored a plurality of instructions known as the basic input output operat ing system or BIOS for execution by the microproces sor 1 The BIOS controls the fundamental operations of the computer An operating system such as the IBM Personal Computer Series Disk Operating System by Microsoft Corporation or DOS most commonly used with the IBM Personal Computer family is loaded into the memory 6 and runs in conjunction with the BIOS stored in the ROM 8 It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the personal computer system could be configured so that parts or all of the BIOS are stored in the memory 6 rather than in the ROM 8 so as to allow modifications to
13. paginate then if the current character is a Required Page End control then get the next character prompt the user to accept the page break location allow cursor to move up if cursor is not at the original location for the prompt then insert a Page End control until End of Document In summary a comprehensive pagination facility has been described which combines the high ease of use associated with an automatic pagination function and the power and control of an interactive paginate func tion With this technique the operator is allowed to insert both Page End and Required Page End controls although an automatic pagination function makes page ending decisions during both the creation and revision of text The operator can then interactively paginate the document while being allowed to view each page end 4 709 348 7 ing decision and optionally accept the page break loca tion or reposition the paoe break location higher on the page While the invention has been shown and described with reference to particular embodiments thereof it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention What is claimed is 1 In a word processing system with a video display for operator review of input text data said system hav ing a processor a memory for storing said text data and a word processing program to
14. s not a line ender or page ender at block 27 the current character is subse quently treated as a page ender to cause a page break at this point and the process is exited The character fol lowing the current character treated as a page ender at block 27 becomes the beginning character on the fol lowing page The following programming design language listing is another form of the description of the above de scribed automatic pagination process This listing paral lels the operation described above relative to FIG 2 If the current character is a Line Ender and line number line spacing gt last body text line and not Header Footer Mode and not Paragraph Adjust Mode and the following character is not a Line Ender or a Page Ender then treat the current character as a Page Ender FIG 3 is a flow diagram of the operations included in the interactive paginate function of this invention At block 30 a next character in the document is obtained At block 31 a test is made to determine if this next char acter is a Page End control code If the character is a Page End control code this control code is deleted at block 32 and the operation proceeds to block 39 to determine if the end of the document has been reached If not the operation loops back to block 30 for a next character to be tested It will be understood that the Page End control code is deleted at this point because the automatic pagination function described above is ut
15. set line count 5 The method of claim 4 wherein said page length adjustment operation further comprises including blank lines between paragraphs on the same page as the paragraph which precedes the blank lines 6 The method of claim 5 wherein said page length adjustment operation further comprises ending said text pages without a page end control code when said displayed suggested page ending location is accepted as a page ending location by an operator 7 The method of claim 6 wherein said page length adjustment operation further comprises ending said text pages with a page end control code when said operator chooses a different page ending location from said displayed suggested page end ing location LJ
16. termining the location of page breaks Other word processing pro grams have attempted to give the user complete control over the location of page breaks but as a result of this operator control require extra work on the part of the operator for even the simplest of situations As will be described in detail below the technique of this inven tion provides the user with an easy to use function that does not sacrifice the complete control that the user may require The IBM DisplayWrite 1 word processing program is based on an IBM datastream known as the Revisable Form Text Document Control Architecture RFTDCA This datastream defines two control char acters Page End and Required Page End A Page End control ends a page causes a page break A Required Page End control has no effect on page breaks It must be followed by a Page End It is used to indicate to a Paginate function where a page should be ended A Paginate function is defined as a function that adjusts page breaks The number of lines placed on each page is based on the size of the text typing area for the page the page length less the top and bottom margin area DisplayWrite 1 provides the user with the following functions 1 The ability to insert a Page End control thus end ing the current page and causing subsequent text to begin on a new page 2 The ability to insert a Required Page End control 3 An Interactive Paginate function which automati cally mak
17. tically make page ending decisions Second to effectively force a short page the user must insert a Required Page End control and a Page End control since the Recuired Page End control does not cause a page break by itself Additionally when the document is revised the user must either manually move each Page End control to readjust page breaks or perform the Interactive Pagi nate function again Page breaks are not automatically adjusted by the program The IBM Writing Assistant word processing pro gram is not based on the RFTDCA datastream It im plements a New Page control that has the semantics of a Page End Writing Assistant provides the user with the ability to insert a New Page control thus ending the current page and causing subsequent text to begin on a new page Additionally Writing Assistant provides an Automatic Paginate function which automatically makes page ending decisions based on the line count for each page or the occurrence of a New Page control and causes subsequent text to be placed on the next page No ad justment is made for blank lines appearing at the top of a page or widow or orphan lines appearing at the bot tom of a page These functions automatically handle the pagination for the user and thus for a user with no more functional requirements are very easy to use However they give the user very little control over the page breaks in a document and have several functional limitations First
18. to prevent widow lines from appearing at the bottom of a page or to avoid splitting a table or logi caliy related set of lines over two pages the user must place a New Page control in the document Since there is no Paginate function that will reposition a New Page control if the document is subsequently revised the user must manually remove such controls that are no longer appropriate Second to control the placement of blank lines at the top of a page the user must delete any blank lines fol lowing the paragraph on the preceding page If the document is subsequently revised the user must manu ally go back and insert the blank lines between the para graphs It would therefore very significantly increase the useability and power of a word processing system to provide both an automatic pagination function opera tive during document creation and revision and an interactive page length adjustment function which al lows the automatic replacement of user inserted page end controls 4 709 348 3 DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Accordingly this invention achieves a synergism of these two approaches keeping the high ease of use associated with the Automatic Paginate function and the power and control of the Interactive Paginate func tion With this new technique the user is provided with the following functions 1 The ability to insert a Page End control thus end ing the current page and causing subsequent text to begin on a
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