Automatic intertext column spacing

Claim 2

Method for evenly adjusting the gutters between columns during the formatting of multiple text columns on a page in an interactive word processing system formed from a keyboard, display, memory for storing formatted information, and an intercoupling microprocessor, characterized in that it comprises the steps of : operator entering of a line of at least two column width examples of repeated text and control characters; and responsive to function key actuation, the machine step of modifying the example line by the automatic insertion of space characters into the gutters between column examples approximating the unoccupied escapement between the page margins divided by the number of gutters.

Claim 3

Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the machine step further includes the steps of ad seriatim scanning a gutter and removing space characters encountered therein, initializing a counter index to the number of spaces to be inserted, and inserting the space characters and decrementing the index for each insertion until the index is equal to zero.

Claim 4

Method according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that, responsibe to the stroking of a predetermined key, the machine step includes the steps of : scanning the example line and counting the number of columns, gutters, and text characters; moving the right table edge to coincide with the right page margin if the example line is less than the horizontal character escapement between the left and right margins, and moving the edge otherwise to the line end; computing the gutter width as the integer quotient of the unoccupied escapement between the margins divided by the number of gutters and the integer remainder of the unoccupied escapement modulo number of gutters; and forming each gutter by inserting the quotient number of space characters, between consecutive overlapping pairs of columns, said gutter formation being repeated until the number of gutters is exhausted.

Claim 5

Method according to claim 3 characterized in that the number of space characters is equal to the quotient plus 1, whereby the remainder is evenly distributed.