Data structure in a document processing system

Claim 2

In a document processing system, particularly for a word processing or office automation system, means for storing and accessing a document, characterized by a plurality of information item block means (86) for storing information comprising the document, a type of information item block means (86) existing in the document for each type of information occuring in the document, for each type of information item block (86), a corresponding adaptive indexing block means (82, 84) for storing pointers identifying the locations of each of the corresponding information item blocks (86), and document table means (80) for storing pointers corresponding to and identifying the locations of each indexing block means (82, 84).

Claim 3

The document processing means according to claim 1, characterized in that the indexing block means (82, 84) comprises: for each type of information item block means (86) wherein the number of information item block means (86) is less than a number N of possible pointers in a corresponding indexing block means (82, 84), a secondary index block means (84) for storing the pointers identifying the locations of the corresponding information item block means (86), the corresponding document table (80) pointer identifying the locations of the corresponding secondary index block means (84), and for each type of information item block means (86) wherein the number of information item block means (86) is greater than the number N, a plurality of corresponding secondary index block means (84), and a corresponding primary index block means (82) for storing pointers identifying the locations of the secondary index block means (84), the corresponding document table (80) pointer identifying the location of the primary index block means (82).

Claim 4

The document processing system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that certain information item block means (86) further include means for storing chaining pointers identifying the locations of related information item block means (86) of the same type.

Claim 5

The document procesing system according to claim 3, characterized in that the text of a document is contained in text information items and a page of a document containing more text than can be contained within a single text information item is comprised of a plurality of chained text information items.

Claim 6

The document processing systems according to claim 3, characterized by means for generating document page regions comprised of columns of text inforamtion, comprising:

Claim 7

The document processing system according to claim 1, further characterized by: means for assigning identifying names to certain of th information item block means (86), and wherein the indexing block means (82, 84) include named item index block means for relating the names to pointers identifying the locations of corresponding named information item block means (86).

Claim 8

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that the types of information item block means (86) include text block means for storing text information of said document, each said text block means comprising: text storage means for storing text information, and attribute storage means for storing information identifying attributes pertaining to the text information residing within the text block means.

Claim 9

The document processing system according to claim 10, characterized in that the attributes include visual attributes effecting the visual appearance of text characters of said text information, the attribute storage means including means for storing a plurality of visual attribute words, each visual attribute word containing information pertaining to a single visual attribute and including information identifying the position of the first text character in the text effected by the visual attribute of the visual attribute word, identifying the position of the last of the text character in the text effected by the visual attribute of the visual attribute word, and identifying the visual attribute to be applied to the text characters. for each column of a region, a format block means located as the first information item block (86) of the column and containing information identifying the format of the text appearing in the column, and a plurality of text block means (86) containing the text appearing in the column, the format and text block means of the column being chained together by chaining pointers contained therein, the chaining pointer of the last text block means of each column in the region pointing to the format block means of the text clumn, and each format block means of the columns of the region further containing side pointers identifying the locations of adjacent format block means of the region.

Claim 10

The document processing system according to claim 5, characterized in that the format block means of the first column of the column region is chained to the last block means of a previous region of the document and the last text block means of the last column is chained to the first block means of the next region of the document.

Claim 11

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that certain of the indexing block means (82, 84) further include means for storing chaining pointers indenti- fying the locations of related indexing block means (82, 84) of the same type.

Claim 12

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that each information item block means (86) may be identified by a corrresponding information item number.

Claim 13

The document processing system according to claim 10, characterized in that the attributes include informational attributes pertaining to the text information, the text storage means including means for storing, between text characters, unique characters referring to and identifying the locations of corresponding informational attributes, each unique character referring to a single information attribute, and the attribute storage means including means for storing a plurality of corresponding informational attribute words, each informational attribute word containing information pertaining to a single informational attribute and including information identifying the position within the text where the information attribute occurs, and the type of informational attribute, and a reference identifying a corresponding informational attribute.

Claim 14

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that the types of information item block means (86) include shelf block means for temporarily storing and retreiving portions of the document.

Claim 15

The document processing system according to claim 13, characterized by: means for assigning identifying names to certain of the information item block means (86), and wherein the indexing block means (82, 84) includes named item index block means for relating the names to pointers identifying the locations of corresponding named information item block means (86), and wherein a shelf block means may be referred to only through a corresponding assigned name.

Claim 16

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that the types of information item block means (86) are selected from the set of types comprising: text, shelves, formats, pictures, headers and footers, free form regions, matrices, external references, footnotes, voice messages. notes,

Claim 17

The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that a document comprises at least: a document table means (80), an administrative/system block means containing at least keystroke interpretation information, a style block means containing user defined defaults, a free block bit map means containing information identifying information item block means (86) currently used in said document, a text page block means (86) containing document text information, a text page index block means (82, 84), a format block means containing information defining the format of the document text information, and a format index block means.

Claim 20

The method according to claim 17, characterized by the steps of: generating, for each type of information, an information item block (86) wherein the number of information item blocks (86) is less than a number N of possible pointers in a corresponding indexing block (82, 84), a secondary index block (84) for storing said pointers identifying the locations of the corresponding information item blocks (86), the corresponding document table (80) pointer identifying the locations of the secondary index blocks (84), and generating, for each type of information, an information item block (86) wherein the number of information item blocks (86) is greater than the number N, a plurality of corresponding secondary index blocks (84), and generating a single primary index block (82) for storing pointers identifying the locations of the secondary index blocks (84), the corresponding document table (80) pointer identifying the location of the primary index block (82).

Claim 21

The method according to claim 17, characterized by the steps of: generating, for certain information item blocks (86), chaining pointers identifying the locations of related information item blocks (86) of the same type, and writing the chaining pointers into the certain of information item blocks (86).

Claim 22

The method according to claim 19, wherein the text of a document is contained in text information item blocks, characterized in that a document page containing more text than can be contained in a single text block, is generated by writing the text of the page into a plurality of text blocks, and chaining together the text blocks through chaining pointers.

Claim 23

The method according to claim 19, characterized in that document page regions comprised of columns of text information are generated by for each column of a region, generating a format block located as the first information item block (86) of the column and containing information identifying the format of the text appearing in the column, generating a plurality of text blocks (86) containing the text appearing in the column, and chaining together the format and text blocks of the column through chaining pointers contained therein, chaining the last text block of each column in the region to the format block of the next column by a chaining pointer contained therein, and chaining the format block of each column to the format block of each adjacent column through side pointers contained therein and identifying the locations of the adjacent format blocks.

Claim 24

The method according to claim 21, characterized by chaining the format block of the first column of the region to the last block of the previous region of the . ; document t-hrough chaining pointers contained therein, and chaining the last text block of the last column of the region to the first block of the next region of the document through chaining pointers contained therein.

Claim 25

The method according to claim 17, characterized by generating, for certain indexing blocks (82, 84), chaining pointers identifying the locations of related information indexing blocks (82, 84) of the same type, and writing the chaining pointers into the certain indexing blocks (82, 84).

Claim 26

The method according to claim 17, characterized by generating and assigning corresponding information item numbers to certain of the information item blocks (86).

Claim 27

The method according to claim 17, characterized by generating and assigning identifying names to certain of the information item blocks (86), and generating a named item index block for relating the names to pointers identifying the locations of the corresponding named information item blocks (86).

Claim 28

The method according to claim 17, wherein the types of information item blocks (86) include text blocks for storing text information of the document, characterized by writing the text information into a text storage area of a text page block, and writing information identifying attributes pertaining to the text information into an attribute storage area of the text block.

Claim 29

The method according to claim 26, wherein the attributes include visual attributes effecting the visual appearance of text characters, characterized by writing into the attribute storage area a plurality of visual attribute words, each visual attribute word containing information pertaining to a single visual attribute and including information identifying the position of the first text character in the text effected by the visual attribute, identifying the position of the last text character effected by the visual attribute, and identifying the visual attribute to be applied to the text characters.

Claim 30

The method according to claim 26 wherein the attributes include informational attributes pertaining to the text information, characterized by writing into the text storage area, between text characters, unique characters referring to and identifying the locations of corresponding informational attributes, each unique character referring to a single information attribute, and writing into the attribute storage area a plurality of corresponding informational attribute words, each informational attribute word containing information pertaining to a single informational attribute and including information identifying the position within text where the information attribute occurs, the type of informational attribute, and a reference identifying the corresponding informational attribute. 1058