EP0158766A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Electronic processing with forms
Assignee: Wang Laboratories Inc
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Filing: 1985-01-02
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2005-01-02
Abstract
Abstract A method and apparatus for operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office processing equipment by using a printer under control of a video terminal keyboard to identify the location and length of blanks on a pre-printed form and then displaying lines on the video display having the same length and relative position as on the form. Editing functions are used to add captions adjacent to the lines to indicate what information is to be entered on each blank line in the corresponding form. The displayed lines and captions are a form template for the particular pre-printed form and is ' stored. When the processing equipment is to be used to enter data for the pre-pnnted form, the associated form template is displayed on the video display and the appropriate information is entered onto the blank lines and then stored. When there is need for a hard copy, a pre-printed form is placed in the printer and the stored information is typed into the blanks. The system locates the blanks to fill them in using the location and length information stored when creating the form template. Features are the ability to delete and edit information entered and stored using the form template, and to merge print some or all the stored information into a form document other than the pre-printed form.
Inventors
- 👤 Kenneth Alan Carlson
- 👤 John Francis Lebrun
- 👤 Salvatore Giacomazzo
- 👤 Jonathan David Saperia
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 08:39
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F40/00; G06F40/10; G06F40/166; G06F40/174
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim
151 words
A method of operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office processing equipment including a processor, video display, keyboard, memory and printer, characterized by the steps of: creating a form template on the video display for a pre-printed form, the template consisting of blank lines of the same length and in the same relative positions to each other as on the pre-printed forms, and having captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of information to be entered thereon, storing the form template in the memory of the processing equipment, retrieving the form template from the memory and displaying it on the video display when it is desired to enter information for the last mentioned pre-printed form; entering appropriate information onto the blank lines on the form template displayed on the video display; and storing the information entered onto the blank lines of the form template displayed on the video display.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
151 words
A method of operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office processing equipment including a processor, video display, keyboard, memory and printer, characterized by the steps of: creating a form template on the video display for a pre-printed form, the template consisting of blank lines of the same length and in the same relative positions to each other as on the pre-printed forms, and having captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of information to be entered thereon, storing the form template in the memory of the processing equipment, retrieving the form template from the memory and displaying it on the video display when it is desired to enter information for the last mentioned pre-printed form; entering appropriate information onto the blank lines on the form template displayed on the video display; and storing the information entered onto the blank lines of the form template displayed on the video display.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
134 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the step of creating a form template is characterized by the steps of: identifiying the position and length of each blank on the pre-printed form to the processor using the keyboard and the printer; storing the data representing the position and length of each blank on the pre-printed form; displaying the blanks as blank lines on the video display using the stored data, wherein each the line is of the same length and in the same physical positions to each other as the blanks on the pre-printed form; and editing the last mentioned display on the video display to add captions adjacent to each blank line indicating the type of information to be entered onto the line, the lines and the captions creating the form template.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
87 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 or 2, wherein the information entered into the form template creates an information record and many information records are created using the form template, characterized by the steps of: feeding ones of the pre-printed forms into the printer, selecting one or more of the stored information records entered via the form template to be printed onto the pre-printed forms; controlling the printer using the selected information records to print the informaton in the blanks on ones of the pre-printed forms.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
68 words
The method in accordance with claim 3, further characterized by the steps of: listing all the stored information records entered at different times using the form template; selecting from the list ones of the last mentioned information records to be printed into the blanks of ones of the pre-printed forms using the printer; and printing each selected information record in the blanks of one of the pre-printed forms.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method in accordance with claim 4 further characterized by the steps of: listing all the stored information records entered using the form template; selecting ones of the stored information records to be deleted from storage in the memory; and deleting the last mentioned selected ones of the stored information records from the memory.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method in accordance with claim 5 further characterized by the step of: modifying selected ones of the stored information records entered using the form template.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
46 words
The method in accoreance with claim 6 further characterized by the steps of: selecting a form document having blanks thereon to be filled in to complete the form document; and merge print appropriate information from the stored information records with the form document to complete same.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
259 words
Electronic office processing equipment comprising a processor (11), expecially a microprocessor, a video terminal with a keybord (10) functioning with the processor, memory (12) and a printer (13) having a rotatable platen and a movable print head, for creating and storing a template (30) for a pre-printed form (20) having blanks thereon in which information is to be entered, and the template (30) is used for storing and later printing out said information entered into said blanks on the form for carrying out the method according to claim 1, characterized in that both the platen and the print head are responsive to the processor (11) and to the keyboard (10) to place the print head first at a corner of the pre-printed form (20), then at the beginning and the end of each blank space (21, 23, 25, 26, 27) on the pre-printed form (20) in which information is to be entered, to identify to the processor (11) the location of each blank space; and that the processor (11) displays on the video terminal (10) lines (31, 33, 35, 36, 37) of the same length and in the same positions to each other as the blanks (21, 23, 25, 26, 27) on the pre-printed form (20), the keyboard (10) then being used to provide inputs to the processor which responsive thereto causes captions (32, 34, 35, 39) to be placed adjacent to the lines, the captions indicating the type of information to be entered on the lines and the lines and the captions making up the form template (30).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
152 words
The electronic office processing equipment in accordance with claim 8, characterized by a memory (12) in which the form template (30) is stored after creation, and the form tempalte (30) is read out of the memory (12) and displayed on the video display (10) under controll of the keyboard (10) and the processor (11), the keyboard (10) being used to enter information into the form template (30) and to indicate to the processor (11) to store the information entered on the template form (30), and a cursor on the video display (10) responsive to the keyboard (10) and the processor (11) to be moved to the blank lines (31, 33, 35, 36, 37) on the form template (30) displayed thereon, to enter information on blank lines of the displayed forms template (30) and to indicate to the processor (11) when all information has been entered so that the information may be stored.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
81 words
The electronic office processing equipment in accordance with claim 9, characterized in that to the stored information each time the pre-printed form (20) is placed in the printer (13) and its platen and print head are moved to each blank space (21, 23, 25, 26, 27) on the form (20) under control of the processor (11) using the form template (30) blank line location information, and the appropriate stored information is printed on the blank lines of the pre-printed form (20).
References Cited (Backward Citations)
EP0067303A2
Cited
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