1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system using the same for filing an electronic document and in particular to an electronic document filing method and system using the same which enable the user to easily register and retrieve an electronic document.
2. Background of the Related Art
In recent years, with development in information processing systems, document processing systems and so on, electronic documents have been used increasingly and documents have been used in various manners.
Here, FIG. 12 shows a document life cycle.
In FIG. 12, each step represented by a solid line denotes an electronic document and each step represented by a dashed line denotes a paper-printed document.
A document created by a creator at step 1001 is stored on a storage such as hard disk or in a document registration server at step 1002, is distributed by electronic E-mail at step 1003, or is printed on paper at step 1004.
The document stored at step 1002 may be reused by the creator and the document printed on paper at step 1004 is copied as required at step 1005 and is distributed as a paper document at step 1006 or is stored at step 1007.
On the other hand, the person who gets at step 1011 the electronic document distributed by E-mail at step 1003 reads the received document at step 1012 and prints the document at step 1013, stores the document at step 1014, or transfers the document to another person by E-mail at step 1015 as required.
The document printed on paper at step 1013 is distributed at step 1016 or stored at step 1017 as a paper document and the document stored at step 1014 is reused as required at step 1018.
The person who gets the transferred document at step 1015 handles the document like the person who receives the electronic document at step 1011.
Thus, electronic documents can be easily reused as well as created, printed, distributed, and stored; they can be used effectively as compared with paper documents.
However, to reuse an electronic document, the user must obtain the electronic document in a paper print format or an electronic file format from the location (hardware) where the electronic document is stored.
In general, the user can get an electronic document by entering the storage location and the document name, but if such information does not exist, the document must be found with a keyword, etc.
At this time, if the user has a printed document on hand, the required document can be obtained in the paper print format by copying the printed document, but it is not useful to obtain the electronic document in the electronic file format.
Thus, the electronic documents can be easily reused, but it is hard to obtain a specific electronic document. Then, systems for easily obtaining electronic documents are proposed.
There are proposed electronic document registration and retrieval systems using facsimiles and so on, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Hei 2-73466, Sho 63-242060, Sho 63-95578, Hei 2-2461, Hei 7-273926, Hei 8-251223, Hei 8-102824.
However, the registration and retrieval systems require a specifically designed form using a mark sheet, etc., to register or retrieve a document and the user must enter specification contents for the registration and the retrieval on the form.
There are proposed electronic document registration and retrieval systems wherein when a registered electronic document is printed on paper, identification code such as bar code, is also printed with the document, and is read for retrieving the registered electronic document, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Hei 3-291756, Hei 5-108794, Hei 6-44320, Hei 7-200634, Hei 8-16605. Moreover, there are proposed electronic document registration and retrieval systems wherein when a registered electronic document is printed on paper, additional information code, is also printed with the document, and is read for retrieving the registered electronic document, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Hei 8-50598, Hei 4-363268, Hei 6-40092, Hei 7-146854, Hei 7-271826.
However, in the electronic document registration and retrieval systems, for example, the identification code such as bar code, must be printed at a predetermined position on paper and the document print area is narrowed, or the bar code may interfere with the layout, depending on the document.
There are proposed systems for recording a structured document, a program, data, etc., on a document in a machine-readable format, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Hei 4-232564, Hei 6-83879, Hei 6-46244, Hei 7-200748, Hei 7-21214, however in the systems, a suggestion about retrieving and reusing a document is not made either.
In addition, such arts for using bar code, etc., to relate printed documents and electronic documents to each other are also proposed, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Nos. Hei 4-295886, Sho 60-12573, Hei 7-295958, Hei 7-115537, Hei 8-83283. In these systems, the bar code is printed on a book, an encyclopedia, etc., and is read, thereby outputting a related picture or voice, however, a suggestion concerning generation of identification code such as bar code is not made either.
As described above, the electronic document is a document form that can be reused easily, but to reuse the electronic document, the user must retrieve it from the unit where the electronic document is stored, and retrieval work and registration work to facilitate retrieval are intricate.
An art is also proposed wherein if the user has a paper-printed document on hand, identification code, etc., is printed with the document at the printing time, and is used to retrieve the corresponding electronic document. However, a procedure of giving registration information on which the identification code is based is complicated or the identification code narrows the document print area or interferes with the layout.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic document filing method and system using the same which can add identification code to a document without narrowing the document print area or interfering with the document layout, and which can easily retrieve the corresponding electronic document based on the identification code.
According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic document filing method comprises the steps of the steps of adding identification code proper to an electronic document thereto, registering the electronic document to which the identification code is added in a document server connected through a network, printing the registered electronic document and the identification code on the same paper face, reading the printed identification code, and retrieving and obtaining the electronic document based on the read identification code.
According to the method of the present invention, the document server may determine a location where the electronic document is to be stored based on the identification code added to the electronic document at the time of document registration, and may select and transfer the stored electronic document based on the corresponding identification code at the time of document retrieval.
According to the method of the present invention, the electronic document may be registered automatically at the same time as it is printed, is transmitted to another user, is received from another printer, or is input through an image reader.
According to the method of the present invention, the identification code may be printed on an arbitrary layout at an arbitrary position on the paper face.
According to the method of the present invention, the identification code may be printed on the paper face as bar code.
According to the method of the present invention, after a printing area of the electronic document is set, the identification code may be printed where except on the printing area of the electronic document at the time of printing.
According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic document filing system comprises identification code addition means for adding identification code proper to the electronic document thereto, electronic document transfer means for registering the electronic document to which the identification code is added to the document server, print means for printing the registered electronic document and the identification code on the same paper face, identification code read means for reading the identification code printed on the paper face, identification code interpretation means for interpreting the identification code read by the identification code read means, and identification code transfer means for transferring the identification code interpreted by the identification code interpretation means to the document server.
According to the system of the present invention, the document server may include document storage means for determining a location where the electronic document is to be stored based on the identification code added to the electronic document, and storing the electronic document in the determined location, document selection means for receiving the identification code transferred by the identification code transfer means and selecting the electronic document stored by the document storage means, and document sending means for sending the electronic document selected by the document selection means.
According to the system of the present invention, the electronic document may be registered automatically at the same time as it is printed, is transmitted to another user, is received from another printer, or is input through an image reader.
According to the system of the present invention, the identification code addition means may include an identification code generating section generating the identification code, print data generating section converting the electronic document into an print image data, and a data combining section combining the identification code with the print image data.
According to the system of the present invention, the print means may print the identification code on an arbitrary layout at an arbitrary position on the paper face.
According to the system of the present invention, the identification code may be printed on the paper face as bar code.
According to the system of the present invention, after a printing area of the electronic document is set as the print image data in the print data generating section, the data combining section may combine the identification code generated from the identification code generating section with the print image data so that the identification code may be printed where except on the printing area of the electronic document.