Patent ID: 7743034
Filing Date: 2010-06-22
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A document management method comprising: a document registration step of, when a registration request of a document file comprised of a plurality of pages is received, using a computer to divide the document file into a plurality of document data, each of the plurality of document data corresponding to a page of the document file, and register the divided document data corresponding to each page in a database stored in a storage device; an associating step of associating search information to be used for keyword-search with each of the plurality of registered document data, wherein for each of the plurality of document data, the associated search information is information of merchandise contained in the document data of the corresponding page; an expiration date setting step of setting an expiration date for each document data corresponding to each page registered in the document registration step; a setting step of setting whether or not each of the plurality of registered document data is opened to the public on a network; a search step of searching for the document data corresponding to an input keyword from the plurality of registered document data which is being opened to the public, based on the search information associated in the associating step; a display step of displaying a plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to the document data searched in the search step; a selection step of selecting, based on a user instruction, a plurality of user-desired thumbnail images from the plurality of thumbnail images displayed in the display step; a creation step of creating one document file comprised of a plurality of user-desired document data corresponding to the plurality of user-desired thumbnail images selected in the selection step; a saving step of saving the created document file as an original document file together with attribute information; a count-up step of incrementing a counter representing presence/absence of use for each document data of each page contained in the original document file when the original document file is saved in the saving step; an output step of, when an output of the saved original document file is instructed by a user, acquiring, from the database, the document data used in the original document file of which the output is instructed, and outputting the acquired document data; a delete step of deleting the saved original document file; a count-down step of decrementing the counter representing the presence/absence of use for each document data of each page contained in the original document file deleted in the delete step; and a document data delete step of deleting, from among the registered document data corresponding to each page contained in the original document file which was deleted in the delete step, document data for which the counter is 0 and of which the set expiration date expires, wherein document data for which the counter is not 0 or of which the set expiration date does not expire is not deleted in the document data delete step.