Document processing apparatus for controlling cursor movement and a method for processng a document in an apparatus operable in a plurality of editing modes

A document processing method of an electronic typewriter or a word processor, in which a cursor can be moved in an area of input data. A predetermined editing mode such as block shift mode or block copy mode is discriminated. The cursor movement to the outside of the input data area is permitted on the basis of the result of the discrimination. A space code, a return code, or the like is inserted at the cursor movement position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to a document processing apparatus of an electronic 
typewriter, a word processor, or the like. 
2. Related Background Art 
Conventional document processing apparatus are known in which a cursor can 
be moved on a display only in a data portion (real data) which actually 
exists upon editing of a document. The cursor is not positioned with 
respect to a blank portion of the line end or the line head of a certain 
line. When movement of the cursor to the blank portion is instructed, the 
cursor is immediately set to the character portion of the head of the next 
line or the character portion of the end of the preceding line, thereby 
producing a high processing speed for cursor movement and improving 
document editing efficiency. 
Document editing processes include a process (block shift) to shift an area 
(block) such as a desired paragraph or the like in the document to another 
position, a process (block copy) to copy such an area (block), and the 
like. Such a block designation is executed in a manner such that the 
operator designates the head character and the last character of the block 
or designates the characters in the whole block by properly using cursor 
movement keys. 
In the above conventional example, however, the operability of such a block 
designation is low. This is because when the operator designates such a 
block, he cannot roughly designate such a block while including a portion 
comprising characters other than those in the block. Thus the operator 
cannot operate the cursor to include characters occurring beyond the end 
of the block and he must pay attention when the head character and the 
last character in the block are indicated by using the cursor without an 
error. It may also be required to execute the block shift process or the 
block copy process while including a few blank lines. For this purpose, it 
is necessary to designate the block after a space code, a return code, or 
the like which was previously inputted, or it is necessary to newly input 
a space or the like after completion of the block shift process or the 
block copy process. Thus, the execution of such an operation becomes 
complicated. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the invention to solve the problems of the conventional 
apparatus as mentioned above and to improve the operability of document 
editing with respect to a document processing apparatus in which a cursor 
can be moved only over real data. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a document processing 
apparatus which can move a cursor only in a data portion which has 
actually been inputted, wherein the apparatus Comprises: means for 
discriminating a predetermined editing mode; and means for allowing the 
cursor to be moved to outside of the data portion in the above 
discrimination and for inserting a space code or a return code to the 
movement position of the cursor. 
Still another object of the invention is to provide a document processing 
apparatus in which the cursor movement is also permitted with respect to a 
portion other than data which has actually been inputted in a 
predetermined editing mode such as block shift mode, block copy mode, or 
the like, and a space code, a return code, or the like is inserted to the 
movement position of the cursor, so that a block designation or the like 
can be easily executed by merely using a cursor movement key.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
An embodiment of the invention will be described in detail hereinbelow with 
reference to the drawings. 
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example of an external structure of an electronic 
typewriter as an apparatus to which the invention can be applied. 
Reference numeral 1 denotes a keyboard section in which a group of keys 2 
such as keys to input characters, numerals, or the like, a control key, 
and the like are arranged. When the keyboard section 1 is not used, it can 
be folded up as shown in FIG. 1B by rotating the keyboard section 1 around 
a hinge 3 as a rotational center. Reference numeral 4 denotes a paper feed 
tray to feed a sheet-like recording medium to a printer section in the 
apparatus. In a manner similar to the keyboard section 1, when the paper 
feed tray 4 is not used, it is folded down so as to cover the printer 
section as shown in FIG. 1B. Reference numeral 5 denotes a feed knob to 
manually set or discharge the recording medium; reference numeral; 6 
denotes a display to display a sentence or the like which has been 
inputted; and reference numeral 7 denotes a handle which is used to carry 
the apparatus according to the embodiment. 
FIG. 2 shows an example of a structure of the printer section according to 
the embodiment. 
Reference numeral 9 denotes a head cartridge having an ink jet recording 
head; reference numeral 11 denotes a carriage on which the head cartridge 
9 is mounted and which scans the head cartridge in the directions 
indicated by arrows S in the diagram; reference numeral 13 denotes a hook 
to attach the head cartridge 9 to the carriage 11; and reference numeral 
15 denotes a lever to operate the hook 13. The lever 15 has a marker 17 
for indicating a scale formed on, for instance, a cover (not shown), 
thereby enabling a printing position, a setting position, or the like by a 
recording head of the head cartridge to be read; reference numeral 19 
denotes a supporting plate to support an electrical connecting section to 
the head cartridge 9; and reference numeral 21 denotes a flexible cable to 
connect the electric connecting section and a control section of the 
apparatus main body. 
Reference numeral 23 denotes a guide shaft to guide the carriage 11 in the 
S directions. The guide shaft 23 penetrates into a bearing 25 of the 
carriage 11. Reference numeral 27 denotes a timing belt to which the 
carriage 11 is fixedly attached and which transfers a motive power to move 
the carriage 11 in the S directions. The timing belt 27 is rove between 
pulleys 29A and 29B arranged in both side portions of the apparatus. A 
driving force is transferred to the pulley 29B by a carriage motor 31 
through a transfer mechanism such as a gear and the like. 
Reference numeral 33 denotes a conveying roller for restricting a recording 
surface of a recording medium such as a paper or the like (hereinafter, 
also referred to as a recording paper) and for conveying the recording 
medium upon recording or the like. The conveying roller 33 is driven by a 
conveying motor 35. Reference numeral 37 denotes a paper pan to lead the 
recording medium to a recording position from the side of the paper feed 
tray 4; reference numeral 39 denotes a feed roller which is arranged on 
the way of a feeding path of the recording medium and is used to press the 
recording medium to the conveying roller 33 and to convey the recording 
medium; reference numeral 34 denotes a platen which is arranged so as to 
face an ink emitting port forming surface of the head cartridge 9 and is 
used to restrict a recording surface of the recording medium; reference 
numeral 41 denotes a paper discharge roller which is arranged on the 
downstream side of the recording position in the conveying direction of 
the recording medium and is used to discharge the recording medium toward 
a paper discharge port (not shown); reference numeral 42 denotes a spur 
which is arranged in correspondence to the paper discharge roller 41 and 
is used to press the roller 41 through the recording medium and to cause a 
conveying force of the recording medium by the paper discharge roller 41; 
and reference numeral 43 denotes a release lever to cancel the pressing 
operations of the feed roller 39, pressing plate 45, and spur 42 upon 
setting or the like of the recording medium. 
Reference numeral 45 denotes a pressing plate for suppressing a floating-up 
state or the like of the recording medium at a position near the recording 
position and for assuring an adhering state to the conveying roller 33. In 
the embodiment, an ink jet recording head which records by emitting ink is 
used as the recording head. Therefore, a distance between the ink emitting 
port forming surface of the recording head and the recording surface of 
the recording medium is relatively very small and such an interval must be 
severely managed in order to avoid contact between the recording medium 
and the ink emitting port forming surface. Accordingly, it is effective to 
arrange the pressing plate 45. Reference numeral 47 denotes a scale formed 
on the pressing plate 45 and 49 indicates a marker formed on the carriage 
11 in correspondence to the scale 47. The printing position and the 
setting position of the recording head can be also read by the scale 47 
and the marker 49. 
Reference numeral 51 denotes a cap made of an elastic material such as 
rubber or the like. The cap 51 is arranged at a position so as to face the 
ink emitting port forming surface of the recording head at the home 
position and is supported so as to come into contact with and be removed 
away from the recording head. The cap 51 is used to protect the recording 
head in the non-recording mode or the like or to execute an emission 
recovering process of the recording head. The emission recovering process 
denotes a process (preemission) in which by driving an energy generating 
element which is arranged in the inside of each ink emitting port and is 
used to emit the ink, the inks are emitted from all of the emitting ports, 
thereby eliminating causes of defective emission such as air bubbles, 
dust, and ink which has become unsuitable for recording because of an 
increase in viscosity, and the like. The emission recovering process also 
denotes a process to eliminate the causes of such a defective emission by 
forcedly draining the ink from the emitting port independently of such a 
preemission. 
Reference numeral 53 denotes a pump which is used for generating a sucking 
force to forcedly drain the ink and for sucking the ink stored in the cap 
51 when the emission recovering process by the forced drain of the ink and 
the emission recovering process by the preemission are executed. Reference 
numeral 55 denotes a drain ink tank to store the drain ink which has been 
sucked by the pump 53. Reference numeral 57 indicates a tube to cause the 
pump 53 to communicate with the drain ink tank 55. 
Reference numeral 59 denotes a blade to wipe the ink emitting port forming 
surface of the recording head. The blade 59 is supported so as to be 
movable between a position where the blade is projected to the recording 
head side and executes the wiping operation during the head movement and a 
backward position at which the blade does not come into engagement with 
the emitting port forming surface. Reference numeral 61 denotes a motor 
and 63 indicates a cam device which receives a motive power from the motor 
61 and drives the pump 53 and moves the cap 51 and the blade 59, 
respectively. 
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of the document processing 
apparatus in an electronic typewriter form according to the embodiment. 
Reference numeral 100 denotes a CPU comprising a microcomputer to execute 
processing procedures or the like, which will be explained hereinlater, 
with respect to FIGS. 6A to 6C. Reference numeral 102 denotes a ROM in 
which programs corresponding to the processing procedures and other fixed 
data have been stored; reference numeral 103 denotes a RAM to temporarily 
store document data; reference numeral 106 denotes a printer section which 
has already been mentioned in conjunction with FIG. 2; reference numeral 
107 denotes a floppy disk device; and reference 108 denotes a bus line to 
connect the above components 100 to 107 and also to connect the keyboard 1 
and the display 6 shown in FIG. 1. An address bus to transfer address 
signals, a control bus to transfer control signals, and a data bus to 
transfer various kinds of data are generally referred to as a bus line. 
FIG. 4 shows an example of a key arrangement on the keyboard section 1. As 
shown in the diagram, the keyboard section 1 according to the embodiment 
has a well-known arrangement including a group of input keys of characters 
or numerals, a space key, a back space key, a shift key, a group of other 
control keys, and the like. In the diagram, reference numerals 214 and 217 
denote keys which are operated to display a preceding picture plane and a 
next picture plane; reference numeral 216 denotes a key which is used to 
move a cursor to the head of a document file which is being processed and 
to display the head portion; and reference 220 denotes (220U, 220D, 220L, 
220R) a group of cursor keys to move the cursor in the directions 
indicated by the corresponding arrows. 
Reference numeral 228 denotes a key which can execute a predetermined 
function by depressing another key (for instance, a numeric value key or a 
character key) together with the key 228. By continuously depressing 
either one of the keys 214, 217, and 220 together with the key 228, what 
is called a repeating function operates. That is, by continuously 
executing the simultaneous depression of the keys 228 and 214 or the keys 
228 and 217, the preceding picture plane or the next picture plane is 
sequentially set. By continuously executing the simultaneous depression of 
the key 228 and the cursor key 220, the cursor is continuously moved. In 
the case of simultaneously depressing the keys 228 and 216, the cursor is 
moved to the end of a sentence. In the case of operating the cursor up 
movement key 220U or the cursor left movement key 220L in a state in which 
the cursor exists in the top line or the left end of the display screen or 
in the case of operating the cursor down movement key 220D or the cursor 
right movement key 220R in a state in which the cursor exists at the 
lowest line or the right end, of the display screen, the display screen is 
scrolled. 
FIG. 5 shows an example of a data arrangement in the RAM 103. 
Reference numeral 111 denotes a document data area. Document data which is 
at present being processed such as sentence which is at present being 
inputted, a document which has been read out of a floppy disk, or the like 
is developed in the document data area 111. Reference numeral 113 denotes 
a margin/tab buffer comprising: a storage area 131 of left margin data 
which is set with respect to a document; a storage area 133 of right 
margin data; and storage areas 135 of tab data (Tab.sub.1, Tab.sub.2, . . 
. , Tab.sub.n). Reference numeral 115 denotes a line management buffer 
having areas 151 to store, for instance, addresses of line head characters 
and other data (l.sub.1, l.sub.2, . . . , l.sub.m) in order to manage data 
which is used to display or print with respect to lines constructing a 
document. 
Reference numeral 117 denotes a storage area to store cursor position data 
(cursor pointer). Reference numeral 119 indicates an area which is used as 
a flat to set data indicating whether the cursor is set to only the real 
data position upon document editing or not. 
FIGS. 6A to 6C show examples of control procedures of the document 
processing apparatus according to the embodiment. 
First, input key data is read in step S1 and the key data is discriminated 
in step S3. Various kinds of corresponding processes are executed in 
accordance with the result of the discrimination. For instance, in the 
case of a character key, a character code is inserted in step S5. In the 
case of a space key, a space code is inserted in step S7. In the case of a 
return key, a return code is inserted in step S9. 
If a cursor key has been operated during a document editing process, the 
cursor is set to only the real data portion in principle. However, in the 
embodiment, when the cursor right movement key 220R or the cursor down 
movement key 220D has been operated, a process shown in FIG. 6B or 6C to 
enable the cursor to be also moved outside of the real data in accordance 
with a processing mode at that time is executed (step S11, S13). In the 
embodiment, a block shift mode and a block copy mode are provided as modes 
which permit such a cursor movement. If a key input to start the execution 
of those modes has been performed, the operating condition is set such 
that a display of a message corresponding to such a mode or the like is 
executed in step S15. In addition, "1" is set into the cursor control flag 
area 119 in FIG. 5. 
In addition to the above modes, if there is a mode which permits the 
movement of the cursor outside of the real data, the flag can be also set 
to "1" in such a mode. On the contrary, in a mode in which there is no 
need to move the cursor to the outside of the real data or in a mode in 
which it is preferable that such a cursor movement is not performed, a 
process to reset the flag area 119 is executed in response to the input of 
a mode execution start key. 
FIG. 6B shows an example of a processing procedure in the case where the 
cursor right movement key has been depressed (the repeating function can 
be also made operative). In step SB1, a check is first made to see if the 
flag has been set to "1" or not. If NO, a cursor pointer is advanced by 
one character in step SB3. The cursor is set to the next real data portion 
(the next character position in the case of the way of the line; the head 
character position of the next line in the case of the line end). 
If YES in step SB1, that is, if the cursor right movement key 220R has been 
depressed in the block shift process or block copy process, a check is 
made in step SB5 to see if the cursor pointer indicates the character at 
the line end or not. If NO in step SB5, the processing routine advances to 
step SB3. However, if the cursor pointer indicates the character at the 
line end, a check is made in step SB7 to see if the cursor pointer exists 
on the inside of the right margin or not. If YES in step SB7, step SB9 
follows and a space code is inserted to the cursor position and the cursor 
pointer is advanced. That is, according to the embodiment, the cursor is 
also moved to the outside of the real data during the block shift process 
or the block copy process and a space is inserted to the shift position. 
If the cursor has already reached the right margin position, the cursor is 
moved to the head of the next line in step SB11. 
FIG. 6C shows an example of a processing procedure when the cursor down 
movement has been instructed. A check is also first made in step SC1 to 
see if the flag has been set to "1" or not. If NO, the cursor pointer is 
advanced to the next line in step SC3. On the contrary, if YES in step 
SC1, that is, if the cursor down movement has been instructed in the block 
shift process or the block copy process, a check is made in step SC5 to 
see if the cursor pointer indicates the last line in the document or not. 
If NO in step SC5, the processing routine advances to step SC3. However, 
if YES in step SC5, a return code is inserted to the line end of the last 
line in step SC7. Thus, the cursor is moved to the head position of the 
next line. If the cursor down movement key is further operated, a return 
code is sequentially inserted to the head position. 
As mentioned above, according to the embodiment, when a block to be shifted 
or copied is designated while operating, for instance, the cursor right 
movement key, the block can be easily accurately designated by merely 
operating the cursor without executing any special operation such that 
attention is paid so as to accurately stop the cursor at a position of the 
character at the line end or a space code is previously inserted or the 
like. When the movement of the cursor to the outside of the read data has 
been instructed by operating the cursor down movement key, a return code 
is sequentially set for the relevant line and subsequent lines, so that 
the block including blank lines can be easily executed by merely operating 
the cursor key without performing any special operation such that a return 
code, a space code, or the like is preset or the like. 
The invention is not limited to only the above embodiment but may 
modifications and variations are possible. 
For instance, if a block can be designated by also moving the cursor in the 
backward direction, the processes as shown in FIG. 6B or 6C can be also 
executed with respect to the operation of the cursor left movement key 
220L or the cursor up movement key 220U. 
If there is a mode in which it is preferable to permit the movement of the 
cursor to the outside of the real data, the processes as mentioned above 
can be also performed for a mode other than the foregoing block shift mode 
or block copy mode. 
Further, the apparatus to which the invention can be applied is not limited 
to only the electronic typewriter as mentioned above but the invention can 
be also applied to a Japanese word processor, other word processors, or 
the like. The output device is also not limited to the ink jet printer as 
mentioned above. 
As described above, according to the invention, the cursor movement is also 
permitted for portions other than the data which has actually been 
inputted in a predetermined editing mode such as block shift mode, block 
copy mode, or the like, and a space code, a return code, or the like is 
inserted to the movement position. Therefore, the block designation or the 
like can be easily accurately performed by merely using the cursor 
movement keys. There is no need to execute any special operation or 
control such as to move the cursor to the outside of the real data. Thus, 
the operability of the apparatus can be further improved.