OFFICE AUTOMATION SYSTEM

Abstract: An office automation system for composing and printing text. In case the presence of the operator at the printer (3) is required (e.g. for changing the type of paper or for watching over the printing of confiden­ tial information), the operator can instruct the system to delay the printing action and wait for a command to start printing. The start command may be generated by the printer (3) itself, when a cer­ tain required acton has been performed, or by the operator, by means of keying in a code at the control panel (8) of the printer (3). A display (14) at the control panel (8) of the printer (3) may show a message related to the cause of the delay.

Description: The invention relates to an office automation system comprising a memory for storing coded information, a printer which can print coded information on a sheet of receiving material fed to the printing station of the printer, at least one command inputting device for inputting control commands for the office automation system, and a control system which in response to a first control command carries out a printing job, which control system during the performance of the printing job draws from the memory the information specified by the first control command and feeds it to the printer for printing. A system of this kind is known from EP-A-61 571. The known system comprises a number of word processors connected to a common printer. A printing job can be started from each word processor. If a printing job has to be performed by means of such a system, a number of operations first having to be carried out by the operator at the printer, such as e.g. changing the usual type of paper for a type of paper of a different kind, the operator will first have to carry out these operations and then input the order for carrying out the printing job. If the printer is at some distance from the work station, as is not unusual in extensive office automation systems, the annoying consequence to the operator is that he often has to go from the work station to the printer and back. The object of this invention is to provide an office automation system with greater user-friendliness. According to the invention, this object is attained in that an office automation system according to the preamble is provided with detection means for detecting a specific event caused by the operator with the printer, in that the detection means in response to a second control command added to a first control command detect whether the event determined by the second control command takes place and, after detecting the said event, send a detection signal to the control system, and in that the control system in response to the second control command postpones the start of the performance of the printing job until the detection signal has been received. In the office automation system according to the invention; the operator can postpone the performance of the printing job by inputting an extra control command, until he has carried out at the printer the operations determined by the additional control program. These operations are detected by the control system. After detection of the operations, postponement of the performance of the printing job is cancelled from the printer so that there is no need for the operator to walk back to the command inputting device. In a variant of the invention, which is characterised in that the printer is provided with an inputting device for inputting a code by the operator, and in that the detection means in response to the said second control command detect whether an input code corresponds to the required code and, the detection means upon conformity between the compared codes, offer the detection signal, the operator can easily cancel postponing the start of the printing job after the necessary operations have been carried out. This variant too offers the opportunity of printing being held up, in the case of printing very confidential information, until an authorized person is present at the printer and has input the said code. In such situations, the code to be input will generally be a secret identity code. Another variant of the invention, which is charcterised in that the printer is provided with a semi-automatic feeder which conveys to the printing station a sheet of receiving material manually introduced into the semi-automatic feeder, and in that the detection means in responsse to the said second control command detect whether a sheet is present in the semi-automatic feeder and in the event of the said presence being detected offer the detection signal, has the advantage that a print can be made easily on a different type of paper fed via the semi-automatic feeder. An attractive variant of the invention is characterised in that the printer is provided with a display means for displaying a message, and in that the printer is provided with means which display a message determined by a said second control command in the event of the control device waiting for the said detection signal prior to starting the printing job determined by the first control command. The invention and other advantages thereof will be explained in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing. The drawing represents an embodiment of the office automation system according to the invention. The office automation system comprises a number of work stations 1 coupled via a central control station 2 to a common printer 3. Work station 1 is one of a conventional type, such as e.g. a word processor, provided with a keyboard 4 and a screen 5. Keyboard 4 can be used to input the edit texts and for inputting control commands for the office automation system. The input or edited text can be displayed on the screen. The central control station 2 comprises a memory 6 in which the input text information is stored. Central control station 2 is connected via a data transmission channel 7 to printer 3. Printer 3 is a laser printer of conventional type comprising a control panel 8, a laser print module 9, an automatic feeder 10, a semi-automatic feeder 11 and a delivery tray 12. Control panel 8 is provided with pushbuttons 13 for manually inputting codes, and with a display means 14 on which messages can be displayed. By means of the automatic feeder 10 it is possible to feed sheets of receiving material from a storage magazine 15 to the laser print module 9. Sheets of receiving material fed manually to the input slot 16 can be introduced by means of the semi-automatic feeder 11. Information fed to the printer via the data transmission channel 7 is printed in laser print module 9 on a sheed fed via the automatic feeder 10 or the semi-automatic feeder 11. After the information has been printed in the laser print module 9 on a fed sheet the printed sheet is deposited in the tray 12. If a user of the office automation system wishes to print part of the text information stored in memory 6, he can introduce an input command to start a printing job via keyboard 4 of work station 1. The latter transmits the input command to central control station 2, which then creates a printing job for sending the text information specified by the said input command from memory 6. The newly created printing job is put into a queue of printing jobs which have already been created but not yet finished. The central control station 2 calculates a first time required by the printer to perform the newly created printing job and sends this information to the work station 1. Moreover the expected total time needed for printing out all the printing jobs in the queue is calculated and this total time (= second time) is also sent to the work station 1 in question. By displaying these times on the screen of the work station, and, moreover, having the second time counted back to zero with a real clock, the operator always knows when his new printing job can be performed. By inputting more successive printing jobs the work station 1 displays for every job the calculated times together with a job dedicated running indicator. The central control station 2 processes the printing jobs in the queue in order. As soon as the printer has completed printing the information offered by a preceding job, the next printing job in the queue is started. After the printing job has been started, the central control station 2 draws the text information for printing from memory 6 and transmits it via data transmission channel 7 to printer 3, in which the information is printed on the sheetlike receiving material offered to the laser print module 9 via one of the feeders. The above is a description of the printing process for printing jobs initiated by a standard input command. In the office automation system according to the invention, a plurality of commands to control the performance of the printing job can be added to the standard input commands for starting printing jobs. A command of this kind may, for example, indicate that the paper in magazine 15 must be changed before starting the printing job. Another command, for example, may indicate that the information must be printed on a sheet of receiving material input via the semi-automatic feeder 11. Yet another command, for example, may indicate that the printing job may not be started until a certain identity code has been input via the keys 13 on the control panel 8. The identity code may be added to the command. Changing the paper in the magazine 15 may, for example, be necessary if the information to be printed is to reproduced on a type of paper differing from a standard type, e.g. if it is required to print on a different colour paper, or if a form is to be used which has a preprinted section. The use of the semi-automatic feeder may, for example, be very attractive in preparing reports, in which only the front page has to be printed on a different type of paper. The use of the identity code has advantages particularly in printing confidential information. In this way it is possible to hold up printing the confidential information until an authorised person is present at the printer, thus minimizing any risk of confidential information coming into the hands of people for whom it is not intended. If a command indicating that a paper change in magazine 15 is necessary is added to the input command for starting a printing job, the printing process proceeds as follows: after the input command has been input, a printing job is created in the usual way and put in the queue. However, the printing job is not started as soon as that job comes to the head of the queue. What is done is that a message is sent to the work station where the printing order in question has been input. This message is displayed on the screen 5 of this work station 1. The work station operator must respond to this message within a predetermined time, e.g. 30 seconds, via the keyboard 4, by inputting a command intended for this purpose, to show that he has received the message. If he has not reponded within the predetermined time, the printing job is again put to the back of the queue. If, however, the response is received within the predetermined time, a message is sent to the printer, which message is displayed on the display means 14 by the printer. The central control station waits for a second predetermined time, e.g. two minutes, for an answer-back from the printer 3 to this message. The printer will send this answer-back after the operator has operated a predetermined code key of the keys 13. During this second predetermined time between the message to the printer and the expected answer-back by the printer, the operator has time to change the paper in the magazine 15. If the answer-back has come in time, the printing job is started and the information to be printed is reproduced on the paper freshly placed in the magazine. After the completion of this printing job, the central control station 2 sends a message to printer 3, which message indicates that the operator can again fill the magazine with the standard paper. This message is also displayed on the display means 14. The operator has the opportunity for a predetermined time to place the standard paper in the magazine 15 again and then send a message to the central control station 2 by pressing a predetermined key of the keys 13 on the control panel, the message being to the effect that standard paper has again been placed in the magazine. If a message of this king is not sent within that time, the printer is not released for the next printing order and at the beginning of a subsequent printing job a message will appear on the display means 14 to show that a non-standard type of paper is present in the magazine. If, when a print order is input, a command has been given to understand that a print must be printed on sheets fed via the semi-automatic paper feeder 11, as soon as this print job has reached the head of the queue, a message will be sent to the work station 1 and the print job will again be put at the back of the queue unless the operator has responded to this message within the predetermined time. If the response has been made at the proper time a message is fed by the central control station 2 to the printer 3 and this message is displayed on display means 14. This message indicates that a sheet of receiving material must be introduced into the machine via the entry slot 16 of the semi-automatic paper feeder. Also, the message indicates that the operator must show by pressing a predetermined key 13 that the printing job may be started. As soon as the operator has pressed the correct key 13 and a detector 17 has detected the presence of a sheet in the semi-automatic paper feeder, printer 3 sends an answer-back to central control station 2. If central control station 2 receives the answer-back within a predetermined time after the message has been sent, the printing job is started and the information to be printed on the first sheet will be fed to the printer 3 for printing. If the answer-back is not received by control station 2 within the predetermined time, the job in question is again put at the back of the queue. After each sheet introduced via feeder 11 has been printed, the printing job is interrupted and central control station 2 transmits a message to printer 3 to show that a subsequent sheet can be fed in via the semi-automatic paper feeder 11. This message is displayed on display means 14. As soon as detector 17 detects that a sheet has been entered, a supplementary command is fed to central control station 2. If the supplementary command is received before a predetermined time has elapsed, e.g. 30 seconds, after the message has been sent to printer 3 by the control station, control station 2 offer the information to be printed on the fed sheet to printer 3 for printing. If the supplementary command is not received within the predetermined period, performance of the job that has already been interrupted is finally stopped. If the command added to the input printing order indicates that confidential information is involved, then as soon as the printing job in question reached the head of the queue a message is sent to the work station 1 at which the relevant order has been input. This message is reproduced on the screen 5 of this work station. If this work station operator responds to this message within a predetermined period, e.g. 30 seconds, and inputs an answer-back command via the keyboard 4 of this work station, a message will then be transmitted to printer 3 to show that an identity code input is required. The operator of the printer 3 then has the opportunity to input the identity code within a predetermined time via the keys 13 of the control panel. As soon as the correct code has been input, a message is fed to control station 2 which in response thereto starts to perform the printing job in question.

Claims: An office automation system comprising a memory (6) for storing coded information, a printer (3) which can print coded information on a sheet of receiving material fed to the printing station (9) of the printer, at least one command inputting device (4) for inputting control commands for the office automation system, and a control system (2) which in response to a first control command carries out a printing job, which control system (2) during the performance of the printing job draws from the memory (6) the information specified by the first control command and feeds it to the printer (3) for printing characterised in that the office automation system is provided with detection means for detecting a specific event caused by the operator with the printer(3), in that the detecton means in response to a second control command added to a first control command detect whether the event determined by the second control command takes place and, after detecting the said event, send a detection signal to the control system (2), and in that the control system (2) in response to the second control command postpones the start of the performance of the printing job until the detection signal has been received. An office automation system according to claim 1, characterised in that the printer (3) is provided with an inputting device (13) for inputting a code by the operator, and in that the detection means in response to the said second control command detect whether an input code corresponds to a required code and, upon conformity between the compared codes, offer the detection signal. An office automation system according to claim 2, characterised in that the printer (3) is provided with a semi-automatic feeder (11) which conveys to the printing station (9) a sheet of receiving material manually introduced into the semi-automatic feeder, and in that the detection means in response to the said second control command detect whether a sheet is present in the semi-automatic feeder (11) and in the event of the said presence being detected offer the detection signal. An office automation system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the printer (3) is provided with a display means for displaying a message, and in that the printer (3) is provided with means which display a message determined by a said second control command in the event of the control device waiting for the said detection signal prior to starting the printing job determined by the first control command.

Inventors: KESSELS, HENDRICUS WILHELMUS HUBERTUS MARIA, LAPOUTRE, CHARLES, NOTERMANS, RONALD MARIA WILLEM, VERHELST, PAULUS WILHELMUS EUGENIUS
Applicants: OCE-NEDERLAND B.V.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: G06K15
IPC codes: B41J29, G06F17, B41J3, G06F21, G06K15, G06F1, G06F3