Patent ID: 8429154

Claim:
A search device comprising: a data input unit for inputting document data to the search device; a data judgment unit for making a determination whether the document data is image data or non-image data; a corresponding template search unit; a field data template memory storing a field data template indicating a position of field data within the document data; a field extraction unit for extracting the field data from the document data, wherein (i) in response to the data judgment unit determining that the document data is image data, the corresponding template search unit searches the field data template corresponding to the document data from the field data template memory, identifies a position of the field data included in the document data according to the found field data template, and thereafter the field extraction unit extracts the field data, and (ii) in response to the data judgment unit determining that the document data is non-image data, the field extraction unit extracts the field data from the document data without searching the field data template; a data storage unit for storing the field data, the document data, and an importance rank of the document data, the storing associating the document data, the field data and the importance rank, wherein the importance rank is calculated based on document properties independent from an entry of a search word; a search word input unit for inputting the search word; a search processing unit for searching the field data in the data storage unit based on the inputted search word and for retrieving the document data associated with the found field data; and a display unit for displaying an icon representing the document data found by the search processing unit, at a position in a coordinate system, wherein a size of the icon varies according to the importance rank associated with the document data, wherein the document data is associated with the icon on a one-to-one basis, and wherein upon clicking the icon, information related to the associated document data becomes viewable.