Patent ID: 7281210

Claim:
A layout method, comprising: a layout step to lay out information to be posted, the layout step including placing the information in a plurality of information container frames arranged in a predetermined layout area, if the plurality of information container frames overlap each other, the size of one of the information container frames is modified in the layout step with the geometrical shape thereof maintained so that none of the information container frames overlaps each other, and a modification candidate list storage step to store a modification candidate list of a plurality of modification candidates of information container frames subsequent to the modification, the layout step including a segmentation frame selecting step to select, as an information container frame to be segmented, one of the plurality of information container frames overlapping each other, an information container frame segmenting step to segment the one information container frame selected by the segmentation frame selecting step into a plurality of information container frames that do not overlap with another one of the plurality of originally overlapping information container frames, a modification candidate registering step to register the information container frames, segmented by the information container frame segmenting step, in the modification candidate list, a modification candidate selecting step to select a modification candidate from the modification candidate list, and an information container frame modifying step to modify the size of the information container frame to be segmented, selected by the segmentation frame selecting step, to the information container frame selected by the modification candidate selecting step.