Patent Document ID: 5581682
Application ID: 07904129

Base Claim:
1. A method for storing documents and information associated with said documents, said method comprising the steps of: converting a document to a document data stream, said document data stream comprised of document data and a plurality of structured fields; converting information associated with said document to an information data stream; combining said document data stream with said information data stream to form a combined data stream, leaving said document data in said combined data stream unchanged; modifying at least one of said structured fields in said combined data stream by adding an include structure to indicate that said information data stream has been included in said combined data steam; and storing said combined data stream.

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Claim 3:
3. A method as in claim 1 wherein: a first group of said plurality of structured fields comprises a plurality of "begin flags", each of said flags indicating the beginning of a portion of said document data stream corresponding to the beginning of a portion of said document; a second group of said plurality of said structured fields comprises a plurality of "end flags", each of said end flags indicating the end of a portion of said document data stream corresponding to the end of a portion of said document; a third group of said plurality of structured fields being "indicator flags", each of said indicator flags being associated with one of said beginning flags and one of said end flags, said indicator flags indicating specific conditions; and said modification of at least one of said structured fields comprising modifying a first of said indicator flags, said first indicator flag being associated with a first of said beginning flags and a first of said end flags, said modified indicator flags indicating that a first portion of said information data stream is to be associated with said portion of said document data stream corresponding to said first beginning flag and said first end flag.