1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manual processing system specifically to a customizing system of the content and format of a manual.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a maintenance manual document of an airplane amounts up to 100 thousand pages per one type of airplane. Airplane manufacturers issue a partly renewed maintenance manual about four times every year, in order to improve safety and to keep up with technological innovations. Also, the manufacturers generally issue a bulletin such as a list of errata irregularly, as additional and supplementary information.
On the other hand, users that operate the airplane are updating an old maintenance manual to a new one every time the maintenance manual is renewed. This updating procedure, such as checking the contents or inserting the user's original information, is still executed mainly manually; and, the automation and systemization of the updating procedure is strongly demanded. And in response to this, manufacturers are recently starting to issue maintenance manuals by electronic data.
This kind of problem is especially remarkable in a maintenance manual of an airplane. But the same kind of problem can be pointed out in regard to an operational manual of an airplane, and also to manuals of products other than the airplanes.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a system of reducing labor for controlling and using a manual. The present invention is also to provide a system of processing a manual to facilitate its use.
In order to accomplish the above, a manual processing system according to one aspect of the invention, which processes original manual data provided to a user from a manufacturer to create customized manual data, includes a storing section for storing an insertion condition of an insertion data, and a processing section for inserting the insertion data in the original manual data according to the insertion condition.
According to the above configuration, the system stores the insertion condition of the insertion data in the storing section, and automatically executes the process of inserting the insertion data in the original manual based on the insertion condition. And, the user uses the manual customized as above. The user company itself may execute the processing of the manual, but it may also be consigned to a manual processing service company that executes the processing for the user company. Preferably, the storing section is able to associate a pointer indicating an entity of the insertion data with a location of insertion per each insertion data piece. Usually, the insertion data is data added to the original manual data, but in some cases, it may also be replaced data. Also, the insertion data includes data with various forms such as text data and graphic data. Instead of inserting the entity of the insertion data, the pointer that indicates the entity, or the reference information (URL) may be inserted.
Preferably, the insertion condition of the insertion data includes a first insertion condition table representing a correspondence between a specific description included in the original manual data and first insertion data added to the original manual data, and a second insertion condition table representing a correspondence between a specific location of the original manual data and second insertion data inserted in the specific location, and the processing section includes a first processing unit that retrieves the specific description from the original manual data and inserts the first insertion data by relating it to the specific description according to the contents of the first insertion condition table, and a second processing unit that inserts the second insertion data in the specific location in the original manual data according to the contents of the second insertion condition table.
According to the above configuration, the system is able to relate the first insertion data to the specific description as a supplement and a replacement, and is also able to insert the second insertion data in the specific location as a supplement and a replacement. Therefore, the customization of the manual data can be processed efficiently by using these two methods.
Preferably, the first insertion data possesses a translation sentence for the specific description, and the second insertion data includes at least one of the additional data provided by the manufacturer other than the original manual data or additional data originally possessed by the user. If the original manual is described in a foreign language, by utilizing the specific description of the foreign language as a key, text data of their own language can be inserted by associating it with the key. Also, according to the above configuration, the system will implement automated insertion in a manual of additional information provided by the manufacturer and additional data originally prepared by the user (including information from a government administrative agency).
Preferably, the system includes a table of contents creation section for creating a table of contents of manual data with the insertion data having been inserted. It is also preferred that the system includes an update history creation section for creating an update history table of manual data with the insertion data having been inserted. Since a data structure changes as the manual data is customized, the above sections manage to create the table of contents and update history in accordance with the contents of a new manual.
Further, a manual processing system according to another aspect of the invention, which processes original manual data provided to a user from a manufacturer to create customized manual data, includes a storing section for storing an insertion condition of insertion data, a processing section for inserting the insertion data in the original manual data according to the insertion condition, and a format changing section for executing a process of changing the format of a manual data with the insertion data having been inserted, whereby the system enables the user to use the manual data of which contents and format are customized, on the user side.
Preferably, the format changing section includes a section for marking a part where the insertion data has been inserted. Also preferably, the format changing section includes a section for marking a page where the insertion data has been inserted. For these marks, a vertical line to specify the inserted part of the insertion data, and a bulletin mark to specify the inserted page can be used.
Preferably, the format changing section includes a section for converting a series of the manual data with the insertion data having been inserted into plural pieces of page data, and a section for providing a layout corresponding to each piece of the page data. And when providing the layout, the user's original logo, and various kinds of information can be presented on the header or the footer.
Further, a method of creating manual data according to another aspect of the invention, which processes original manual data provided to a user from a manufacturer to create customized manual data, includes steps of registering an insertion condition of insertion data to a database, and inserting the insertion data in the original manual data on a computer, in accordance with the insertion condition of the insertion data, whereby the method enables the user to use the manual data customized by inserting the insertion data, on the user side.
Further, a storage medium relating to the invention stores a program of instructions to execute a function for processing original manual data provided to a user from a manufacturer to create customized manual data. The function includes the steps of of controlling an insertion condition of insertion data, and inserting the insertion data in the original manual data according to the insertion condition of the insertion data. A general conception of the storage medium includes portable storage media such as floppy disks and CD-ROM, as well as a device such as hard disks.
Further, according to another aspect of the invention, a method of manual processing service for providing a manual processing service between a manufacturer and a user, includes steps of registering an insertion condition of insertion data to a database, and inserting the insertion data-to the original manual data provided by the manufacturer on a computer in accordance with the insertion condition of the insertion data, whereby the manual data customized by inserting the insertion data is provided to the user.
According to the above configuration, a new service (type of business) of processing and customizing the manual can be implemented by making full use of the method of processing various kinds of generally known documents. Especially, if such a service provider exists between plural manufacturers and plural users, it will promote utilization common information.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the followings, wherein:
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Here, in
The manufacture company 10 issues the manual document 20 regularly, for example, about 4 times every year. And, they are either acquired directly by the manual processing service company 14, or indirectly via the user company 12. Here, in this embodiment, the manual document 20 is provided in a form of CD-ROM, and the format of the document is SGML. Other than SGML, PDF can be used. Also, the manual document 20 can be acquired without using a CD-ROM, but on line via Internet, for example.
The manufacture company 10 irregularly issues an additional document 22 relating to the manual document 20, other than the regular issue of the manual document 20. The additional document 22 is, for example, a bulletin including a list of errata, and is provided either as electronic data or information printed on a paper. The additional document 22 includes data to be added on the contents of the manual document 20, or data to correct the contents thereof.
In the manual processing service system 16, each module possessing a data processing function such as a document processing unit 24 and a data conversion unit 38 is implemented on a computer that includes a CPU and a specific program. Here, in this embodiment, the unit of processing is a chapter that makes up the manual, but naturally, it is not limited to this.
The document processing unit 24 in the embodiment includes various functions, such as the function to insert the additional document (insertion data) 22 provided by the manufacturer in a specific location, the function to insert the additional document (insertion data) prepared originally by the user in the manual document, and the function to insert a translation sentence of a specific description contained in the manual document or inserted sentence data as text including the translation in the specific location of the description. Also, in relation to such document processing, the embodiment is provided with an update history creation unit 34 and a table of contents creation unit 36. However, these units are represented as separate entities from the document processing unit 24 on the configuration in
In
The user's additional dictionary 28 stores the entity of the insertion data (additional data) created originally by the user company 12, and it corresponds to the database that stores the insertion condition of the insertion data. A user's additional table that illustrates the relation between the insertion condition and the entity of the insertion data will be discussed later, referring to FIG. 3.
The translation sentence insertion dictionary 30 corresponds to the database that stores the entity of the inserted sentence data as the translation sentence inserted additionally to the specific description of the manual document, and the insertion condition for inserting the entity thereof. A translation sentence insertion table representing the relation between the insertion data and the insertion condition will be discussed later, referring to FIG. 4.
The above insertion data and the insertion condition are indicated beforehand in a written document from the user company 12, or the electronic data containing them is provided to the manual processing service company 14. The symbol 58 in
The document processing unit 24 will further be explained in details. The document processing unit 24 makes reference to the manufacturer's additional table in the manufacturer's additional dictionary 26, and implements the process of inserting the additional document 22 to the manual document 20 according to the insertion condition in the table. Also, the document processing unit 24 makes reference to the user's additional table stored in the user's additional dictionary 28, and implements the process of inserting a user's additional data to the manual document 22 according to the insertion condition described in the user's additional table. Also, the document processing unit 24 makes reference to the translation sentence insertion table stored in the translation sentence insertion dictionary 30, retrieves the specific description described in the translation sentence insertion table from the manual document 20, and when the specific description is retrieved, implements the process of inserting the inserted sentence data after the specific description.
The document processing unit 24 may also include a translation function, for example, from English to Japanese. When it includes such a function, the system can advantageously reduce the volume of data prepared as a translation sentence. In the embodiment, a sentence in a fixed form is inserted as the translation sentence, but the translation sentence may be created dynamically in accordance with the contents of the manual document, and the created translation sentence may be inserted in the manual document.
The update history creation unit 34, as will be referred to later in
The data conversion unit 38 includes functions, such as a marking unit 40, a layout providing unit 42, and a link-bookmarker providing unit 44, and also a format conversion function to convert the manual document inputted with the format of SGML into the manual document with the format of PDF. On such format conversion, all kinds of modules such as the marking unit 40, layout providing unit 42, link-bookmarker providing unit 44 respectively function to implement specified processes.
The marking unit 40, as will be referred to later using
As described above, the file of the manual document data converted by the data conversion unit 38 is a file with the PDF format, and the file is outputted to one or more of a printing device 46, a storage device 48, and a communication device 50. Here, the printing device 46 is a device to print out the manual document on paper, thereby creating a manual document 46A as a paper medium. This will be delivered to the user company 12. Also, the storage device 48 is for storing the manual document as electronic data in a CD-ROM 48A, and the CD-ROM 48A will also be sent to the user company 12. Further, the communication device 50 is connected to a network, for example, the Internet, and the manual document as electronic data can be distributed to the user company 12 via the communication device 50.
At the user company 12, a server machine 52 is connected to an intranet 54 in the embodiment. And the server machine 52 reads out the information in the above CD-ROM 48A or the electronic information of the manual document via the Internet. The information is referred to by multiple client machines (PC) 56 that lie in the user company 12 via the intranet 54. Naturally, the paper manual documents are distributed to a maintenance section that uses the information.
Therefore, according to the above configuration, when the manufacturer company 10 issues the manual document 20 as electronic data, insertion data is inserted in a required location of the manual document according to a preset insertion condition, and thereby the manual document unique to the user company 12 is created. Thus, the user company 12 is relieved from the load of processing and controlling an enormous volume of the manual data, and can advantageously concentrate its labor on the essential operation. Also, the insertion data registered in the storage unit 32 can be used as it is even if the manual document 20 itself has changed. In such a case, the system has an advantage of being able to reuse the registered resources. Further, in the case of executing a manual processing service to plural airline companies using the same type of airplane, data sharing can be promoted among these companies. And as a result, there is an advantage of streamlining the manual processing service.
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As described above, according to the present invention, the labor accompanied with manual processing can be reduced, and the usability of the manual can be improved.
The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-276148 filed on Sep. 12, 2000 including specification, claims, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2000-276148 | Sep 2000 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5940846 | Akiyama | Aug 1999 | A |
6182095 | Leymaster et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6377956 | Hsu et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20020032707 A1 | Mar 2002 | US |