Document component management and publishing system

A document component management system receiving document components from individual authors and storing received components for inclusion in published individually customized documents, said document component management system comprising:

• an user interface interfacing system users with said system;
• a mark-up language conversion unit selectively converting document component files to mark-up language files and mark-up language files to document component files;
• an application unit applying document specific rules to document components and to variable data and text from said repository, said application unit selecting and collecting components and variable information for assembly into individual documents responsive to applied said document specific rules;
• an assembly unit assembling collected said document components and variable information into a complete document for publication;
• and
• a publication unit publishing said assembled documents.

A computer program product for receiving document components from individual authors and storing received components for inclusion in published individually customized documents, said computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, said computer readable program code comprising:

• computer program code means for interfacing system users with a document component management system, ones of said system users being component authors;
• computer program code means for sending document components, published documents and document publication information to storage;
• computer program code means for selectively converting document component files to mark-up language files and mark-up language files to document component files;
• computer program code means for applying document specific rules to stored document components and to stored variable data and text and for selecting and collecting components and variable information for assembly into individual documents responsive to applied said document specific rules;
• computer program code means for assembling collected said document components and variable information into a complete document for publication;
• and
• computer program code means for publishing said assembled documents.