Information processing method and apparatus

An information processing apparatus comprising:

• an input unit configured to input, by a user, on an electronically stored form of a document, an annotation having a type and identifying a certain portion of the document;
• an annotation recognition unit configured to recognize the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• an action selection memory that stores action selection information for selecting an action for document input information based on type of annotation and content of a portion of a document containing the annotation;
• an action selection unit that selects from action selection memory an action for document information contained in the document annotated by the user based on the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• and
• an action execution unit configured to execute the action selected by the action selection unit by extracting at least one information item from the document and creating an output including the one information item.

An information processing method comprising:

• inputting, by a user, on an electronically stored form of a document, an annotation having a type and identifying a certain portion of the document;
• using an annotation recognition unit to recognize the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• storing in an action selection memory action selection information for selecting an action for document input information based on type of annotation and content of a portion of a document containing the annotation;
• selecting from the stored action selection information an action for document information contained in the document annotated by the user based on the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• and
• executing the selected action by extracting at least one information item from the document and creating an output including the one information item.

A computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor that performs a method, the method comprising:

• inputting, by a user, on an electronically stored form of a document, an annotation having a type and identifying a certain portion of the document;
• recognizing the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• storing action selection information for selecting an action for document input information based on type of annotation and content of a portion of a document containing the annotation;
• selecting from the stored action selection information an action for document information contained in the document annotated by the user based on the type of annotation input by the user and the portion of the document identified by the annotation;
• and
• executing the selected action by extracting at least one information item from the document and creating an output including the one information item.