Document rearrangement system

A document rearranging system comprising:

• (a) a plurality of work station units each assigned to an operator, each work station comprising
• scanner means for optically scanning a paper document to produce corresponding electrical document image information,
• first display means for displaying the document image information,
• second display means for visually displaying a hierarchic structure of document filing system, which represents hierarchical relationship among filing positions of document information, by using picture image patterns including pictorial illustrations of various types of office supplies and furniture for filing paper documents, said picture image patterns representing pictorial filing items arranged in hierarchical sequence and providing an operator a model image of a local work location of an actual work place, and
• first control means connected to said first and second display means, for controlling said second display means to sequentially display picture image patterns in such a manner that said second display means displays first picture image pattern, which represents a perspective pictorial illustration of an actual work place in which office supplies including at least one filing cabinet are arranged and presents parent pictorial items in the hierarchic filing structure, and changes its display screen to display a second picture image pattern representing and illustrating filing holders which are contained in one of the office supplies into which the paper document is to be filed and correspond to child/sibling pictorial items included in one of the parent items selected by the operator, and for producing electrical code data specifying a holder image pattern component which is finally selected by the operator as a filing place of the paper document upon referring to a conceptual work place image pattern displayed on said second display means;
• and
• (b) a host control unit, connected to said work station units, for controlling said work station units, said host control unit comprising
• optical disk memory means for storing a totality of document information entered at said plurality of work station units, and
• second control means for correlating the document information with the code data and for supplying the document information to said optical disk memory means, said second control means being arranged to read out the document information from said optical disk memory means in accordance with the code data and to allow said first display means to display the document information when the operator selects the filing holder displayed on said second display means included in any one of said plurality of work station units.

A method for storing electrical document image information representing paper documents in accordance with a changeable rearranging/indexing system and for filing the document information, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) optically scanning a paper document to be newly filed to produce corresponding electrical document image information;
• (b) displaying the document information on a first display device in response to the electrical document image signal;
• (c) visually displaying a hierarchical structure of document filing system, which represents hierarchical relationship among filing positions of document information, on a second display device using picture image patterns, which include pictorial illustrations of office supplies for filing paper documents and which represent pictorial filing items arranged in a hierarchical sequence to provide an operator a model image of an actual work place, in such a manner that said second display device displays a first picture image pattern representing parent pictorial items in the hierarchic filing structure to thereby allow the operator to select a desired filing place in which the input document information is to be stored and changes its display screen to display a second picture image pattern, which enlarges and illustrates child/sibling pictorial items included in one of the parent items which is selected by the operator, and repeating its display operation until one of the most specific descendant pictorial items is desginated by the operator;
• (d) producing, when a filing place of the input document information is finally determined by the operator upon referring to a conceptual work place image pattern displayed on said second display device, electrical code data specifying the final filing position represented by the finally selected, most specific descendant pictorial item;
• and
• (e) automatically correlating the input document information with the electrical code data to supply the input document information to a memory device so as to store the input document information at a corresponding memory address in said memory device, whereby the operator is free from manually creating data for identifying the input document information from the other document information which have been filed in said apparatus so that the operator can be allowed to file the input document information in the same manner as he files actual paper documents using actual office supplies.