JP2006003999A - Information processing method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable information referred to from an area displayed in an electronic document to be displayed at the same time, thereby reducing the workload of a user, and enabling browsing of electronic documents with high visibility. <P>SOLUTION: The content of a desired electronic document is displayed in a main window (S204). Reference information associated with other information is extracted from the display area of an electronic document displayed in the main window (S205). Reference source information specified by the reference information extracted is then obtained. The reference source information obtained is displayed on a subwindow different from the main window (S207). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to information processing technology for browsing electronic documents and the like.

  In order to realize communication using digital documents in the IT era, electronic documents are widely used. Among them, Portable Document Format (PDF) developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States (1) Regardless of the OS or model of the PC to be displayed, (2) It is displayed in the same format regardless of which OS / model, 3) Easily create documents, (4) Efficiently compress characters, charts, images, etc. and reduce file size, (5) Expressive power is superior to HTML, (6) Browsing is necessary for free distribution It has the characteristics that it is only software (Acrobat Reader (trademark)), and is now the de facto global standard for electronic documents for distribution.

  In addition, in this PDF, a thumbnail function (a function for directly moving to a page by selecting a page icon), a bookmark function (a function for directly moving to another display or a page in a marked document), or Functions for document navigation such as a link function (a function for jumping to another place in the same document, another electronic document or a Web site) are prepared. By using these functions, it is possible to move a place (page) efficiently within the same document or between a plurality of documents.

  However, with this PDF navigation function, it is possible to smoothly move to a place (document page) where a link is established, but it is difficult to acquire link destination information without moving to the link destination. Therefore, when acquiring information on a desired link destination existing on a page while browsing a certain page in an electronic document, the user first moves to the link destination page, and then confirms (acquires) information on the moved page. And then had to go through many steps such as returning to the original electronic document page. This not only imposes an extra work burden on the user, but also causes a significant reduction in the user's browsing efficiency.

  In order to solve such problems, other information (reference destination information) associated with character strings and figures in the electronic document is referred to as the window in which the document is displayed (this is called the main window). An electronic document browsing system having a function for displaying in another window (subwindow) has been proposed.

For example, in Patent Document 1, when a desired character string is selected from the displayed text, when related information such as a figure or an image stored in association with the character string exists in the same document, An information display device that displays the related information in an independent window has been proposed. Patent Document 2 proposes a page display processing device that simultaneously displays an original page and a plurality of linked pages when displaying a Web page. Further, Patent Document 3 proposes an automatic page display device that automatically and continuously displays link information without a mouse click when a link is set in a Web browser.
JP-A-7-78148 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-40062 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-143684

  However, the electronic document browsing system provided by Patent Documents 1 to 3 has the following problems. That is, in Patent Document 1, information displayed on the sub-window is limited to information in the same document. No reference is made to the reference to the information on the Web page. In Patent Document 2, link pages (= reference destination information) corresponding to all links (references) included in the entire original Web page are always displayed simultaneously on a plurality of subwindows. For this reason, even a link page other than the currently displayed area is displayed on the screen. This complicates the display state of the screen and causes the visibility to deteriorate. Patent Document 2 only discloses a technique specialized for Web pages. Furthermore, in patent document 3, the information of the link destination of the whole original Web page is displayed automatically and continuously. For this reason, similarly to Patent Document 2, even reference destination information other than the currently displayed area is displayed on the screen, which deteriorates visibility. Moreover, the desired link destination information (reference destination information) could not be confirmed for a desired time. Patent Document 3 only discloses a technique specialized for Web pages.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and by making it possible to simultaneously display information that is referred to from an area in which an electronic document is being displayed, the burden on the user can be reduced and highly visible electronic The purpose is to enable document browsing.

In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is,
An information processing apparatus for browsing an electronic document,
First display means for displaying the contents of the electronic document in the first window;
Extracting means for extracting reference information associated with other information from an area being displayed in the first window of the electronic document;
Obtaining means for obtaining reference destination information specified by the reference information extracted by the extracting means;
And second display means for displaying the acquisition destination information acquired by the acquisition means in a window different from the first window.

An information processing method according to the present invention for achieving the above object is as follows:
An information processing method for browsing an electronic document,
A first display step of displaying the contents of the electronic document in a first window;
An extraction step of extracting reference information associated with other information from an area being displayed in the first window of the electronic document;
An acquisition step of acquiring reference destination information specified by the reference information extracted in the extraction step;
A second display step of displaying the acquisition destination information acquired in the acquisition step in a window different from the first window.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to simultaneously display information that is referred to from an area in which an electronic document is being displayed, and it is possible to reduce the work burden on the user and realize browsing of the electronic document with high visibility.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment>
First, the concept of electronic document display by the electronic document browsing system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, it is assumed that a part of the electronic document 301 is displayed in the main window 322 (the area being displayed is referred to as a display area 302). The display area 302 includes a reference 303 to the same document, a reference 312 to another document, and a reference 322 to a Web page. In the present embodiment, a plurality of these references (character strings associated with other information) included in the displayed area 302 (displayed in the main window 322 on the screen 321) in the electronic document (entire) 301. , Charts, images, etc.) are referred to (information such as charts, images, chapter sections, etc.), in the same document 301, other documents 311 in the document database, or in the WWW network 321 From the Web site and automatically displayed in a sub-window 323 different from the main window 322.

  Hereinafter, although the specific structure for implement | achieving the display operation | movement for electronic document browsing as mentioned above is demonstrated, this invention is not limited by this embodiment.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus for realizing the electronic document browsing system according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, the storage device 102 includes a non-volatile memory (for example, a hard disk) and is used to store a plurality of electronic documents. A keyboard 103 and a mouse 104 are data input devices for an operator to input character information and various instructions to the system.

  The CPU 101 manages and controls the operation of the entire electronic document browsing system. The RAM 105 provides a work area for the CPU 101 to execute various processes, and is also used for temporarily storing data such as display area data and a reference information table described later. The VRAM 106 is a Randam Access Memory for Video that develops information to be displayed on the display device 107. The display device 107 is composed of, for example, a CRT display or a liquid crystal display, and performs display for informing the operator of the processing state of the browsing system and display of an electronic document for browsing. The communication device 108 establishes a connection with the Internet 109 via an appropriate communication line, and is used when accessing an information source (Web site) in the World Wide Web (WWW) site.

  A document display process executed in the electronic document browsing system configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining document display processing executed by the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. Note that the document display processing by the electronic document browsing system shown in FIG. 2 is started, for example, when a system operator gives an instruction to start the system using the mouse 104.

  First, in step S201, the CPU 101 displays a dialog for selecting an electronic document on the display device 107. On this dialog, a list of electronic document names stored in the document database in the storage device 102 is displayed, and the system operator can select a desired document from the list. As a document selection method, an operator selects a desired document from a list-displayed document using the mouse 104, or inputs a desired file name to a file name input field using the keyboard 103.

  When a document is selected, the CPU 101 reads the corresponding document data onto the RAM 105. This document data includes reference information indicating a reference to other information. It is assumed that appropriate location data indicating a reference location in the same document, another document, or a Web page is assigned to the reference information in advance. In the present embodiment, the location data includes the reference destination type (1: in the same document, 2: another document, 3: any one of the websites), and the reference area (reference destination document or reference destination document). It is assumed that the data consists of two areas). The reference area is composed of an address part describing the URL of the reference destination Web page and the path to the document file, and a location information part describing the location of the reference information in the reference destination page or file. Locations in the location information section are, for example, Web page anchors, page numbers, heading classifications (cover, table of contents, chapters, sections, appendices, indexes, etc.), in-document ranges (start and end positions), rectangular area coordinate values This is indicated by a chart number.

  In step S202, the CPU 101 sets an appropriate area at the beginning of the electronic document read in step S201 as display area data, and stores it in the RAM 105. However, this display area data is data in which a partial area in the electronic document is indicated in an appropriate format.

  Next, in step S203, the CPU 101 resets the contents of the reference information table in the RAM 105. This reference information table has a format as shown in FIG. 5, and each line includes a reference (a character string indicating a reference extracted from the document), a state (0: display end, 1: display after information acquisition, 2: It is assumed that a reference destination type (one item of the location data) and a reference area (one item of the location data described above) are stored.

  Next, in step S204, the CPU 101 opens a main window on the display screen of the display device 107, and displays a portion corresponding to the display area of the selected electronic document on the main window. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state of display on the display device 107 according to the present embodiment. When the CPU 101 executes step S204 for the first time after the activation of this system, that is, when the main window is not yet displayed on the screen 401, the CPU 101 first displays the main window 402 on the screen 401 (display device 107). Then, the CPU 101 displays an appropriate display area in the document on the main window 402 based on the display area data in the RAM 105.

  In step S <b> 205, the CPU 101 extracts a reference included in the display area on the main window 402, for example, a character string to which location data is assigned and the location data. In the main window 402 of FIG. 4, 403a, 403b, 404, and 405 are shown as character strings to which location data is assigned. Therefore, these character strings and the respective location data are extracted, and the reference information table is updated in step S206.

  The reference information table update processing in step S206 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining reference information table update processing.

  First, in step S701, the CPU 101 checks for duplication of character strings (403a, 403b, 404, 405) indicating a plurality of references extracted in step S205, and makes only one duplicate. In the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the same reference destination information is associated with the same character string. Therefore, the duplication of the reference can be determined by checking the duplication of the character string indicating the reference.

  Next, by the processing after step S702, the character strings (plurality) after the duplication check are compared with the character strings in the reference field 501 on the reference information table shown in FIG. 5, and the reference information is as follows. Update table data. First, it is checked whether or not the character string after the duplication check exists in the reference column 501 of the table (step S703). If true, that is, if the character string already exists in the reference information table, the process returns to step S702 to move the process to the next character string. On the other hand, if it is false, that is, if the character string does not exist in the reference information table, it is checked whether or not the reference destination information of the character string exists in the displayed area (page) (step S704).

  If the determination result in step S704 is true, that is, if the reference destination information of the character string exists in the area being displayed, the process returns to step S702 to move the process to the next character string. This is because the reference destination information in this case is already displayed in the main window and does not need to be displayed in the subwindow. On the other hand, if it is false, that is, if the reference destination information of the character string does not exist in the displayed area, the process advances to step S705 to add a new line to the reference information table and set necessary information in the line. That is, the character string indicating the reference is displayed in the reference column 501, “1” indicating “display after information acquisition” is displayed in the status column 502, and the location data associated with the character string in the reference destination type column 503. In the reference area type 504, reference area data 504 is substituted for the reference area data (No. 4 and 5 in the example of FIG. 5 are added in step S705). Reference information).

  If the character string after the duplicate check already exists in the reference column 501 of the table, the line is left unchanged. In the example of FIG. 2 and No. Reference information No. 3 is shown as an example of such reference information, and “2” indicating that it is already “displayed” is assigned to the status column 502.

  When the processes in steps S703 to S705 are performed on all the character strings after the duplication check, the process proceeds from step S702 to step S706. In step S706, the CPU 101 checks whether any character string in the reference field 501 does not exist in the character string after the duplication check. If it exists, the process advances to step S706 to change the status column 502 of all corresponding lines to “0” (= information display end). In FIG. 5, No. in the reference information table. 1 indicates such a state (because the character string “FIG. 1” is no longer included in the display area of the main window 402).

  The description returns to the flowchart of FIG. When the reference information table is updated in the above step S206, the process proceeds to step S207, and the reference destination information pointed to by the reference information is displayed on the sub window. Details of the flow of the reference destination information display process in step S207 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining reference destination information display processing according to this embodiment.

  First, in step S801, the CPU 101 determines whether or not the processing for each row of the reference information table (see FIG. 5) in the RAM 105 has been completed. If true, the reference destination information display process in this process is terminated. If false, the processing target line is advanced to the next (step S802), and the process branches according to the value (“0”, “1”, “2”) in the status column 502 of that line (step S802). S803).

  If the value in the status column 502 is “0” (= end of information display) (for example, No. 1 in FIG. 5), the process proceeds to step S804, and the CPU 101 has already displayed the reference destination information on the screen 401. Close the window. In step S805, the row on the reference information table is deleted.

  If the value in the status column 502 is “1” (= displayed after information is acquired) (for example, Nos. 4 and 5 in FIG. 5), the process proceeds to step S806 and the value in the reference destination type column 503 (“1”). ”,“ 2 ”,“ 3 ”), the process branches to steps S807, S808, and S809, respectively.

  When the value in the status column 502 is “2” (= displayed) (for example, No. 2 and 3 in FIG. 5), the reference destination information is already displayed on the sub-window (for example, FIG. 4 406a, b), the display state of the sub-window is maintained, and the processing returns to step S801 without doing anything.

  When the value in the status column 502 is “1” and the value in the reference destination type column 503 is “1” (= same document), the process proceeds to step S807. In step S807, first, data of an appropriate area is acquired as reference destination information based on the information in the reference area column 504 from the position indicated by the reference 501 of the document data developed on the RAM 105. Next, a new subwindow having an appropriate size is created on the screen 401 via the display device 107, the subwindow is arranged at an appropriate position on the screen 401, and the acquired reference destination information is displayed. Thereafter, the status column 502 of this reference information on the table is changed to “2” (= displaying). For example, when “FIG. 2” and “FIG. 5” to which location data is added for the first time appear in the main window 402 of FIG. 4, reference destination information is acquired from the document data by this processing, and the sub-windows 406a, b Will be displayed anew.

  If the value in the status column 502 is “1” and the value in the reference destination type column 503 is “2” (= other document), the process proceeds to step S808. In step S808, with reference to the information in the reference area column 504, information on an appropriate area in another electronic document in the document database (in the storage device 102) is acquired as reference destination information. For example, the information in the reference area column 504 includes an address for specifying a reference data file, a document name, and area information to be acquired as reference information. Next, similarly to step S807, a new sub window 407 having an appropriate size is created on the screen 41, and the window is arranged at an appropriate position on the screen 401 (in the upper right of the main window 402 in FIG. 4). Display the acquired reference destination information. After that, as in step S807, the status column of the reference information on the reference information table is changed to “2” (= displayed).

  If the value in the status column 502 is “1” and the value in the reference destination type column 503 is “3” (= Web site), the process proceeds to step S809. In step S809, based on the information in the reference area column 504, information on the appropriate area of the Web page indicated by the reference information is acquired as reference destination information from the WWW site on the Internet 109 via the communication device. Here, the information in the reference area column 504 includes an address (URL) indicating a site and information indicating an area to be extracted. Note that the WWW page or area from which the reference destination information should be acquired may be determined from a character string indicating the reference (URL of the reference field 501).

  As a mechanism for acquiring the Web page at this time, the following typical one can be used. That is, first, a communication device 108 as a client establishes a connection with a TCP / IP port number 80 for HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) to a Web server (httpd) that publishes a Web site on the Internet, Request (PUT) a web page at a desired location (URL). Then, this Web server returns a Web page described in HTML (Hyper Text Modeling Language) at the requested location (URL) to the client side as an HTTP response (POST). On the client side, the received Web page (HTML) information is interpreted and displayed on the screen in an appropriate layout.

  After acquiring the Web page information as described above, the CPU 101 creates a new subwindow having an appropriate size on the screen in the same manner as in steps S807 and S808, and sets the window to an appropriate position on the screen 401. The acquired reference destination information is displayed (408) after being arranged in the lower right of the main window 402 in FIG. 4 (408). At this time, an existing Web browser (such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) may be displayed instead of the sub-window. Thereafter, as in steps S807 and S808, the value of the status column 502 of the reference information on the reference information table is changed to “2” (= displayed).

  As a result of the processing in step S207 described above, as shown in FIG. 4, references 403a and 403b to the same document included in the display area of the main window 402, references 404 to other documents in the document database, Web Information of the reference destination indicated by the reference 405 to the site is acquired from each information source and displayed on separate sub-windows (406a, 406b, 407, and 408, respectively).

  Note that the character string indicating the reference and the title bar of the reference destination information window may be color-coded according to the reference destination type.

  Returning to FIG. 2 again. When the display process in step S207 is completed, the process proceeds to step S208, and it is determined whether or not a page operation is performed on the main window 402. That is, the CPU 101 sequentially sends pages on the main window 402 (operates the scroll bar 421 with the mouse 104), enlarges / reduces the page (operates the window size change handle 422 with the mouse 104), and jumps the page (uses the keyboard 103). It is determined whether or not a page operation such as inputting a page to jump to the page display field 423 has been performed. If true, the display area data in the RAM 105 is updated with the display area after the operation, and the process returns to step S204. If false, the process proceeds to step S209.

  Here, a change in display of the reference destination information by the page operation in step S208 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 shows a state in which the page (display area) is sent backward by the operation of the scroll bar 621 from the state of FIG. In this case, since the reference destinations 403a and 403b are out of the display area on the main window 602, the sub windows 406a and 406b displaying the reference destination information of the reference destinations 403a and 403b are closed. Then, reference destination information corresponding to the reference destinations 631a and 631b newly entered in the display area is acquired and displayed on the newly created subwindow (641a, 641b). Note that the CPU 101 continues to display the sub-windows 407 and 408 that display the reference destination information for 604 and 605 included in the display area as they are.

  As described above, when the display area of the electronic document is changed by a page operation or the like, the reference destination information displayed on the screen can be dynamically changed accordingly.

In step S209, the CPU 101 determines whether or not an instruction to end processing has been input using the mouse 104 that is a command input device. If true, the CPU 101 ends the document display processing of the document browsing system, and if false, The process returns to step S208.
In Patent Document 3 in the prior art, since a plurality of link destination information is automatically switched one after another and continuously displayed, even if there is link destination information to be confirmed over time, it is stopped halfway. Although it could not be seen, in this embodiment, while the link in the display area of the main window is included in the display area, the sub window displaying the link destination information for the link is held on the screen. Therefore, the desired link destination information can be confirmed for a desired time by preventing the display area from moving.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a reference included in a page (area) that is being displayed in an electronic document is extracted, and a displayed page (of a reference destination associated with the extracted reference ( For items not included in the area), reference destination information is acquired from the same document, other documents in the document database, and the WWW network, and the acquired reference destination information is displayed on the sub-window. Thereby, when browsing the electronic document, the reference destination information included in the displayed area can be easily acquired from the same document, another document in the document database, or the WWW site. Moreover, since only the reference destination information corresponding to the reference included in the display area is displayed, the visibility is good.

  In addition, when the reference configuration included in the displayed page (area) is changed by page operations such as page turning and window resizing, the reference destination information displayed in the sub window is dynamically switched accordingly, Only the information of the reference destination associated with the currently displayed area is displayed on the sub window. This makes it possible to provide an electronic document browsing system with good visibility that reduces the work burden on the operator.

  In the above-described embodiment, the acquired plurality of reference destination information is displayed in a plurality of subwindows that differ for each reference information. However, the reference destination information may be displayed together in one subwindow.

  In step S205, it is checked whether or not location data is added to extract the reference from the display area. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a character string of an electronic document may be interpreted semantically and extracted as a reference. For example, if there is a character string starting with “http:” (one without link destination information), it is determined as a reference to the URL of the Web page. Also, if there is a character string such as “Refer to Chapter 4 of the XXXX report” (also with no link destination information), the file name “XXXX” and the location of the reference information in the file “ “Chapter YY” is extracted semantically, the file is searched from an appropriate database, and the file path is calculated.

  In the above example, location data is assigned to a character string, but it can also be assigned to a character area, a diagram, an image, a figure, or the like other than the character string in the electronic document.

  The reference destination information is information on a predetermined area in the electronic document or Web page specified by the reference area column 504. Examples of the predetermined area include a heading category (cover, table of contents, chapter, (Units, sections, appendices, indexes, etc.) or charts. Also, it is possible to adopt a designation method in the form of what character to what character in the document. Furthermore, the reference destination information specified by the reference area column 504 includes information in the electronic document, information in the electronic document other than the electronic document stored in the storage unit in the information processing apparatus, or a Web page on the network. It can also be associated with any of the information within.

  Although the embodiments have been described in detail above, the present invention can take an embodiment as, for example, a system, an apparatus, a method, a program, or a storage medium, and specifically includes a plurality of devices. The present invention may be applied to a system that is configured, or may be applied to an apparatus that includes a single device.

  In the present invention, a software program (in the embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the figure) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is directly or remotely supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer of the system or apparatus Is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R) and the like.

  As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to an Internet homepage, and the computer program of the present invention itself or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. Can also be supplied. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the present invention.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiments being realized by the computer executing the read program, the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program is a part of the actual processing. Alternatively, the functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing all of them and performing the processing.

  Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or The CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information processing apparatus in the document browsing system of this embodiment. 3 is a flowchart for describing document display processing executed by the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1. It is a figure explaining the concept of the display of the electronic document by the electronic document browsing system of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the mode of the display on the display apparatus 107 by this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the reference information table by this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a change in display of reference destination information on a screen after a page operation from the display state illustrated in FIG. 4. It is a flowchart explaining the update process of a reference information table. It is a flowchart explaining a reference destination information display process.

Claims (13)

An information processing apparatus for browsing an electronic document,
First display means for displaying the contents of the electronic document in the first window;
Extracting means for extracting reference information representing a reference destination to other information from an area being displayed in the first window of the electronic document;
Obtaining means for obtaining reference destination information specified by the reference information extracted by the extracting means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: second display means for displaying the reference destination information obtained by the obtaining means in a window different from the first window.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second display unit displays reference destination information that does not exist in the area being displayed in the first window.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second display unit displays a plurality of pieces of reference destination information in separate windows.   The second display means further closes the window displaying the reference destination information corresponding to the reference information when the portion to which the reference information is assigned goes out of the display area in the first window. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference information is given to at least one of a character string, a character range, a chart, an image, or a graphic in the electronic document.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second display unit collectively displays the reference destination information acquired by the acquisition unit in one window different from the first window.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit semantically interprets a character string in the electronic document and extracts it as reference information.   The reference destination information specified by the reference information is information in the electronic document, information in an electronic document other than the electronic document stored in the storage unit in the information processing apparatus, or in a Web page on the network. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is any one of information.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reference destination information is information on a predetermined area in an electronic document or a Web page.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the predetermined area is a heading category or a chart constituting the document. An information processing method for browsing an electronic document,
A first display step of displaying the contents of the electronic document in a first window;
An extracting step of extracting reference information indicating a reference destination to other information from an area being displayed in the first window of the electronic document;
An acquisition step of acquiring reference destination information specified by the reference information extracted in the extraction step;
An information processing method comprising: a second display step of displaying the reference destination information acquired in the acquisition step in a window different from the first window.   A control program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to claim 11.   A storage medium for storing a control program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to claim 11.

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