Processing of documents

1. A method of editing a document, the method comprising:

transferring document information to a printing device adapted to print the document information on a surface having a position-coding pattern, the position-coding pattern comprising symbols associated with grid points of a grid and coding a plurality of positions on the surface, each position being coded by a plurality of the symbols, wherein each symbol contributes to the coding of more than one of the plurality of positions;

receiving editing information from a reading device adapted to read position information from the position-coded surface;

interpreting the editing information; and

changing the document information depending on an interpretation of the editing information, thereby resulting in an updated document.

2. A method for editing a document, the method comprising:

initially registering said document in a pattern administration unit;

the pattern administration unit assigning a unique subset of position-coding pattern to each page of said registered document;

transferring information indicative of the unique subset of the position-coding pattern, assigned by the pattern administration unit, to a printing device adapted to print the position-coding pattern on a surface;

transferring document information to the printing device adapted to print the document information on the surface;

receiving editing information from a reading device adapted to read position information from the position-coded surface;

interpreting the editing information; and

changing the document information based on an interpretation of the editing information, thereby resulting in an updated document.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , further comprising receiving device identity information from the reading device, the identity information associating the editing information with a user of the reading device.

4. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the editing information is associated with a plurality of users, and wherein each user generates at least one editing command with a reading device.

5. A method according to claim 4 , wherein the editing commands generated by the plurality of users are in an ordered sequence identified by at least a timestamp associated with each editing command.

6. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the editing information includes position information related to a position of the reading device on the surface, and wherein the interpretation of the editing information includes interpretation of the position information.

7. A method according to claim 6 , wherein the position information is in the form of sequences of coordinates forming manually generated curves corresponding in form to drawn curves on the printed document.

8. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , further comprising displaying the document information of the updated document to a user.

9. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the step of changing the document information includes adding editing information in the form of handwritten annotations to the document.

10. A method according to claim 9 , further comprising associating, based on position information included in the editing information, each of the handwritten annotations with a respective portion of the document information.

11. A method according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein changing the document information includes reformatting one or more parts of the document information.

12. A method according to claim 11 , wherein said reformatting is chosen from the group of:

adding text or graphics to said document information; removing text or graphics from said document information; or repositioning text or graphics included in said document information.

13. A method according to claim 12 , wherein adding text includes converting part of the editing information to machine-readable text.

14. A computer program tangibly embodied on a computer readable-medium which can be read by a computer and which comprises instructions for causing a computer to execute the method according to claim 1 or 2 .

15. The method of claim 2 , wherein the position-coding pattern comprises symbols associated with grid points of a grid and codes a plurality of positions on the surface, each position being coded by a plurality of the symbols, wherein each symbol contributes to the coding of more than one of the plurality of positions.

16. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pattern administration unit, in the registering, receives document data indicative of the document and of a number of document pages.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the document data includes the document.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein each symbol codes a value which is determined by a displacement of a marking in relation to a grid point.

19. The method of claim 2 , wherein the position-coding pattern comprises a grid and a plurality of symbols, the value of each symbol being determined by a displacement of a marking in relation to the grid.

20. The method of claim 2 , wherein the document is a word-processing document.

21. A system for document editing, the system comprising:

storage means for storing a document;

means for transferring information from the document to a printing device capable of printing the information on a surface provided with a position-coding pattern, the position-coding pattern comprising symbols associated with grid points of a grid and coding a plurality of positions on the surface, each position being coded by a plurality of the symbols, wherein each symbol contributes to the coding of more than one of the plurality of positions;

means for receiving editing information from a reading device adapted to read position information from a position-coded surface;

means for interpreting the editing information; and

means for changing the document information based on an interpretation of the editing information, thereby resulting in an updated document.

22. A system for document editing, the system comprising:

storage means for storing a document;

registration means which is arranged to initially register the document in a pattern administration unit comprising a database of a position-coding pattern, the pattern administration unit being arranged to assign a unique subset of the position-coding pattern to each page of the registered document;

means for transferring information indicative of the unique subset of the position-coding pattern, assigned by the pattern administration unit, to a printing device capable of printing the position-coding pattern on a surface;

means for transferring information contained in the document to the printing device, the printing device being adapted to print the information on the surface;

means for receiving editing information from a reading device adapted to read position information from a position-coded surface;

means for interpreting the editing information; and

means for changing the document information based on an interpretation of the editing information, thereby resulting in an updated document.

23. A system according to claim 21 or 22 , further comprising means for receiving device identity information from the reading device, so as to associate the editing information with a user of the reading device.

24. A system according to claim 22 , wherein said storage means and said registration means are included in a computer device.

25. A system according to claim 24 , wherein said means for receiving editing information is included in said pattern administration unit.

26. A system according to claim 24 , wherein said means for receiving editing information is included in a local processing unit.

27. The system of claim 22 , wherein the registration means is arranged to transfer document data indicative of the document and of a number of document pages to the pattern administration unit.

28. The system of claim 27 , wherein the document data includes the document.

29. The system of claim 21 , wherein each symbol codes a value which is determined by a displacement of a marking in relation to a grid point.

30. The system of claim 22 , wherein the position-coding pattern comprises a grid and a plurality of symbols, the value of each symbol being determined by a displacement of a marking in relation to the grid.

31. A method of editing a document containing information, the method comprising:

storing the document information in memory;

printing the document information on a surface, wherein the surface contains a readable code contained thereon in addition to the printed document information, wherein the readable code comprises a grid and a plurality of symbols, the value of each symbol being determined by a displacement of a marking in relation to the grid;

enabling an electronic pen to physically mark edit instructions on the surface and to electronically capture the edit instructions by reading the readable code proximate the marked edit instructions;

receiving through a processor associated with the memory the edit instructions captured by the electronic pen; and

altering the document information in memory to conform to the edit instructions.

32. The method of claim 31 , wherein the readable code is a position coding pattern.

33. The method of claim 31 , wherein the readable code comprises symbols associated with grid points of a grid and codes a plurality of positions on the surface, wherein each position is coded by a plurality of the symbols, and wherein each symbol contributes to the coding of more than one of the plurality of positions.