Document approval management device

Abstract

To prevent a user from obtaining documents with different document states and becoming confused when saving and managing a document and sharing it among multiple users.SOLUTION: A document management device 2 comprises: a document storage part 211 that stores document data transmitted from terminal devices in a document data storage part 230 in the document management device 2 that is connected to multiple terminal devices (such as copying machines or multifunction machines having a scanning function, personal computers, etc.) via a network; a status management part 212 that manages a status (approval in progress, approved, not approved, editing in progress, editing completed) of a document indicated by the document data stored in the document data storage part 230; an output restriction setting part 213 that performs setting for permitting or prohibiting the execution of printing of the document indicated by the document data based on the status; and a control part 210 that permits or prohibits the output of the document indicated by the document data based on the status set by output restriction setting part 213.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a document approval management device for managing documents that require approval and documents that have already been approved. Regarding. [Background technology]

[0002] Document approval management systems that store and manage documents and perform approval processing for the documents have been put to practical use. Patent Documents 1 to 4 listed below disclose such document approval management systems. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 9,311,038 [Patent Document 2] U.S. Patent No. 9,692,942 [Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 1,063,0858 [Patent Document 4] US Patent Application Publication No. 2009 / 0125360 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When documents are saved and managed and shared by multiple people, the document status (approved or not, edited or not) of the managed document changes. In this state, if a user is allowed to freely output a managed document, the user will obtain a document in a different document status depending on the status at the time of output, which will confuse the user. However, the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 to 4 above do not disclose a method for preventing the adverse effects caused by obtaining a document in a different document status depending on the status at the time of output.

[0005] To solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention aims to prevent users from becoming confused when they obtain documents in different document states when documents are stored, managed, and shared by multiple people. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A document approval management device according to an aspect of the present invention is a document management device that is connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network and stores and manages document data transmitted from the terminal devices in a document data storage unit. The document management device includes a communication unit that transmits and receives data to and from the terminal devices, a document storage unit that stores the document data transmitted from the terminal devices and received by the communication unit in the document data storage unit, a status management unit that manages the status of a document indicated by the document data stored in the document data storage unit, an output restriction setting unit that makes a setting to permit or prohibit the output of a document indicated by the document data according to the status, a control unit that permits or prohibits the output of a document indicated by the document data according to the status set by the output restriction setting unit, an approval request reception unit that receives an approval request for approval of a document indicated by the document data received from the terminal device, and an approval availability reception unit that receives the approval availability of the approval by an approver for an approval target document that is a document for which the approval request has been received. The status management unit sets the status of the approval target document to "under approval" when the approval request reception unit receives the approval request, and updates the status of the approval target document to "approved" or "not approved" according to the content received by the approval availability reception unit when the approval availability reception unit receives the approval availability of the approval by the approver. The document management device further includes an edit request reception unit that receives an edit request for editing a document received by the communication unit from the terminal device, and an edit content reception unit that receives edit content to be performed on an edit target document from the terminal device via the communication unit and edits the edit target document according to the edit content. The document storage unit stores document data indicating a new version of the document edited based on the edit content by the edit content reception unit in the document data storage unit. The status management unit sets the status of the edit target document to "editing" when the edit request reception unit receives the edit request, and updates the status of the edit target document edited by the edit content reception unit to "edited".

Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present invention, when a document is saved, managed, and shared by a plurality of people, it is possible to prevent users from becoming confused when they obtain documents in different document states. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing an overall structure of a document approval management system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a main internal configuration of the document management device. FIG. [Diagram 3] 11A and 11B are flowcharts showing an example of a process related to document storage and document viewing, which is performed in a document management device and a terminal device. [Figure 4] 11A and 11B are flowcharts illustrating an example of a process for a document approval request, which is executed in the document management device and the terminal device. [Diagram 5] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process related to whether or not a document is approved, which is executed in the document management apparatus and the terminal device. [Figure 6] 11A and 11B are flowcharts showing an example of a process related to a document editing request, which is executed in the document management device and the terminal device. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process related to document editing, which is performed in the document management device and the terminal device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Hereinafter, a document approval management device and a document approval management system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an overall document management system including a document approval management device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] The document approval management system 11 includes a plurality of image forming devices 1, a document management device 2, and a plurality of information processing devices 3, which are present on a network such as the Internet. The image forming devices 1, the document management device 2, and the information processing devices 3 are configured to communicate with each other via the network. The image forming devices 1 and the information processing devices 3 are examples of the terminal device D in the claims.

[0011] The image forming device 1 is a multifunction device having multiple functions such as a copy function, a printer function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function. The image forming device 1 also has a function of transmitting document data acquired using a scan function to the document management device 2.

[0012] The information processing device 3 is, for example, a personal computer, and includes document creation software and a function of transmitting document data and the like created using the document creation software to the document management device 2. The information processing device 3 also includes a function of creating a print job and transmitting the created print job to the image forming device 1 to request execution of the print job.

[0013] The document management device 2 is, for example, a server, and is connected to the image forming device 1 and the information processing device 3 via a network, and manages document data transmitted from the image forming device 1 and the information processing device 3, which are terminal devices D.

[0014] 2 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of the document management device 2. The document management device 2 includes a control unit 21, a communication unit 22, and a storage device .

[0015] The communication unit 22 is a communication interface that performs data communication with an external device on a network. For example, the communication unit 22 performs data communication with the terminal device D (the image forming device 1 or the information processing device 3) shown in FIG.

[0016] The storage device 23 is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), which stores various control programs, and also includes a document data storage unit 230 and a user information storage unit 231. The document data storage unit 230 stores document data transmitted from the terminal device D. The user information storage unit 231 stores information about users who share documents saved and managed by the document approval management system 11. The user information includes a user name, an email address, an information processing device 3 used by the user, and the like, which are registered in association with a user ID (an identification number for uniquely identifying a user).

[0017] The control unit 21 includes a processor, a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and a dedicated hardware circuit. The processor is, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a micro processing unit (MPU). The control unit 21 includes a control unit 210, a document storage unit 211, a status management unit 212, an output restriction setting unit 213, an approval request receiving unit 214, an approval / non-approval receiving unit 215, an editing request receiving unit 216, an editing content receiving unit 217, and a notification unit 218.

[0018] The control unit 21 functions as a control unit 210, a document storage unit 211, a status management unit 212, an output restriction setting unit 213, an approval request receiving unit 214, an approval / no approval receiving unit 215, an editing request receiving unit 216, an editing content receiving unit 217, and a notification unit 218 through operations by the above-mentioned processor in accordance with a control program, etc. stored in the storage device 23. However, the control unit 210, etc. can also be configured by hardware circuits, regardless of the operations by the control unit 21 in accordance with a control program, etc. Below, the same applies to each embodiment unless otherwise stated.

[0019] The control unit 210 is in charge of the overall operation control of the document management device 2. The control unit 210 is connected to the communication unit 22 and the storage device 23, and controls the operations of the above-connected components and enables the transmission and reception of signals or data between the components. The control unit 21 receives various data transmitted from the terminal device D via the communication unit 22. Also, the control unit 21 transmits various data to the terminal device D via the communication unit 22. When the control unit 210, the document storage unit 211, the status management unit 212, the output limit setting unit 213, the approval request reception unit 214, the approval decision reception unit 215, the editing request reception unit 216, the editing content reception unit 217, and the notification unit 218 transmit and receive data with the terminal device D, although not particularly described below, it is performed via the communication unit 22.

[0020] The document storage unit 211 stores the document data transmitted from the terminal device D in the document data storage unit 230. For example, when the document storage unit 211 receives the document data transmitted from the image forming device 1 or the information processing device 3, which is the terminal device D, it assigns a document ID (an identification number for uniquely identifying a document) to the received document data and stores the document data in the document data storage unit 230.

[0021] The status management unit 212 manages the status of the document indicated by the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230. For the document indicated by the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230, it is possible to be approved or edited. For example, for a document for which an approval request has been made, the status management unit 212 sets the status to "under approval" until the approval decision is made, updates the status to "approved" when approved, and updates the status to "not approved" when the approval is rejected.

[0022] The output restriction setting unit 213 performs a setting to permit or prohibit the output of the document indicated by the document data according to the status. For example, the output restriction setting unit 213 performs a setting to permit output only for documents with a status of "approved". Specifically, the output restriction setting unit 213 incorporates restriction information indicating "output prohibited" for document data that is not permitted to be output, as attribute information of the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230. "Output" here includes both printing and transmission (downloading). The above status and the setting to permit or prohibit document output are stored, for example, in a storage area such as a non-volatile memory built into the control unit 21.

[0023] Furthermore, the control unit 210 performs control to permit or prohibit output of the document indicated by the document data in accordance with the status set by the output restriction setting unit 213 .

[0024] The approval request receiving unit 214 receives an approval request for document approval sent from the terminal device D. When the approval request receiving unit 214 receives an approval request, the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be approved to "under approval."

[0025] The approval / rejection receiving unit 215 receives the approver's approval / rejection of the document to be approved, which is transmitted from the approver's information processing device 3. When the approval / rejection receiving unit 215 receives the approver's approval / rejection, the status management unit 212 updates the status of the document to be approved to "approved" or "not approved" in accordance with the content received by the approval / rejection receiving unit 215.

[0026] The editing request receiving unit 216 receives an editing request for editing a document, which is transmitted from the terminal device D. When the editing request receiving unit 216 receives an editing request, the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be edited, which is the document for which the editing request has been received, to "editing".

[0027] The edit content receiving unit 217 receives edit content for the document to be edited, which is transmitted from the terminal device D, and edits the document to be edited in accordance with the edit content.

[0028] The document storage unit 211 stores document data indicating the new version of the document edited by the editing content receiving unit 217 in the document data storage unit 230, and assigns the latest version number to the new version of the document. The document storage unit 211 also stores the document consisting of the pre-edited version together with the version number in the document data storage unit 230. In this case, the document consisting of the pre-edited version will have an older version number than the edited document. When the editing content receiving unit 217 finishes the above editing, the status management unit 212 updates the status of the document to be edited to "edited".

[0029] When the approval request receiving unit 214 receives an approval request for approving a document, the notification unit 218 notifies the information processing device 3 of a predetermined approver of that effect via the network. Also, when the editing request receiving unit 216 receives an editing request for editing a document, the notification unit 218 notifies the information processing device 3 of a predetermined editor of that effect via the network. For example, the notification unit 218 issues the above notification to the information processing device 3 used by the approver and the editor, based on the user information stored in the user information storage unit 231.

[0030] The approvers and editors are defined in a workflow created in advance, and are stored in a storage area such as a non-volatile memory built into the control unit 21, for example.

[0031] Next, processes related to document storage, document viewing, document approval, and document editing performed in the document management apparatus 2 and terminal apparatus D (the image forming apparatus 1 and the information processing apparatus 3) will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

[0032] First, "document storage" will be described with reference to Fig. 3(A). A terminal device D (document storage requester) transmits document data to the document management device 2, and requests that the document be stored (S1). When the communication unit 22 of the document management device 2 receives the document data (S2), the document storage unit 211 of the document management device 2 assigns a document ID to the received document data (S3) and stores the document data in the document data storage unit 230 (S4). In addition, the output restriction setting unit 213 incorporates restriction information indicating "output prohibited" into the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230 as default attribute information of the document data.

[0033] "Document viewing" will be described with reference to Fig. 3(B). Terminal device D (document viewing requester) requests document management device 2 to view a document stored and managed in document management device 2 (download document data indicating the document) (S11). When control unit 210 of document management device 2 accepts the request (S12), it reads document data indicating the document requested to be viewed from document data storage unit 230 (S13), and transmits the read document data to terminal device D via communication unit 22 (S14).

[0034] When the terminal device D receives (downloads) the document data transmitted from the document management device 2 (S15), the terminal device D displays the document indicated by the received document data on a display unit provided in the terminal device D (S16).

[0035] "Document approval request (1)" will be described with reference to Fig. 4(A). Terminal device D (document approval requester) requests the document management device 2 to approve a document stored and managed in the document management device 2 (S21), and when the approval request receiving unit 214 of the document management device 2 receives the document approval request (S22), the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be approved to "approved" (S23), and the notification unit 218 transmits an approval request occurrence notification to the information processing device 3 of a predetermined approver via the communication unit 22 to notify that a document approval request has occurred (S24).

[0036] When the information processing device 3 (approver) receives the approval request occurrence notification transmitted from the document management device 2 (S25), it displays the fact that a document approval request has occurred on a display unit provided in the information processing device 3 (S26). This notifies the user (approver) that an approval request has occurred. The approver who has received the notification of the document approval request uses the information processing device 3 to request the document management device 2 to view the document to be approved, views the document to be approved stored in the document management device 2 from the information processing device 3, considers the contents of the document to be approved, and decides whether or not to approve the document.

[0037] "Document approval request (2)" will be described with reference to Fig. 4(B). Terminal device D (document approval requester) transmits document data to document management device 2, requests storage of the document data, and requests approval of the document indicated by the document data (S31). Communication unit 221 of document management device 2 receives the document data, and approval request receiving unit 214 of document management device 2 receives the document approval request (S32). At this time, document storage unit 211 of document management device 2 assigns a document ID to the received document data (S33), and stores the document data in document data storage unit 230 (S34).

[0038] Then, the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be approved to "approved" (S35), and the notification unit 218 transmits an approval request occurrence notification to notify the information processing device 3 of the predetermined approver via the communication unit 22 that a request for approval of the document has occurred (S36). In addition, the output restriction setting unit 213 incorporates restriction information indicating "output prohibited" into the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230 as attribute information of the document data.

[0039] When the information processing device 3 (approver) receives the approval request occurrence notification sent from the document management device 2 (S37), it displays the occurrence of a document approval request on a display unit provided in the information processing device 3 (S38). This notifies the user (approver) of the occurrence of the approval request. The approver who has received the notification of the document approval request uses the information processing device 3 to request and view the document to be approved, considers the contents of the document to be approved, and decides whether or not to approve the document.

[0040] The "document approval" will be described with reference to Fig. 5. The information processing device 3 (approver) notifies the document management device 2 of the approval or rejection of the document to be approved (S41), and the approval or rejection receiving unit 215 of the document management device 2 receives the approval or rejection of the document approval request (S42). The status management unit 212 updates the status of the document to be approved to "approved" or "not approved" in accordance with the content received by the approval or rejection receiving unit 215 (S43). The notification unit 218 then transmits an approval or rejection notification, notifying the terminal device D of the document approval requester of the approval or rejection, via the communication unit 22 (S44).

[0041] When the status of the document to be approved is updated to "approved", the output restriction setting unit 213 changes the restriction information incorporated in the document data representing the document from "output prohibited" to "output permitted".

[0042] When the status is "output permitted", the control unit 210 performs control to permit output of the document indicated by the document data, and when the status is "output prohibited", to prohibit output of the document indicated by the document data.

[0043] When the terminal device D (document approval requester) receives the approval / rejection notification transmitted from the document management device 2 (S45), it displays the approval / rejection of the document on a display unit provided in the terminal device D (S46). In this way, the approval / rejection of the document is presented to the user (document approval requester).

[0044] Next, a "document editing request (1)" will be described with reference to Fig. 6(A). The information processing device 3 (document editing requester) requests the document management device 2 to edit a document stored and managed in the document management device 2 (S51). When the editing request receiving unit 216 of the document management device 2 receives the document editing request (S52), the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be edited to "editing" (S53), and the notification unit 218 transmits an editing request occurrence notification to the information processing device 3 of a predetermined editor via the communication unit 22 to notify that a document editing request has occurred (S54).

[0045] When the information processing device 3 (editor) receives the editing request occurrence notification transmitted from the document management device 2 (S55), it displays the occurrence of a document editing request on a display unit provided in the information processing device 3 (S56). This notifies the user (editor) of the occurrence of a document editing request. The editor who has received the notification of the document editing request requests from the information processing device 3 to view the document to be edited stored in the document management device 2, transmits editing instructions from the information processing device 3, and edits the document to be edited (writes or deletes writing).

[0046] 6(B) will be used to explain "Document editing request (2)." Terminal device D (document editing requester) transmits document data to document management device 2, requests the document to be stored, and requests editing of the document indicated by the document data (S61). When communication unit 221 of document management device 2 receives the document data and editing request receiving unit 216 of document management device 2 receives the document editing request (S62), document storage unit 211 of document management device 2 assigns a document ID to the received document data (S63) and stores the document data in document data storage unit 230 (S64).

[0047] Then, the status management unit 212 sets the status of the document to be edited to "editing" (S65), and the notification unit 218 transmits an editing request occurrence notification to notify the information processing device 3 of the predetermined editor via the communication unit 22 that a request to edit the document has occurred (S66). Also, the output restriction setting unit 213 incorporates restriction information indicating "output prohibited" into the document data stored in the document data storage unit 230 as attribute information of the document data.

[0048] When the information processing device 3 (editor) receives the editing request occurrence notification transmitted from the document management device 2 (S67), it displays the fact that a document editing request has occurred on a display unit provided in the information processing device 3 (S68). This notifies the user (editor) that a document editing request has occurred. The editor who has received the notification of the document editing request requests from the information processing device 3 to view the document to be edited stored in the document management device 2, transmits editing instructions from the information processing device 3, and edits the document to be edited (writes or writes and deletes).

[0049] "Document editing" will be described with reference to Fig. 7. An editing instruction for a document to be edited is notified to the document management device 2 from the information processing device 3 (editor) (for example, the edited document data is transmitted) (S71), and the editing content receiving unit 217 of the document management device 2 receives the editing content indicated by the editing instruction and edits the document to be edited according to the editing content (S72). The document saving unit 211 saves document data indicating a new version of the document (document to be edited) reflecting the editing content in the document data storage unit 230 (S73), and assigns the latest version number to the new version of the document (S74).

[0050] Then, the status management unit 212 updates the status of the document to be edited from "being edited" to "edited" (S75), and the notification unit 218 sends an editing execution notification via the communication unit 22 to the person requesting the document editing to inform them that the editing has been performed (edited) (S76).

[0051] When the status of the document to be approved is "editing", the output restriction setting unit 213 sets the restriction information incorporated in the document data representing the document to "output prohibited", and when the status of the document to be approved is updated to "edited", it sets the restriction information incorporated in the document data representing the document to "output permitted".

[0052] When the status is "output permitted", the control unit 210 performs control to permit output of the document indicated by the document data, and when the status is "output prohibited", to prohibit output of the document indicated by the document data.

[0053] When the terminal device D (document editing requester) receives the editing execution notification transmitted from the document management device 2 (S77), it displays the document editing execution on the display unit of the terminal device D (S78). This indicates to the user (document editing requester) that the document to be edited has been edited (edited).

[0054] For example, when a document is saved and managed and shared by multiple people, the document status (approved or not, edited or not) of the document being managed changes. In this state, if users are allowed to freely output documents that are being managed, the users will end up with documents in different document statuses depending on the status at the time of output, which can confuse them. According to the above embodiment, only documents with a status of "approved" or "edited" are permitted to be output, which prevents users from becoming confused by obtaining documents in different document statuses.

[0055] Also, documents can be edited, and there may be documents with a status of "approved" among different versions. Therefore, as another embodiment, the output restriction setting unit 213 sets a setting to permit output execution only for the latest version of a document when there are documents with a status of "approved" among different versions. This prevents older versions of documents from being output, even if they are "approved," further reducing user confusion.

[0056] Furthermore, the output restriction setting unit 213 may optionally limit the number of times output is executed to a predetermined number (for example, once). The control unit 210 controls permission or prohibition of output of the document in accordance with the number of times limit.

[0057] In addition, while the above embodiment describes a case where printing is permitted only for documents with a status of "approved," in another embodiment, the output restriction setting unit 213 may set a prohibition on printing only for documents with a status of "not approved," and permit printing of not only documents with a status of "approved," but also documents with a status other than "not approved," i.e., documents that are neither approved nor not approved.

[0058] In yet another embodiment, the document storage unit 211 assigns the latest version number to the new version of the document, stores it together with the document consisting of the unedited version in the document data storage unit 230, and further embeds the version number information as a digital watermark in the document data indicating each of the new version and the unedited version of the document. As a result, the version number is watermarked on the printed matter obtained by printing the document, and the user can easily recognize the state of the document, such as the status of the document, based on the digital watermark.

[0059] Furthermore, it is preferable that the edited content receiving unit 217 does not accept edited content and does not perform editing for a document for which the approval request receiving unit 214 has received an approval request until the approval / rejection receiving unit 215 receives a decision on whether or not the approver will approve the document. This is to prevent editing of a document that is undergoing approval (the approver is considering the content) and uploading the edited content.

[0060] The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. In addition, in the above embodiment, the configuration and processing shown in the above embodiment using Figures 1 to 7 are merely one embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration and processing. [Explanation of symbols]

[0061] 1. Image forming device 2 Document management device 3. Information processing equipment 11 Document Approval Management System 210 Control section 211 Document Preservation Department 212 Status Management Department 213 Output limit setting section 214 Approval Request Reception Department 215 Approval Reception Department 216 Editing Request Reception Department 217 Editing Content Reception Department 218 Notification Department 230 Document data storage unit

Claims

1. A document management device that is connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network and stores and manages document data transmitted from the terminal devices in a document data storage unit, The document management device includes: A communication unit for transmitting and receiving data between the terminal device and the communication unit; a document storage unit that stores the document data transmitted from the terminal device and received by the communication unit in the document data storage unit; a status management unit that manages a status of a document indicated by the document data stored in the document data storage unit; an output restriction setting unit that sets whether to permit or prohibit output of the document indicated by the document data in accordance with the status; a control unit that permits or prohibits output of a document indicated by the document data in accordance with the status set by the output restriction setting unit; an approval request receiving unit that receives an approval request for approval of a document indicated by the document data received from the terminal device; an approval / rejection receiving unit that receives approval or rejection by an approver for a document to be approved, the document being the document for which the approval request has been accepted; the status management unit, when the approval request receiving unit receives the approval request, sets the status of the document to be approved to "under approval", and, when the approval acceptance unit receives the approval or rejection of the approver, updates the status of the document to be approved to "approved" or "not approved" in accordance with the content received by the approval acceptance unit; The document management device further includes: an editing request receiving unit that receives an editing request for editing a document, the editing request having been received by the communication unit from the terminal device; an editing content receiving unit that receives editing content to be performed on the document to be edited from the terminal device via the communication unit and edits the document to be edited in accordance with the editing content; the document storage unit stores in the document data storage unit document data indicating a new version of the document edited by the edit content receiving unit based on the edit content; The status management unit sets the status of the document to be edited to "being edited" when the editing request receiving unit receives the editing request, and updates the status of the document to be edited edited by the editing content receiving unit to "edited." This is a document approval management device.

2. 2. The document approval management device according to claim 1, wherein the output restriction setting unit performs a setting to permit output only of documents whose status is "approved."

3. the document storage unit assigns a latest version number to the new version of the document and stores the new version number together with the document consisting of the pre-edited version in the document data storage unit; 3. The document approval management device according to claim 2, wherein, when there are documents with different versions each having a status of "approved", the output restriction setting unit sets a setting to permit output only of the latest version of the document.

4. 4. The document approval management system according to claim 1, wherein the output restriction setting unit optionally restricts the number of times of output to a predetermined number of times.

5. 2. The document approval management device according to claim 1, wherein the document storage unit assigns a latest version number to the new version of the document and stores it in the document data storage unit together with the document consisting of the pre-edited version, and further embeds version number information as a digital watermark in document data representing each document.

6. 2. The document approval management device according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that, when the approval request receiving unit receives the approval request via the communication unit, notifies a predetermined approver of the acceptance via a network, and when the editing request receiving unit receives the editing request, notifies a predetermined editor via a network.

7. 2. The document approval management device according to claim 1, wherein the edited content receiving unit does not accept the edited content for a document for which the approval request receiving unit has received the approval request until the approval / non-approval receiving unit receives a decision of approval or non-approval from the approver.

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