Document processing apparatus and method.

摘要

A document processing apparatus which permits the sharing of a document element in a document structure while keeping the consistency to the change of the content is provided. In a document processing apparatus for managing a plurality of documents each containing a plurality of document elements, a document element having a content to be shared with a second document is designated from a plurality of document elements of a first document, and the content of the designated document element is defined as a content of a predetermined document element of the second document to share a common content by the first and second documents. Further, in order to prevent a content shared by a plurality of document elements from being inadvertently broken by the edition to one document element, the document element having the shared content is detected from a document when the display of the document is commanded and it is displayed in a distinguishable manner from other portions. <IMAGE>