Qualitative reasoning about communication and information constitutes a fundamental support for both synchronous and asynchronous processing and management of various kinds of documents . A consensually shared code for labelling and consistently filing and retrieving documents in a predefined topical area, based on a commonly agreed upon visual system for interpretive value attribution, is made possible and actually implemented in the form of a visual system for conceptual iconization.
Qualitative reasoning on the nature of communication and information will reflect upon documentation processing in many and various ways : first of all through accurate and consistent visualization of the specific communicative context, in which each document has been originally designed and then through consistent projection and prediction of the target and final context .
Any document meant to be the result of a cooperative interaction is subject to many revision stages and does therefore involve shifting of multiple perspectives and points of view, therefore affecting the originating context more or less substantially.
Specific visual indications as output result of qualitative reasoning on the nature of those changes occurring in text will produce a high level of visibility for both global planning of the document itself and local organization of each textual unit , which shows evidently in variation of style, sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph.
A consistently designed and complex representation of different communicative attitudes shown by the each individual of the cooperating team working on the same document, will highly facilitate interpretation, revision ,completion , commenting and any kind of partial or global reformulation at various stages.
It will also support retrieval and accurate management of each single document.
Communicative patterns are first identified and then represented and conveyed visually (Tonfoni,1996) as to guarantee for consistent text perception to occur, according to single individuals opinions first and to collective decision made by the cooperatively working team afterwards.
Qualitative reasoning and consistent representation of categories meant to reflect a very precise classification system for documentation management, will in fact result into a powerful operational framework and interpretive model, meant to  enlighten complexity , which shows to be an intrinsic aspect of any cooperative coordination for document generation .
According to such view , any document or highly recognizable and distinct portion of a document, here defined as documental unit, is in fact a combination of text with its own generating context controlling the language output, both locally and globally .
Communicative context here means precisely the complex and dynamical representation of communicative function ,communicative intention and communicative turn taking , which regulates and determines the actual interpretation of each document both locally and globally .
Documentation processing according to consistent visualization of those elements within text requires that a whole set of previous operations
in text preprocessing have actually been performed.
Documental units, stored according to a high context sensitive set of techniques, may be dynamically retrieved according to a variety of
information needs .
Documents processed according to a unifying framework may also incorporate and show different possible context attribution, if that may be considered useful or relevant to be kept by the cooperating team until a final decision is made.
Temporary conditions of fuzziness may occur as well as context ambiguity or redundancy during the collective process of reformulation, therefore producing temporary uncertainty or discontinuity in interpretation.
Keeping multiple contexts open may in some cases result into added value to the document, whereas undesired multiple contexts attribution
may result into communicative noise and redundancy in some other cases, therefore slowing down the interpretation process significantly .
An integrated system for conceptual mapping, labelling and indexing documents will also produce acceleration in browsing throughout large documentation territories, by making effective seeking for specific kinds of information possible in the first place .
Conceptual iconization will also facilitate access and add value to the role of each individual, who is part of a cooperating team.
Conceptual iconization is supported by CPP-TRS ( Tonfoni 1996 ).
CPP-TRS is meant to add value to already existing documents by making possible immediate perception of qualitative aspects of information showing in each document, both globally and locally.
Iconizing documents conceptually means therefore being able to recognize and indicate at different levels of complexity , which kinds of interpretive operations have been performed upon each given document or part of the document by each individual involved as well as making possible the tracing back stage by stage of the final document, resulting from a decision making by the cooperating team collectively .
Conceptual iconization based on text visualization means therefore complementing and supplementing text with a set of consensually shared visual clues, as to facilitate effective and accurate interpretation based on consistent screening of the document itself.
In CPP-TRS , inherently complex aspects involved into any communicative process and intercourse have been thoroughly analyzed , consistently defined and visually represented through a whole set of icons , which are explicitely meant to convey those substantially different aspects of information , which are based on qualitative reasoning upon communication.
The conceptual iconization approach is based upon a standard metalanguage for text preprocessing and is dynamical, because based upon a theoretical framework, which views language as an information state subject to continuous changes and transformations , according to context variables and communicative energies and forces at play. Such perspective is not limited of course to text planning, it is rather meant to be extended to any text processing environment, because it acts primarily through the use of a metalanguage .
In order to be able to iconize documents appropriately and consistently, will each single document need to be recognized in its own context and consistently reconfigurated as to allow the document commentator to be actually able to extract cues to be then carried through specific icons, which are precisely textual signs , textual symbols and textual turn taking symbols.
Textual signs are meant to explicitate the communicative global function of a certain document , globally or paragraph by paragraph therefore locally too.
Textual symbols are triggered by the previous set of operations performed and indicated by textual signs and will only come into play when a basic textual interpretation space has been already preassigned globally.
Textual signs and symbols may then be combined and all together represent communicative function and intention and turn taking sentence by sentence , which means locally.
A subset of textual symbols , defined turn taking symbols, are meant to indicate the document reader's requested positioning, both globally and
 locally.
All together signs and symbols are facilitating devices for effective documentation navigation and accurate information seeking .
Visual documentation management is made possible through a set of precisely defined textual operations .
Complex dynamic management of documentation will also entail production of enhanced abstracts and extracts where documental unit visualization also means ongoing repositioning of activated chains of documents, according to progressively changing and newly established information requirements .
To conclude , it shows very evidently that representing qualitative aspects of information management, by introducing a consistent system for qualitative reasoning in information processing more generally, is a fundamental step for raising communication efficiency and information visibility in documental exchanges.
 
"G.Tonfoni's abstract for visual presentation of CPP-TRS at the CMC/98 conference, held in Tiburg, NL".

    Basic reference
    Tonfoni G., 1996 , Communication Patterns and Textual Forms , Intellect ,
                                    U.K.
 

    More information available at:
     http://www.intellect-net.com/authors/tonfoni.htm