JPH0537554A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily generate a reply electronic mail by setting a recipient to a sender or vice versa and generating automatically additional information for reply when the recipient or the sender makes a reply request to an electronic mail extracted from a mail box. CONSTITUTION:A terminal equipment 5 is set to an electronic mail extraction mode and an objective electronic mail 1 is designated on a menu on a screen and selected. The electronic mail 1 is stored tentatively in a buffer memory or the like in a terminal equipment 5 operated by a recipient and displayed on the screen. Then a reply request recognition means 11 reads additional information of the received electronic mail 1 to discriminate the presence of a reply request from a sender. When the reply request from the sender is in existence, the means 11 activates an additional information generating means 12, which extracts additional information from the buffer memory and sets the recipient into the sender or vice versa. As a result, the reply use additional information is automatically generated, the recipient generates the required text by the operation of the terminal equipment 5 and the terminal equipment 5 returns the electronic mail.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system for exchanging electronically created messages without using paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a local area network, for example, in which a large number of computers are connected via communication lines, a system called an electronic mail system is used for exchanging communication texts between terminals. In Figure 2,
The block diagram of the conventional electronic mail system is shown. In the figure, an e-mail 1 is composed of, for example, a body 2 composed of a communication message to be transmitted from one terminal to another terminal, and additional information 3 for displaying the recipient and sender of the mail and various attributes. It is configured. The additional information 3 includes, for example, the importance and confidentiality of the mail, information regarding whether a reply is required, or the like. The mailbox 4 comprises a storage device for storing the electronic mail 1. This mailbox 4 may be provided for a specific terminal only, or may be shared by several terminals.
The recipient can operate the terminal 5 to take out the electronic mail 1 received in the mailbox 4 and read the contents. The email is sent from the mailbox 4 to the terminal 5
When taken out, the electronic mail 1 stored in the mailbox 4 is automatically deleted from the mailbox 4.
At the terminal 5, the recipient reads the contents of the electronic mail and creates a reply electronic mail if necessary. This reply e-mail is transmitted again to the mailbox 4 or a mailbox for another terminal (not shown).

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned electronic mail system, when there is a reply request from the sender, or when it is judged that the receiver voluntarily needs a reply, the received mail is received. A person uses the terminal 5 to create a reply e-mail. In this case, for example, based on the address book 6 created in advance, the name or destination of the sender of the previously received electronic mail is searched, and the additional information 3 is created by referring to this. When the creation of such a new reply text is completed, the terminal 5 is operated to send the reply e-mail. Further, without referring to the address book 6 as described above, it is also possible to display the additional information 3 of the previously received electronic mail 1 on the terminal 5 and create a reply text by an editor while referring to this. .. Even after the reply text is created by such an editor, the reply text is transmitted by operating the terminal 5 in the same manner as described above.

However, in the conventional system as described above, for example, when creating a new reply sentence, it is necessary to search the address book 6 and the like, which takes time to search and the destination of reply. It is easy for errors such as Further, when the reply text is created by the editor, the reply e-mail is created while referring to the received e-mail, so that the address book search work or the like is unnecessary, but the received e-mail 1 is sent to the terminal 5 However, if the switch of the terminal 5 is turned off after that, the electronic mail 1 and its additional information 3 will be lost, so that there is a problem that a reply electronic mail must be created immediately after receiving the electronic mail 1. .. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail system that facilitates creation of a reply electronic mail.

[0005]

The electronic mail system of the present invention handles an electronic mail consisting of a text consisting of a communication electronic message and additional information indicating the attributes of the mail including the receiver and sender of the mail. A predetermined requesting e-mail is taken out of a mailbox for receiving the e-mail, and a reply request recognition means for recognizing a reply request for the e-mail and additional information of the received e-mail are displayed. It is characterized by comprising additional information generating means for exchanging the recipient and the sender in the additional information and generating the additional information of the reply electronic mail.

[0006]

In this system, the reply request recognition means recognizes whether or not there is a reply request from the recipient or the sender for the electronic mail taken out from the mailbox. Then, if there is a reply request, the additional information of the received e-mail is read out, the recipient and the sender are exchanged, and the additional information for reply is automatically generated. As a result, the preparation for reply can be promptly made, the problem of erroneously filling in the address and the like of the reply e-mail is solved, and the burden on the e-mail handler is reduced.

[0007]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail system of the present invention. In the figure, email 1
Is composed of a body 2 composed of a communication message and additional information 3 for displaying the attributes of the mail including the recipient and sender of the mail. Such an electronic mail 1 is received by the mailbox 4 used by the terminal 5 on the receiving side as described above. Here, in the electronic mail system of the present invention, the terminal 5 on the receiving side is provided with the reply request recognition means 11, the additional information generation means 12, and the additional information storage section 14. When the terminal 5 takes out a predetermined e-mail from the mailbox 4, the reply request recognition means 11 executes control to display the e-mail, while referring to the additional information 3 of the e-mail 1, for example, and then the e-mail. Is a part for performing processing for recognizing whether or not is a request for reply.

Note that such a reply request is described in a predetermined format in the additional information 3 of the electronic mail 1, for example.
When the recipient determines that a reply is required, the recipient operates the keyboard of the terminal 5 to input a reply request.
That is, the reply request recognizing means 11 accepts the reply request 15 in the additional information or the reply request 16 of the recipient, and if there is such a request, the additional information generating means 12 operates a circuit or the like. Consists of. Additional information storage unit 14
Is composed of a storage device for storing the additional information when the electronic mail 1 is taken out from the mailbox 4. Further, the additional information generation means 12 takes out the previously received additional information 13 from the additional information storage unit 14 and the display buffer memory of the terminal 5, and exchanges the recipient and the sender in the additional information 13 and newly creates the new information. It is composed of a device for generating additional information for reply.

As shown in FIG. 1, the received additional information 1
3 includes information including various attributes such as a recipient, a sender, an importance, a priority, a confidentiality, an expiration date, a necessity of reply, and a reply deadline. Of this information, the sender and the recipient are used to control the sending and receiving of emails in the email system. Therefore, such additional information 13
Is sent to a communication line (not shown) together with the electronic mail 1, according to the contents of the recipient or sender in the additional information 13,
The electronic mail 1 is transmitted to the other party. The additional information generating means 12 of the present invention utilizes such a property of the additional information 13 to exchange the recipient and the sender of the additional information 13 received to obtain the additional information for reply as it is. There is a feature in that it ends up.

Such an operation is automatically generated when the recipient operates the terminal 5 to create a reply message. Therefore, the recipient can create a necessary text and immediately reply without paying attention to the additional information. Further, such a reply e-mail can be created immediately when the e-mail 1 is received. If such additional information is temporarily stored in the additional information storage unit 14, then the additional information is retrieved from the additional information storage unit 14 and the additional information generating means 12 is operated to create additional information for reply. do it. Hereinafter, the operation of the system of the present invention will be specifically described by dividing it into a case where a reply request is made by the sender and a case where the reply request is made by the judgment of the receiver.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation when the sender requests a reply. First, in step S1 of FIG. 3, the electronic mail 1 is taken out from the mailbox 4. For this work, generally, when the terminal 5 is set to the e-mail retrieval mode, a menu in which the date of reception and the title of the sender are arranged is displayed on the screen. The recipient can specify and retrieve the desired e-mail from among them. As described above, when the electronic mail is taken out from the mailbox 4, the electronic mail stored in the mailbox 4 is automatically deleted.
This e-mail is temporarily stored in the buffer memory of the terminal 5 operated by the recipient. The content is displayed on the screen of the terminal 5.

Here, for example, the reply request recognition means 11 shown in FIG. 1 reads the additional information 3 of the received electronic mail 1 (step S2 in FIG. 3). Then, it is determined whether or not there is a reply request from the sender (step S3 in FIG. 3). here,
When there is a reply request from the sender, the reply request recognition means 11 shown in FIG. 1 operates the additional information generation means 12 in the manner described above, and the additional information generation means 12 retrieves the additional information from the buffer memory, The positions of the receiver and the sender are exchanged (step S4 in FIG. 3). When the automatic generation of the reply additional information by the processing of such additional information is completed, the terminal 5 is operated and the recipient creates a necessary text. After that, an e-mail is returned from the terminal 5 (step S in FIG. 3).
5).

FIG. 4 shows an operation flowchart when a reply request is made by the recipient. In the figure, the recipient is the terminal 5
When a reply request is made to the electronic mail by operating (step S1 in FIG. 4), the reply request recognition means 11 recognizes this request and operates the additional information generation means 12. In this case, the additional information generation unit 12 searches the additional information storage unit 14 and determines whether the additional information requested by the recipient is stored (step S2 in FIG. 4). If the corresponding additional information is present, the additional information generating means 12 reads the additional information from the additional information storage unit 14, processes it in the manner described above, and automatically generates the additional information for reply ( 4 step S3).

On the other hand, when the corresponding additional information is not found in the additional information storage section 14, the additional information generating means 12 rejects the generation of the additional information. In this case, the recipient newly creates additional information by referring to the address book or the like as shown in step S4 of FIG. 4 in the same manner as the conventional method. Then, after creating the text and the like, the electronic mail is returned (step S5 in FIG. 4). In any of the above cases, the recipient who has received the e-mail 1 can save the trouble of newly creating additional information as in the conventional case when a reply is required. In addition, it is not necessary to search the address book, and the burden is reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. The structure of the electronic mail 1 may include various information in addition to the body 2 and the additional information 3. Further, the system configuration of the mailbox 4 and the terminal 5 may be replaced with a well-known electronic mail system in the related art. Further, the reply request recognition unit 11, the additional information generation unit 12, the additional information storage unit 14, and the like may be replaced with various blocks having equivalent functions, and included in a series of programs by a processor incorporated in the terminal 5, for example. It doesn't matter.

[0016]

According to the electronic mail system of the present invention described above, the additional information of the received electronic mail can be used as it is, or can be stored once and then used when a reply request is made. , Since the additional information for reply is automatically generated by exchanging the positions of the receiver and the sender,
Makes it easy for recipients to create reply emails,
Reduce that burden. Further, as compared with the case where the additional information for reply is created by searching the address book or referring to the received additional information, the occurrence of errors is reduced, and the burden on the recipient is further reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional electronic mail system configuration.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of a sender requesting a reply according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an operation when a recipient requests a reply according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 E-mail 2 Text 3 Additional information 4 Mailbox 5 Terminal 11 Reply request recognition means 12 Additional information generation means 13 Additional information 14 Additional information storage section 15 Reply request in additional information 16 Reply request of recipient

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. An electronic mail, comprising: a main body of a communication telegram; and additional information for displaying the attributes of the mail including the recipient and sender of the mail, From the mailbox for receiving emails,
After taking out a predetermined e-mail, reply request recognition means for recognizing a reply request for the e-mail, and using the additional information of the received e-mail, the recipient and sender in the additional information And an additional information generating unit for generating additional information of a reply electronic mail.