JP2000148607A - Electronic mail device and recording medium for recording electronic mail program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a newly incoming mail from being left unread. SOLUTION: At transmitting of an electronic mail at a transmission side, the time for the re-announcement of a message for announcing the incoming of an electronic mail is designated. When the electronic mail was received at an incoming side (a step B3), reception announcement control data included in the electronic mail are read, and even if the pop-up display of the message is closed while the electronic mail is left unread (steps B5 and B8), the message is pop-up displayed again (a step B4) after the lapse of the time for re- announcement indicated by the reception announcement control data, so that the presence of the unread electronic mail can be recognized. That is, each time the time for re-announcement elapses, the pop-up display is repeated until the electronic mail is read, the electronic mail received can be prevented from being left unread.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail device for receiving electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, e-mail has been widely used, and mail software for managing transmission / reception of e-mail is provided with a function for making e-mail easier to use. One of them is a function to notify new mail.

A function provided in the conventional mail software is that when a new mail is received, a message notifying that there is a new mail pops up on the screen (with a sound depending on the setting) and the mail is received. To the user.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional mail software, when a new mail is generated, a message is popped up to notify the user. However, even if the message is popped up, if the user closes the pop-up message without reading the mail for some reason, the message may be forgotten and left as an unread mail.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has as its object to provide an electronic mail device capable of preventing new mail from remaining unread.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail apparatus for receiving electronic mail, control data reading means for reading reception notification control data included in the received electronic mail, and control data reading means for reading the control information. Notifying means for notifying that an electronic mail has been received based on the received notification control data.

[0007] Further, the reception notification control data is time data, and the notification means re-reports according to the time data until the received electronic mail is read.

[0008] Further, the notifying means changes the notification mode each time the notification is performed again.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail system according to the present embodiment is a system in which each of the terminals 2-1 to 2-n (e-mail devices) can transmit and receive e-mail via the mail server 1.

The mail server 1 is a computer for managing users (clients) and sending and receiving mails in the electronic mail system.
... 2-n) and the network 3. The mail server 1 stores an e-mail received from the terminals 2-1 to 2-n or an external network in a mailbox 1a.

FIG. 2 shows a circuit configuration of the terminal 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal 2 includes a CPU 10, a communication unit 12, a display unit 13, an input unit 14, a storage device 15,
It comprises a RAM 17, a clock section 18, and an audio section 19.

The CPU 10 controls the entire information processing apparatus. In response to a key operation signal from the input unit 14, the CPU 10
The electronic mail program stored in the RAM 17 is started, and various functions such as mail creation and mail reception are executed in accordance with the program. The CPU 10 is a storage device 1
5 can be read and stored in the RAM 17 for execution.

The communication unit 12 is a unit for communicating with the mail server 1 via the network 3.

The display unit 13 displays a screen corresponding to the execution of various processes. When creating an e-mail, a screen for creating an e-mail is displayed by executing mail software. A message notifying you that the e-mail has arrived is displayed.

The input section 14 is for inputting instructions and data for defining the operation of the information processing apparatus, and is constituted by a pointing device such as a keyboard and a mouse.

The storage device 15 has a storage medium on which programs, data and the like are recorded, and this storage medium is constituted by a magnetic or optical storage medium or a semiconductor memory. A storage medium fixedly provided in a storage device,
Alternatively, it is detachably attached. The program, data, and the like stored in the storage medium may be configured to be received and stored from another device connected via a communication line or the like. A storage device provided with a storage medium may be provided on the device side, and a program and data stored in the storage medium may be used via a communication line. When an electronic mail is read from the mail server 1, it is stored as mail data 16. Details of the mail data 16 will be described later.

The RAM 17 is a terminal 2 (e-mail device)
In addition to a system program for controlling the entire system, a control processing program corresponding to various functions (mail, browser, etc.), various data are stored as needed.

The clock section 18 is referred to for measuring time, and is used for determining the timing of re-notification of a message to which an electronic mail has arrived.

The voice section 19 is for outputting various voices, and is used for outputting a notification sound when there is a new mail.

Next, the operation of the terminal 2 in the present embodiment will be described.

First, creation of an e-mail will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when a request for inputting electronic mail (mail data) is made from the input device 14 (step A1), the CP
U10 causes the display unit 13 to display a screen for creating an e-mail to be transmitted as shown in FIG.

On the screen for creating an e-mail, a "destination" for setting an e-mail transmission destination address, a "subject" for setting an e-mail title, and a "body" of the e-mail are input. In addition to a field for setting, an item for setting re-notification information (reception notification control data) for controlling notification of a message indicating that an e-mail has arrived at an e-mail transmission destination is provided. That is, the buttons of “SET” and “NO” are provided for setting whether or not to re-notify the new mail. Further, a column for designating a time for controlling the timing of re-notification when “setting” of re-notification of new mail is selected is provided.

In the screen for creating an e-mail, the information of the main body is arbitrarily set in accordance with an instruction from the input device 14, and the destination and the subject information (header information) attached to the information of the main body.
Is created (step A2). Further, in the example shown in FIG. 4, "setting" is selected as re-notification information so as to execute re-notification, and setting is made to perform re-notification at "3 minute" timings (step A3).

After the necessary information is set in this way, when execution of transmission of an e-mail is instructed, CPU 10 transmits the e-mail to memory 12 (step A).
4). At this time, the transmitted e-mail contains the reception notification control data set as the re-notification information.

Next, reception of an electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the CPU 10 checks the mail box at an instruction from the input device 14 or at a previously designated timing to determine whether an e-mail addressed to the own mail address has arrived at the mail server 1 (step). B1).

If there is a new mail (step B2), the CPU 10 reads the new mail and stores it in the storage device 15 (step B3). At this time, the reception notification control data included in the electronic mail is read. Further, the CPU 10 causes a pop-up message to be displayed on the display unit 13 to notify the user that the e-mail has arrived (step B4).

FIG. 6 shows an example of the mail data 16 stored in the storage device 15. As shown in FIG.
The mail data 16 includes, in addition to header information (address, subject, etc.) of the received e-mail and information of the text, an unread flag (“0” indicating unread) indicating whether or not the content of the text has been read; A re-notification setting flag ("1" indicating that re-notification execution is instructed) indicating whether or not reception notification control data included in the received e-mail is set to re-notify, re-notification control Re-notification time information indicating the re-notification timing indicated by the data is stored in association with the information.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a display screen on which a message for notifying a user that an e-mail has arrived is displayed in a pop-up. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the message "There is a new mail"
A button is provided for selecting "read immediately" or "read later".

If the "read immediately" button is selected, the CPU 10 deletes the pop-up display (step B6) and displays the content of the received e-mail (step B7).

On the other hand, if the "read later" button is selected, the CPU 10 deletes the pop-up display (step B8) and checks whether the re-notification has been set by setting the re-notification setting flag of the mail data 16. A determination is made with reference to this (step B9).

If the re-notification setting has not been made (the re-notification setting flag is "0"), the CPU 10 terminates the e-mail reception processing.

On the other hand, if re-notification has been set (re-notification setting flag is “1”), the CPU 10 sets the time set as the re-notification time of the mail data 16 for re-notification display. Set to a timer (not shown) and start the timer. That is, the CPU 10 monitors whether the time elapsed since the pop-up was erased exceeds the time set in the timer, based on the time measured by the clock unit 18 (step B11).

If the e-mail is read before the time set in the timer elapses (step B12), C
The PU 10 displays the contents of the e-mail stored in the mail data 16 of the storage device 15 (Step B7).

On the other hand, if the time set in the timer elapses before the e-mail is read, CPU 10 causes pop-up display of a message for notifying the user that the e-mail has arrived on display unit 13 (step S10). B4).

In the same manner, for an e-mail for which re-notification is set, a message is displayed in a pop-up display every time the specified re-notification time elapses until it is read. However, each time the notification is made again, the pop-up display is enlarged, or the display color of the pop-up display is changed from, for example, yellow to red (the color to be used can be arbitrarily specified). For example, the notification mode can be changed.

In this way, when sending e-mail on the sending side, by specifying the time of re-notification of the message notifying that the e-mail has arrived,
If the e-mail arrives, the message pops up again after the specified re-notification time elapses, indicating that there is unread e-mail, even if the pop-up message of the message is closed without being read be able to. That is, each time the re-notification time elapses, the pop-up display is repeated until the e-mail is read, so that the e-mail received unread can be prevented from being forgotten.

In the above description, the case where one e-mail is received is described as an example. However, in the re-notification time indicated by the reception notification control data included in a plurality of e-mails, You may re-notify the shortest one, or set a timer for each e-mail,
Re-notification may be performed according to each re-notification time for each e-mail.

Further, in the above description, whether or not re-notification is set for each e-mail is set on the transmission side, but the re-notification time for all outgoing mails can be set. Alternatively, the reception notification control data may be included in all outgoing e-mails, and a message notifying the arrival of all e-mails may be re-notified on the receiving side.

Furthermore, the re-notification time is set to "0" by allowing the receiving side to set the re-notification time for all incoming mails, instead of setting the re-notification on the e-mail transmission side. Even if the message pop-up is closed unread for all incoming emails, including emails set to, and emails from other email systems that do not support re-notification When the set re-notification time elapses, a message is displayed again in a pop-up to notify that there is an unread e-mail.

[0043]

As described above, according to the electronic mail device of the present invention, when notifying that the electronic mail has arrived, the reception notification control data (the timing of the re-notification) included in the received electronic mail is controlled. (Time data shown), it is possible to prevent the received e-mail from remaining unread.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration of a terminal 2;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining creation of an e-mail.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing an example of a screen for creating an e-mail.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating reception of an e-mail.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of mail data 16 stored in a storage device 15;

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of a display screen on which a message notifying that an e-mail has arrived is displayed in a pop-up;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mail server 2-1 to 2-n ... Terminal 10 ... CPU 12 ... Communication unit 13 ... Display part 14 ... Input part 15 ... Storage device 16 ... Mail data 17 ... RAM 18 ... Clock part 19 ... Audio part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail device for receiving an electronic mail, comprising: control data reading means for reading reception notification control data included in the received electronic mail; and, based on the reception notification control data read by the control data reading means. And an informing means for informing that the e-mail has been received. 2. The electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the reception notification control data is time data, and the notification unit notifies the user again according to the time data until the received electronic mail is read. apparatus. 3. The electronic mail apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the notification unit changes the notification mode each time the notification is performed again. 4. A computer, comprising: control data reading means for reading reception notification control data included in the received electronic mail; and receiving the electronic mail based on the reception notification control data read by the control data reading means. A recording medium in which an electronic mail program for functioning as a notifying means for notifying the user is recorded.