JP2001005753A - Mail transmitter and its program storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically generate a title being suitable for an attached file to transmit in the case of transmitting a mail with the file attached to the mail. SOLUTION: A CPU 1 acquires the kind of a file when the file to be enclosed in a mail is selected and accesses a routine sentence (partially including a variable name) corresponding to the kind from a mapping table in a storage device 2. A mail title is generated by substituting a date and a file for a variable part in the routine sentence. Then, the selected file is attached to the mail and transmitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a mail transmitting apparatus for transmitting an electronic mail and a program storage medium therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when sending an e-mail, a subject (title) and contents are input and created to create an e-mail. Recently, information to be actually transmitted is created as a separate file. , The method of enclosing and sending in e-mail has become popular. In this case, the title and the contents are of a standard type that indicates that a predetermined enclosed file is to be sent. The mail sender needs to input and create the standard title and contents every time. On the other hand, conventionally, an e-mail address of a destination is registered in an address book in advance, and a desired e-mail address can be called from the e-mail address during e-mail communication and designated as a destination address. In this case, when the same e-mail is to be broadcasted to a plurality of parties, a plurality of e-mail addresses are designated.

[0003]

The task of inputting and creating a mail title and contents when sending a file enclosed in an e-mail is an extremely standard operation as described above. Determining and inputting a title or content every time transmission is performed places a heavy burden on the user, and also complicates the operation. Also, calling an e-mail address from the address book and specifying it as a destination address is easier and more reliable than specifying the e-mail address directly.
When calling the desired e-mail address from the address book,
Calling is performed by inputting an address or selecting from a list of addresses, so that such an operation is required every time an e-mail is sent, which places a heavy burden on the user and also complicates work. I was invited. First
It is an object of the present invention to automatically generate and transmit a title and contents suitable for an attached file when a file is attached to an e-mail and transmitted. A second object of the present invention is to automatically specify an e-mail address suitable for an attached file enclosed in an e-mail simply by registering a correspondence between a file and a destination in an address book storing e-mail addresses in advance and transmitting the e-mail. Is to be able to do it.

[0004]

The means of the present invention are as follows. The invention according to claim 1 (first invention) is a file selecting means for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in a mail, and file information for acquiring predetermined file information related to the file selected by the selecting means. Acquisition means, title creation means for creating a title of the mail based on the file information obtained by the file information acquisition means, and file attachment means for attaching the file selected by the file selection means to the mail as an attached file; May be provided. In addition,
The present invention may be as follows. (1) The file information acquisition means acquires at least one or a combination of two or more of a file name, a file attribute, and a creation / update date as file information. (2) Correspondence table storage means for storing a fixed form sentence including a variable name as a mail title sentence in association with a file type is provided, and the title creation means is provided based on the file information obtained by the file information acquisition means. The correspondence table is searched, a fixed phrase corresponding to the type of file indicated by the file information is read, and data corresponding to the file information is substituted for a variable name portion included in the fixed phrase. By creating an email title. In the invention according to claim 1, when an arbitrary file enclosed in the mail is selected and specified, predetermined file information related to the file is obtained, and a mail title is created based on the file information. Attach the selected file to an e-mail as an attachment and send it. Therefore, when a file is attached to a mail and transmitted, a title suitable for the attached file can be automatically generated and transmitted.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file selecting means for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in a mail, and a predetermined file information relating to the file selected by the selecting means. File information obtaining means for obtaining, address book storage means for storing and managing one or more mail addresses in association with the file information, and searching the address book according to the file information obtained by the obtaining means; Addressing means for calling one or more corresponding mail addresses and specifying the address as a destination address, and attaching the file selected by the file selecting means to the mail as an attached file. The address book storage unit stores one or more mail addresses in association with a file classification destination, and the address designation unit searches the address book based on the file classification destination indicated by the file information. Alternatively, one or more mail addresses corresponding to the file classification destination may be designated as the destination address. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when an arbitrary file is selected, predetermined file information related to the file is obtained, an address book is searched according to the file information, and one or more corresponding mails are retrieved. The address is called and designated as the destination address, and the selected file is attached to the mail and transmitted to the other party indicated by the mail address. Therefore, only by pre-registering the correspondence between the file and the destination in the address book storing the mail address, the mail address corresponding to the attached file enclosed with the mail can be automatically specified and transmitted.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a computer terminal that sends and receives electronic mail via the Internet. The computer terminal is dial-up connected to an Internet provider in accordance with dialer software installed in advance, and transmits and receives e-mails by activating mailer software. At this time, when a file attached to the mail is selected, file information related to the file is acquired, and a mail title is automatically generated according to the file information.

[0007] The CPU 1 is a central processing unit that controls the overall operation of the computer terminal according to various programs. The storage device 2 has a storage medium 3 in which an operating system, various application software, a database, character font data, and the like are stored in advance, and a drive system thereof. The storage medium 3 is fixedly provided or removably mountable, and includes a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, and a RAM.
It is composed of an electric / optical storage medium such as a card and a semiconductor mail. Further, the CPU 1 further includes a program transmitted from another device via a communication line or the like,
The data can be received and stored in the storage medium 3, or programs and data stored in a storage medium provided in another device can be used via a communication line.
The CPU 1 is connected to a clock 4, an input device 5, a display device 6, and a communication device 7, which are input / output peripheral devices, via a bus line. The CPU 1 controls the operations according to an input / output program. The input device 5 has a keyboard and a handwriting recognition board for inputting character string data and the like and for inputting various commands. The display device 6 is a liquid crystal display device, a CRT display device, a plasma display device, or the like, and the communication device 7 is a modem, a TA
(Terminal adapter). Here, FIG. 2 shows a handwriting recognition board, in which a handwritten image written in a handwriting input frame 8 is cut out for each character and character recognition is performed, and the recognition result is output to a candidate display area 9. In addition,
This handwriting recognition board contains "Backspace (B
C), “Escape (ESC)”, “Recognition”, and “Conversion” buttons, and an attachment button 10 operated when selecting an attachment file to be attached to the mail.

FIG. 3 (A) shows data stored in a RAM (static RAM or the like) in the storage device 2. In the work area, operation results during processing are temporarily stored and automatically generated. The mail title TL and the arbitrarily selected attached file AF are temporarily stored, and a mapping table MT for automatically generating a mail title is provided.
Is stored. FIG. 3B shows various files stored and managed in the storage device 2, and a plurality of types of files are stored and managed in different folders for each type.
Here, in the example shown in FIG. 3B, handwritten characters “meeting.PWI” in the form of file name + extension, photographed moving image “EXP10.CMF”, photographed still image “commodity.J”
PG ”is stored. The extension“ .PG ”indicating the type of the file as the file information is shown. PWI ",". CMF ",". In this embodiment, a mail title is automatically generated based on information indicating the type of the file and information on the current date counted by the clock 4.

FIG. 4 shows the contents of the mapping table MT, in which a mail title (fixed text) is stored for each extension indicating the file type. This e-mail title has a structure in which one or more variable names are included in a fixed form sentence. In this example, the character strings of “today” and “<NAME>” correspond to the variable names, and the rest are fixed sentences. Has become. Here, a variable indicating the creation date or update date of the file selected as the attached file is substituted for the variable name “today”. The CPU 1 obtains the attached file creation date / update date and the clock 4. If the two dates match (on the current day), the variable name remains “Today”, but if yesterday, substitute “Yesterday” for the variable name. Otherwise, the current date is substituted. Note that the variable name "today" in the mapping table MT is set in advance as a default value. If the date is compared and it is determined that the current date is present, the variable name is not changed. .
The variable name “<MAME>” is substituted with the “file name” of the file selected as the attached file. For example, the file name + extension “meeting.PWI”
Is selected, the file name "meeting" is substituted for the variable name "<MAME>" of the title.

Next, the operation of the computer terminal will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, a program for realizing each function described in this flowchart is stored in the storage medium 3 in the form of a readable program code, and the CPU 1 sequentially executes operations according to the program code. . This is the same for other embodiments described later. FIG.
Is a flowchart conceptually showing an operation for selecting an attached file enclosed in a mail and creating a mail title. First, when the attach button 10 is operated in a state where the mailer software is activated (step A1), various files to be selected are displayed in a list (not shown). When an arbitrary file is selected and designated (step A2), the selected file is temporarily stored in the RAM in the storage device 2 as a transmission target file, and its file type is acquired (step A3). Then, the mapping table MT is searched based on the type of the file (step A4), and a corresponding title sentence is obtained (step A5). If the type of the selected file is a handwritten document, ".PWI"
Is read from the mapping table MT.

The title of the mail to be transmitted this time is automatically generated based on the title sentence (fixed sentence) thus obtained (step A6). In this case, as described above, the variable names included in the fixed phrase are sequentially specified from the beginning, and the title is created by substituting predetermined data for the variable names. At this time, every time a variable name is specified, file information (file name, creation / update date thereof) corresponding to the variable is sequentially acquired. Here, the file name is directly substituted for the position of the corresponding variable name, but the data obtained by comparison with the current date is substituted for the creation / update date. This allows, for example,
If the file creation date is today and the handwritten document (meeting) is selected as an attached file, the automatically generated title will be "Send the handwritten document" meeting "created today."
Is displayed at the title item position of the mail window (step A7). FIG. 6 shows an example of a window display in this case, in which the subject “Today ... Send” is at the top of the window and the attached file name is “Meeting.P” at the bottom.
WI "is displayed. Also, if "product.JPG yesterday's date", "send a still image" meeting "taken yesterday" is displayed.

As described above, in the first embodiment, when an attached file enclosed with a mail is selected and specified, predetermined file information related to the file is acquired, and a mail title is set based on the file information. Since it is created, a simple and clear title suitable for the attached file can be automatically generated, and the burden on the user can be greatly reduced. In this case, the file name of the attached file and the date of creation / update can be added to the title. That is, a fixed phrase corresponding to the file type is stored in the mapping table MT, and a variable name having a date and a file name as variables is included in the fixed phrase. By substituting the data corresponding to, a title suitable for the attached file is generated.

In the first embodiment described above,
In the title, file types indicating handwriting, images, tables, etc. and their file names are added as file attributes, but other attributes such as "writable", "system file", "file owner", etc. May be added. You can also add time in addition to the date,
Symbols may be added. In other words, it is sufficient if the format and status can be clearly expressed in a short sentence together with the contents of the attached file, and more preferably if the recipient can instantly grasp the contents of the mail. Also, set only the attached file name (for example, "meeting") as the title of the e-mail, and send a sentence created by each file information based on the above fixed phrase (for example, "Send a handwritten document" meeting "created today) )) May be set as the mail content. (Second Embodiment) Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the first embodiment described above, the mail title is automatically generated based on the file information related to the file selected as the attached file and the mapping table MT. However, in the second embodiment, In addition, the destination mail address is called from the address book based on the file information. That is, the destination address can be automatically set depending on what file is enclosed in the mail without specifying the destination address every time the mail is transmitted. Hereinafter, the description will be made focusing on the characteristic portions of the second embodiment, but the same reference numerals will be used for the components basically common to the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 7 shows a part of the storage device 2 and has the same title TL and attached file A as those in the first embodiment.
F, an email address MA and an address book AD in addition to the mapping table MT. The address book AD stores and manages mail addresses of transmission destinations registered in advance as groups, and one or more mail addresses are registered for each group. Here, the mail address corresponding to the file type is called from the address book AD by associating the group of the mail address with the file type. That is, FIG. 8A shows the contents of the address book AD, and FIG.
Indicates a file management structure, and folders corresponding to “room member”, “project A”, and “Mr. B” store files corresponding to the classification. On the other hand, the address book AD is configured to store a file type (folder name) and a mail address in association with each other, and based on the folder names “room member”, “project”, and “Mr. B”, the address book AD is stored. One or more destination addresses are called by the search and are temporarily stored in the e-mail address MA. Here, when two or more destination addresses are called, the same mail is broadcast to a plurality of parties.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 9 is a flowchart conceptually showing an operation of selecting an attached file enclosed in a mail and specifying a mail address. First, when the attachment button 10 is operated while the mailer software is running (step B1),
Various files to be selected are displayed in a list, and if one or more files to be enclosed in the mail are selected and specified from the list (step B2), the selected files are stored in the RAM in the storage device 2 in the RAM. In addition, a folder name corresponding to the selected file is acquired (step B3). Then, based on the folder name, the address book AD is searched (step B4), and it is determined whether there is a corresponding mail address (step B5). If there is no mail address, a message prompting the user to input a mail address is displayed and output (step B5). If not, all the message addresses corresponding to the folder name are obtained from the address book AD and temporarily stored in the storage device 2 (step B).
6) Then, the mail address is displayed and output in a destination field in the mail window (step B7).

FIG. 10A shows a display example of a mail window in this case. Here, a title automatically generated is displayed in the subject field in the same manner as in the above-described first embodiment. In this case, the folder indicated by “Project A” is displayed as “1” as shown in FIG. Since only the file of the type exists, a title in which the file name “meeting minutes” is substituted is generated and displayed. Since the destination indicated by the folder name corresponds to two persons as shown in FIG. 8A, their e-mail addresses are called up and displayed in the destination column in the window. The file name of the attached file is displayed at the bottom of the mail window. FIG. 10B shows another display example, in which two types of files in a folder indicated by “room member” are selected as attached files. Here, if a plurality of title names are listed in the title, the title will be long-cultured, so a fixed form title as shown in the figure, "Send two attached files. See details." In this case, a specific file name is displayed in detail in the mail text column (see FIG. 10B). Here, as the mail title, a predetermined title is fixedly displayed as shown in FIG. 10 (B), and the contents of the mail body are the same as the first embodiment described above. Is generated and displayed by substituting the date and file name for the variable part in the fixed phrase. Also, since two persons correspond as destinations associated with this folder name, all mail addresses are called from the address book AD and displayed in the destination column. In this case, two attached file names are displayed at the bottom of the mail window.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the file information relating to the arbitrarily selected file is obtained, the address book AD is searched, and the corresponding one or more mail addresses are called. After specifying it as the destination address, the selected file is attached to the e-mail and sent to the other party indicated by the e-mail address, so the correspondence between the file and the destination is registered in the address book that stores the e-mail address in advance. Just by sending it, you can automatically specify the e-mail address suitable for the attached file enclosed with the e-mail and send it. In this case, the mail address is specified using the folder in which the selected file is stored as a key. Therefore, in the case where the mail is broadcast to a large number of destinations belonging to the same group, the addresses are assigned one by one as in the related art. This is particularly effective because the operation of selecting and specifying is unnecessary. To explain this more specifically, for example, in a state where the mail addresses of the members of the second development room are stored and managed in the address book AD in association with the folder of the second development room, the room manager of the second development room is scheduled. A table “April schedule. XIS” is created and registered and saved in the folder of the room member. Then, the manager opens a new email and sets the created schedule as an attached file. The email address of each member is automatically specified as the destination of the email, and the title is automatically created. Therefore, the room manager can distribute the mail to each room member only by instructing the execution of the transmission.

In the above-described second embodiment,
Although the folder name is registered in the address book AD,
Not only the folder name but also the storage location and storage order may be registered in the address book AD. That is, it is only necessary to register the classification destination of the file in the address book AD.
Further, if the folder has a hierarchical tree structure, the files can be subdivided and systematized, so that the correspondence between the files and the destinations can be made finer accordingly. Also, in the intranet or the like, the mail distribution destination may be stored in association with a folder, and the mail distribution destination may be automatically set when the link destination of the homepage is designated.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the invention, when a file is attached to a mail and transmitted, a title suitable for the attached file can be automatically generated and transmitted. According to the second aspect, the correspondence between the file and the destination is simply registered in the address book storing the mail address in advance,
It is possible to automatically specify and send an e-mail address suitable for the attached file enclosed with the e-mail.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a computer terminal that sends mail via the Internet.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a handwriting recognition board.

3A is a diagram illustrating a part of a RAM in a storage device 2, and FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating various files.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a mapping table MT.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart conceptually showing an operation of selecting an attached file enclosed in a mail and creating a mail title.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a display example of a mail window.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a part of a storage device according to a second embodiment;

FIG. 8A shows the contents of an address book AD, and FIG.
3 is a diagram showing a management structure of a flowchart.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation when selecting an attached flowchart enclosed with a mail and specifying a mail address in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows a display example of a mail window in the second embodiment, where (A) shows a case where there is one attached file;
(B) is a diagram showing a display example when there are two attached files.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Storage device 3 Storage medium 4 Clock 5 Input device 6 Display device 7 Communication device 10 Attached button TL title AF Attached file MT Mapping table MA E-mail address AD address book

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. File selection means for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in a mail, file information acquisition means for acquiring predetermined file information related to the file selected by the selection means, and file information acquisition Mail creation means for creating a title or contents of an email based on the file information obtained by the means; file attachment means for attaching the file selected by the file selection means as an attached file to the email created by the email creation means A mail transmitting device comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the file information acquisition means includes at least one of a file name, a file attribute and a creation / update date
2. The mail transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one or two or more combinations are obtained as file information. 3. A correspondence table storage means for storing a fixed form sentence including a variable name as a title or contents of an e-mail in association with a file type, wherein said e-mail creation means is provided with file information obtained by said file information acquisition means. The correspondence table is searched based on the file information, and a fixed phrase corresponding to the file type indicated by the file information is read, and a variable name portion included in the fixed phrase includes data corresponding to the file information. 2. The title or the content of the mail is created by substituting.
The mail transmission device described. 4. A file selecting means for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in the mail, a file information obtaining means for obtaining predetermined file information related to the file selected by the selecting means, Address book storage means for storing and managing one or more mail addresses in association with each other; and searching the address book according to the file information obtained by the obtaining means, and calling the corresponding one or more mail addresses. An e-mail transmission device comprising: an address specification unit that specifies a destination address; and a file attachment unit that attaches a file selected by the file selection unit to an e-mail as an attached file. 5. The address book storage means stores one or more mail addresses in association with a file classification destination, and the address designating means stores the address book based on the file classification destination indicated by the file information. 5. The mail transmitting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein one or more mail addresses corresponding to the file classification destination are designated as destination addresses. 6. A recording medium having a program code readable by a computer, the program code being readable by a computer for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in a mail, and a predetermined code related to the selected file. A computer readable program code for acquiring the file information, a computer readable program code for creating an e-mail title or content based on the acquired file information, and an e-mail with the selected file as an attached file And a computer-readable program code to be attached to the computer. 7. A recording medium having a program code readable by a computer, the program code being readable by a computer for selecting a file to be transmitted enclosed in a mail, and a predetermined code related to the selected file. A computer-readable program code for acquiring the file information of the computer, and an address book that stores and manages one or more mail addresses in association with the file information is searched according to the acquired file information. A recording medium having a computer readable program code for calling two or more mail addresses and designating the same as an address, and a computer readable program code for attaching the selected file to a mail as an attached file .