JP2001154935A - Mail management method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage mail by utilizing an existing mail format and adding the combination of an identification character and a serial number to electronic mail. SOLUTION: When a user prepares the text of transmission mail (S101), inputs destinations (TO and CC) (step S102) and presses a transmission key (step S103), a selection dialog for selecting whether or not to acquire and add the identification character and the serial number to object electronic mail is opened (step S104). In the case of selecting 'not to add', a server is connected through an encoder 7, a transmission part 6 and a telephone line 1. In the case of selecting 'add', a date as the identification character is automatically acquired from a clock 10 (S105). Then, the serial number for each identification character is acquired (step S106). Finally, after setting the attaching part of the identification character and the serial number to an existing field (step S107), the server is connected. Thereafter, the mail is transmitted and the transmitted mail present in a RAM 9 is stored in a ROM 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to the transmission of electronic mail,
The present invention relates to a method for managing e-mails for browsing, organizing, and searching received data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method of adding identification characters to an electronic mail for the purpose of identification, organization, and search, "RE:" is used for replying to a title field in replying and transferring an object mail, and "FW:" is used for transferring. : ". Further, the conventional e-mail management system is constructed on a computer network system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-49453. There is known a system in which the burden on the user is reduced.

[0003]

If only the identification character of the e-mail used in the former method is merely added, the system will not be enormous, and most manufacturers of commercially available products will not be required. Has adopted. However,
In this method, only the distinction between the reply and the transfer can be identified, and it cannot be said that it is very convenient for the organizing and searching operations. In the latter, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-49453 discloses that an electronic mail management system is constructed on a computer network system, and that when the mail is analyzed on both the sending and receiving sides, even the sorting operation can be realized. It is convenient.
However, there are many types of information to be added, and the system tends to be large in scale.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and constructs a large-scale system by simultaneously adding an identification character and a serial number to a conventional basic format of electronic mail. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for easily browsing, organizing, and retrieving mail without using it.

Another object of the present invention is to enable management by purpose by using identification characters as classification items. Another object of the present invention is to make it possible to change a management method by selecting and setting a field to which a combination of a generated identification character and a serial number is added. A further object of the present invention is to enhance the convenience of the user by making it possible to select whether or not to add the combination of the added identification character and the serial number.

[0006]

According to the mail management method of the present invention, at the time of sending and receiving, by adding and storing information combining an identification character and a serial number to the sending and receiving of an electronic mail, a user can receive the mail. This information allows the user to easily browse, organize, and search for mail.

Further, the identification character is a date,
At the time of reception, it is automatically obtained from a clock, combined with the serial number, and added to the transmission and reception of an electronic mail.

Further, the identification character is a character string of a part or all of the mail address of the representative of the destination, and at the time of transmission, the information is automatically obtained from the destination field, combined with the serial number, and This is added to the outgoing mail of the mail.

Further, the identification character is a character string of a part or all of the sender's mail address.
The information is automatically acquired from the sender field, combined with the serial number, and added to the received e-mail.

Further, the identification character is used as a registered name in the address book of the representative of the destination, and at the time of transmission, the information is automatically obtained from the address book, combined with the serial number, and added to the e-mail transmission mail. It is something to do.

Further, the identification character is used as a registered name of a sender's address book, and upon reception, the information is automatically obtained from the address book, combined with the serial number, and added to the received e-mail. It was made.

Further, when sending and receiving an e-mail, a dialog opens and an arbitrary character string can be input as the identification character, and the input and output of the e-mail are combined by combining the input character string and the serial number. This is added to the mail.

Further, in sending and receiving data of electronic mail,
The information in which the identification character and the serial number are combined is added to an existing title field and stored, so that the user can easily browse, organize, and search for the mail based on the information.

Further, in sending and receiving data of electronic mail,
By adding information that combines the identification character and the serial number to an existing body field and storing the information, the user can easily browse, organize, and search for the mail based on the information.

[0015] Then, in sending and receiving data of the e-mail,
By adding and storing information in which the identification character and the serial number are combined in a serial number only field, the user can easily browse, organize, and search for the mail based on this information.

Further, in sending and receiving data of electronic mail,
Information combining the identification character and the serial number is added and stored in a serial number only field, and a user can select whether to send or receive the serial number only field when sending or receiving an e-mail. It is like that.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Here, an embodiment in which the embodiment of the present invention is applied to a portable mail terminal which cannot construct a large-scale system will be described. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the mobile mail terminal. The mobile mail terminal includes a transmitting unit 6 for transmitting mail using the telephone line 1, an encoder 7 for converting a text mail to a mail format, a receiving unit 2 for receiving mail, and a receiving mail format. A decoder 3 for converting to text and a CPU 4 for controlling these are provided. ROM8, RAM9 as storage means
It has. The ROM 8 is a rewritable ROM (for example, EPROM), and stores a program for operating the CPU 4 and the like. The RAM 9 temporarily stores the received mail and the transmitted mail,
4 is used as a work memory. In addition, setting information such as a user ID, a password, and a connection destination when connecting to the mail server is also stored. Further, a keyboard 11 for inputting e-mails and various settings, a display device 5 such as a liquid crystal display for displaying e-mails and various setting contents, and a clock 10 are provided. Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the portable mail terminal will be described with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1A is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of transmission of a mail management method according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1B is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure at the time of reception according to the present embodiment.

First, the processing at the time of transmission will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. The user turns on the keyboard 11
By pressing the key, an ON signal is input to the CPU 4 to start the operation. The user uses the keyboard 11 to create the body of the outgoing mail (S101), and then inputs the destination (TO, CC) (step S102). Then, when the transmission key in the keyboard 11 is pressed (step S103), a dialog for selecting whether to acquire and add the identification character and the serial number to the target electronic mail is opened (step S104). When "not add" is selected, the server is connected to the server via the encoder 7, the transmission unit 6, and the telephone line 1. When "add" is selected, first, the date as the identification character is automatically acquired from the clock 10 (for example, "990901" on September 1, 1999) (step S105). ). Subsequently, when a serial number for each identification character (for example, “001” is the first letter on September 1, 1999) is acquired, in this example, “9” is obtained.
90901-001 "(step S106). Finally, the identification character and the attached part of the serial number are set (step S107), and the server is connected to the server.
Send e-mail and send sent e-mail in RAM9 to RO
Store it in M8.

The processing at the time of reception will be described with reference to FIG. The mail received from the telephone line 1 via the receiving unit 2 and the decoder 3 is temporarily stored in the RAM 9 first, and a dialog for selecting whether or not to acquire and add the identification character and the serial number to the target electronic mail opens. (Step S111). When “not add” is selected, the electronic mail is stored in the RAM 8 as it is. When "Add" is selected, the date of the identification character is automatically acquired from the clock 10 in the same manner as when transmitting (step S112). A serial number is obtained (step S113). Then, finally, the location of the serial number is set (step S114) and stored in the ROM 8.
In this way, when the sent and received mails stored in the ROM 8 are arranged using the identification characters and the serial numbers as keywords,
It is arranged in order of serial number for each date sent and received, and can be easily organized, searched, and browsed. FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of a mail screen displayed on the display device 5 at this time. The subject field is set as an attached part.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a transmission processing procedure of a mail management method according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the following, the description of the processing procedure in the flowchart is omitted because the common parts are the same as those of the previous embodiments, and only the differences will be described. The difference between the present embodiment and the first embodiment is that the identification character in step S305, which is the identification character acquisition processing stage, starts from “date”.
The difference is that "part or all of the mail address of the representative in the destination field" is changed. For example, the mail address of the representative of the destination is "taro@sharp.c".
o. jp ”, the identification character is“ taro @ shar ”
Subsequently, when a serial number for each identification character is obtained, the number becomes, for example, “taro @ sharp-001” (step S306) FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a mail screen displayed at this time. The subject field is set for the attached part of the identification character and the serial number.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a receiving process procedure of a third embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention. The difference from the first embodiment is that the identification character in step S502, which is the identification character acquisition processing stage, is changed to "part or all of the mail address in the sender field". For example, the mail address of the sender is “taro@sharp.co.jp.”
Then, the identification character in this embodiment is “taro @ s
Then, when a serial number for each identification character is obtained (step S503), "taro @ sharp-0" is obtained.
02 ".

When the sent and received mails stored in this way are arranged using the identification characters and the serial numbers as keywords, in the case of the second embodiment and the present embodiment, the mail addresses of the sending and receiving recipients are identified. It is arranged in order of serial number for each copy or all, and can be easily organized, searched, and browsed. As a convenient method of use, in general, the email address often includes the company name, so if the company name is set as the identification character, it will automatically be linked to the company name in the letter for each company. If a number is added and a search is performed using the number as a keyword, the background with the company can be easily confirmed.

(Fourth Embodiment) FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a transmission processing procedure of a mail management method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the second embodiment is that the step of acquiring the identification character, step S605, is "automatically acquire the registered name of the address book using the information of the representative in the destination field". is there. For example, the mail address of the representative of the destination is “taro@sharp.c”.
o. jp. If the registered name of the address book is "Taro Yamada", the mail address "taro @ shar"
p. co. jp. ”, And automatically obtains“ Taro Yamada ”as the registered name of the address book. Subsequently, a serial number for each identification character is obtained (step S606). Here, it is “Taro Yamada-001”. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a mail screen displayed at this time. The subject field is set as an additional part of the identification character and the serial number.

(Fifth Embodiment) FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a receiving process procedure of a fifth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention. The difference from the third embodiment is that step S802 for acquiring an identification character is "automatically acquire from registered name in address book using information in sender field".
The point is that. For example, if the mail address of the sender is “taro@sharp.co.jp.” And the registered name is “Taro Yamada”, the mail address of the sender is searched and Taro Yamada is automatically acquired. Subsequently, a serial number for each identification character is obtained. Here "Taro Yamada-002"
(Step S803). When the sent and received mails stored in this manner are arranged by using the identification characters and the serial numbers as keywords, in the case of the fourth embodiment and the present embodiment, in the order of the serial number for each registered name in the address book of the sender and receiver. Lined up, easy to organize, search and browse. As a convenient usage, if not only a name but also a postal code, a prefecture name, a company name, and the like are used as identification characters, classification can be made using any item.

(Sixth Embodiment) FIG. 9A shows a processing procedure at the time of transmission of a mail management method according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 9B shows a processing procedure at the time of reception. It is a flowchart figure. The difference from the first embodiment is that step S
Steps 905 and S912 are to input an arbitrary character string into a dialog opened as an identification character. For example,
If your hobby is fishing and you want to classify emails about it, enter "fishing". Subsequently, a serial number for each identification character is obtained. Here, "fishing-001" is used. in this case,
When the stored sent and received mails are arranged using the input identification characters and the serial numbers as keywords, they are arranged in the order of the serial number for each input character string, and the input characters have a degree of freedom. And can search and browse. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a mail screen displayed at this time. The subject field is set as an additional part of the identification character and the serial number.

(Seventh Embodiment) FIG. 11A is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of transmission of a mail management method according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 11B is a flowchart illustrating the processing procedure at the time of reception. The difference between the present embodiment and the first to sixth embodiments is that steps S1107 and S1114 are performed, and that the acquired recognition character and the attached part of the serial number are set in the title field.

(Eighth Embodiment) FIG. 12A is a flow chart showing a processing procedure at the time of transmission of an eighth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.
FIG. 12B is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure at the time of reception. The difference from the seventh embodiment is that steps S1207 and S1214 are performed, and that the attached part of the acquired recognized character and the serial number is set in the body field.
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a mail screen displayed at this time. A body field is set as an additional part of the identification character and the serial number. For the seventh and eighth embodiments,
Since the title field or the body field is an existing field of all currently used e-mails, no trouble is required when constructing a system, and a small system can be realized.

(Ninth Embodiment) FIG. 14A is a flow chart showing a processing procedure at the time of transmission of a mail management method according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 14B is a flowchart illustrating the processing procedure at the time of reception. The differences from the previous examples are
Steps S1407 and S1414 are different from the first embodiment in that the attached part of the acquired recognition character and the serial number is set in the serial number only field. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a screen of a mail displayed at this time. A serial number field is newly provided as an additional part of the identification character and the serial number. In this embodiment, it is necessary to add a serial number-only field separately from the existing field, but since it is an independent serial number only field,
It is possible to select whether or not to append the serial number to the mail.

[0030]

According to the mail management method of the present invention, a target mail is stored automatically or with an optional identification character and serial number added according to the convenience of the user, and the information is used. Thus, an environment can be provided in which e-mails can be easily arranged, searched, and browsed without burdening the user. Then, it is possible to specify a field to add a recognition character and a serial number. If the field is an existing fold of the current mail format, it can be realized with a small system, and it is possible for mail users other than this method. Can also be transmitted and received. When the field to be added is a serial number only field, it is possible to select whether or not to add a serial number before transmission, and it is possible to prevent extra information from being disclosed to the receiver.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure at the time of transmission and reception of a first embodiment of a mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a second embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a third embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a fourth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a fifth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a sixth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a seventh embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of an eighth embodiment of the mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a ninth embodiment of a mail management method according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed in the ninth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile mail terminal that implements the mail management method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Telephone line, 2 ... Receiving part, 3 ... Decoder, 4 ... CPU
(Control unit), 5: display device, 6: transmitting unit, 7: encoder, 8: ROM, 9: RAM, 10: clock, 11: keyboard.

Claims (12)

[Claims] At the time of sending and receiving, by adding and storing information combining an identification character and a serial number to the sending and receiving of an e-mail, a user can easily browse, organize, and search the mail based on the information. A mail management method characterized by being able to do. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification character is a date, which is automatically obtained from a clock at the time of transmission and reception, combined with the serial number, and added to the transmission and reception of an electronic mail. The mail management method according to claim 1. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification character is a character string of a part or all of the mail address of the representative of the destination.
2. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the information is automatically acquired from a destination field, combined with the serial number, and added to an outgoing e-mail. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identification character is a character string of a part or all of a sender's mail address, and upon reception, automatically obtains the information from a sender field and combines it with the serial number. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the mail is added to the received mail. 5. The identification character is used as a registered name of an address book of a representative of a destination, and at the time of transmission, the information is automatically acquired from the address book, combined with the serial number, and added to an e-mail transmission mail. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein 6. The method according to claim 6, wherein the identification character is a registered name of a sender's address book, and at the time of reception, the information is automatically obtained from the address book, combined with the serial number, and added to the received e-mail. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein: 7. A dialog box is opened at the time of sending and receiving an e-mail, an arbitrary character string can be inputted as the identification character, and the inputted character string and the serial number are combined to send and receive an e-mail. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the mail management method is added to the mail. 8. By adding and storing information combining the identification character and the serial number to the data of sending and receiving electronic mail in an existing title field, the user can easily read the mail by using this information. 2. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the mail can be organized and searched. 9. By adding and storing information combining the identification character and the serial number to the data of sending and receiving electronic mail in the existing body field, the user can easily read the mail by using this information. 2. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the mail can be organized and searched. 10. By adding and storing information combining the identification character and the serial number in a serial number dedicated field to data sent and received in an electronic mail, a user can easily read the mail based on the information. 2. The mail management method according to claim 1, wherein the mail can be organized and searched. 11. The mail management method according to claim 10, wherein a user can select whether or not to send and receive the serial number only field when sending and receiving an electronic mail. Email management method. 12. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the electronic mail management method according to claim 1 is recorded.