JP2002229906A - Apparatus for transmitting electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system for transmitting electronic mail, which simultaneously displays candidates of multiple addresses and document files on a screen, avoids repetitive operations to select a transmission file for each addressee, and circumvents an error induced by the repetitive operations to select the transmission file for every addressee. SOLUTION: Above-mentioned proplems are solved by a computer program that realizes an output function for addresses by displaying the multiple electronic mail addresses on a display device, a function to display a list of documents on the display device, and a linking function to link the addressee and the document displayed on the display device. The program executes a transmission commanding function to receive a transmission command issued by a user and also executes a transmission function to transmit the electronic mail based upon the linkage that corresponds with the transmission command received from the transmission commanding function.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional electronic mail transmission, an operation performed by a user is as follows. (1) Enter one or more mail destinations. (2) Enter the e-mail title and text (contents). (3) Specify attachments as needed. This is performed, for example, by displaying a file list on the screen and selecting one or a plurality of files from the list. (4) Press the send button.

In the above operation, instead of inputting a destination or a transmission document, a destination candidate or a document candidate previously input to the system is displayed on the screen, and one or a plurality of the candidates are selected from the candidates. I could choose.

[0004] By this operation, a set of the text and the attachment specified by the operations of (2) and (3) are transmitted to each of one or a plurality of destinations specified in (1). For this reason, if the user tries to change the set of attached materials little by little according to the destination and transmit the operation, it is necessary to repeat the operations (1) to (4) including the same operation content several times.

[0005] Considering the case of transmitting the minutes of a meeting as an example, the drawbacks become more apparent.

[0006] When the minutes of a meeting are sent to attendees of a meeting and other related parties together with attached materials, different materials may be sent depending on the recipient. For example, this is because there are materials that are sent to the section manager but not sent to ordinary section staff.

In the conventional method, in order to minimize the repetition of the transmission operation, first, the entire recipient is divided into several groups according to the document to be received, that is, the text and the attached documents, and each group is divided into several groups. Let's all send the same attachments. To do so, it was necessary to create a memo, specify the attachments for each group while viewing them, and send them. However, in this case, preparation work is required. Further, when only a part of the selected documents is different for each set of destinations, the same operation is repeatedly performed.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to reduce the above-mentioned problem in mail transmission, that is, to reduce the number of repetitions of the operation for transmitting data while attaching different data or a set of data depending on the destination. I am aiming.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a destination output function for outputting a plurality of e-mail destinations to the display means to a computer having a display means. A document list display function of outputting a list of a plurality of documents to the display unit, the destination output to the display unit, and the document output to the display unit in response to a user operation. A transmission destination / document association function for associating, a transmission instruction function for receiving a transmission instruction from a user, and a function of transmitting an e-mail based on the association in response to reception of a transmission instruction by the transmission support function are realized. Provide a computer program for causing

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One of the preferred embodiments of the present invention is realized by a program in a computer system. Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing the overall configuration of the embodiment. The main storage device 102 includes an OS 106 as an operating system and a program 1 for realizing the present invention.
07, there is a data area 108 for storing program variables and file data. OS 106 and Program 1
07 are both executed by the CPU 101.

A program 107 is stored in the external storage device 103.
, A destination storage area 1032 storing an e-mail destination, an e-mail storage area 1033 storing an outgoing document, and an extraction condition storage area 1034 storing destination extraction conditions. The program 107 is read into the main memory 102 by the OS 106 prior to execution.

The display device 104 is a display device according to the present invention, and several items are displayed on a display screen 1041 of the display device 104. On the display screen, a figure called a mouse cursor for indicating the position currently pointed by the mouse device 105 is also displayed in an overlapping manner.

The mouse device 105 is an input device, and is one of the so-called pointing devices. By operating this, the user can move the mouse cursor on the display screen to a desired position.

A mouse button is attached to the mouse device, and operations such as pressing and releasing the mouse button can be performed. Pressing and releasing the mouse button are both
Is transmitted to the program 107 via. The program 107 can identify the item selected by the mouse by comparing the address on the display screen of the mouse cursor included in the transmitted information with the information on the display range of the item.

The program 107 is a program for realizing the embodiment of the present invention, and includes a main process 107.
1, destination / document association processing 1072, extraction condition / document association processing 1073, mail creation / transmission processing 1074,
A destination list reconstruction process 1075 is included.

In a data area 108, a variable / work area 108 for storing variables of the program 107 and temporary data.
5, a destination table 1081, an item object area 1082, an extraction condition table 1083, and a destination / document association table 1084 are generated during execution.
In the item object area, item objects are generated corresponding to the items displayed on the display screen.

In addition, a keyboard device 109 exists.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an image of the display screen 1041. That is, on the display screen, an extraction condition list 208, a destination list 201, an associated text file list 202, an associated attached file list 203, a text file list 204, an attached file list 205, a message display area 206, and a send button 207 are displayed. Is displayed.

A destination list 201 is a destination candidate for mail transmission, and a destination storage area 1032 in the external storage device 103.
5 shows the contents of the destination table 401 shown in FIG. When the user correlates with the mail text from among them, the mail is transmitted to the correlated destination.

The body file list 204 and the attached file list 205 represent candidates for the body file and the attached file to be transmitted.
And the file names of the body file data 304 and the attached file data 305 shown in FIG.

The user can associate the destination with the body file or the destination with the attached file as follows.

A drag-and-drop operation, which is generally known as one of the methods for associating two display items, is used.

The user moves the mouse cursor to an item in the body file list 204, presses the mouse button, and moves the mouse cursor to the destination list 2 without releasing the mouse button.
Move to the destination you want to send in 01 and release the mouse button. During the drag-and-drop operation, when the mouse button is pressed and released, the OS notifies the program of the coordinates of the mouse cursor. By the processing of the program based on this notification, in the linked text file list 202,
The associated text file name is displayed. Thus, the user can confirm on the display screen that the association has been made. The same operation can be performed for associating an attached file.

As another method for obtaining the same effect, the user can select an item in the text file list to be transmitted from
A drag-and-drop operation may be performed on a blank item in the associated text file list 202.

As another association method, the same association operation as described above can be performed between the text file to be transmitted and the items in the extraction condition list 208. The extraction condition indicates a condition for selecting a destination. At this time, the associated file is transmitted to all the destinations corresponding to the specified extraction condition.

The extraction condition has two uses. The first is, as above, the file that the user wants to send,
By associating one item of the extraction condition, the file is transmitted to all destinations corresponding to the extraction condition.

Another use of the extraction condition is to reconstruct the mail address list 201. That is, when the user operates the extraction condition list 20 as the first operation on the display screen.
When the item No. 8 is clicked, the contents of the destination list 201 displayed so far are cleared, and only the destinations corresponding to the clicked extraction condition are displayed in the destination list 201.
Will be displayed within Similarly, each time an item in the extraction condition list 208 is clicked, a destination meeting the condition is added to the destination 201 while avoiding duplication. Subsequently, the above-mentioned operation of associating the destination with the body file or the destination with the attached file can be performed.

The message display area 206 contains the program 1
It is an area for displaying a message transmitted from 07 to the user. For example, a message indicating that the mail transmission processing has been completed is displayed here.

FIG. 3 shows the electronic mail storage area 10 shown in FIG.
33 shows the configuration of the third embodiment. This area consists of several directories and files.

The e-mail directory 301 stores the directory names and the pointers to the directories of the body file directory 302 and the attached file directory 303, which are the directories under the e-mail directory 301, in an item 3011 and an item 3012, respectively. .

The body file directory 302 stores the file name of the body file data 304 and a pointer to the body file data 304 for the body file data 304 located thereunder.

The attached file directory 303 stores a file name of the attached file data 305 and a pointer to the attached file data 305 for the attached file data 305 located thereunder.

The body file data 304 is a candidate for a document transmitted as a body file of an electronic mail.

The attached file data 305 is a candidate for a document transmitted as an attached file of an electronic mail. The attached file data can include table data, image data, audio data, and the like in addition to the character information.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the destination table 1081. The contents of the destination table are stored as a file in the e-mail destination storage area 1033 shown in FIG. 1, and are read as the destination table 1081 in the data area 108 immediately after the start of the program 107. In the destination table,
A record, which is information corresponding to each destination, includes a destination name, a destination mail address, and extraction information.

The destination person name is the name of the person to whom the mail is to be sent, for example, "Kazuo Matsui".

The destination mail address is an address to which an electronic mail is to be sent. For example, foo @ hoge. h
oge. com.

The extraction information is a sequence of bits composed of 0s and 1s, and indicates what the destination is.
For example, the first bit indicates whether or not a member of section A of the company, the next bit position indicates whether or not a member of section B, and the next bit indicates whether or not the section manager. Is shown.

The destination table is used to save the user from having to input a destination every time a transmission is made, and the source file is created in the destination storage area, for example, by the user.

FIG. 5 shows the extraction condition table 108 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the details of No. 3; The extraction condition table is stored as a file in the extraction condition storage area 1034, and is read as the extraction condition table 1083 in the data area 108 immediately after the start of the program 107.
It is a group of records composed of two items, a condition bit list. The condition name is a name used for selecting a destination to send a mail, and is copied to the extraction condition name of the extraction condition item object shown in FIG. The condition bit list is also copied with the condition bits of the same extraction condition item object.

FIGS. 6 to 11 show various item objects. The item objects are provided in various item object areas 1082 shown in FIG. 1 corresponding to the respective items displayed on the display screen 1041.

First, there are an item name, area range information, and a display character string as constituent elements common to the item objects shown in FIGS.

The item name is a name indicating the type of the object.
Used inside the program.

The area range information indicates the display range of the item on the display screen, and indicates the coordinates (x, y) of the upper left point of the item and the width (width) and height (height) of the item in dots. Each element x, y, width, h of the case
Eight are arranged. The origin of the coordinates is set at the upper left corner of the screen, and the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate increase as going right and down, respectively. The display character string is a character string displayed in an item on the display screen.

FIG. 6 shows a destination item object. This corresponds to each item of the destination list 201 shown in FIG. 2, and includes an item name, an index, area range information, a display character string, and a mail address. Here, the display character string indicates the name of the recipient, and the mail address indicates the destination of the mail.

The index indicates the line number of the item in the destination list 201 shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows an associated document item object. This is provided corresponding to each item of the associated text list 202 and the associated attached file list 203 shown in FIG. 2 and includes an item name, an index, area range information, a display character string, and a pointer to a document item object. You.

When the user associates the destination with the destination so as to be transmitted, the display character string stores the file name of the associated text file data or the file name of the attached file data, and further includes a pointer to the document item object. Stores the address on the main memory of the document item object shown in FIG. 9 corresponding to the associated file. When the item is not associated with the destination to be transmitted by the user, the display character string is blank, and the pointer to the document item object has a value of zero.

FIG. 8 shows a message display item object. This is provided corresponding to the message display area 206 shown in FIG. 2, and is composed of an item name, area range information, and a display character string. Here, the display character string stores a message transmitted to the user.

FIG. 9 shows a document item object. This is provided corresponding to each item of the text file list 204 and the attached file list 205 shown in FIG. 2, and includes an item name, a section, area range information, a display character string, and a file path name. Here, the classification indicates whether the file is a text file or an attached file. The display character string stores the file name of the body file or the attached file. The file path name stores the file path name in the e-mail storage area 1033. The path name is obtained by connecting a directory name as a starting point, here, a directory name on a path from the e-mail directory 301 to a target file and a target file name with a specific symbol interposed therebetween.
In general, the path name may or may not include the starting directory name, and is not included here.

FIG. 10 shows a send button item object. This is provided corresponding to the transmission button 207 shown in FIG. 2, and is composed of an item name, area range information, and a display character string. Here, the display character string stores a character string that clearly indicates that it is a send button.

FIG. 11 shows an extraction condition item object. This is the content of the extraction condition storage area 1034 shown in FIG. 1, and is provided corresponding to each item of the extraction condition list 208 shown in FIG. 2, and is composed of an item name, area range information, a display character string, and a condition bit list. Is done. Here, the display character string indicates an extraction condition name, and stores character strings such as “member of section A”, “member of section B”, and “section manager”. The condition bit sequence is a sequence of bits consisting of 0 and 1, and includes only one bit of 1 and its bit position is set to be different between the extraction condition item objects.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a drag-and-drop operation between items. The user intends to transmit the text file displayed in item A to the destination displayed in item B by performing a drag-and-drop operation from item A in the text file list to item B in the destination list. The user may drag and drop from the item A to the blank item C in the same meaning. Item C is an item of the linked text file list. By any of the above operations, the display content of A, that is, the file name is also displayed in item C.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing details of the destination / document association table 1084 created in the data area 108 shown in FIG. This table includes an index, a destination item, a body file item, and some, in this embodiment, three items.
It consists of each item of the attached file item, and its record is created corresponding to the item of the destination list 201. The index indicates the line position of the item in the destination list 201, and the destination item stores the mail address in the destination item object shown in FIG. The text file item is initially blank, and stores the path name of the file in the associated document item object shown in FIG. 7 when it is associated with the destination for transmission by the user. Similarly, the attached file item also has an initial value of blank, and stores the path name of the file in the associated document item object when it is associated with the destination to be transmitted by the user. The destination / document association table is updated each time an association operation is performed on a text file and an attached file.

FIGS. 14, 15 and 16 are flow charts showing the outline of the entire processing of the program 107 for realizing the present invention.

First, in step S1401, various files are read. That is, the destination table 401 shown in FIG. 4 is stored in the destination storage area 1032 on the external storage device 103, and the destination table 401 shown in FIG.
, The attached file data 305 from the electronic mail storage area 1033, and the extraction condition table shown in FIG. 5 from the extraction condition storage area 1034 to the data area 108.

Subsequently, in step S1402, FIG.
The various item objects shown in FIG.
8 and then, in step S1403, they are arranged and displayed on the display device 104 shown in FIG. Also, a destination / document association table is created and initialized here.

Subsequently, in step S1404, the operation performed by the user is extracted from the extraction condition list 20 shown in FIG.
It is determined whether or not the item 8 is clicked. If so, in a succeeding step S1405, a destination table reconstructing process for the above click, which is shown in detail in FIG. 13, is executed. That is, the contents of the destination item object and the destination list are cleared, and only destinations that match the extraction condition are added to the destination item object and the destination list.

Upon completion of step S1405, the process returns to step S1404.

In step S1404, if the operation performed by the user is not a click on an extraction condition list item, the flow advances to step S1406.

In step S1406, the next operation performed by the user is detected, and the drag operation in the drag-and-drop operation is started, that is, the button is pressed in the item, and the mouse cursor is moved out of the area of the item. If it is detected, in step S1407, the address of the mouse cursor notified at the same time and the item object in the item object area 1082 are sequentially matched to identify the item for which dragging has been started, and store it as item 1. I do. In step S1408, it is determined whether item 1 is a document item object. If not, the process returns to step S1406 because the drag start is invalid. Step S140
If it is determined in step S8 that the drop operation is completed, that is, the operation of releasing the mouse button is waited in step S1409.
Wait for completion by repeating step 9. When the above operation is completed, in step S14010, the item in the drop operation is specified from the address of the notified mouse cursor and stored as item 2 in the same manner as above.

In the following step S14011, it is determined whether or not item 2 is a destination item object. If so, a destination / document association process is performed in step S14012. That is, the destination is associated with the document corresponding to the item 1, and the result is recorded in the destination / document association table 1084.

If not in step S14011, it is determined in step S14013 whether item 2 is an extraction condition item object, and if so, in step S14014, as shown in FIG.
Performs extraction condition / document association processing. That is, all destinations that match the above extraction conditions are associated with the document corresponding to item 1, and the result is recorded in the destination / document association table 1084.

In step S1406, if not, that is, if the drag has not been started,
In step S14015, it is determined whether the send button has been clicked. If so, step S1401
In step 6, an attempt is made to retrieve one destination in order from the destination / document association table. If it is determined in step S14017 that the data can be extracted, step S1401
In step 8, a mail transmission process is performed for the destination, and the process returns to step S14016. Step S1
If there is no destination in 4017, the process ends.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing the destination / document association processing.

In this process, a document item object and a destination item object are given as data (arguments).

First, in step S1501, an index is extracted from the destination item object.

Subsequently, in step S1502, FIG.
If the destination item in the record of the index in the destination / document association table shown in FIG. 3 is empty, the mail address is entered in the destination item in the record from the destination item object.

Subsequently, in step S1503, the path name of the file from the document item object is added to the body file item or the attached file item in the record according to the classification of the document item object, and the destination / document association processing ends.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the extraction condition / document association processing.

In this process, a document item object shown in FIG. 9 and an extraction condition item object shown in FIG. 11 are given as data (arguments).

First, in step S1601, the document file name is extracted from the document item object.

Subsequently, in step S1602, a condition bit sequence is extracted from the extraction condition item object and stored as a sequence a.

Subsequently, in step S1603, the elements and the condition bit sequence therein are sequentially extracted from the destination table 201, and the latter is stored as the sequence b.

Subsequently, in step S1604, it is determined whether or not the element has been extracted from the destination table. If the element has been extracted, the flow advances to step S1605.

In step S1605, the above-mentioned line a
An AND operation is performed for each bit of the above and the sequence b. If the result is not 0, the process proceeds to step S1606, and in step S1606, a work destination item object is created in the data area 108 from the elements of the destination table. The format of the work destination item object is the same as the destination item object shown in FIG.

Subsequently, in step S1607, a destination / document association process shown in FIG. 17 is executed for the document file object and the work destination item object. Subsequently, the process returns to step S1603.

If the result at step S1605 is 0, the process returns to step S1603. If the element cannot be extracted in step S1604, that is, if the end of the destination table is detected, the extraction condition / document association process ends.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an outline of the mail transmission process. In step S1701, a message is formed from the destination, body file data, and attached file data, and the message is transmitted in step S1702.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing the destination list reconstructing process. This is a process that is executed based on the fact that the user has clicked an item in the extraction condition list at the start of the mail transmission process, and is a process for displaying only destinations that match the extraction condition specified by the user in the destination list. . In this process, the extraction condition item object shown in FIG. 11 corresponding to the item of the extraction condition list 208 clicked by the user is passed as data (argument).

First, in step S1801, it is determined whether or not this processing is the first time. If it is the first time, all the destination objects and the contents of the destination list are cleared in step S1802, and the first time is executed. I remember that. If it is not the first time, immediately S1
Go to 803.

Subsequently, in step S1803, the condition bit sequence in the extraction condition item object specified by the argument is stored as the bit sequence a.

Subsequently, in step S1804, one record is sequentially extracted from the destination table 201.

Subsequently, in step S1805, it is determined whether or not the record can be extracted. If the record can be extracted, in step S1806, an AND operation for each bit is performed on the extracted information 2013 in the record and the bit sequence a. .

Subsequently, in step S1807, it is determined whether or not the above result is 0. If the result is 0, the process returns to step S1804 (the destination does not satisfy the condition). If it is not 0, in step S1808, the destination person name and e-mail address are selected, the cleared destination item object in the various item object area 1082 is selected, and the destination person name and e-mail address are entered therein. It is displayed in the destination list 201 on the display screen 1041. Then, the process returns to step S1804. However, if the same destination already exists in the destination list 201, the processing below the selection of a free element is not performed.

[0087]

According to the present invention, a plurality of destinations and one or a plurality of documents are displayed on one screen, and the user associates the destinations with the documents and then sends a mail to the destinations at once. Can be sent. For this reason, in the case where the attached materials or the collections thereof are made different depending on the destination, the repetition of the transmission operation can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a display screen on a display device.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an e-mail storage area for storing a transmitted text file and a candidate for an attached file;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a destination table indicating candidates for destinations of an e-mail;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an extraction condition table;

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a destination item object.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an associated document item object.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a message display area item object.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a document item object.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a transmission button item object.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an extraction condition item object.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an operation of associating two items by drag and drop.

FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram of a destination / document association table;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for showing processing of a program for realizing the present invention (part 1)

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for illustrating processing of a program for realizing the present invention (part 2);

FIG. 16 is a flowchart for illustrating processing of a program for realizing the present invention (part 3);

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a destination / document association process;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing an extraction condition / document association process;

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an outline of mail creation / transmission processing;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing destination table reconfiguration processing;

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 ... CPU 102 ... Main storage device 103 ... External storage device 201 ... Address list 204 ... Text file list 205 ... Attached file list 207 ... Send button 304 ... Text File 305 ・ ・ ・ Attached file

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A computer having a display means, a destination output function for outputting a plurality of e-mail destinations to the display means, and a document list display for outputting a list of a plurality of documents to the display means. A function, a destination / document association function for associating the destination output to the display means with the document output to the display means in response to a user operation, and a transmission instruction by the user. A computer program for realizing a transmission instruction function to be accepted and a function to transmit an e-mail based on the association in response to reception of a transmission instruction by the transmission support function. 2. The destination / document associating function includes a user operation of selecting one of the documents output to a display means and a selection of one of the destinations output to the display means. The computer program according to claim 1, wherein the computer program has a function of associating the document with the transmission destination according to an operation to be performed. 3. A function of managing an extraction condition and a plurality of destinations in association with each other, and associating a document with a plurality of destinations associated with the plurality of extraction conditions in accordance with a user operation. The computer program according to claim 1, wherein the computer program further realizes a function of implementing