JP2010217998A - Mobile terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile terminal device having improve operability of mail creation. <P>SOLUTION: The mobile terminal device includes: a designated portion recording means recording a portion designated in displayed mail; and a designated portion display means list-displaying the designated portions of a plurality of stored mail pieces having the designated portion, when displaying mail to be edited. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable terminal device having a mail creation function. The present invention can be used, for example, in a portable terminal device having a reply mail editing function.

  When creating a reply mail for a mail received at the mobile terminal device, a function of referring to the received mail is convenient. For example, the display screen of the mobile terminal device is divided into two parts, and the lower screen can be used to create outgoing mail while the received mail displayed on the upper screen can be referenced. (See Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-278751

  By the way, in the above-described conventional technology, the reference received mail displayed on the upper screen is selected by a user's operation from, for example, a list in which the title of the received mail is presented. For this reason, in order to create an e-mail based on a plurality of e-mail exchanges, the user grasps the circumstances by switching the displayed e-mail and reading the contents of each e-mail.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal device that improves the operability of the work of creating an email.

  The above-described object can be achieved by a mobile terminal device disclosed below.

  The mobile terminal device according to one aspect includes a designated part recording unit that records a designated part from among displayed mails, and a specified part of a plurality of stored mails is recorded when the mail to be edited is displayed. And a designated part display means for displaying a list of each designated part for a plurality of mails.

  In the mobile terminal device described above, the operability when creating a mail can be significantly improved.

It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of a portable terminal device. It is a figure explaining the designated partial recording process. It is a flowchart showing designated partial recording operation. It is a figure explaining the designated part display process. It is a flowchart showing designated part display operation.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a mobile terminal device of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

  Examples of portable terminal devices to which the present invention can be applied include portable computers such as mobile phones, laptop computers, notebook computers, and tablet computers, and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). These information terminal devices have a display device of a limited size for portability.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a mobile terminal device.

  FIG. 1 shows a mobile phone as an example of the mobile terminal device. This portable terminal device includes a terminal control unit 201, a wireless transmission / reception unit 202, an audio signal processing unit 203, a speaker 204, a microphone 205, a touch panel 206, and a memory 207.

  The terminal control unit 201 includes a wireless control unit 211, a call processing unit 212, and a touch panel control unit 213. A liquid crystal display (LCD) 208 provided in the touch panel 206 performs display processing based on an instruction from the touch panel control unit 213. In addition, the operation input detected by the touch sensor 209 provided in the touch panel 206 is passed to the call control unit 212, the mail management unit 216, the mail editing unit 215, and the like via the touch panel control unit 213. Provided.

  The received mail received from the call control unit 212 by the mail transmission / reception unit 214 of the portable terminal device is stored in the memory 207 via the mail management unit 216. The mail created by the editing work by the mail editing unit 215 is transferred to the wireless control unit 211 via the mail transmission / reception unit 214 and the call control unit 212, and is transmitted to the wireless network via the wireless transmission / reception unit 202. The mail transmitted in this way is also stored in the memory 207 via the mail management unit 216.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the designated portion recording unit includes a range extracting unit 224 and an extended information recording unit 223. The designated portion display means includes an extended information search unit 221 and a list display unit 222.

  Next, a method for selectively recording a designated portion of a mail to be displayed will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the designated portion recording process. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the designated partial recording operation.

  FIG. 2A shows a state in which the text of the received mail is displayed on the LCD 208 of the touch panel 206. In the example shown in FIG. 2A, the user traces the character string “additional equipment” and the character string “one projector” in the text with his / her fingers and designates them as designated parts 1 and 2, respectively. ing.

  FIG. 2B shows the mail stored in the memory 207. In FIG. 2B, the received mail includes a mail text and extended information. In the example shown in FIG. 2B, the extended information includes the designation of the designated part and information indicating each designated part.

  Next, the operation for recording the designated part of the mail being displayed in the extended information will be described.

  After the mail designated by the user is displayed on the touch panel 206 (step 301), the range extracting unit 224 shown in FIG. 1 repeats step 302 and waits for a touch detection notification from the touch panel control unit 213.

  When receiving a touch detection notification indicating that a touch on the surface of the touch panel 206 has been detected from the touch panel control unit 213, the range extraction unit 224 proceeds to step 303 as an affirmative determination in step 302. At this time, the range extraction unit 224 first determines whether or not the position where the touch is detected is within the text area where the mail text is displayed on the LCD 208 (step 303).

  When the notified touch is in the body area (affirmative determination in step 303), the range extraction unit 224 sends an email corresponding to the range traced by the user with a finger based on the notification from the touch panel control unit 213. The range of the text is specified (step 304). Then, the range extracting unit 224 passes the specified range of the mail text to the extended information recording unit 223 as a designated portion.

  The extended information recording unit 223 records the range of the mail text passed from the range extracting unit 224 as information indicating the designated portion in the extended information corresponding to the received mail being displayed via the mail management unit 216 ( Step 305). At this time, the range extraction unit 224 highlights the specified portion described above via the touch panel control unit 213 (step 306).

  Thereafter, the range extraction unit 224 determines whether or not an operation for ending the designation of the designated portion has been performed on the touch panel 206 based on the touch detection notification from the touch panel control unit 213 (step 307).

  In the case of a negative determination in step 307, the range extraction unit 224 returns to step 302 and resumes the process of receiving the designation of a new designated portion.

  On the other hand, for example, when the touch detection notification indicates that the outside of the text area has been touched, the range extraction unit 224 determines that an operation to end the designation of the designated portion has been performed (in step 307). Affirmative). Thereafter, the range extraction unit 224 cancels the highlighting performed in step 306 described above (step 308), and ends the process.

  Similarly, in the case of a negative determination in step 303, the range extraction unit 224 ends the processing after canceling the highlight display in step 308.

  When the designated part is designated for the first time, the extended information recording unit 223 sets a flag indicating that the designated part is designated in the extended information prior to recording information indicating the designated part in step 305. Can do. Then, after this flag is set, information indicating the newly designated portion can be added and recorded. Further, as information indicating each designated portion, the extended information recording unit 223 can record the head position and the end position in the mail body or the number of characters of the head position and the designated portion.

  Through such processing, a part of the text of the displayed mail can be designated as a designated part, and information indicating the designated part can be recorded as part of the extended information of the mail.

  In the example shown in FIG. 2A, the portions that the user has determined to be important in the mail text are designated as two designated portions 1 and 2. In this case, the extended information recording unit 223 includes a flag indicating that the designated part is designated in the extended information of the received mail, information indicating the range of the designated part 1, and information indicating the range of the designated part 2. To be recorded. In the example of FIG. 2B, information indicating the range of the designated portions 1 and 2 is indicated as “designated portion 1” and “designated portion 2”. In addition, a character string in a specified range of the text can be recorded as information indicating the specified portion.

  Note that the designation portion designated in correspondence with each email is not limited to a part of the email body, but may be a keyword or an annotation added to the email. In addition, when the mail text is short, the entire mail text may be the designated portion.

  Further, the method for recording the designated part of each mail is not limited to the method for recording in the extended information of the mail. For example, a table storing information indicating the designated part corresponding to the mail ID for identifying each mail is designated as mail. Can also be recorded separately. In short, any method may be used as long as the designated portion is recorded corresponding to each mail.

  Next, a description will be given of a method of displaying a list of recorded designated portions when editing mail.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the designated part display process. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the designated portion display operation.

  FIG. 4A shows a comparison between a received mail in which the designated part is recorded in the extended information and a received mail in which the designated part is not recorded. In the example shown in FIG. 4A, the designated portion is recorded in the extended information corresponding to the received mails on September 1, September 3, and September 4.

  When editing a mail to be transmitted, first, a mail editing screen is displayed by the mail editing unit 215 shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with an instruction from the user (step 311 in FIG. 5). At this time, the extended information search unit 221 shown in FIG. 1 refers to the extended information of the received mail stored in the memory 207 via the mail management unit 216 (step 312), and the designated part is set for each received mail. It is determined whether it is recorded (step 313).

  For example, a flag indicating that the designated portion is designated is set in the extended information of the received mail dated September 1 shown in FIG. In this case, as an affirmative determination in step 313, the extended information search unit 221 extracts a corresponding designated portion from the received mail text based on the range of the designated portion recorded following the above-described flag (step 314). ).

  The extended information search unit 221 passes the extracted specified part and the information for identifying the received received mail to the list display part 222, and provides the specified part list for display.

  For example, when the list display unit 222 first receives a designated portion from the extended information search unit 221, as shown in FIG. 4B, the list display unit 222 secures the upper half of the display screen of the LCD 208 as a designated portion display area. Each time the identification information and the designated part of the received mail are received from the extended information search unit 221, these pieces of information are added to the designated part list (step 315), and this designated part list is passed to the touch panel control unit 206. To display in the above-described designated portion display area.

  On the other hand, in the extended information of the received mail dated September 2, shown in FIG. 4A, the above-described flag indicates that the designated portion is not designated. In this case, the extended information search unit 221 returns to step 312 and refers to the extended information of the next received mail.

  As described above, the extended information search unit 221 refers to the extended information of the received mail stored in the memory 207, and as shown in FIG. The designated part list to be displayed can be displayed on the LCD 208 and presented to the user.

  If a designated part has been designated for a mail sent in the past, the designated part designated for this mail is extracted by the extended information search unit 221 and added to the designated part list.

  When the reference of the extended information is completed for all the mails, as an affirmative determination in step 316, the extended information search unit 221 ends the process and takes over the normal mail editing process by the mail editing unit 215.

  In the above-described designated part list, important parts of a plurality of received mails are collected. Therefore, according to such a designated part list, it is possible to effectively use the limited display screen of the mobile terminal device and present the user with the main points of the history of the exchange so far. Then, by displaying the designated part list and the mail editing screen in parallel, the user can easily edit the mail while easily grasping the background from the designated part list.

  That is, according to the portable terminal device including the designated part recording unit and the designated part display unit illustrated in FIG. 1, the user is prevented from performing a complicated operation such as switching and displaying a plurality of received mails for grasping the background. Can be released. As a result, it is possible to create an email with careful consideration based on the circumstances up to that point, with a simple operation, and the operability when creating the email can be greatly improved.

  Note that the extended information search unit 221 can narrow down received mails that refer to the extended information in advance.

  For example, prior to step 312 illustrated in FIG. 5, the extended information search unit 221 extracts an email that is highly likely to be referred to when editing an email based on an instruction received from the user, The reference target is narrowed down to the extracted mail (step 317). In FIG. 5, step 317 is indicated by a broken line.

  For example, when a mail destination is specified by an instruction from the user, the extended information search unit 221 searches the received mail received from the mail address specified as the destination via the mail management unit 216. Then, the extended information search unit 221 uses the received mail obtained as a search result as a reference for the extended information.

  In this case, the extended information search unit 221 uses only the designated part specified for the received mail received from the destination of the mail being edited, instead of the designated part obtained by referring to all mails in the memory 207. , Can be selectively passed to the list display unit 222.

  Further, when the date / time and the range of the date / time when the mail is transmitted / received according to the instruction from the user, the extended information search unit 221 searches the mail transmitted / received within the specified date / time range via the mail management unit 216. To do. Then, the extended information search unit 221 uses the mail obtained as a search result as a reference for the extended information. Further, the extended information search unit 221 can refer to a predetermined number of received mails in the order of newest received date.

  In this case, instead of the designated part obtained by referring to all the mails in the memory 207, the extended information search unit 221 uses only the designated part specified for the mail transmitted / received in the date / time range or the latest received mail. Can be selectively passed to the list display unit 222.

  In addition, the extended information search unit 221 can further narrow down the reference range of the extended information by combining the condition regarding the mail transmission source and the condition regarding the transmission / reception date and time.

  When a large number of sent / received mails are accumulated in the memory 207, narrowing down the reference object by the extended information search unit 221 in this way is useful for the user via the list display unit 222. This is very useful for presenting a partial list.

  It is also possible to control the area where the designated part list is displayed to scroll independently from the mail editing screen.

  In addition, although embodiment about the portable terminal device carrying a touch panel was demonstrated in FIG. 1, loading of a touch panel is not essential and it is applicable also to the portable terminal device which inputs a user's instruction | indication by key operation.

  For example, when a key operation is performed in a predetermined procedure while a received mail is displayed, the designated part designation mode is entered. At this time, information indicating a range selected by the user by key operation is received, and the designated part is Information to be shown can be recorded in the extended information.

Regarding the above description, the following items are further disclosed.
(Appendix 1)
A designated part recording means for recording a designated part from the displayed mail;
A portable terminal device comprising: designated portion display means for displaying a list of each designated portion for a plurality of emails in which the designated portion is recorded among a plurality of stored emails when displaying an email to be edited.
(Appendix 2)
In the mobile terminal device according to attachment 1,
The designated part recording means includes a range extracting means for extracting, as a designated part, a range designated by an operation of tracing the surface of the touch panel among mails displayed via the touch panel provided in the portable terminal device. The portable terminal device characterized by the above-mentioned.
(Appendix 3)
In the mobile terminal device according to appendix 1 or appendix 2,
The portable terminal device, wherein the designated part recording unit records information indicating a position of a head and a tail of the designated part.
(Appendix 4)
The portable terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The designated part display means extracts mail transmitted from the destination from the stored mail based on a destination designated corresponding to the email to be edited, and displays a list of the designated parts. The portable terminal device characterized by this.
(Appendix 5)
The portable terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The designated part display means extracts mail received at a date and time in a designated range from the stored mail based on the reception date and time information designated corresponding to the email to be edited. A portable terminal device that displays a list.
(Appendix 6)
Record the specified part of the email displayed on the display means,
A mail editing control method, comprising: displaying a list of each designated portion of a plurality of stored emails in which the designated portion is recorded when an email to be edited is displayed on the harm display means.
(Appendix 7)
A designated part recording means for recording a designated part in a displayed mail from a computer;
A mail editing control program for causing a designated part display unit to display a list of each designated part for a plurality of mails in which the designated part is recorded among a plurality of stored mails when displaying an email to be edited.

201 Terminal Control Unit 202 Wireless Transmission / Reception Unit 203 Audio Signal Processing Unit 204 Speaker 205 Microphone 206 Touch Panel 207 Memory 208 Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
209 Touch sensor 211 Wireless control unit 212 Call control unit 213 Touch panel control unit 214 Mail transmission / reception unit 215 Mail editing unit 216 Mail management unit 221 Extended information search unit 222 List display unit 223 Extended information recording unit 224 Range extraction unit

Claims (4)

A designated part recording means for recording a designated part from the displayed mail;
A portable terminal comprising: a designated portion display means for displaying a list of each designated portion of a plurality of emails in which the designated portion is recorded among a plurality of stored emails when displaying an email to be edited apparatus. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1,
The portable terminal device, wherein the designated part recording unit records information indicating a position of a head and a tail of the designated part. In the portable terminal device according to claim 1 or 2,
The designated part display means extracts mail transmitted from the destination from the stored mail based on a destination designated corresponding to the email to be edited, and displays a list of the designated parts. The portable terminal device characterized by this. In the portable terminal device according to claim 1 or 2,
The designated part display means extracts mail received at a date and time in a designated range from the stored mail based on the reception date and time information designated corresponding to the email to be edited. A portable terminal device that displays a list.

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