JP2011096016A - Character input support apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to create new e-mail by reusing sentences or the like in an e-mail text retrieved from past e-mails without changing an operation target from a transmitting e-mail creation processing system to a retrieval processing system or the like. <P>SOLUTION: In the transmitting e-mail creation processing system utilizing an e-mail creating window or the like, a transmitting destination address and a subject which are respectively input to a transmitting destination address input column and a subject input column in the window are acquired to so as to create transmitting e-mail. A character input support apparatus includes a function for retrieving reusable sentences without changing an operation target by searching past e-mails by using the acquired input information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for facilitating character input when creating a mail.

  In recent years, communication using e-mail has become common regardless of business scenes and private scenes, and as a result, the opportunity to create e-mail has increased, but it is very troublesome to create all e-mail texts from scratch. Become. Therefore, for example, a search window is provided in the mail client software so that a new mail can be created by reusing the text of the mail transmitted / received in the past. Then, the user can input the sender name and subject in the search window, cut out sentences and words from the text of past emails that hit the search, and copy them to the body of new emails for reuse. .

  Also, especially when composing e-mails on mobile phones, etc., more than 50 types of characters are selected and input using ten or more numeric keys, so it is necessary to press the same button multiple times even if only one character is selected. There is. Therefore, when creating a new mail text from scratch, a more troublesome character input operation is required. Therefore, for example, Patent Document 1 below provides the following technique for reducing the trouble of inputting characters when creating a reply mail. In other words, if there is a history of creating reply e-mails saying “When is the next?” In response to incoming e-mails saying “Defer the meeting” in the past, the “Meeting” and “Deferral” using those text data The table data is created by associating the character string (independent word) in the received mail such as "" with the character string in the reply mail such as "next" or "when?" Then, when creating a reply email for a received email such as “Tomorrow's negotiation is postponed”, the above table data is searched using the character string included in the received email as a key. This is a technique of presenting a character string such as “(?)” As an input character string candidate in a reply mail. In Patent Document 2, a character string or the like that is frequently used for each destination mail address is registered in a dictionary in advance. Techniques for presenting columns are disclosed.

JP 2001-273291 A JP-A-2005-107638

  However, in the above conventional technique, for example, when a search function of mail client software is used, there is a problem that the user is forced to perform an operation. In other words, the "search processing system" (processing system that begins by entering a search key into the search window of the mail client software) is separate from the mail creation processing system (processing system that inputs characters in the mail creation window, etc.). It is executed as a process. Therefore, the user needs to change the operation target from the mail creation window to the mail client software (change the active window) and enter a desired search key in the search window of the client software. Then, in order to copy the reusable text found as a result of the search, the user needs to perform the operation of switching the operation target again and returning to the processing system for creating the mail.

  The character input candidate presentation technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the following problems. That is, even if the reply emails are for the same event postponement, the description / expression content may differ depending on, for example, the difference between the business scene and the private scene, or the positional relationship with the transmission partner. And since it is difficult to distinguish such a difference of description / expression content only by a character string (independent word), it is a subject that an appropriate input candidate character may not be able to be shown. Further, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, it is necessary to prepare a registration dictionary that is not originally required for each mail address of the transmission destination, so that memory resources of the device are wasted (especially for mobile terminals and the like). In a small device, the memory resource is often limited).

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a transmission mail creation processing system using a mail creation window or the like, for example, in a destination address input field or a subject input field in the window for creating a send mail. Get the input destination address and subject. A character input support device having a function of searching for a reusable sentence without changing an operation target (processing system) by searching past mail using the input information is provided. Specifically, a past mail holding unit that holds a past mail that is a sent mail or / and a received mail, and an input unit that allows a user to input a destination address and a subject to create a transmitted mail are input. A search unit for searching for mail held in the past mail holding unit using the destination address or / and subject as a search key, and all or part of the information of the mail obtained by the search for creating a transmission mail A text input support device is provided that includes a text input support unit that can be copied to the transmitted mail text.

  In the above configuration, since the present invention uses a transmission destination address and a subject name, unlike the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, a difference in scene and a transmission destination are distinguished by a transmission destination address, and an input candidate corresponding to that is selected. be able to. Further, in the above configuration, since past mails that should be originally stored are targeted for search, unlike the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2, there is no need to separately store a registration dictionary and the like, which wastes memory resources. Can be prevented.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, in the process of creating a transmission mail, it is possible to search for a past mail using, for example, the transmission destination address and subject input in the mail generation window as a search key. Therefore, the user creates a new mail by reusing the text in the mail text retrieved from the past mail without changing the operation target from the processing system for creating the outgoing mail to the processing system for the search. be able to. Further, in the present invention, since the transmission destination address and the subject name are used, an effect of selecting a sentence candidate to be reused according to a difference in scene or a difference in transmission destination can be expected. Further, since past mails that should be originally stored are targeted for retrieval, it is possible to prevent wasteful consumption of memory resources.

The figure showing an example of the mail preparation screen using the character input assistance apparatus of Example 1 The figure showing an example of the functional block in the character input assistance apparatus of Example 1. The figure for demonstrating an example of the GUI screen in the input part of the character input assistance apparatus of Example 1. FIG. The figure showing an example of the hardware constitutions in the character input assistance device of Example 1. The flowchart showing an example of the flow of the process in the character input assistance apparatus of Example 1. The figure showing an example of the functional block in the character input assistance apparatus of Example 2. The figure showing an example of the text element presentation in the presentation means of the character input assistance apparatus of Example 2. The flowchart showing an example of the flow of the process in the character input assistance apparatus of Example 2.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the spirit of the present invention. In the first embodiment, claims 1, 2, 3, and 6 will be mainly described. In the second embodiment, claims 4 and 5 will be mainly described.

Example 1
<Overview>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mail creation screen using the character input support device of the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1A, first, in order to create a transmission mail, an address of a desired transmission destination user selected from the address book is input in the transmission destination address input field. Alternatively, an appropriate subject of the mail is entered in the subject input field. Then, as shown in FIG. 1B, the text in the past mail searched using the input destination address and subject is quoted (copyed) at the bottom of the screen in the input field of the mail text that follows. It is displayed in the window and presented to the user as a candidate containing reusable text. Then, the user selects a sentence that can be used for the current mail, and copies it to the input field of the mail text. In this way, it is possible to search for past texts that can be used to input the mail text without switching from the mail text input operation screen to another search screen.

<Functional configuration>
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks in the character input support device of the present embodiment. The character input support device of the present invention has a mail transmission / reception function or a similar message transmission / reception function (for example, instant messenger), and can be incorporated in a general apparatus having a function of receiving a character input for creating a message from a user. . Specific examples of devices to be incorporated include various PCs (personal computers), smartphones and mobile phones, PHS (personal handyphone systems), PDAs (personal digital assistants), and the like. Moreover, the functional blocks of the character input support device described below may be realized as dedicated hardware. Alternatively, it can be realized as a combination of general-purpose hardware and software. Specifically, if a computer is used, a CPU, a main memory, a bus, or a secondary storage device (a hard disk, a non-volatile memory, a storage medium such as a CD or a DVD, a read drive for the medium, etc.), information Input devices used for input, printing equipment, display devices, other hardware components such as external peripheral devices, interfaces for external peripheral devices, communication interfaces, driver programs for controlling these hardware, Other examples include application programs and user interface applications. Then, by CPU processing according to the program developed on the main memory, the data input from the input device or other interface and held in the memory or hard disk is processed and stored, An instruction for controlling the software is generated. The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus but also as a method. A part of the invention can be configured as software. Further, a software product used to cause a computer to execute such software and a recording medium on which the product is fixed are naturally included in the technical scope of the present invention (the same applies throughout the present specification). .

  As shown in FIG. 2, the “character input support device” (0200) of this embodiment includes a “past mail holding unit” (0201), an “input unit” (0202), and a “search unit” ( 0203) and a “text input support unit” (0204).

  The “past mail holding unit” (0201) has a function of holding past mail that is sent mail and / or received mail, and is realized by, for example, an HDD (hard disk drive), flash memory, or other various storage media. be able to. The sent mail and received mail held in the past mail holding unit are managed by associating the subject, destination address or source address with text data such as the mail text, and therefore the subject and address. Can be used as a search target for searching for text in the mail text that can be reused when creating mail. The past mail holding unit holds the past transmitted or received mail that should be originally stored as the communication history as described above. Therefore, this function can be realized without consuming unnecessary memory resources. As a further effect, compared to the case of using pre-registered fixed text for creating the body of an email, there is no need to register or edit it, and it becomes a search target due to continuous email exchange. As the amount of past emails increases, the number of reusable sentences will increase continuously.

  The “input unit” (0202) has a function of allowing a user to input a destination address and a subject for creating a transmission mail. For example, a CPU, a main memory, an input device, and a GUI (graphical user interface) It can be realized by an input program including. The feature of this input unit is not to simply input a transmission destination address or a subject but “to input such information for creating a transmission mail”. Note that “input for creating a transmission mail” refers to an input for designating a transmission destination of the mail or an input for displaying a subject in the mail when the mail is transmitted to the other party. That is, for example, a mail creation window as shown in FIG. 3A is used as a GUI, and the transmission destination address and subject input fields α and β correspond to the “input unit” of the present application. On the other hand, for example, the search window γ provided on the management screen for sent and received mails of the mail client software as shown in FIG. 3B, for example, is configured to input the destination address and subject as in the above. Since it is not “input for creating a transmission mail” as described above, it does not fall under the input section of the present application.

  In this application, in order to search past emails using the destination address and subject input for creation in the process of creating outgoing emails in this way, the user selects the operation target for an application having a separate search function. There is no need for switching, and the time and effort of operation can be saved.

  The “search unit” (0203) has a function of searching for mail held in the past mail holding unit using the input destination address and / or subject as a search key. For example, the CPU, main memory, search program Can be realized. As described above, the present application is characterized by using a subject name and a destination address in order to search a past transmitted / received mail that can be reused with respect to a mail currently being created. The search using the subject and destination address may be an AND search or an OR search. And when searching by “subject”, if the subject is the same or similar, the content of the email body indicated by the subject is likely to be the same or similar, and therefore contains reusable text. The possibility is considered high. Also, there is a tendency that the subject of e-mails subject to business (for example, “meeting”) and the e-mail subject to private (for example, “Thank you!”) Differ in how the subject is given. It is believed that there is. Therefore, by using this subject line, it is possible to expect an effect that a mail to be reused can be searched by distinguishing whether the outgoing mail currently being created is for business use or private use.

  In addition, when searching by "destination address", it is assumed that the topic and the tendency of sentences are similar to the same recipient, so past emails that hit the search will be included in the currently created email It is likely that reusable text is included. Also, because it is highly possible to distinguish whether it is a business partner or a private partner, depending on the sender, you can also search for emails to be reused by distinguishing whether the outgoing email currently being created is for business or private The effect can also be expected.

  As for the destination address, the same person may use a plurality of addresses such as a PC mail address and a mobile phone mail address. In such a case, refer to the e-mail address book, etc., and determine that the person is the same person from the name of the recipient user (or information such as that the user has previously associated with the address book) The plurality of destination addresses may be processed as the same destination address. Alternatively, the same person may use a plurality of addresses separately for private use and business use. In such a case, conversely, the plurality of addresses may be processed as separate transmission destination addresses. In order to distinguish whether the destination address is for business use or private use, for example, if a tag such as “business” or “private” is added to the address book data in association with each destination address, For example, if it is “co.jp” from the domain of the transmission destination address, it is determined for business use, and if it is “ne.jp” domain, it is determined for private use.

  In this search part, as described above, the search is performed during the mail creation process by using the subject and destination address entered in the input part for "creation of the destination mail". can do. In addition, it is possible to expect the effect that the re-use mail can be searched by distinguishing whether the outgoing mail currently being created is for business use or private use by the above-described search in the search unit.

  The “text input support unit” (0204) has a function of presenting all or part of the information of the mail obtained by the search so that it can be copied to the text of the outgoing mail to create the outgoing mail. It can be realized by a text input support program including a memory, a display, and a GUI. As a method of “presenting that can be copied”, if a sentence to be copied in advance is determined by a predetermined rule or the like, it may be presented in a state where it is already copied in the mail text. . Alternatively, when there are a plurality of texts that can be copied, the user may select the text by, for example, displaying a list as described later in the second embodiment. When there are a plurality of sent / received mails searched by the search unit, the text input support unit displays all or a part of the mails that can be copied by displaying the list and selecting the user. You may comprise so that it may narrow down. As will be described later in Example 2, for example, it is assumed that there is a high possibility that the first mail in a series of communication includes a reusable sentence such as a general-purpose greeting. The first mail may be identified and preferentially presented.

  In this way, with the character input support device according to the present embodiment, the user operates an application having a separate search function in order to search sent mail and received mail for sentences that can be reused for outgoing mail to be created. There is no need to change the object, and the operation can be saved. In addition, it is possible to select a sentence candidate to be reused according to a difference in transmission destination (business or private) using a transmission destination address and a subject. Further, since past mails that should be originally stored are targeted for retrieval, it is possible to prevent wasteful consumption of memory resources.

<Other examples>
In addition, the character input support device according to the present embodiment may be configured to search the transmitted / received mail held in the past mail holding unit by adding the creation time of the outgoing mail being created to the search key. . In this way, for example, past e-mails sent in the same time zone can be identified and greetings that change in time zones (such as good morning, good evening, or a common topic about seasonal events such as Christmas, or greetings of seasonal signs) can be reused without a sense of incongruity You can search past emails like this. Or, for example, the latest past mail of the mail that is currently being created may be described on the same topic, and by searching for such latest past mail, mail that is highly reusable is searched. You may comprise so that it can do.

  And in order to implement | achieve the said function, the character input assistance apparatus of a present Example should have further an "input time acquisition part", for example, and the said search part is good to further have an "input time search means." The “input time acquisition unit” has a function of acquiring the input time when the input at the input unit was made. For example, using the built-in clock, the input time acquisition unit acquires the time when the input for creating the outgoing mail was made. good. The input time acquired here may be information indicating the date. The “input time search means” has a function of using the acquired input time as a search key for the search, and as described above, searches for mail sent or received in the same time zone (different in date) Or a search for a mail having the same date, or a search for a mail transmitted or received most recently in the date and time. In order to use the input time as a search key, the past mail holding unit associates the transmission date and the transmission time with the mail ID or the like if the mail is already sent, and the reception date or time if the mail is a received mail. The reception time may be managed in association with the mail ID.

  Further, the character input support device according to the present embodiment may be configured to further process mail addresses. That is, for example, if the mail address A and the mail address B are the mail addresses of Mr. A and Mr. B who belong to the same α company, both mails are associated and managed as the same group. In this way, for example, if an outgoing mail addressed to Mr. A is being created, even if no mail has been exchanged with Mr. A in the past, B is a past mail containing a reusable sentence in its body. You can search past emails sent to / received from B.

  And in order to implement | achieve the said function, the character input assistance apparatus of a present Example should further have a "classification information holding | maintenance part", for example, and it is good for the said search part to further have a "classification search means". The “classification information holding unit” holds “classification information”, which is information for grouping destination addresses or / and source addresses of past mail, in association with destination addresses or / and source addresses of past mail. It has the function to do. Specifically, for example, each mail address is grouped according to a predetermined standard such as business, family, friend, etc., and the mail addresses of the same group are associated and held. The mail address grouping process may be classified with reference to tag information set for each registered mail address such as an address book by the user. Or you may comprise so that it may classify | categorize with reference to the commonality etc. of the domain name of an e-mail address. The “classification search means” has the destination address and / or the source address associated with the same classification information using the classification information associated with the input address and the classification information of the classification information holding unit. It has a function of retrieving mail from the past mail holding unit. In this way, even if a mail is sent to a destination address for which no past mail exists, past mail containing a reusable sentence can be searched for as long as the classification information of the destination address can be specified.

<Hardware configuration>
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of the character input support device when the functional components are realized as hardware. The operation of each hardware component in the mail creation process will be described using this figure. As shown in this figure, the character input support device is a search unit and a text input support unit, and also has a “CPU” (0401) and “main memory” (0402) for executing various other arithmetic processes. It is equipped with. In addition, “HDD” (0403) which is a past mail holding unit, “input device” (0404) and “display” (0405) which are input units are also provided. They are connected to each other via a data communication path such as a “system bus” to transmit / receive information and process information. A program is read out to the “main memory”, and the “CPU” refers to the read out program and executes various arithmetic processes according to the procedure indicated by the program. In addition, a plurality of addresses are assigned to each of the “main memory” and “HDD”, and in the arithmetic processing of the “CPU”, the address is specified and the stored data is accessed to access the data. It is possible to perform the arithmetic processing used.

  Here, for example, the user operates an “input device” of a portable terminal in which the character input support device of the present embodiment is incorporated, and starts an application for creating a mail. Then, “CPU” interprets the input program and displays a mail creation GUI screen as shown in FIG. 3A according to the interpretation result. Then, the user inputs “destination address” and “subject” in the mail address input field and subject input field of the GUI screen via the “input device”, and moves the cursor to the mail text creation field. . Then, using the operation input as a trigger, the “CPU” interprets the search program, acquires the “destination address” and “subject” entered on the GUI screen for creating the mail according to the interpretation result, Are stored at addresses 1 and 2. Subsequently, the “CPU” executes a search process of mail transmission / reception history data stored in the HDD using the “destination address” and “subject” stored in the “main memory” as search keys. Then, the mail having the same or similar subject and destination (source) address is specified by logical operation processing, and the specified mail ID is stored in address 3 of the “main memory”. When a plurality of mails are specified here, the list may be displayed on the “display”, and the user may select a mail to be presented to be copied via the “input device”. In addition, if there is no past mail with the same destination address in the transmission / reception history data, the same destination address is used if the same category information is used even with different destination addresses using the classification information for grouping the destination addresses. The search may be executed as Alternatively, an input time such as a destination address may be obtained from a built-in clock (not shown), and the mail transmission / reception history data may be searched using the input time information.

  Subsequently, the “CPU” interprets the text input support program, reads the text data of the mail identified by the mail ID from the “HDD”, and stores it in the address 4 of the “main memory”. Then, the text data is displayed on the “display”, and a predetermined text designated by the user via the “input device” is copied to the mail text currently being created. Alternatively, for example, as described later in the second embodiment, the text is decomposed into sentences by morpheme analysis processing or the like, and the text is copied to the mail text currently being created. Alternatively, the list of sentences may be displayed on a “display” as shown in FIG. 1B, and the user may select a sentence to be copied to the mail text via the “input device”.

  In this way, when the user starts creating a new mail, a search is made for previously sent / received mail that seems to contain text suitable for reuse, and the text is automatically included in the mail text. Can be copied or presented as a selectable list, so that the mail text can be efficiently created. Then, after the completion of the mail text, when the operation of pressing the mail transmission button on the GUI screen is accepted via the “input device”, the “CPU” can use the transmission destination address stored in the address 1 of the “main memory” as it is as the destination. For example, a mail transmission process is executed by using. In addition, although the said structure was demonstrated as what is implement | achieved by the combination of general purpose hardware and software, of course, it may be implement | achieved by the same dedicated hardware.

<Process flow>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing in the character input support device of the present embodiment. The steps shown below may be steps executed by each hardware configuration of the computer as described above, or may be processing steps that constitute a program for controlling the computer recorded on a medium. I do not care. As shown in this figure, first, according to the mail transmission / reception process, the past mail which is the transmitted mail and / or the received mail is recorded in the past mail holding section (step S0501). Thereafter, an e-mail creation application or the like is activated, and the input of the transmission destination address and subject for transmission mail creation is accepted from the user (step S0502). The mail held in the mail holding unit is searched (step S0503). Then, all or a part of the information of the mail obtained by the search is presented so as to be copyable in the body of the transmitted mail for creating the transmitted mail (step S0504).

<Brief description of effect>
As described above, the character input support device according to the present embodiment allows the user to use an application having a separate search function in order to search the sent mail or the received mail for sentences that can be reused in the created sent mail. There is no need to switch the operation target, and the operation can be saved. In addition, it can be expected to select a sentence candidate to be reused according to a difference in transmission destination (business or private) using the destination address and subject. Further, since past mails that should be originally stored are targeted for retrieval, it is possible to prevent wasteful consumption of memory resources.

<< Example 2 >>
<Overview>
The character input support device according to the present embodiment analyzes the body of the retrieved email based on the above embodiment, and uses, for example, punctuation marks, question marks, exclamation marks, etc. It has a function of disassembling into predetermined sentence elements such as “Are you free?”. The sentence element is displayed as a list to the user, and the portion to be copied can be selected more easily. Further, the present invention is characterized in that a sentence that is likely to be reused according to a predetermined rule is preferentially presented in the order of presentation when the sentence elements are presented.

<Functional configuration>
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks in the character input support device of the present embodiment. As shown in this figure, the “character input support device” (0600) of the present embodiment is based on the above-described embodiment, based on the “past mail holding section” (0601), “input section” (0602), “ “Search section” (0603) and “Text input support section” (0604). Moreover, you may have further the "input time acquisition part" and the "input time search means" which are not shown in figure, or the "classification information holding part" and "classification search means". In addition, since these structural requirements have already been described in the above embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. The character input support device according to the present embodiment is characterized in that the text input support unit further includes “sentence element decomposition means” (0605) and “presentation means” (0606).

  The “sentence element decomposing means” (0605) has a function of analyzing the text of the retrieved mail and decomposing the mail text into sentence elements, and can be realized by, for example, a CPU, a main memory, a sentence element decomposition program, or the like. The “sentence element” means a sentence that is composed of the text of the mail body according to a predetermined standard, and is delimited by, for example, “punctuation (.)” Or “exclamation mark (!) Question mark (?)”. One sentence may be used as a sentence element, and if the sentence to be separated is a long sentence, the semantic content is analyzed, and a sentence obtained by further disassembling the sentence may be used as the sentence element. It should be noted that the specific analysis process of the mail text may be realized by conventional sentence analysis using, for example, morphological analysis or semantic dictionary.

  The “presentation means” (0606) has a function of performing the copyable presentation in units of decomposed sentence elements, and can be realized by, for example, a text input support program including a CPU, a main memory, a display, and a GUI. it can. As a specific presentation method, for example, as shown in FIG. 7A, there is a method of providing a separate frame α or the like in or outside the mail creation window and presenting a list of sentences that can be copied there. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 7B, one copyable sentence is displayed blinking at the input cursor position in the mail body, and another sentence is displayed one after another in response to pressing of an arrow key or the like. A presentation method for selecting a desired sentence is also included.

  In addition, regarding the presentation of a plurality of text units or the presentation of a plurality of mails retrieved in the first embodiment, it is assumed that there is a high possibility of being reused by providing the following configuration. It may be configured to preferentially present the text elements. Specifically, the character input support device according to the present embodiment is characterized in that the text input support unit further includes “presentation priority calculation means” and “priority presentation means”.

  “Presentation priority calculation means” is a function for calculating the presentation priority based on the input destination address and / or subject according to a predetermined rule when all or part of the mail is presented in plural. And can be realized by a CPU, a main memory, a presentation priority calculation program, and the like. The predetermined rule may be various. For example, in the case of a mail searched by a transmission destination address or a text element of the mail, there is a method of counting the appearance frequency of the mail text or the text element and calculating in order of appearance frequency. Alternatively, in the case of emails and text elements searched by subject, for example, emails without “Re:” are exchange-started emails, and it is assumed that there are many highly reusable greetings and canned sentences. It may be calculated to increase the priority. Or, conversely, mails with the same subject and “Re:” and the text elements thereof may be calculated so as to increase the priority because there are many related to the same topic. Alternatively, the sentence element of a subject that includes a predetermined greeting (such as nice to meet you) may be calculated so as to increase the priority, assuming that there are still many greetings and fixed phrases. In addition, in the case of e-mails and text elements searched by the input time, for example, if the date of creation or time is close, the priority may be calculated high because the greetings of the time / time are common, and together with the subject You may comprise so that the priority of the mail which seems to be the latest reply mail, and the sentence element may be calculated high.

  The “priority presentation unit” has a function of presenting according to the priority order calculated by the presentation priority order calculation unit, and can be realized by, for example, a text input support program including a CPU, a main memory, a display, and a GUI. As a specific presentation method, for example, a method of providing a separate frame or the like in or outside the mail creation window and presenting a list of sentences that can be copied in order of priority, as in the above-described presentation means. . Alternatively, the first copyable sentence with the highest priority is displayed blinking at the input cursor position in the mail text, and another sentence is sequentially displayed according to the priority according to the pressing of the arrow key, etc. A presentation method for selecting a sentence is also included.

  In this way, the character input support device of the present embodiment displays a list of mail texts that are considered to be reusable in units of predetermined text elements, so that the user can select a portion to be copied more easily. Further, it is possible to preferentially present sentence elements that are likely to be reused in the order of presentation when presenting the sentence elements.

<Other examples>
In addition, the character input support device according to the present embodiment may be configured to calculate the presentation priority of the text elements using a method different from the above. For example, given the fact that a fixed greeting or signature is often written at the end of the email text or at the end of the sentence, information indicating where the text element is located is added when analyzing the email text Then (or by adding a weighting value to the sentence element at the beginning or end of the sentence), the disassembly process into the sentence element of the body is executed. Then, it is calculated so that the priority order of the sentence elements at the beginning and end of the sentence becomes higher.

  In order to realize the above function, for example, the text input support device according to the present embodiment may further include, for example, a “first position specifying unit” and a “first position priority unit”. The “first position specifying means” has a function of specifying a sentence element located at the beginning or / and end of a sentence of the mail body by analyzing the mail body. The “first position priority means” has a function of calculating the presentation priority of the sentence element at the specified sentence head and / or sentence end higher.

  Further, the character input support device according to the present embodiment may be configured to calculate the presentation priority order by yet another method. For example, a sentence created by the same user is likely to have the same sentence structure related to the settlement and the like. Therefore, the cursor position of the outgoing mail currently being created is identified, and the presentation priority of the sentence elements described at the same position as the cursor position is calculated to be higher.

  In order to realize the above function, the character input support device according to the present embodiment has, for example, a second input unit for inputting the mail text, and the second input unit has “cursor position acquisition means”. In addition, it is preferable that the text input support unit further includes “second position specifying means” and “second position priority means”. The “cursor position acquisition means” has a function of acquiring the position of the character input cursor in the outgoing mail being created. Specifically, for example, if there are 6 punctuation marks or line breaks in front of the cursor with a punctuation mark, exclamation point / question mark, or a line break or a space (indent) at the beginning of the sentence as a sentence break, the cursor position is set to “6”. It is judged that it is. The “second position specifying means” has a function of specifying a sentence element at a position corresponding to the character input cursor position of the acquired transmission mail being created. Specifically, for example, serial numbers are assigned in order of appearance for each sentence element, the serial numbers are compared with the specified cursor position, and the numerical value is calculated so as to increase the presentation priority of sentence elements within a predetermined error. , And so on. The “second position priority unit” has a function of calculating the presentation priority of the specified sentence element high.

<Process flow>
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing in the character input support device of this embodiment. The steps shown below may be steps executed by each hardware configuration of the computer as described above, or may be processing steps that constitute a program for controlling the computer recorded on a medium. I do not care. As shown in this figure, first, past mail that is sent mail and / or received mail is recorded in the past mail holding section (step S0801). Thereafter, an e-mail creation application or the like is started up, and an input of a transmission destination address and subject for transmission mail creation is accepted from the user (step S0802). The mail held in the mail holding unit is searched (step S0803). Subsequently, the body of the retrieved mail is analyzed, and the mail body is decomposed into sentence elements (step S0804), so that the decomposed sentence elements can be copied to the body of the outgoing mail for creating the outgoing mail. Present (step S0805).

  In addition, after step S0804, the presentation priority order of the plurality of sentence elements may be calculated using a transmission destination address or subject according to a predetermined rule. In that case, step S0805 may be presented according to the priority order calculated there.

<Brief description of effect>
As described above, the text input support device according to the present embodiment displays a list of mail texts that are considered to be reusable in units of predetermined text elements, so that the user can select a portion to be copied more easily. Further, it is possible to preferentially present a sentence that is likely to be reused in the order of presentation when presenting the sentence element.

0200 Character input support device 0201 Past mail holding unit 0202 Input unit 0203 Search unit 0204 Text input support unit

Claims (6)

A past mail holding unit for holding a past mail which is a sent mail or / and a received mail;
An input section that allows the user to input a destination address and subject for creating outgoing mail,
A search unit for searching mails held in the past mail holding unit using the input destination address and / or subject as a search key;
A text input support unit that presents all or part of the information of the mail obtained by the search so that it can be copied to the text of the sent mail for creating the sent mail;
A character input support device. It further has an input time acquisition unit that acquires an input time when the input at the input unit was made,
The search unit
The character input support device according to claim 1, further comprising an input time search unit that uses the acquired input time as a search key for the search. A classification information holding unit that holds the classification information, which is information for grouping the destination address or / and the source address of the past mail, in association with the destination address or / and the source address of the past mail;
The search part
Use the classification information associated with the input address and the classification information of the classification information holding unit to search the past mail holding unit for mails having the destination address and / or source address associated with the same classification information. The character input support device according to claim 1, further comprising classification search means for performing the search. The text input support unit
A sentence element disassembling means for analyzing the body of the retrieved mail and disassembling the mail body into sentence elements;
Presenting means for performing the copyable presentation in units of disassembled sentence elements;
The character input support device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: The text input support unit
A presentation priority calculation means for calculating the priority of presentation based on the input destination address and / or subject according to a predetermined rule when all or a part of the email is presented;
Priority presentation means for presenting according to the priority order calculated by the presentation priority order calculation means;
The character input support device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: An operation method of a character input support device having a past mail holding unit for holding a past mail which is a sent mail or / and a received mail,
An input step that allows the user to enter a destination address and subject for creating outgoing mail;
A search step for searching for mail held in the past mail holding unit using the input destination address and / or subject as a search key;
A text input support step for presenting all or a part of the information of the mail obtained by the search so that it can be copied to the text of the sent mail for creating the sent mail,
Method of operating a character input support device that causes a computer to execute

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