JP2016045776A - Information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide information by which a correspondence relation between a plurality of electronic mails can be easily grasped.SOLUTION: An information processing device extracts messages Ms including a header part Hd and a body part Bd from mail documents Md of a plurality of electronic mails having a correspondence relation; and merges the plurality of extracted messages Ms to create one merged document Mt. Thus, the correspondence relation between the plurality of electronic mails can be easily grasped from the merged document Mt.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and is suitable for application to an information processing apparatus that handles e-mail, for example.

  Conventionally, by printing an e-mail and an e-mail attached to the e-mail (this is a parent mail) (this is a child mail) as a set of printed materials, Has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2004-110616 A

  However, what can be grasped by the printed matter printed by the conventional printing system is only the correspondence between the parent mail and the child mail received as one e-mail, and a plurality of mails exchanged among a plurality of mail users. It is impossible to grasp the correspondence of e-mail. For example, suppose that Mr. A sends an email with the same content to Mr. B and Mr. C, and each of Mr. B and Mr. C replies to the email sent from Mr. A by email. In this case, there is a correspondence between the email sent by Mr. A to Mr. B and Mr. C and the email sent by Mr. B and Mr. A to Mr. A in response to this email. In the conventional printing system, it has been impossible to print a printed matter that can grasp such correspondence.

  For this reason, in order to obtain information that can grasp the correspondence between a plurality of e-mails, for example, the user has to perform a troublesome task of editing the contents of a plurality of e-mails having a correspondence relationship into one text document. There was a need to do. Thus, conventionally, there has been a problem that information processing apparatuses that handle e-mails cannot provide information that can easily grasp the correspondence between a plurality of e-mails.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to propose an information processing apparatus capable of providing information that can easily grasp the correspondence between a plurality of electronic mails.

  In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, an extraction unit that extracts a message having a header portion from a plurality of email documents having a corresponding relationship, and a plurality of messages extracted from the plurality of mail documents are merged. A creation unit for creating one merge document is provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a message extracted from a plurality of e-mails having a correspondence relationship is merged to create one merge document, whereby a correspondence relationship between the plurality of e-mails can be easily made from this mail document. Can grasp.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information processing apparatus which can provide the information which can grasp | ascertain easily the correspondence of several electronic mail is realizable.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a printing system. It is a basic diagram which shows the structure of a printing method selection screen. It is a basic diagram which shows the structure of a mail document. It is a basic diagram which shows the structure of a message management table. It is a basic diagram which shows the example of a mail document and a merge document. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of merge document printing processing. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of merge document preparation processing. FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of merge document creation processing following the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 7. FIG.

  Hereinafter, modes for carrying out the invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[1. Functional configuration of printing system]
FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of a printing system 1 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing functions of the host computer 2 and the printer 3 constituting the printing system 1. The host computer 2 and the printer 3 are connected via the network 4 and transmit / receive data. A printer driver 5 corresponding to the printer 3 and various applications 6 such as mail software are installed in the host computer 2. The host computer 2 includes a user interface unit 7 that displays the screen of the application 6 and accepts operations on the screen.

  The printer driver 5 of the host computer 2 supports a plurality of printing methods such as normal printing, authentication printing, and mail document merge printing, and the user selects an arbitrary printing method via the user interface unit 7 according to the purpose of use. It can be done. Normal printing is a printing method that does not require authentication. In the case of normal printing, when a print job issued by the host computer 2 is sent to the printer 3, printing based on this print job is immediately performed on the printer 3 side. The authentication printing is a printing method that requires authentication on the printer 3 side. In the case of authenticated printing, when a print job issued by the host computer 2 is sent to the printer 3, the print job is stored in the printer 3, and after user authentication is performed on the printer 3, printing based on the print job is performed. Is called. The mail document merge printing, which will be described in detail later, is a printing method in which a plurality of corresponding electronic mails are merged into one text document and printed. In this mail document merge printing, when a print job issued by the host computer 2 is sent to the printer 3, the print job is stored in the printer 3, and a job ID for the user to specify the print job on the printer 3 side. Is input, the e-mail text document included in the print job corresponding to the job ID (referred to as a mail document) is merged into one text document and printed.

  Here, a printing method selection screen 20 displayed on the user interface unit 7 by the printer driver 5 is shown in FIG. The printing method selection screen 20 is a screen for selecting a printing method for a print job. For example, a radio for selecting one of three printing methods of normal printing, authentication printing, and mail document merge printing. Buttons 21A, 21B, 21C, a text box 22 for inputting a job name, a text box 23 for inputting a job ID, an OK button 24 for determining printing by a selected printing method, A cancel button 25 for canceling printing is provided.

  A print job output from the host computer 2 when normal printing or authentication printing is selected via the printing method selection screen 20 and the OK button 24 is pressed is composed of drawing commands, such as printing of documents and images. Used for general printing. On the other hand, when mail document merge printing is selected via the printing method selection screen 20 and the OK button 24 is pressed, a print job output from the host computer 2 is composed of plain text that is a mail document, and an image This is used for printing a text document that does not include a document, that is, a text document generated by merging a plurality of mail documents (hereinafter referred to as a merge document). The mail document merge printing is a printing method for printing a merged document created by merging e-mail mail documents. In this printing method, an attached file attached to an e-mail is not subject to printing. Yes, not included in print job.

  The execution of authentication printing and mail document merge printing requires input of a job name and job ID. When authentication printing or mail document merge printing is selected on the printing method selection screen 20, the text box 22 and 23, the job name and job ID must be entered. The job name and job ID input via the printing method selection screen 20 are added to the print job as a job control command and sent to the printer 3. As will be described in detail later, in the case of mail document merge printing, when issuing respective print jobs for a plurality of corresponding emails, the user inputs the same job ID for each print job. Assuming that.

  The printer 3 includes a reception unit 8, a merge document creation unit 9, a print image creation unit 10, an operation control unit 11, a memory unit 12, a storage unit 13, and a printing unit 14. The receiving unit 8 receives data (that is, a print job) sent from the host computer 2 and analyzes a job control command added to the print job. If the print job is a normal print job (referred to as a normal print job), the receiving unit 8 transfers the print job (normal print job) to the print image creating unit 10.

  The print image creation unit 10 analyzes the normal print job and creates bitmap image data that can be handled by the printing unit 14. In response to an instruction from the print image creation unit 10, the printing unit 14 prints the bitmap image data created by the print image creation unit 10. In this way, normal printing is performed.

  On the other hand, if the print job is a print job for authentication printing (referred to as an authentication print job) or a print job for mail document merge print (referred to as a mail document merge print job), the receiving unit 8 The print job (authentication print job or mail document merge print job) is stored in the storage unit 13 as a print job file.

  The print job file stored in the storage unit 13 is managed in the storage unit 13 together with information such as the type of print job (that is, an authentication print job or a mail document print job), a job name, and a job ID. The storage unit 13 is a non-volatile storage medium such as an HDD (hard disk drive), for example, and is a print job file for an authentication print job (referred to as an authentication print job file) or a print job file for a mail document merge print job ( Various data such as a mail document merge print job file) are stored. The memory unit 12 is a volatile storage medium such as a RAM and temporarily stores various data such as a print job and bitmap image data.

  The operation control unit 11 executes various functions of the printer 3 in accordance with instructions from a user input via an operation panel (not shown). As one of the functions, there is an authentication printing function. When the user actually operates the operation panel to select the authentication printing function and inputs a job ID, the operation control unit 11 performs authentication stored in the storage unit 13. A file with a job ID that matches the input job ID is extracted from the print job file, and this file is transferred to the print image creation unit 10. The print image creation unit 10 analyzes the authentication print job in the same manner as the normal print job, creates bitmap image data, and instructs the printing unit 14 to print the bitmap image data. The printing unit 14 prints bitmap image data based on the authentication print job created by the print image creating unit 10. In this way, authentication printing is performed.

  Furthermore, as another function, there is a mail document merge print function. When the user actually operates the operation panel to select the mail document merge print function and inputs the job ID, the operation control unit 11 stores the storage unit 13. A mail document merge print job file with a job ID that matches the input job ID is extracted from the mail document merge print job file stored in the file, and this is used as a merge target file to create a merge document creation unit 9. To create a merge document.

  The merge document creation unit 9 creates one merge document file by merging e-mail mail documents included in each of the merge target files extracted by the operation control unit 11, and creates the merge document file as a normal print job. In the same manner as above, the image is transferred to the print image creating unit 10. The print image creating unit 10 analyzes the merged document file to create bitmap image data, and instructs the printing unit 14 to print the bitmap image data. The printing unit 14 prints bitmap image data based on the merge document file created by the print image creating unit 10. In this way, mail document merge printing is performed.

  The printing system 1 has such a functional configuration, and can perform mail document merge printing in addition to normal printing and authentication printing. By this mail document merge printing, a plurality of e-mails having a corresponding relationship can be converted into one text document. Can be merged and printed. Here, FIG. 3 shows the structure of an e-mail text document Md exchanged by mail software installed in the host computer 2, that is, the mail document Md.

  The mail document Md is composed of a message Ms composed of a header part Hd and a body part Bd. In the header portion Hd, information such as the sender of the e-mail, the transmission date and time, the destination, and the subject is described according to a predetermined format (format). The body part Bd describes the text of the e-mail. The mail document Md shown in FIG. 3 is composed of a plurality of messages Ms. The uppermost message Ms is a message described by the sender when the mail document Md is created. On the other hand, the message Ms with “----- Original Message -----” added to the first line of the header part Hd is created at the time of creating the mail document Md by the reply function with history of the mail software. A message copied (quoted) as a history from a mail document of another electronic mail.

  The reply function with history is a function of copying a mail document Md of the received electronic mail as a history in the mail document Md of the transmitted electronic mail when replying to the received electronic mail. . Therefore, if you use this reply function with history to exchange emails with the same person many times, "----- Original Message -----" is added to the first line of the header part Hd. The number of received messages Ms will increase. The structure of the mail document Md is as follows.

  When creating the merge document, the merge document creation unit 9 of the printer 3 extracts the message Ms from the mail document Md of the file to be merged, and merges the mail document Md in units of message Ms. At this time, the merge document creation unit 9 manages the message Ms extracted from the mail document Md by the message management table 30 (FIG. 4) developed in the memory unit 12.

  FIG. 4A shows a table configuration of the message management table 30. The message management table 30 is composed of six columns: a line number 31, a job name 32, a date and time 33, a sender 34, a head line number 35, and a terminal line number 36. In this message management table 30, information of one message Ms (this is called message information) is managed by one line (that is, one record). In other words, the message information recorded in the message management table 30 is information including the line number, job name, date and time, sender, the number of head lines, and the number of end lines corresponding to six columns.

  The line numbers of the message information are the numbers of the lines (records) as the name indicates, and are assigned sequentially from the first. The job name is the job name of the mail document merge print job, that is, the job name from which the message Ms is extracted. The date and time is the transmission date and time described in the header portion Hd of the message Ms, that is, the date and time when this message Ms was transmitted as an e-mail. The sender is a sender described in the header part Hd of the message Ms, that is, a sender who has transmitted the message Ms as an electronic mail. The number of leading lines and the number of trailing lines are the number of leading lines and the number of trailing lines of the message Ms in the mail document Md from which the message Ms is extracted, respectively. This is information indicating the number of lines in the entire Md, and the number of end lines is information indicating the number of lines in the entire mail document Md at the end of the extracted message Ms.

  Actually, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that there are three mail documents Md1, Md2, and Md3 as mail documents Md to be merged. The mail document Md1 has a job name “mail document 1” and two messages Ms1 and Ms2. The mail document Md2 has a job name “mail document 2” and describes three messages Ms3, Ms4, and Ms5. The mail document Md3 has a job name “mail document 3”, and two messages Ms6 and Ms7 are described. In this case, the merge document creation unit 9 records the message information of the seven messages Ms1 to Ms7 extracted from these three mail documents Md1 to Md3 in the message management table 30. The message management table 30 shown in FIG. 4A is an example in which message information of messages Ms1 to Ms7 is recorded in the first to seventh lines.

[2. Merged document printing process]
Next, with reference to FIG. 6, a procedure RT of processing when the printer 3 creates and prints a merge document (this is called merge document print processing) will be described in detail. It should be noted that at the time before the merge document printing process is started, a plurality of mail document merge print job files (that is, the same job) sent from the host computer 2 are already stored in the storage unit 13 of the printer 3. It is assumed that a plurality of mail document merge print job files having IDs are stored.

  The merge document printing process is started in response to the user selecting the mail document merge print function and inputting the job ID. When the merge document printing process is started, in step SP1, the operation control unit 11 of the printer 3 has a job ID that matches the input job ID from among the mail document merge print job files stored in the storage unit 13. The attached mail document merge print job file is extracted, and the merge document creation unit 9 is instructed to create a merge document as a merge target file.

  In step SP2, the merge document creation unit 9 executes merge document creation processing. Detailed procedures SRT of the merge document creation process are shown in FIGS. When the merge document creation unit 9 starts the merge document creation process, in step SP10, the message management table 30 and a pointer P that is a variable indicating the line number of the message management table 30 are initialized (that is, P is set to “ In the subsequent step SP11, a message counter N that is a variable for counting the number of messages Ms extracted from the mail document Md is initialized (that is, N is set to “0” as an initial value). substitute). In subsequent step SP12, the merge document creation unit 9 selects and opens one unprocessed merge target file from the merge target files extracted by the operation control unit 11.

  In subsequent step SP13, the merge document creating unit 9 performs a message extraction process for extracting the message Ms from the mail document Md included in the merge target file opened in step SP12. Specifically, the mail document Md is referred in order from the first line, “From:” indicating the sender, “Date:” indicating the transmission date and time, “To:” indicating the destination, and “Cc” indicating the carbon copy. : ", A group of lines starting with a character string such as" Subject: "indicating the subject is detected as the header part Hd of the message Ms, and the number of head lines of the header part Hd is calculated, and the header part Hd The sender of the message Ms is extracted from the “From:” line, and the date and time of the message Ms is extracted from the “Date:” line. This process ends when one message Ms is extracted or when the message Ms cannot be extracted.

  Note that the format of the header portion Hd may differ depending on the mail software. Therefore, in the printer 3, for example, a set of character strings for detecting the header portion Hd is prepared for each format and stored in the storage unit 13, and the merge document creating unit 9 refers to the set of character strings. The header portion Hd of various formats can be detected.

  In subsequent step SP14, the merge document creation unit 9 determines whether one message Ms has been extracted from the mail document Md by the message extraction process in step SP13. If one message Ms can be extracted, an affirmative result is obtained in step SP14, and the process proceeds to step SP15. In step SP15, the merge document creation unit 9 increments (+1) the message counter N and the pointer P, and proceeds to the next step SP16. In step SP16, the merge document creation unit 9 records the message information of one extracted message Ms in the message management table 30. That is, the job name of the merge target file from which the message Ms is extracted, the date and time obtained by the message extraction process, the sender, and the number of first lines are recorded as message information in the Pth line of the message management table 30. Note that the number of end lines of the message information is calculated in the processing after step SP17, and is not yet recorded in the message management table 30 at this point.

  In subsequent step SP17, the merge document creation unit 9 determines whether the value of the message counter N is 2 or more. If a negative result is obtained here, this means that the message Ms extracted by the current message extraction process is the first message Ms extracted from one mail document Md. At this time, the merge document creation unit 9 returns to step SP13, executes the mail document extraction process again, and if there is a second message Ms following the first message Ms, extracts it. To do.

  On the other hand, if an affirmative result is obtained in step SP17, this means that the message Ms extracted by the current message extraction process is the second and subsequent messages Ms extracted from one mail document Md. Means that. At this time, the merge document creation unit 9 proceeds to step SP18. In step SP18, the merge document creation unit 9 determines the number of terminal lines of the message Ms of the message counter N-1 (that is, the message Ms extracted by the previous message extraction process) as the message Ms of the message counter N (that is, the current message). The number of the first line of the message Ms) extracted by the extraction process is set to -1, and this is recorded in the P-1 line of the message management table 30 as message information of the message Ms of the message counter N-1. As a result, the message Ms of the message counter N-1, that is, all the message information of the message Ms extracted one before is recorded. Thereafter, the merge document creation unit 9 returns to step SP13 and performs message extraction processing again.

  Thereafter, the merge document creation unit 9 repeats the processing from step SP12 to SP18 until a negative result is obtained in step SP14, that is, until all messages Ms have been extracted from one mail document Md. When extraction of all the messages Ms from one mail document Md is completed, the merge document creation unit 9 obtains a negative result in step SP14, detects the number of end lines of the mail document Md, and proceeds to step SP19. .

  In step SP19, the merge document creation unit 9 determines whether the value of the message counter N is 1 or more. Here, when a positive result is obtained, this means that one or more messages Ms have been extracted from the mail document Md of the merge target file opened in step SP12. At this time, the merge document creation unit 9 moves to the next step SP20, and the number of end lines of the previously detected mail document Md is the number of the last message Ms extracted from the mail document Md (that is, the message Ms of the message counter N). The number of end lines is set, and this is recorded as the message information of the mail document Md in the Pth line of the message management table 30, and the process proceeds to step SP21. Thereby, all the message information of the message Ms extracted last from the mail document Md is recorded, and the message information of all the messages Ms extracted from the mail document Md of the merge target file opened in step SP12 is recorded. This means that recording to the message management table 30 has been completed.

  As described above, the merge document creation unit 9 sets the number of end lines of the mail document Md as the number of end lines of the message Ms extracted last, and finally extracts a plurality of messages Ms from the mail document Md. The number of terminal lines of messages Ms other than the extracted message Ms is recorded in the message management table 30 as the number of first lines of the next extracted message Ms minus one.

  If a negative result is obtained in step SP19, this means that the mail document Md of the file to be merged opened in step SP12 is garbled or in an unknown format. This means that no message Ms could be extracted from the document Md. In this case, the merge document creation unit 9 skips step SP20 and proceeds to step SP21.

  In step SP21, the merge document creation unit 9 determines whether or not the extraction of the message Ms has been completed from all the merge target files. Here, if there are still unprocessed merge target files, the merge document creation unit 9 obtains a negative result in step SP21, returns to step SP11, initializes the message counter N, and proceeds to step SP12. One unprocessed merge target file is opened and the message Ms is extracted.

  On the other hand, if the extraction of the message Ms from all the files to be merged has been completed, the merge document creation unit 9 obtains an affirmative result at step SP21 and proceeds to step SP22 (FIG. 8). Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, seven messages Ms1 from three merge target files of the merge target file having the mail document Md1, the merge target file having Md2, and the merge target file having Md3 are provided. Assuming that Ms7 is extracted, message information of these seven messages Ms1 to Ms7 is recorded in the message management table 30, as shown in FIG.

  In step SP22 (FIG. 8), the merge document creation unit 9 sorts the message information recorded in the message management table 30 in descending order based on each date and time. As a result, the message information is sorted such that the newer the date and time, the lower the line number. Further, the merge document creation unit 9 deletes duplicate message information from the message information recorded in the message management table 30. Specifically, if a plurality of message information whose date and time match with the sender is recorded in the message management table 30, one of these is left and the others are deleted.

  By doing so, the message information extracted from the merge target file is recorded in the message management table 30 in a state of being sorted in order of date and time without duplication. Actually, as shown in FIG. 4A, when the message information is sorted in descending order and the duplicate is deleted from the message management table 30 in which the message information of the seven messages Ms1 to Ms7 is recorded, the message management table. The contents of 30 are as shown in FIG. That is, in the contents of the message management table 30, Ms5 and Ms7 of the duplicate messages Ms2, Ms5, and Ms7 are deleted, and the remaining five message information of messages Ms1 to Ms4 and Ms6 are in the order of date and time (Ms6 , Ms3, Ms4, Ms1, and Ms2).

  In subsequent step SP23 (FIG. 8), the merge document creation unit 9 newly opens the merge document file, and proceeds to the next step SP24. In step SP24, the merge document creation unit 9 copies the message Ms from the mail document Md of the file to be merged, based on the message information recorded in the message management table 30, as shown in FIG. The merge document file is pasted on the merge document Mt. Specifically, the message information recorded in the message management table 30 (FIG. 4B) is referred to in ascending order of the line number, and the referenced message is referred from the mail document Md corresponding to the job name of the referenced message information. A text document in a range indicated by the number of first lines and the number of last lines of information is copied as a message Ms, and this is pasted in order from the first line of the merge document Mt. As a result, in the merge document Mt, the messages Ms included in the mail document Md of the merge target file are described in order of date and time without duplication. Note that the merge document Mt shown in FIG. 5 includes messages Ms6, Ms3, Ms4, Ms1, and Ms2 in order from the first line based on the message information recorded in the message management table 30 shown in FIG. 4B. This is an example.

  After creating the merge document Mt pasted with the message Ms copied from the mail document Md in this way, the merge document creation unit 9 stores the file of the merge document Mt, that is, the merge document file in the memory unit 12, for example. . Thereafter, in the subsequent step SP25, the merge document creation unit 9 closes the merge target file opened in step SP12 and the merge document file saved in the memory unit 12, and ends the merge document creation process. The merge document creation unit 9 creates a merge document Mt by such a procedure SRT.

  Thereafter, the merge document creation unit 9 delivers the merge document file stored in the memory unit 12 to the print image creation unit 10 in step SP3 shown in FIG. As a result, the bitmap image data based on the merged document file is created by the print image creating unit 10, and the bitmap image data, that is, the merge document Mt is printed by the printing unit 14. The printer 3 creates and prints the merge document Mt by the above-described procedure RT.

[3. Summary and Effect]
As described above, the printer 3 stores a plurality of mail document merge print job files transmitted from the host computer 2 in the storage unit 13. Thereafter, when the mail document merge print function is selected and a job ID is input by the user, the printer 3 selects a job input by the user from the mail document merge print job file stored in the storage unit 13. A plurality of mail document merge print job files having job IDs that match the IDs are extracted, and these are used as merge target files including corresponding emails.

  Then, the printer 3 extracts the message Ms composed of the header part Hd and the body part Bd from the mail document Md of the email included in each of the plurality of merge target files, and obtains message information that is information for each message Ms. To be recorded in the message management table 30. Further, the printer 3 sorts the message information recorded in the message management table 30 in order of date and time, and deletes duplicate message information. As a result, the message information of the message Ms extracted from the email of the merge target file is recorded in the message management table 30 in a state of being sorted in order of date and time without duplication.

  The printer 3 then copies the message Ms from the e-mail mail document Md included in the merge target file based on the message information recorded in the message management table 30, and pastes the message Ms into the merge document Mt of the merge document file. To go. As a result, the merge document Mt of the merge document file describes the emails of the merge target file, that is, the messages Ms copied from the emails having the corresponding relationship, in order of date and time, without duplication. After creating the merge document file in this way, the printer 3 prints the merge document Mt of the merge document file.

  Thus, the printer 3 allows the user to easily grasp the correspondence between a plurality of electronic mails by using the printed merge document Mt. That is, the merge document Mt can be provided to the user as information with which the correspondence between a plurality of electronic mails can be easily grasped. Thus, for example, even when an e-mail is exchanged many times between a plurality of users on a certain topic, the e-mail message Ms exchanged at this time is displayed in the merge document Mt as a minutes. Since they are described in chronological order without duplication, the user can easily grasp a series of backgrounds on topics that have been exchanged many times as e-mails by simply referring to the merged document Mt. it can.

[4. Other Embodiments]
[4-1. Other Embodiment 1]
In the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the printer 3 as an information processing apparatus that prints the created merge document Mt. However, the present invention is not limited to this, for example, information for displaying the created merge document Mt on the screen. You may apply to a processing apparatus, the information processing apparatus which handles the produced merge document Mt as an email, etc. That is, the present invention can be applied not only to the printer 3 but also to various information processing apparatuses as long as the information processing apparatus has a function of creating the merge document Mt.

  Actually, in the case of an information processing apparatus that handles the merge document Mt as an e-mail, a merge document creation unit 9 similar to the printer 3 is mounted on the information processing apparatus. For example, when the user selects a plurality of corresponding emails from the list of emails on the mail software installed in the information processing apparatus, the merge document creation unit 9 selects the selected plurality of emails. The message Ms is extracted from the mail document Md of each e-mail as a mail to be merged (that is, an e-mail with a corresponding relationship), and the merged message Ms is merged by extracting the extracted message Ms in the same manner as the printer 3. create. Then, the merge document creation unit 9 creates an email in which the merge document Mt is described by pasting the merge document Mt on a newly opened email. In this way, the merge document Mt can be transmitted as an e-mail.

  Further, when the merge document Mt is handled as an e-mail in this way, the merge document creating unit 9 merges the attached file attached to the e-mail and attaches it to the e-mail to which the merge document Mt is pasted. May be. Specifically, the merge document creation unit 9 extracts the attached file from the email to be merged, deletes the duplicate attached file among the extracted attached files, and newly opens the remaining attached file. Attach to email. In this way, it is possible to create an e-mail in which the attached file is merged in addition to merging the message Ms of the e-mail to be merged. In order to delete a duplicate attachment file, for example, one of a plurality of attachment files having the same file name, size, and update date / time may be left and the rest may be deleted.

[4-2. Other Embodiment 2]
Further, in the above-described embodiment, it has been described that the message Ms pasted by the reply function with history may be included in the e-mail mail document Md. By the way, depending on the reply function with history, a symbol (for example, “>”, which is referred to as history citation information) indicating that the history is quoted (copied) is attached to the head of each line of the message Ms. There is. In this case, the merge document creation unit 9 of the printer 3 may detect the header portion Hd after deleting the history citation information from the mail document Md so that the header portion Hd is not erroneously detected, for example. Further, the header portion Hd may be detected from the portion of the mail document Md excluding the history citation information, assuming that history citation information is attached. Further, the history citation information may be deleted from the mail document Md of the mail document merge print job on the host computer 2 side and then transmitted to the printer 3 side. “----- Original Message -----” added to the first line of the header part Hd by the reply function with history is also the history citation information, and this “----- Original Message -----” "May be erased on the printer side or on the host computer 2 side.

[4-3. Other Embodiment 3]
Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, a plurality of mail document merge print job files having a job ID that matches the job ID input by the user are set as merge target files including corresponding emails. For example, the operation control unit 11 of the printer 3 displays a list of mail document merge print job files stored in the storage unit 13, and mail document merge print selected by the user from the list is displayed. The job file may be a merge target file including an email having a corresponding relationship.

[4-4. Other Embodiment 4]
Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the extraction unit that extracts the message Ms having the header part Hd and the body part Bd from the mail documents Md of a plurality of e-mails having a correspondence relationship, and the plurality of mail documents Md. A merge document creation unit 9 is provided in the printer 3 as a specific example of a creation unit that merges a plurality of messages Ms to create one merge document Mt. For example, instead of the merge document creation unit 9, a functional unit that functions as an extraction unit and a functional unit that functions as a creation unit may be separately provided in the printer 3.

[4-5. Other Embodiment 5]
Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and other embodiments. That is, the scope of application of the present invention extends to embodiments in which some or all of the above-described embodiments and other embodiments are arbitrarily combined, and embodiments in which some are extracted.

  The present invention can be widely used in information processing apparatuses that handle electronic mail.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printing system, 2 ... Host computer, 3 ... Printer, 8 ... Receiving part, 9 ... Merge document creation part, 10 ... Print image creation part, 11 ... Operation control part, 12 ... Memory 13, storage unit, 14, printing unit, 30 management table, Bd body part, Hd header unit, Md mail message, Ms message, Mt merge document.

Claims (6)

An extraction unit that extracts a message having a header part from mail documents of a plurality of corresponding emails;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a creation unit that creates a merge document by merging a plurality of messages extracted from a plurality of mail documents. The creating unit
Sorting the plurality of extracted messages in chronological order based on the date and time described in each header part, and deleting and merging duplicate messages from the plurality of extracted messages, The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The creating unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an electronic mail describing the merged document is created. The extraction unit includes:
Extract attachments from multiple emails that have correspondence,
The creating unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein, among the attachment files extracted from a plurality of electronic mails, the remaining attachment files excluding duplicate attachment files are attached to the electronic mail in which the merged document is described. . The extraction unit includes:
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a message is extracted from a plurality of e-mail mail documents having a correspondence specified by a user. The creating unit
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the merge document is printed on a printing unit.

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