JPH07162452A - Electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an electronic mail whose read or reply term is determined from being left as it is. CONSTITUTION:A read term generation part sets the term for reading the mail to be sent by a receiver and the mail is sent. The received mail, on the other hand, is stored in a mail storage part 122. A priority display means 1241 and an alarm display means 1242 of a mail display control part 124 refer to read term information on mails stored in the mail storage part 122, display unread mails in the order of mails which are overdue and mails whose read terms will expire soon, and make an alarm display for the overdue mails and the mails whose read terms will expire soon. Consequently, a mail receiver can read and refer to the received mails in consideration of the priority.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic mail, and more particularly, to a method for simplifying operations related to opening an electronic mail system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional technique for simplifying an operation for opening an electronic mail will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the mail system according to the related art. On the other hand, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a mail system handled by an electronic mail system according to the related art.

In the electronic mail system according to the conventional technique, the sending date information 412 is provided in the management information 411 of the mail 41 to be received and sent. When sending a mail, text is input from the keyboard 33 by the mail text input unit 315, and the text 4 of the mail 41 is input by the mail text creation unit 313.
Enclosed in 13. At this time, the transmission date creation unit 314 inserts the date when the email is transmitted in the transmission date information 412 of the email 41. The mail 41 created in this way is sent by the mail sending means 311.

Further, the mail receiving section 32 receives the mail 41 by the mail receiving means 321. The received mail 41 is stored as a stored mail 323 by the mail storage unit 322. The structure of the accumulated mail is shown in Fig. 4.
It has the configuration shown in (b), and the received mail 41
Is stored as the received mail 422, and at the same time, the date when the mail is received is set in the incoming date information 421.

When the stored mail 323 is opened and referred to, the mail display control unit 324 controls the transmission date information 41.
2 or the incoming date information 421, and the mail display means 325 displays them on the CRT 34.

Conventionally, this type of electronic mail system has been of the type described above. It should be noted that this conventional technique is based on the MH (Messa) operating on the UNIX system.
geHandling) system. M
The H system is widely distributed as free software called free software with no use restrictions.

[0007]

The electronic mail system according to the above-mentioned conventional technique has a system in which the information is sorted and displayed according to the transmission date information or the arrival date information. Since the emails are opened and viewed in the order in which they are displayed, the information that the sender wants to convey by email is left unopened by the recipient without being opened or postponed, and the information that the email has is valid. There is a risk of loss of sex. If the recipient does not open and refer to all the emails, it cannot be known whether the sender expects to open and refer to the email within a certain period of time, which is a burden on the recipient.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The electronic mail system according to the present invention addresses the above-mentioned problems and provides opening deadline information in the management information for a mail enclosing the management information and the text.
The mail sending part has an opening deadline creating part for setting the opening deadline in the opening deadline information and an opening deadline input part. Furthermore, the stored mail in the mail receiving part indicates whether the stored mail has been opened. An open flag to manage
In the mail display control section of the mail receiving section, priority display means for determining the display priority order from the stored mail opening deadline information and the status of the open flag, and the deadline that has passed since the opening deadline information, or It has an alarm display means for highlighting a deadline.

[0009]

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This electronic mail system is composed of a mail transmitting unit 11 and a mail receiving unit 12. The mail transmitting unit 11 performs processing related to the mail transmission, and the mail receiving unit 12 receives the mail. The processing related to is performed.

On the other hand, FIG. 2A is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a mail handled in the electronic mail system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The mail 21 is the management information 211
And a body 213 composed of text, and the management information 211 is provided with opening deadline information 212.

When creating a mail to be sent, the sender inputs the text from the keyboard 13 using the mail text input unit 114. The input text is converted into a text 213 by the mail text creation unit 113, passed to the mail creation unit 112, and enclosed in the mail creation unit 112 as an outgoing mail. At this time, the deadline for the recipient to open the mail is set by the keyboard 13 using the opening deadline input unit 116.
The opening deadline creation unit 115 sets the opening deadline information 212 as “date”, and the mail creation unit 112
At, it will be enclosed as an outgoing mail.

The mail sending means 111 is a mail creating section 1
The mail enclosed in 12 as the outgoing mail is transmitted according to the destination.

On the other hand, the mail receiving unit 12 receives the mail by the mail receiving means 121 and stores it in the stored mail 123 of the mail storage unit 122.

Reference will now be made to FIG. Figure 2
(B) is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a stored mail 123 stored by the mail storage unit 122. Accumulated mail 2
Reference numeral 2 includes an opening flag 221 that is an area for managing whether or not the mail has been opened, and a received mail 222 that stores the received mail. Email storage unit 112
Stores the received mail 21 in the received mail 222. At this time, as the initial value, the opening flag 221 is set to
The information “NO” indicating unopened is set.

When the recipient opens the mail and refers to it,
The mail display control unit 124 opens and refers to it. At this time, the priority display means 1241 of the mail display unit 124 causes the open flag 22 in the stored mail 22 of the mail storage unit 123.
1 and the opening deadline information 212 of the mail 21 stored in the received mail 222, the unopened, the opening deadline has passed, the opening deadline is approaching, and the opening deadline is changed. The information is displayed on the CRT 14 by the mail display means 125 at the same time as the mail. At the same time, the alarm display means refers to the opening flag 221 in the accumulated mail 22 and the opening deadline information 212 of the mail 21 stored in the received mail 222, and the unopened mail whose opening deadline has passed , Red, and yellow when the opening deadline is approaching is C by the mail display means 125.
Display on RT14. In the embodiment, the display colors are red and yellow, but other colors as well as "*"
It can be easily inferred that the same effect can be obtained even by a method such as a display with a mark.

Further, the mail display control unit 124 sets the information "YES" indicating that the opening flag 221 of the mail storage unit 122 has been opened when the mail is displayed. As a result, after that, the mail display control unit 124 does not repeatedly display the information indicating that the opening has already been performed, and the alarm display due to the unopening is not performed.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the opening deadline information is provided, the display is performed in the order of deadlines that the sender of the mail expects to open and refer to. Even if you do not open and refer to, you can know the priority order of the information that the email has and you can also know the opening deadline, so the information you want to convey by email will be left without being opened by the recipient Alternatively, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent the effectiveness of the information held by the mail being delayed and being impaired. Also,
Since the fact that the opening deadline is approaching is displayed with an alarm display, the above-mentioned effects can be further exerted.
There is an effect that the operation can be simplified.

[0020]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a mail handled in the electronic mail system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail system according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a mail handled in an electronic mail system according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,3 E-mail system 11,31 Mail sending part 12,32 Mail receiving part 13,33 Keyboard 14,34 CRT 111,311 Mail sending means 112,312 Mail creating part 113,313 Mail text creating part 114,315 Mail text Input unit 115 Opening deadline creation unit 116 Opening deadline input unit 121,321 Mail receiving unit 122,322 Mail storage unit 123,323 Stored mail 124,324 Mail display control unit 1241 Priority display unit 1242 Alarm display unit 125,325 Mail display unit 314 Transmission date creation section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail system for sending and receiving an e-mail comprising a text and management information such as address, sender, date, etc. In a management information of the mail, the recipient opens the mail and indicates the content. Opening deadline information, which is the deadline to be referred to, is provided, and the mail sending part has an opening deadline input part for setting the opening deadline and an opening deadline creation part. The mail display control unit has a read flag for managing whether or not the mail is opened and referred to. Further, the mail display control unit indicates the open deadline from the open deadline information and the open flag for the accumulated mail received and accumulated in the mail accumulation unit. Those that have not been opened, and
An e-mail system characterized by having a priority display means for preferentially displaying an unopened item due to an imminent opening deadline. 2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the mail display control unit indicates that the stored mail received and stored in the mail storage unit has passed the open deadline based on the open deadline and the open flag. An electronic mail system characterized by having an alarm display means for displaying the type of the mark depending on the one whose opening deadline is approaching.