JPH10257051A - Information transmitter and method for selecting transmission destination of information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To specify plural transmission destinations and to transmit information with simple operations by providing a non-transmission specifying means for selecting and specifying the transmission destinations for not transmitting the information in a specified group and an information transmission means for transmitting the information to the transmission destinations excluding the specified transmission destinations. SOLUTION: When the user of a terminal 1 instructs mail preparation from an input device, a mail preparation window is displayed at a display device. Then, at the time of performing transmission to all group members, the check box of all the group members is clicked. When an individual addresses for not performing the transmission are present inside the group, the check box of the individual address for not performing the transmission is clicked and the checks of the individual addresses for not performing the transmission are canceled. Then, by clicking the command button of OK, all the group members or the addresses remaining after the specified individual addresses in the group are eliminated are inputted to the transmission destination addresses of an electronic mail form.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to, for example, an information transmission apparatus and an information transmission destination selection method, and more particularly to an information transmission apparatus and an information transmission destination selection method suitable for transmitting the same information to a plurality of addresses. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, so-called electronic mail has been used for exchanging information between computers. In order to transmit an e-mail from a computer to another computer, an e-mail is transmitted to a network by designating an address assigned to the other computer. The network distributes the electronic mail to a predetermined mailbox based on the address.

As described above, an e-mail is transmitted by designating the address of a computer to which the e-mail is to be transmitted.
When it is desired to transmit the same e-mail to a plurality of computers, a plurality of addresses can be registered in advance as one group, and the e-mail can be transmitted by designating this group. In this case, the e-mail is transmitted to all the individual addresses included in the group.
This makes it easy to send the same e-mail to a plurality of computers. The more effective the group, the more individual addresses included in the group.

[0004] However, this group designation cannot be used when it is not desired to send an e-mail to any one of the individual addresses included in the group. In such a case, a plurality of addresses must be individually specified to send an e-mail.

[0005] In particular, the more individual addresses included in a group, the more complicated the task of transmitting an e-mail.

[0006]

An object of the present invention is to provide an information transmitting apparatus and method capable of transmitting information by specifying a plurality of terminals with a small number of operations even when information is not transmitted to all of the terminals specified by a group. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an information transmitting apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention transmits information to a plurality of destinations grouped by specifying a group. An information transmitting device,
Non-transmission specifying means for selecting and specifying a destination to which the information is not transmitted among the specified groups, and a transmission destination excluding the destination specified by the non-transmission specification means among the specified groups And an information transmitting means for transmitting the information to the computer.

According to this information transmitting apparatus, even if the destination of the information included in the specified group (for example, the address of the e-mail), the non-transmission specifying means specifies that the information is not transmitted. No information is sent. Therefore, even when the information is not transmitted to all the terminals corresponding to the transmission destination specified by the group, the transmission destination can be easily selected and the information can be transmitted.

[0009] The information transmitting apparatus may further include a registration unit for registering a destination other than the destination specified by the non-transmission specifying unit from the specified group as a new group.

The information transmitting apparatus may further comprise: display means for displaying, when the group is specified, a control image for specifying a destination to be non-transmitted by the non-transmission specifying means; The non-transmission means can be designated by performing a predetermined input on the control screen.

In the information transmitting apparatus, a subgroup is formed by further grouping the plurality of grouped transmission destinations, and the non-transmission specifying means specifies the subgroup among the specified groups. By doing so, a plurality of transmission destinations may be specified collectively.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for selecting an information transmission destination, comprising the steps of: specifying a group in which a plurality of information transmission destinations are grouped; Is a non-transmission specification step of selecting and specifying a transmission destination to which information is not to be transmitted among the specified groups.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a network system for transmitting and receiving electronic mail according to this embodiment. This network system includes a terminal 2a connected to a LAN 21 installed in each section of a company.
Alternatively, it is a system for transmitting and receiving an e-mail between the terminal 1 and the terminal 5 connected to the ordinary communication network 4.

The terminal 1 is composed of a personal computer, has electronic mail software, and is connected to a communication network 4. By activating the e-mail software, the terminal 1 transmits ordinary e-mail (address-specified transmission and group-specified transmission) and option-specified transmission at the time of group specification described later. The e-mail is transmitted to the mailboxes 32 and 24 at the addresses corresponding to the terminals 2a and 5, respectively, and the terminals 2a and 5 read the e-mail from the mailboxes and transmit the e-mails to the terminals 2a and 5 respectively. You. The configuration of the terminal 1 will be described later in detail.

The terminal 2a is composed of a personal computer or a work station, has electronic mail software, and is connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) 21 composed of, for example, a company or the like. The terminal 2a has an individual e-mail address, and provides an e-mail service by activating e-mail software.

The terminal 5 is constituted by a personal computer or a work station, has electronic mail software, and is connected to the communication network 4. Terminal 5
It has an individual e-mail address and provides e-mail service by starting e-mail software.

The e-mail servers 23 and 31 are connected to the LAN 2
1 or the communication line 4. The electronic mail servers 23 and 31 have mailboxes 24 and 32, respectively. The e-mail server 23 is, for example, a company server, and the e-mail server 31 is, for example, Nift.
It is a server provided by an e-mail service provider such as y-Serve.

The mailboxes 24 and 32 are assigned storage areas for storing electronic mail for each address to which the electronic mail is transmitted. E-mails transmitted from the terminal 1 to the terminals 2a and 5 are stored in respective mailbox areas.

Next, the configuration of the terminals 1, 2a and 5 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, the terminals 1, 2a, and 5 each have a CPU 11 connected to a bus 10,
M12, a storage device 13, an input device 14, a display device 15, and a communication device 16.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11
Stores a processing program such as an e-mail program and a program shown in a flowchart described later in the storage device 13.
And executes these processing programs. Further, the CPU 11 controls each unit of the terminal 1.

The RAM 12 is composed of a semiconductor memory and is used as a main storage area of the CPU 11. The storage device 13 has a recording medium 13a in which programs, data, and the like executed by the CPU 11 are stored in advance, and the recording medium 13a is configured by a magnetic or optical recording medium or a semiconductor memory. . The recording medium 13a is fixedly provided in the storage device 13, or is detachably mounted. Further, the program, data, and the like to be recorded on the recording medium 13a may be configured to be received from another device connected via a communication line or the like and stored, and further connected via a communication line or the like. A storage device provided with the recording medium may be provided on another device, and the program and data stored in the recording medium may be used via a communication line.

The storage device 13 also stores an address table 13b shown in FIG. Address table 13
b is a single individual address (address hanging in ROOT) and a grouped individual address (each G
ROUP) is stored. The individual addresses in the GROUP may be further grouped.

The input device 14 comprises a keyboard and a mouse. The input device 14 is used for creating an e-mail, inputting a command for the CPU 11 to execute a specific program, and the like.

The display device 15 is a CRT (Cathod Ray Tub).
e) or a liquid crystal display device.
The display device 15 displays the processing result of the CPU 11 and shows it to the operator.

The display device 15 displays a group option window 14a shown in FIG. 4 when an electronic mail is transmitted from the input device 14 and a group is designated as a destination. This group option window 14a
By moving the mouse cursor above and clicking the mouse button at a predetermined position, selection of transmission / non-transmission to all the groups or individual addresses included in the specified group is performed.

That is, when transmitting to all the groups, the check boxes of all the groups are clicked, and when there is an individual address not to be transmitted in the group, the check box of the individual address not to be transmitted is clicked, and Clear the check. Then, by clicking the "OK" command button, the entire address of the group or the rest of the group from which the specified individual address has been deleted is input to the destination address of the e-mail form shown in FIG.

The communication device 16 has a line terminating device such as a modem. The terminal 1 is connected to the telephone network 4 via the communication device 16. The communication device 16 performs processing for connecting and disconnecting the line with the mailbox 32 based on the instruction sent from the CPU 11, and controls transmission of electronic mail.

In this embodiment, an electronic mail is transmitted from the terminal 1 to the terminal 2a or 5 whose address is specified. The e-mail sent from the terminal 1 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (1), it is composed of a header, a source address, a destination address, a data length, and data.

Here, the source address is an address assigned to the terminal 1. The addresses of the terminals 2a and 5 transmitting the e-mail are entered in the transmission destination address. Here, when a group is specified, an individual address specified as an option based on the address table 13b is entered. The data is the body of the e-mail sent by e-mail.

The electronic mail transmitted from the terminal 1 is stored in a predetermined storage area of the mailbox 32 or 24 according to the designated address. Terminal 2a,
5 reads out the e-mail from the own mailbox in the mailboxes 24 and 32 via the e-mail servers 23 and 31 when the e-mail is stored in the own mailbox of the mailboxes 24 and 32. Receive.

In the following, from the terminal 1 in this embodiment to the terminals 2a, 5 (actually, the mailboxes 24, 32
A method of transmitting an e-mail to the addresses assigned to the terminals 2a and 5) will be described.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a group transmission process according to this embodiment. The process of the flowchart starts when the user of the terminal 1 instructs the input device 14 to create a mail.

When the flow starts, first, a mail creation window is displayed on the display device 14 (step S).
10). Then, the process proceeds to step S11, and when there is an instruction to designate a destination address, the contents of the address table 13b are displayed (step S11). Then, it is determined whether the specified address is an individual address alone or a group (step S12).

If the specified address is a group,
Proceeding to step S13, the group option window 14a shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. Then, all the groups or individual addresses not to be transmitted are designated (step S
13) When the OK button is pressed (step S14),
The designated individual address (that is, the individual address of the group other than the individual address of the entire group or the individual address not transmitted) is read from the address table 13b of FIG. 3 and written into the destination address area of FIG. 5 (step S15).

On the other hand, if the address specified in step S12 is not a group address, the flow advances to step S15 to store the specified individual address in the address table 1.
3b, and writes it in the destination address area of FIG. 5 (step S15).

Then, the data (text) is written in the data area of FIG. 5, and when the transmission button is clicked (step S16), transmission processing is performed (step S17). That is, a predetermined item, a transmission source address, and a data length are written in a header area of the e-mail, and transmitted to an e-mail server (here, the e-mail server 31 in which the terminal 1 is registered) via a communication network. Then, the electronic mail server 31 transmits an electronic mail to each address based on the destination address.

As described above, by specifying an address by the method of this embodiment, for example, when a plurality of grouped addresses are specified, a specified address is excluded from the group. Method becomes possible. This eliminates the problem of having to specify addresses one by one because there is a person who does not send in the group even though the group is specified in advance.

In the above-described embodiment, in step S14, the user designates an option of the group address by placing the mouse cursor on a box written "OK" in the group option window 14a and clicking the mouse button. . However, before this operation, the mouse cursor may be placed on the box written as "memory" and the mouse button may be clicked. This allows
The address for which transmission / non-transmission is selected for each individual address in step S13 is stored as a new group in the address table 13b, and the next time a group is designated, the same address as the previous setting can be selected.

In the above-described embodiment, the address specification method is a two-layer hierarchy of a group and an individual address. However, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the address of a terminal that sends an e-mail with more replies is specified. For example, the present invention can be applied to a case where a group is divided into a plurality of sub-groups and an address is specified in three layers of a group, a sub-group, and an individual address.

In this case, an address is deleted in various ways, such as when a group is specified and a subgroup is deleted and an e-mail is transmitted, or when a subgroup is specified and an individual address is deleted and an e-mail is transmitted. Can be specified.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is transmitted to a plurality of addresses of an e-mail has been described.
However, the present invention can be applied to any information transmission system such as a case where a plurality of pagers are group-called in a paging system.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even when information is not transmitted to all of the destinations specified by the group, the information can be transmitted by specifying a plurality of destinations by a simple operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal in the network system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an address table stored in a storage device of the terminal in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a group option window displayed on a display device of a terminal when a group transmission is instructed in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transmission format of an electronic mail.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a group transmission process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Terminal, 2a ... Terminal, 4 ... Communication network, 5 ... Terminal, 11 ... CPU, 12 ... RAM, 13 ... Storage device, 13a ... Recording Medium, 13b ... address table,
14 input device, 14a group option window, 15 display device, 16 communication device, 21 L
AN, 23: E-mail server, 24: Mail box, 31: E-mail server, 32: Mail box

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information transmitting apparatus for transmitting information to a plurality of destinations grouped by specifying a group, wherein a destination to which the information is not transmitted is selected from the specified group. Non-transmission specifying means for specifying, and information transmission means for transmitting the information to destinations other than the transmission destination specified by the non-transmission specification means in the specified group, characterized by comprising: Information transmitting device. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a registration unit for registering, as a new group, destinations other than the destination specified by the non-transmission specifying unit among the specified groups. Information transmission device. 3. A display means for displaying a control screen for designating a destination to be non-transmitted by the non-transmission specifying means when the group is specified, and on the control screen displayed by the display means. The information transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the non-transmitting unit is specified by performing a predetermined input. 4. The sub-group is formed by further grouping the plurality of grouped transmission destinations, wherein the non-transmission specifying means includes:
The information transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of transmission destinations are collectively specified by specifying the subgroup. 5. A method of designating a plurality of information destinations collectively by designating a group in which a plurality of information destinations are grouped, comprising the steps of: An information transmission destination selection method, comprising a non-transmission specification step of selecting and specifying a transmission destination not to transmit.