Patent Application
20080052272
The subject matter, which is regarded as the invention, is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
A word processor application 108 provides for generation of documents as known in the art. A content checker application 110 performs content checking of text in emails or word processor documents. It is understood that the content checker 110 may actually be a component of the email application 104 and also be a separate component of the word processor 108. Thus, the content checker 110 may not be a stand-alone application, but is shown separate for ease of illustration.
Profile definitions 112 are stored in a memory accessible by the various applications. The profile definitions include a profile category 114 and an associated profile rule 116. Each profile category 114 is associated with a profile rule 116, although two categories may be associated with the same rule. For example, as shown in
Further, email profile rules include a rank 118 that indicates how formal or strict the profile rule is when checking content. For example, an email to friends is typically informal, and the profile rule1 for emails to friends is ranked 1. This indicates that few spelling and grammar rules are applied. By contrast, profile rule3 for emails to managers is ranked 5, as the content checking for such emails is stricter and involves more spelling and grammar checks. Thus, the rank of the profile rule indicates the level of content checking applied by the profile rule.
Exemplary operation of the system is illustrated in
If the user has created a word processor document, flow proceeds to step 212 where it is determined if the user has identified a category for the document. A user may assign a category to a document through the word processor 108. For example, a menu may allow the user to identify the document as scientific, notes, formal, resume, etc. If the user has not selected a category for the document, flow proceeds to step 214 where a default profile rule is accessed by content checker 110 to perform content checking such as spell checking and grammar checking. Once the default profile rule for the word processor has been identified, flow proceeds to step 218 where the content checker checks the document using the identified profile rule.
If the user has identified a category for the document, flow proceeds to step 216 where the profile definitions 112 are accessed. The document category assigned by the user is compared to profile categories 114. Once a match is found, the profile rule 116 associated with the profile category 114 is accessed and provided to the content checker 110. For example, if the document category is formal, then the content checker 110 uses profile rule3 when performing the content check (e.g., spelling/grammar). Once the appropriate profile rule 116 is accessed, the content checker 110 performs the content check at step 218 using known techniques and applying the user-defined profile rule 116.
If at step 210 the user creates an email, flow proceeds to step 230 where the recipients of the e-mail are detected. The recipients may be individual email addresses or email group addresses. It should be noted that forwarding a received email is considered creating a new email, as an email may be forwarded from a more formal source to a less formal recipient. When forwarding an email, the sender may insert comments that need not be formal. Thus, a forwarded email is considered equivalent to creating a new email.
At step 232, categories for the email recipients are retrieved from the address book 106. The email application 104 provides the user with the ability to associate a category with an entry in the address book 106. For example, a drop down menu may be provided when viewing a contact which allows the user to select one or more categories for an individual contact or an email group. Further, as entries are added to the address book, the recipient may be associated with a default category, which may be overridden by the user.
Once the categories for the recipients have been identified from the address book 106, flow proceeds to step 234 where the email recipient categories are compared to the profile categories 114. For each email recipient, a profile rule is determined based on whether a match is found in the profile categories 114. If no match is found in the profile category 114 for an email recipient, then that recipient is associated with a default profile rule for the email application. For example, the contact information for John Doe in address book 106 indicates that John Doe is a friend, which results in profile rule1 being applied to the content of an email to John Doe.
Some profiles rules will be stricter and check content for a higher number of spelling and grammar issues (e.g., emails to managers). Other profile rules check for far fewer spelling/grammar items (e.g., emails to friends). The profile rules can be described as being ranked, with the higher rank corresponding to more strict profile rules and the lower rank corresponding to less strict profile rules. Some recipients will be associated with high ranked profile rules (e.g., managers), some recipients are associated with lower ranked profile rules (e.g., friends) while the default profile rule may have an intermediate rank.
Once the recipients of the email have been associated with a profile rule (either specific or default), the highest ranked profile rule associated with an email recipient is determined at step 236. This ensures that the content checker 110 always meets the most strict profile rules for a series of recipients. For example, and email sent to a friend and a manager would result in the manager's profile rule being applied to the content checker 110. Further, an email to a friend and a contact associated with a default profile rule would result in the default profile rule being application by the content checker 110, as the default profile rule would be higher ranked (e.g., more strict) than the profile rule for friends.
Once the highest ranked profile rule 116 is determined for the recipients of the email, flow proceeds to step 218 where the highest ranked profile rule is applied by the content checker 110. The highest rank profile rule allows the content checker to meet the strictest requirements (e.g., correct an informal email forwarded to a more formal recipient).
The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.
As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately.
Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
