Claims
- 1. An email transcript engine comprising:
a comparison engine for comparing text within a body of at least two email files to identify a related group of email files, wherein the related group of email files comprises at least two email files that include an identical string of text; an extraction engine for determining:
a unique content portion of the body of each of the email files within the related group, the unique content portion being the portion of the body input by the sender of the email, and a redundant content portion of the body of each of the email files within the related group, the redundant content portion being the portion of the body copied from a previous email file in response to activation of one of the email client software's “forward”, “reply”, and “reply-all” controls; a file management engine for generating a transcript document, the transcript document comprising a chronological sequence of each unique content portion of the body portion of each of the email files within the related group.
- 2. The email transcript engine of claim 1, wherein the transcript document further comprises an identification of the author of each unique content portion in association with such unique content portion.
- 3. The email transcript engine of claim 1, wherein the transcript document further comprises an active link associated with each unique content portion of each body portion and providing a link to the redundant content portion of such body portion.
- 4. The email transcript engine of claim 1, wherein:
at least one of the at least two emails is located within an inbox file controlled by an email client; and at least one of the at least two emails is located within a sent items file controlled by an email client.
- 5. The email transcript engine of claim 1, wherein the file management engine further generates a transcript email that includes the transcript document in a body portion of the transcript email.
- 6. The email transcript engine of claim 5, wherein the file management engine stores the transcript email within an email file storage controlled by an email client.
- 7. The email transcript engine of claim 6, wherein the file management engine further:
creates a new directory associated with the related group of email files; and moves each of the related group of email files to the new directory.
- 8. An email client comprising:
means for exchanging email messages with a remote email server; means for storing email messages received from a remote server in a file structure that includes an inbox file; means for storing email messages sent to a remote server in a sent items file within the file structure; a comparison engine for comparing text within a body of a plurality of email messages stored within the file structure to identify a related group of email files, wherein the related group of email files comprises at least two email files that include an identical string of text; an extraction engine for determining:
a unique content portion of the body of each of the email files within the related group, the unique content portion being the portion of the body input by the sender of the email, and a redundant content portion of the body of each of the email files within the related group, the redundant content portion being the portion of the body copied from a previous email file in response to activation of one of the email client software's “forward”, “reply”, and “reply-all” controls; a file management engine for generating a transcript document, the transcript document comprising a chronological sequence of each unique content portion of the body portion of each of the email files within the related group.
- 9. The email client of claim 8, wherein the transcript document further comprises an identification of the author of each unique content portion in association with such unique content portion.
- 10. The email client of claim 8, wherein the transcript document further comprises an active link associated with each unique content portion of each body portion and providing a link to the redundant content portion of such body portion.
- 11. The email client of claim 8, wherein:
at least one of the at least two emails is located within the inbox file; and at least one of the at least two emails is located within the sent items file.
- 12. The email client of claim 8, wherein the file management engine further generates a transcript email that includes the transcript document in a body portion of the transcript email.
- 13. The email client of claim 12, wherein the file management engine stores the transcript email within the inbox.
- 14. The email client of claim 13, wherein the file management engine further:
creates a new directory associated with the related group of email files; and stored each of the related group of email files to the new directory.
- 15. A method of email management, the method comprising:
receiving an email from a remote email service provider; retrieving a stored transcript email that is related to the incoming email; comparing contents of the email with the transcript email to identify a unique content portion of the body of the email and to identify a redundant content portion of the body of the email; and creating an appended transcript document by appending the unique content portion of the email to the transcript document.
- 16. The method of claim 15, further including:
storing the email in a file directory associated with the transcript document and which includes a plurality of other emails associated with the transcript document.
- 17. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of retrieving a stored transcript document includes:
comparing a text string from the email with text within each of a plurality of transcript documents. retrieving a transcript document that includes a text string that matches the text string from the email.
- 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing the appended transcript document in an inbox folder.
- 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising moving the transcript document to a deleted items folder.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/230,475, entitled Coherent Email Integration and Management System, filed on Dec. 6, 2001. The contents of such allocation is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60340475 |
Dec 2001 |
US |