JP3424318B2 - Email system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system in which importance information can be added to each recipient of an electronic mail and the importance information can be effectively used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a LAN (local area network) has been established in an office, and a plurality of terminal devices having a document processing function are connected to the LAN so that electronic mail can be used within the network system. .
With the spread of such electronic mail systems, many messages have been exchanged as electronic mail.

However, in the electronic mail system, when the number of exchanged electronic mails becomes large, the received electronic mails (hereinafter abbreviated as received mails) are simply accumulated in the terminal device of the recipient, The recipient is unable to process properly. For this reason, it is necessary to take measures such as preferentially processing an email that the recipient has determined to be important based on the subject (Subject) and sender (From) information of the received email.

For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-154340 discloses an electronic mail system which processes an unnecessary electronic mail by providing an illegal sender list and automatically deleting the electronic mail from the senders described in this list. Proposed. However, with such a processing method, the mail of the sender registered in the unauthorized sender list cannot be received. Further, e-mails from senders other than those registered in the unauthorized sender list cannot be appropriately handled and processed.

As another example of performing the mail receiving process, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-280535, the received electronic mail is analyzed by using the rule stored in the rule storage unit, and the received mail is analyzed according to the degree of importance. 2. Description of the Related Art There has been proposed an electronic mail reception notification device that notifies a recipient of an incoming electronic mail.
However, with the processing method by this device, it is difficult to construct a rule so that appropriate mail reception processing can always be performed, and to maintain and manage the rule.

CCITT (The International Telegrap
h and Telephone Consultative Committee). 40
The importance information defined by 0 is used by the sender of an electronic mail to judge the importance of the mail and add it. For the receiver, it is possible to judge which mail should be preferentially processed. It can be useful information.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of an electronic mail to which importance level information is added, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a received mail list of an electronic mail to which importance level information is added. As shown in FIG. 1, in the e-mail 1, importance information includes a date field of “Date:”, a sender field of “From:”, an address field of “To:”, and a copy reception of “Cc:”. From field is one field in the transmission information such as the "importance:" are written on the importance information field of. Further, the message as the communication content of the electronic mail is described in the message field of “Message:”.

The value of the importance information is "High" or "No".
It is set in three steps: rmal (medium) and "Low" (low).
In the example of the electronic mail 1 shown in FIG. 1, the value of the importance is “Hi
gh ”(high). Such an email 1
2, the received mail list 5 displayed on the terminal device of the recipient side shows that each received mail has its importance (Importance) together with its subject (Subject), sender (Sender), and the like. ) Is displayed. As a result, the receiver side can know what importance the sender has transmitted.

[0009]

By the way, in the electronic mail system, in many cases, a regular recipient name (To) is used as a field for describing the recipient (destination).
Two fields are provided, a duplicate recipient name (Cc) (FIG. 1). Although there is no difference in processing depending on these fields, the sender side uses different items when describing the recipient (destination), reflecting the expectation that, for example, for the legitimate recipient, some kind of response is desired. It is often done. It is often the case that the copy recipient simply expects to confirm that the electronic mail has been sent.

However, since the above-mentioned importance information is attached to each mail, that is, it is attached to the message of the mail content, for example, the sender is a mail having a high importance to the legitimate recipient. Therefore, if the importance value is set to "High", the importance value is also transmitted to the copy recipient as "High". For this reason, even if a mail is of high importance to a legitimate recipient, it may be low to a copy recipient, so that the importance as described above cannot be used as appropriate information for each recipient. There is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to add importance information individually to each recipient of an electronic mail, and to make the importance information effective. To provide an e-mail system that can be used for.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the electronic mail system according to the present invention has a basic configuration.
Then, the mail sending device sends the message as an e-mail to a plurality of destinations specified in the specified format, the mail receiving device receives the sent e-mail, and the list or contents of the received mails. In an e-mail system that presents a message to the recipient,
And said each destination of sending a single message to a destination
Individual to be added to e-mail individually separately importance designation means for setting the importance information (13), was previously generated individual importance information set message to each recipient, which is described in Importance level recording means (14), and display content generation means for acquiring the importance level information attached to the recipient from the importance level information added to the electronic mail when the electronic mail is received and displaying it together with the mail information ( 17) and equipped
Get

Further, in the electronic mail system according to the present invention, in addition to the above arrangement, when determining the standard values of the individual importance information for each recipient by pre-specified value, the destination of each recipient, obtain Bei standard value setting means for changing the importance information of the standard values depending described in which field of the address field or copy recipient field.

Further, in the electronic mail system according to the present invention, in addition to the above configuration, when the standard value of the individual importance information for each recipient is determined by a previously designated value, an address field or a copy recipient field each recipient of the destination described in the fields, obtain Bei standard value setting means for changing the importance information by either a personal name or each individual recipient, a group name that represents multiple recipients .

[0015]

In the electronic mail system of the present invention, the mail sending device sends a message as an electronic mail to a plurality of destinations designated in a predetermined format, and the mail receiving device sends the sent electronic mail. Received,
The recipient is presented with a list or contents of the received emails. In that case, a separate importance designating means (13), a plurality of
This is useful when sending one message to each recipient.
Setting the importance information individually for each recipient that is described as respective destinations, the individual importance recording means (14),
The set individual importance information is added to the email of the message generated in advance . Then, the display content generation means (17) attaches to the email when the email is received .
The importance attached to the recipient is obtained from the added importance information and displayed together with the mail information.

As described above, the individual importance degree designating means (13)
By specifying the individual importance information for each recipient described in the destination, the individual importance recording means (14) can add the specified individual importance information to the e-mail. it can. When such an electronic mail is received, the display content generation means (17) acquires the importance degree information designated for the mail recipient and displays it as information of the received mail list. The importance information here is set individually for each recipient, so that the recipient can surely determine what importance the email is for him / her. It will be possible.

Further, the electronic mail system of the present invention includes:
In addition to the above configuration, standard value setting means is further provided. When this standard value setting means determines the standard value of the individual importance information for each recipient based on the value specified in advance , the address of each recipient is described in either the address field or the copy recipient field. The importance information of the standard value is changed depending on whether it has been done. in this way,
The standard value setting means changes and determines the standard value depending on whether the recipient is a legitimate recipient (To) or a copy recipient (Cc). It is possible to present a standard value that is closer to the sender's intention, such as adding importance.

Further, when the standard value setting means determines the standard value of the individual importance for each recipient according to the value designated in advance, each recipient described in the field of the address field or the copy recipient field The importance information is changed depending on whether the destination is a group name representing a plurality of recipients or an individual name of each individual recipient. In this way, the standard value setting means changes and determines the standard value depending on whether the address represents an individual name or a group name. Therefore, it is higher for the recipient who uses the individual name. It is possible to present a standard value that is closer to the sender's intention, such as adding importance.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main part of the electronic mail system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, 10 is a mail transmission device, 11 is a mail content input unit, 12 is a mail generation unit, 13 is an individual importance level designation unit, 14 is an individual importance level recording unit, 15 is a mail transmission unit, and 16 is a mail reception unit. , 17 is a display content generation unit, 18
Is a mail content display unit, 20 is a mail receiving device, and 30 is a communication path. When the mail transmission device 10 transmits a message as an electronic mail to a plurality of destinations specified in a predetermined format through the communication path 30, the mail reception device 20 receives the transmitted electronic mail, Present the list or contents of the received emails to the recipient.

[0020] At that time, the individual importance specifying unit 13 in the mail transmitting apparatus 10, the mail contents inputted from the mail content input unit 11, individually significant for each recipient address described as the destination Set degree information. Then, when the set individual importance information is added to the electronic mail of the message generated in advance by the individual importance recording unit 14, the mail transmitting unit 15 transmits the mail via the communication path 30. On the side of the mail receiving device 20, when the mail receiving unit 16 receives an electronic mail, the display content generation unit 1
Since 7 acquires importance information attached to individual recipients from the importance information of the electronic mail and displays it together with the mail information, the mail content display unit 18 displays the contents as, for example, a received mail list.

Explaining in a concrete operation example, the sender of the electronic mail is the mail content input unit 1 of the mail transmitter 10.
When the mail transmission information such as the destination name of the recipient of the email, the subject name of the email, and the content is input by 1, the individual importance degree designating unit 13 determines the destination from the mail transmission information input by the email content input unit 11. The information (mail address) of the recipient input as the first name is obtained, and the sender of the electronic mail is requested to specify the individual importance information for each recipient. On the other hand, the mail sender individually specifies the importance level information.

The individual importance degree designation information for each recipient designated by the mail sender is the individual importance degree designation unit 13
After passing from the individual importance level recording section 14 to the individual importance level recording section 14, the mail generation section 12 adds the individual importance level information for each recipient to the mail transmission information. As a result, the electronic mail 2 as shown in FIG. 4 is generated.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of an electronic mail to which importance information is added for each recipient, and FIG.
FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are diagrams showing an example of a received mail list when importance information is individually added to each recipient. As shown in FIG. 4, in the e-mail 2 to which the importance information is individually added for each recipient, the importance information individually input for each recipient is the importance information field of “Importance:”. In addition to the addressee of the recipient name, the importance information is represented by a set. The information in the other fields of this electronic mail 2 is the same as that of the electronic mail described in FIG.

The e-mail 2 to which the importance information is individually added to each recipient in this way is the mail transmission unit 15 (FIG. 3).
Thus, the electronic mail 2 transmitted via the communication path 30 and transmitted by the mail receiving unit 16 in the mail receiving device 20 is received. In the mail receiving device 20, the display content generation unit 17 extracts the importance information individually attached to each recipient from the content of the mail transmission information of the received electronic mail, and displays the mail content together with other mail information. Transfer to section 18.

For example, when the recipient name of the electronic mail 2 shown in FIG. 4 is "Sato", the display content generation unit 17 displays "Im
The importance information “High” of this recipient is acquired from the importance information field of “portance:”, and the mail content display unit 18
In Fig. 5, when the received mail list is displayed,
As shown in (A), in the received mail list 6 of the recipient "Sato", the importance information "High" is displayed together with the subject and sender of the received mail. When the recipient of the e-mail is “Suzuki”, the display content generation unit 17 acquires the importance information “Low” of this recipient from the importance information field of “Importance:”. When a list of received mails is displayed in the mail content display unit 18, as shown in FIG. 5B, in the received mail list 7 of the recipient “Suzuki” Importance information “Lo” along with subject and sender
w ”is displayed.

As described above, since the importance information is set individually for each recipient here, for example, a plurality of recipients for one mail,
When a copy recipient is specified, importance information must be set individually for the multiple recipients. Since the operation of setting the importance information individually as described above is complicated, a standard value of the importance information is designated and determined in advance , and the standard value of the importance information is changed from the standard value of the importance information corresponding to each recipient. The importance level information may be set with only some changes. Next, an embodiment of the electronic mail system thus modified will be described as a second embodiment.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the essential parts of an electronic mail system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram of the electronic mail system according to the second embodiment shows the whole of one terminal device of the electronic mail system. That is, the configuration of one terminal device in which the mail transmitting device and the mail receiving device are integrated is shown. 6, 11 is a mail content input unit, 12 is a mail generation unit, 14 is an individual importance recording unit, 15 is a mail transmission unit, 16 is a mail receiving unit, 18 is a mail content display unit, 20 is a mail receiving device, 30 is a communication path. These are the same functional elements as the configuration of the electronic mail system of the first embodiment (FIG. 3), and are indicated by the same reference numerals. Further, 23 is an individual importance degree designating section, 27 is a display content generating section, 29 is a reception status notifying section, 31 is an individual importance degree list designating section, 32 is a standard value setting section, 33 is an importance degree information registering section,
Reference numeral 34 is a setting method designation unit, and 35 is a communication control unit.

The individual importance degree list designating section 31 displays a list of addresses and the designation state at each time point on the individual importance degree list designation screen (40: FIG. 8), and designates individual importance degree information in a list format. . The sender of the e-mail specifies the individual importance information of any recipient while viewing the individual importance list specification screen here. The individual importance degree designating section 23 is a standard value setting section 3
The standard value of importance information for each recipient is obtained from 2 and sent to the individual importance list designating unit 31, and the individual importance information of each recipient obtained via the individual importance list designating unit 31 is individually Transfer to the importance recording unit 14. Standard value setting unit 32
Determines the standard value of the importance of each recipient based on the mail content. The setting method designating section 34 displays a standard value setting method designating screen (61: FIG. 14) described later so that the sender can designate the method of determining the standard value of the importance information.

Further, the importance degree information registration section 33 registers importance degree setting information including a set of an address of an arbitrary recipient and individual importance degree information. If you want to send an email,
The importance setting information registered here is referred to in order to collectively specify individual importance information for each of a plurality of recipients on the individual importance list specification screen (40: FIG. 8). . The display content generation unit 27 includes the mail reception unit 16
The importance information attached to each recipient is extracted from the content of the received mail received in (1) and transferred to the mail content display unit 18 together with other information. Further, regarding the received mail with specific importance information, the reception status notification unit 29 is requested to notify the processing status of the received mail (for example, whether or not the mail has been read). 29 returns the processing status of the received mail from the mail transmission unit 15 to the mail sender. The communication control unit 35 is a part that controls transmission / reception of an electronic mail signal to / from the communication path 30. Since it is not related to an essential part of the present invention, its description is omitted here.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing a schematic processing flow of the mail generation processing. Referring to FIG. 7, in the mail generation process, first, when the process is started,
In step S71, the content input of the mail is accepted from the mail content input unit 11, and then in step S72, the processing of setting the individual importance information is performed. The process of step S72 is performed by passing control to the individual importance degree designating unit 23. Then, the individual importance degree recording unit 14 waits for the importance degree information to be set individually for each recipient.
When individual importance information is set for each recipient and the importance information is added to the e-mail by the individual importance recording unit 14, next in step S73, the mail generation unit 1
In step 2, mail generation processing is performed, and a series of processing ends.
The electronic mail generated with the importance information attached to each is sent to the mail transmitting unit 15, and the electronic mail generated from the mail transmitting unit 15 is transmitted.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an example of an individual importance level list designation screen for individually setting importance level information for mail recipients. Individual importance list designation screen 40 shown in FIG.
Is displayed again by the individual importance degree list designation unit 31. In the individual importance list designating screen 40, as shown in the figure, the importance of each row is assigned to the column of the address 41 designated as the address of each recipient of the electronic mail. Importance degree designation buttons 42, 43, 44 to be designated
Is displayed. The importance degree designation button 42 is a button for designating the importance degree information to “high”, and the importance degree designation button 4
Reference numeral 3 is a button for designating importance information as "normal". Further, the importance degree designation button 44 is a button for designating the importance degree information to "low". With these buttons, the importance information for each individual recipient's address is set to "High",
Specify "Normal" or "Low". The display state of each designated button changes (changes as indicated by a thick frame), and the display state of each button indicates the current designated state of the importance level information.

Explaining in detail with the example shown in FIG. 8, for example, importance information is designated as "high" for the recipient whose address on the first line is "Sato". The importance information is designated as "normal" for the recipient whose address on the fifth line is "Yamada". Further, in the individual importance list designating screen 40, the “up” button 46 provided on the upper side thereof is a function button for increasing the importance information of each recipient by one step with “high” as the upper limit, The “down” button 47 is a function button that lowers the importance level information of each recipient by one step with “low” as the lower limit. The “registered value” button 48 is a function button for setting importance information of each recipient based on the importance setting information registered in the importance information registration unit 33. When the “Done” button 45 is clicked, the individual importance degree designating section 23 generates the importance degree designation information 50 as shown in FIG. 9 from the designation information of the individual importance degree information for each recipient at that time. Then, it is transferred to the individual importance recording unit 14.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of importance designation information in which importance information is individually set for mail recipients. As described above, the importance information is individually set for the mail recipient by the setting operation of the importance information for the address of the individual recipient on the individual importance list designating screen 40. As a result, as shown in FIG. 9, the importance designation information 50 is obtained. In this importance designation information 50,
The importance information is individually set corresponding to the address of the designated recipient. In this example, the importance is set to three levels, but the number of levels that can be specified may be other than three. Further, here, the degree of importance is not necessarily designated, and an element "undesignated" may be added.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the processing flow of the importance degree designation processing by the individual importance degree designation unit 23. This processing is performed by the individual importance level list designation screen 40 described above.
It is a process using the user interface. Figure 1
This will be described with reference to 0. When the process is started, first, in step S81, a standard value is read. This process
Specifically, the standard value of the importance information of each recipient is obtained from the standard value setting unit 32, and the individual importance list specifying unit 31 causes the individual importance list specifying screen 40 to pass through the individual importance specifying unit 23. The standard value is displayed on the screen. Then, by the processing from the next step S82, the content of the instructed button is determined and the processing of the corresponding command is performed.

In step S82, it is first determined whether or not the instructed button is the "registered value" button 48. If it is determined that the button instructed in this determination is the "registered value" button 48, the process proceeds to step S83, but otherwise,
If the designated button is the "method designation" button 49 (step S88), the importance setting method is designated (step S89). The designated button is the "up" button 46
If so (step S90), importance update processing with "high" as the upper limit is performed (step S91). If the designated button is the “down” button 47 (step S92),
Importance update processing is performed with "low" as the lower limit (step S
93). In addition, the designated button is the “Done” button 45.
If so (step S94), the data of the importance level information set here is transferred to the individual importance level recording section, and the process is terminated.

Further, if the designated button is a button other than those, that is, the individual importance degree designating buttons 4
If 2-44, go to step S95, step S95
At 95, individual importance update processing is performed using the individual importance specifying buttons 42 to 44. In addition, the previous step S
If it is determined in the determination of 82 that the "registered value" button 48 is instructed, the process proceeds to step S83, and by the processing from step S83, it is already registered for each recipient (mail address). The selection processing from the registered values of the importance setting information is performed.

In step S83, a list L of e-mail addresses is created. Next, in step S84, the contents of the list L are discriminated, and if the list L is empty, the process for each recipient (address) here has been completed, so the process returns to step S82. Otherwise,
In step S85, it is checked whether or not the address of the top element (recipient address) of the list L is registered in the importance level information. If not registered, the process proceeds to step S87. If the importance information is already registered in the address (recipient address), the importance setting information is read out in step S86, and is changed to the registered value of the importance information of the read address (receiver address). To do. Next, in step 87, the top element is deleted from the list L, the process returns to step S84, and the processing from step 84 is repeated.

[0038] specified by the button is "how to specify" button 4
In the case of 9, the standard value setting method designation screen (61: FIG. 14) is displayed by the setting method designation unit 34 to change the setting method (step S89). If the designated button is the "up" button 46, the importance level information of each recipient is changed up by one step with "high" as the upper limit (step S91). The designated button is the “down” button 47.
If so, the importance level information of each recipient is changed downward by one step with "low" as the lower limit (step S93). Also,
When the designated button is the importance degree designation buttons 42 to 44, the importance degree information of the corresponding recipient is changed to a value corresponding to the designated button ( step S95). When the designated button is the “completion” button 45, the importance degree information 50 is generated from the designation information of each recipient at that time, is transferred to the individual importance degree recording unit 14, and the process ends ( step S96). ).

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing a schematic processing flow of individual importance recording processing for adding importance information to an electronic mail. This process is a process in which the individual importance degree recording unit 14 adds the individual importance degree information for each recipient to the electronic mail (2: FIG. 4) based on the importance degree designation information (50: FIG. 9). is there. This will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S101, the first item (recipient's address) of the importance degree designating information 50 which has been designated and passed by the individual importance degree designating section 23 is put into a variable d, and an empty character string variable is made into a variable s. . Next, in step S102, the recipient of the variable d and the importance information are converted and added to the variable s. For example, the designation information of the first item of the importance designation information 50 is converted into the character string “Sato <High>”. Next, in step S103, the variable d is the importance degree designating information 50.
If it is not the last item, the variable d is set as the next item of the current variable d in step S104, the process returns to step S102, and the processes from step S102 are repeated. . Also, step S
In 103, if the variable d is the last item of the importance designation information 50, the process proceeds to step S105, the character string of the variable s is transferred to the mail generation unit, and the “Importanc
Write in the importance information field of e: ”and end the processing.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing the processing flow of the standard value setting processing in the standard value setting unit 32.
The standard value setting process is a process of determining the standard value importance information according to the field in which the address is written, and further determining the standard value importance information according to the address attribute. This will be described with reference to FIG. When the process is started, first, initial setting is performed in step S111. In this initial setting process, the importance information for all the recipients is set to, for example, "high". Next, step S
At 112, it is determined whether or not the processing by the field is designated as the standard value designation method. Only when the processing by the field is designated, in the next step S113, the importance information update processing for lowering the value of the importance information for the address in the Cc field by one level is performed.

Next, in step S114, it is determined whether or not the process by the recipient name is designated as the standard value designation method. In this determination, only when the process by the recipient name is designated, the next step S11
In 5, the update processing of the importance information for reducing the importance of the group name indicating a plurality of destinations by one level is performed. Then, in step S116, the standard value importance information set here is transferred to the individual importance degree designating section, and the process is terminated.

In other words, in the standard value setting process of the individual importance information for each recipient, if the setting method designating section 34 designates the processing by the field, the copy recipient ( For the address (recipient) described in the Cc) field, the degree of importance is changed by one step, and when the process by the recipient name is designated by the setting method designation unit 34,
From the initially set standard value, for example, with respect to the addressees (recipients) of the group name indicating a plurality of addressees, the importance is changed by one level.

FIG. 13 is a view showing an example of the importance level information registration screen displayed by the importance level information registration section 33. As shown in FIG. 13, on the importance degree information registration screen 51, destinations of recipients to be registered in advance and importance degree designation buttons 52, 53, 54 for designating respective importance degrees are displayed. The importance degree designation button 52 is a button for designating the importance degree information to "high", and the importance degree designation button 53 is a button for designating the importance degree information to "normal". The importance degree designation button 54 is a button for designating the importance degree information to "low". These buttons provide importance information for each individual recipient's address, "high", "normal" or "low".
Specify in. When the importance information is designated by each button, the display state changes (shown by a thick frame), and the display state of each button indicates the current designated state of the importance information. For example, the importance level “High” is designated for the recipient “Sato”.

On the importance information registration screen 51,
The “up” button 56 provided on the upper side is a function button that raises the importance of each recipient by one step with “high” as the upper limit, and the “down” button 57 sets the importance of each recipient to “high”. This is a function button that decreases by one step with "Low" as the lower limit. The registration name designation field 58 is a field for giving a name for registering by adding a registration name to the contents set on the importance level information registration screen 51. Importance information registered here is see the name and co of the registered name. When the registration button 55 is instructed, the designated importance information for each recipient set in the importance information registration screen 51 at that time is stored.

FIG. 14 is a view showing an example of the standard value setting method designation screen displayed by the setting method designation section 34.
As described above, in the standard value setting processing of the importance information by the standard value setting unit 32, the standard value of the importance information is determined and changed corresponding to the field in which the address is written, and the attribute of the address. With, it is possible to select two setting methods when determining and changing the standard value of the importance information. This 2
One of the setting methods is selected on the standard value setting method designation screen 61 as shown in FIG. In this designation screen, execution designation buttons 62 and 63 for setting use (non-use) of each of the selectable standard value setting methods.
Is provided. These execution designation buttons 62 and 63
Specifies whether or not to perform standard value setting processing according to each designated setting method. As in the previous case, when the processing of the standard value setting method is specified by each button, the display state of the button changes (changes as shown by the bold frame) and the display state of each button. The button designated by a thick line indicates the current designated state. In the example of specification of the standard value setting method shown in FIG. 14, the determination processing by the field is executed, but the determination by the recipient name is set not to be executed. Finish button 65
Is instructed, the setting information here is stored and referred to when the standard value setting unit 32 performs the processing.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing an outline of the processing flow of the display processing of the received mail list in the display content generation unit 27. In this process, when the importance information is set individually for each recipient, the importance information of the recipient is displayed from the received mail. Display content generation unit 27
When the process here is started, first, in step S12
At 1, it is determined whether the requested display information is a mail list display or a mail content display.

If the requested display information is the mail list display (FIG. 5), the process proceeds to step S122. In step S122, it is determined whether or not there is any mail to be displayed. If the emails to be displayed remain, in step S123, the importance information designated by the recipient is acquired from the importance information field of "Importance:", and the next step S
At 124, it is determined whether or not the importance information has been acquired. When the importance level information can be acquired, step S125
In, the acquired importance information is displayed in the importance of the received mail list. If the importance information cannot be acquired, the importance of the received mail list is displayed as "unspecified" in step S126. Then, step S12
Returning to step 2, the process is repeated from step S122. This process is repeated when there are remaining display target mails, and when the process is completed for all the display target mails in step S122, the received mail list is displayed, so the process here ends. To do.

That is, for each received mail, individual importance information designated by the recipient is acquired from the “Importance” field, and the acquired importance information is displayed together with the subject and sender. Otherwise, the column of importance information is displayed as "unspecified" along with the subject and sender.

On the other hand, in the determination of step S121,
If the requested display information is an email content display,
That is, if the content of the mail is displayed as shown in FIG. 4, the process proceeds to step S127, and in step S127, the information of the content of the corresponding mail is displayed. Further, in the next step S128, the importance required information designated by the recipient is acquired from the “Importance” field, and in step S129, it is determined whether the importance information is “high”. If the importance information is "high", in the next step S130, a processing status notification request is issued and the processing ends. That is, as illustrated in the next FIG.
The communication status notification unit 2 sends the reception status notification mail to notify the mail sender that the mail recipient has read the received mail.
9 and finish.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a reception status notification mail sent by the communication status notification unit 29. The reception status notification mail 8 is an electronic mail generated by the communication status notification unit 29 and transmitted to the mail sender when the content of the mail is read by the recipient. Such emails are sent by the sender of the email information (Fr
The contents of the om) and recipient (To) fields are exchanged, and a reply mail is sent back to the mail sender. With such a reception status notification mail 8, the mail sender can confirm the processing status such as whether or not the mail has been read with respect to the highly important recipient.

As described above, according to the electronic mail system of the second embodiment, the individual importance level list designating unit 31
Since it is equipped with the address described in the mail destination,
The importance information set individually for each can be listed, and the importance of any recipient can be changed. Therefore, when the sender specifies the importance level, the individual importance level list specifying unit 31 displays a list of addresses and the specified state at each time point, and the sender can see the importance level of any recipient. Can be specified. As a result, the sender can specify an appropriate degree of importance while confirming the specified states of all the receivers.

Further, since the standard value setting unit 32 is provided, the standard value setting unit 32 determines the standard value of the importance information for each individual recipient at the start of the importance designation, and the individual importance list designating unit 31 Can be presented to the mail sender via. This can reduce the time and effort required for the sender to make a designated input.

Since the standard value setting unit 32 is provided with the setting method designating unit 34, the setting method designating unit 34 designates the standard value setting method of the importance information as described above by the sender. Will be recorded. The standard value setting unit 32 determines the standard value of the individual importance information to the recipient according to the designated setting method, and presents it to the sender via the individual importance list designating unit 31. This allows the sender to freely select an appropriate standard value determination method.

Further, since the importance degree information registering section 33 is provided and the importance degree information consisting of an arbitrary address and importance degree pair is registered in advance in the importance degree information registering section 33, it is suitable for mail transmission. You can select the importance information and specify the importance collectively. As a result, it is possible to save the trouble of individually designating the importance of each email transmission for a group of recipients who frequently transmit electronic mail.

Further, since the reception status notifying unit 29 for notifying the mail sender of the processing status of the received mail based on the designated importance information is provided, for example, the processing of the recipient for an electronic mail having a high importance. The sender is notified of the situation. As a result, the mail sender can confirm the processing status such as whether or not the electronic mail has been selectively read with respect to the highly important recipient.

[0056]

As described above, according to the electronic mail system of the present invention, importance information is set individually for each recipient, so that this importance information should be used. As a result, the mail recipient can surely determine what importance the electronic mail is to him.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic mail to which importance level information is added,

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a received mail list of an electronic mail to which importance level information is added,

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the electronic mail system according to the first embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an e-mail to which importance information is added for each recipient.

5 (A) and 5 (B) are diagrams showing an example of a received mail list in the case where importance information is individually added to each recipient,

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of an electronic mail system according to a second embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a schematic processing flow of mail generation processing;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of an individual importance level list designation screen for individually setting importance level information for mail recipients,

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of importance designation information in which importance information is individually set for mail recipients,

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a processing flow of importance degree specifying processing by the individual importance degree specifying unit 23;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a schematic processing flow of individual importance recording processing for adding importance information to an e-mail,

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of standard value setting processing in the standard value setting unit 32;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an importance degree information registration screen displayed by an importance degree information registration unit,

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a standard value setting method designation screen displayed by a setting method designation unit 34;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing an outline of a processing flow of display processing of a received mail list in the display content generation unit 27,

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a reception status notification mail sent by the communication status notification unit 29.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 ... E-mail, 5-7 ... Received mail list, 8 ... Reception status notification mail, 10 ... Mail sending device, 11 ... Mail content input section, 12 ... Mail generating section, 13, 23 ... Individual importance degree specifying section , 14 ... Individual importance recording unit, 15 ... Mail transmitting unit, 16 ... Mail receiving unit, 17, 27 ... Display content generation unit, 18 ... Mail content display unit, 20 ... Mail receiving device, 29 ... Reception status notification unit, 30 ... Communication path, 31 ... Individual importance degree list designation section, 32 ... Standard value setting section, 33 ... Importance degree information registration section, 34 ... Setting method designation section, 35 ... Communication control section, 40 ... Individual importance degree list designation screen , 42-44, 52
... 54 ... Importance degree designating button, 45, 65 ... "Complete" button, 46, 56 ... "Up" button, 47, 57 ... "Down" button, 48 ... "Registered value" button, 49 ... "Method designation" button , 50 ... Importance information, 51 ... Importance information registration screen,
55 ... "Register" button, 58 ... Registration name designation field,
61 ... Standard value setting method designation screen, 62, 63 ... Execution designation button.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 12/58 G06F 13/00

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A mail sending device sends a message as electronic mail to a plurality of destinations specified in a predetermined format, a mail receiving device receives the sent electronic mail, and In an email system that presents a list or contents to recipients, when sending one message to each recipient of multiple recipients, set importance information individually for each recipient described as the recipient. Individual importance degree specifying means, an individual importance degree recording means for adding individual importance degree information to each set recipient to an e-mail of a pre-generated message, and the e-mail when the e-mail is received Display content generation means for acquiring the importance information attached to the recipient from the importance information added to and displaying it together with the mail information. E-mail systems that. 2. In the electronic mail system according to claim 1, further, when the standard value of the individual importance information for each recipient is determined by a predesignated value, the destination of each recipient is
An electronic mail system comprising a standard value setting means for changing the importance information of the standard value depending on which of the address field and the copy recipient field is described. 3. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising: when determining a standard value of individual importance information for each recipient based on a predesignated value, in the address field or the copy recipient field. A standard value setting means for changing the importance information depending on whether the destination of each recipient described in the field is a group name representing multiple recipients or an individual name of each individual recipient is provided. Characteristic e-mail system. 4. An e-mail transmitting device for transmitting a message as e-mail to a plurality of recipients, wherein each recipient described as each recipient when one message is sent to each recipient of the plurality of recipients. For each recipient, individual importance level specifying means for individually setting importance information and individual importance degree recording means for adding individual importance level information to an e-mail for each set recipient are provided. Characteristic e-mail transmission device. 5. The electronic mail transmitting device according to claim 4, wherein the importance information is changed depending on which of the destination field and the copy recipient field describes the destination of each recipient. E-mail sending device. 6. The electronic mail transmitting device according to claim 4, wherein each recipient described in the destination field or the copy recipient field is a group name representing a plurality of recipients or individually. An electronic mail transmitting device, characterized in that the importance information is changed depending on whether it is the individual name of each recipient. 7. An e-mail receiving device for receiving e-mails sent to a plurality of destinations and presenting a list or contents of the received e-mails to a recipient, wherein the e-mails are received when the e-mails are received. An electronic mail receiving device, comprising: display content generation means for displaying importance information individually attached to each added destination together with mail information. 8. An e-mail transmitting method for transmitting a message as e-mail to a plurality of recipients, wherein each recipient described as each recipient when one message is sent to each recipient of a plurality of recipients. E-mail sending method characterized in that importance information is individually set for each and the individual importance information is added to the e-mail of a message generated in advance for each set recipient . 9. The electronic mail transmitting method according to claim 8, wherein the importance information is changed depending on whether the address of each recipient is described in the destination field or the copy recipient field. And how to send email. 10. The electronic mail transmitting method according to claim 8, wherein each recipient described in the destination field or the copy recipient field is a group name representing a plurality of recipients or individually. A method of sending an e-mail, characterized in that the importance information is changed depending on whether it is the individual name of each recipient.