Method for managing e-mail attachments in an email in an email application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9342820-B2
Application number	US-201013502831-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2010
Priority date	Oct 19, 2009
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

The invention proposes a method for managing email attachments in an email application, said method used, on opening an attachment using an editing application defined based on the nature of said attachment, to edit a copy of said attachment and to save the modifications made to said copy as a modified version of said attachment, said method also allowing a logical link to be created between the modified version and the email, said logical link being used to attach said modified version to said email as a modified attachment.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for managing attachments to an email in an email application, said method comprising:
opening an original email attachment via an editing application based on the nature of said email attachment;
processing edits to a copy of said original email attachment;
saving modifications made to said copy during editing as a modified version of said original email attachment in a folder of the email application in which email attachments received are saved;
creating a logical link between the modified version of said attachment saved in the folder and the email, said logical link being used to attach said modified version of said original email attachment to said email as a modified email attachment, wherein the email application is installed locally on a user terminal, the email application is located on a remote server, or the email application is provided via the internet;
displaying an email with one or more original email attachments received and one or more modified email attachments, said modified email attachments being shown in a way that distinguishes them from the received original email attachments
wherein the logical link is created to save the modified version of said attachment in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded,
wherein parameters are provided to the editing application for modifying said attachment to specify that said modified version must be saved in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded and linked to the email with the attachment of origin or the logical link acts as a connector to keep track of the attachment modified and automatically link a modified attachment to the email application folder when a user has finished making modifications to said attachment,
wherein the modified version of said original email attachment is automatically saved upon closing the editing application.

2. The computer-implemented method for managing email attachments according to claim 1 , wherein the modified email attachment is named in the email by changing the name of the original email attachment.

3. The computer-implemented method for managing attachments according to claim 1 , wherein the modified version of said original email attachment is automatically linked to an email reply operation or to a forwarding operation for said email.

4. The computer-implemented method for managing attachments according to claim 1 , further comprising issuing a special alert when an email containing at least one modified email attachment is about to be deleted.

5. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to:
open an original email attachment using an editing application according to the nature of said original email attachment;
process edits to a copy of said original email attachment after opening it;
save the modifications made to said copy as a modified version of said attachment in a folder of the email application in which email attachments received are saved;
create a logical link between the modified version and the email saved in the folder, said logical link making it possible to attach said modified version to said email as a modified attachment;
display an email with one or more original email attachments received and one or more modified email attachments, said modified email attachments being shown in a way that distinguishes them from the received original email attachments,
wherein the logical link is created to save the modified version of said attachment in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded,
wherein parameters are provided to the editing application for modifying said attachment to specify that said modified version must be saved in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded and linked to the email with the attachment of origin or the logical link acts as a connector to keep track of the attachment modified and automatically link a modified attachment to the email application folder when a user has finished making modifications to said attachment,
wherein the modified version of said original email attachment is automatically saved upon closing the editing application.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions further include naming the modified attachment by changing the name of the original attachment.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the instructions further include issuing a special alert when an email containing at least one modified attachment is about to be deleted.

8. A non-transitory computer-usable data carrier storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method for managing attachments to an email in an email application, said method comprising:
opening an original email attachment using an editing application based on the nature of said email attachment;
processing edits a copy of said original email attachment;
saving modifications made to said copy during editing as a modified version of said original email attachment in a folder of the email application in which email attachments received are saved;
creating a logical link between the modified version of said attachment and the email saved in the folder, said logical link being used to attach said modified version of said original email attachment to said email as a modified email attachment;
displaying an email with one or more original email attachments received and one or more modified email attachments, said modified email attachments being shown in a way that distinguishes them from the received original email attachments,
wherein the logical link is created to save the modified version of said attachment in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded,
wherein parameters are provided to the editing application for modifying said attachment to specify that said modified version must be saved in the email application folder in which attachments received are recorded and linked to the email with the attachment of origin or the logical link acts as a connector to keep track of the attachment modified and automatically link a modified attachment to the email application folder when a user has finished making modifications to said attachment,
wherein the modified version of said original email attachment is automatically saved upon closing the editing application.

9. The non-transitory computer-usable data carrier according to claim 8 , wherein the modified email attachment is named in the email by changing the name of the original email attachment.

10. The non-transitory computer-usable data carrier according to claim 8 , wherein the modified version of said original email attachment is automatically linked to an email reply operation or to a forwarding operation for said email.

11. The non-transitory computer-usable data carrier according to claim 8 , said method further comprising issuing a special alert when an email containing at least one modified email attachment is about to be deleted.

Assignees

• Vidalenc Bruno
• Ciavaglia Laurent
• Alcatel Lucent

Inventors

• Vidalenc Bruno
• Ciavaglia Laurent

Classifications

• G08B21/18

  Status alarms (G08B21/02 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L51/42

  Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes · CPC title

• H04L51/21

  Monitoring or handling of messages · CPC title

• G06Q10/107 Primary

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title

• H04L51/08 Primary

  Annexed information, e.g. attachments · CPC title