Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1996-12-23
2001-03-27
Powell, Mark R. (Department: 2779)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209005
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to personal organizers, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for efficiently generating and linking documents to contacts of a personal organizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As people's personal and business schedules have come to be more complicated, more and more people have come to rely on personal organizer programs. Generally speaking, personal organizers assist users in keeping track of events though the use of calendars that may be displayed in any number of suitable viewing formats (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly and yearly). As appreciated by those who use personal organizers, managing busy home and business events is made much more efficient when an organizer's full potential is utilized. By way of example, a user may set organizer tickler alarms which alert the user of upcoming “to-do” tasks, meetings and events.
Most organizers are also equipped with capabilities for storing and keeping track of a user's personal and business contacts. Typically, a contact's information may include the contact's name, business title, work address, home address, work telephone number, and home telephone number. The user's contacts are typically arranged in columns for easy viewing and access. Although organizers do a superb job at organizing events and contacts, many users tend to expend a great deal of time and effort corresponding with their contacts.
By way of example, some business users correspond with numerous supplier contacts, distributor contacts, buyer contacts and employee contacts on a daily basis. Preparing such correspondences typically requires: (1) locating the contact's information stored in the user's organizer contact list; (2) copying the contact's full name and title; (3) selecting and copying the contact's appropriate address; (4) locating and launching the user's word processor; (5) formatting the user's return address; (6) filling in the contacts name, title, and address; (7) preparing a standard response in the body of the letter; and (8) inputting the user's signature block. As can be appreciated, responding to daily correspondence can be a very time consuming task, especially when a majority of responses are standard boilerplate type responses.
A further organizational problem associated with corresponding with contacts is keeping track of whether appropriate responses have been forwarded to selected contacts. That is, although a user's organizer is able to keep a detailed compilation of each contact's identifying information (i.e., address, phone numbers, and e-mail), the user is generally unable to ascertain (with any reasonable efficiency) whether appropriate correspondences have been prepared and sent to each contact.
Conventionally, when a user needs to verify that one of its contacts received an appropriate response, the user will unfortunately be forced to search through computer directories in an attempt to identify documents having titles that somewhat resemble a response the contact. To verify that a selected document is indeed the correct document, the user will then be required to launch a word processor to view the document. If the selected document is not the correct response, the user will once again perform a search through the computer directory and re-launch the word processor. Consequently, the user is unable to time efficiently determine whether responses have been prepared to selected contacts, and if responses were prepared, locating the appropriate response document is time consuming and wasteful.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed are methods and apparatuses for efficiently generating a letter to a selected contact of an organizer program, and linking the generated letter to the selected contact. Further, there is a need for an organizer program that facilitate the generation of standard response letters directly from the organizer program.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providing methods and apparatuses for attaching a letter to a contact of an organizer, and providing a link to the attached letter from the organizer. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a user of an organizer program that has a plurality of contacts can efficiently prepare correspondences to a particular contact by selecting an attach feature from the contact's identification card. After the attach feature is selected, the user is provided with an option of using a previously personalized letter, or preparing a letter that is personalized to the user needs. Once the user selects the appropriate letter, the organizer program advantageously integrates the contacts name, address and greeting into the selected letter. The selected letter is preferably generated using a word processor selected by the user at the time of selecting the letter.
Advantageously, the organizer program can efficiently use the word processing power of a dedicated word processing program. The generated letter is also conveniently linked to the appropriate contact listed in the organizer program. This provides the user with the ability to quickly reference a contact's reference card to determine whether particular correspondences have been prepared to the contact. Further, if correspondence was prepared, the user efficiently links to the appropriate document file from the organizer program to open the document.
In another embodiment, a method for attaching a letter to a contact in an organizer contact list is disclosed. The method includes the operations of selecting a contact from the organizer contact list that is controlled by an organizer program. The method then stores a plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into a temporary memory location. Next, a letter is selected from a plurality of standard letters provided by the organizer. The plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact is then integrated into the selected letter.
In yet another embodiment, a method for linking a letter to a contact is disclosed. The method includes the operations of generating a letter having a selected address type copied from data fields of a selected contact of an organizer contact list that includes a plurality of contacts. Each of the plurality of contacts preferably have a plurality of address types, and the letter is generated by a separate word processor program that is called by an organizer program containing the organizer contact list. The method then saves the letter having the selected address type using the separate word processor. The word processor is previously configured to get a file reference for the saved letter and provides the file reference to the organizer program. The organizer program then generates a file alias for the file reference. The file alias is preferably associated with the selected contact of the organizer contact list. An attachment symbol is further provided on the data fields of the selected contact of the organizer contact list. The attachment symbol configured to indicate the number of attachments associated with the selected contact, and the generated letter being at least one of the number of attachments. The number of attachments advantageously provide a link to the number of attachments associated with the co
Haine Dominic Philip
Harker James Riddle
Apple Computer Inc.
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Powell Mark R.
Rossi Jeffrey Allen
LandOfFree
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