WO1999026174A1

WO1999026174A1 - Electronic mail system

Info

Publication number: WO1999026174A1
Application number: PCT/JP1998/005093
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yoshito Yamaguchi
Original assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 1997-11-14
Filing date: 1998-11-12
Publication date: 1999-05-27
Also published as: TW379495B

Abstract

When an electronic mail system receives an electronic mail for schedule registration of an event from an electronic mail server, a schedule which has been registered in RAM is confirmed and if a free time zone for an assembly of an event is available, the event is registered. If the assembly time zone of the event is in duplication with a schedule which has been registered, not only is another free time zone on the same day as the event noticed but an electronic mail inquiring whether or not a change of the assembly time zone of the event to the free time zone is possible is transmitted to a transmitter of the mail for schedule registration. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not received is a response electronic mail indicating that the assembly time zone of the event is changed to the free time zone, the changed event schedule is registered in RAM.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM

Technical Field The present invention relates to an electronic mail system for transmission and reception of an electronic mail and a storage medium storing a program for electronic mail processing in transmission and reception of an electronic mail.

Background Art An electronic mail system has been introduced into a number of enterprises as a powerful tool for increasing the productivity and has rapidly been coming into wide spread use there.

When a conference is assembled, for example, the organizer has to notice a conference schedule to prospective attendees . As means for issuing such a notice, an electronic mail has been utilized.

Procedures in this case are carried out along the following flow:

First, the organizer transmits prospective attendees electronic mails in each of which the day/time and place of the conference is written.

A receiver having received the electronic mail not only sends an electronic mail by which the receiver notices the organizer of whether or not he or she attends the conference but also proceeds with necessary formalities to register the schedule of the conference with a scheduler in charge of his or her schedule management if he or she intends to attend the conference. With regard to such a scheduler which controls someone's schedule management, the scheduler has heretofore performed a management work writing a schedule printed in a note book with a pen or a pencil. In recent years, however, there has widely been available a scheduler software by which registration, deletion or alteration of a schedule is performed in a schedule table image on a personal computer screen. In addition, there have been on the market a number of portable type information terminals, especially called a mobile computer or the like, each of which is provided with not only a scheduler function but an electronic mail function.

Even with such a conventional gadget which is provided with both of scheduler and electronic mail functions, both functions have not been exerted in an interlocked manner. Hence, when a user having such a conventional gadget receives an electronic mail noticing assembly of a conference mentioned above which requires for a registration of a new schedule, the user has had to perform all of a series of confirmation of a content of the electronic mail, confirmation of a content of the schedule, response to the electronic mail to notice whether of not he or she attends the conference and inputting a new schedule to the scheduler and therefore, a work imposed on the user when electronic mail processing and schedule management are mutually linked has been very much complex.

It is conceived a scheme in which a scheduler function and an electronic mail function are interlocked with each other in a manner such that a schedule of an event is registered with a scheduler in a simple manner when an electronic mail containing the schedule of an event is received. In such a scheme, however, since a schedule which has been already registered in the scheduler is not considered, there arises a problem that a new duplicate event in schedule is registered even in addition to an old schedule which has been scheduled.

Disclosure of Invention An object of the present invention is to automatically effect adjustments between schedules when an electronic mail containing a duplication of an old event schedule which has already been registered is received.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce a burden of a user by making simple electronic mail processing and schedule management under an interlocked relation with each other.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a storage medium on which there is stored a program for the electronic mail processing.

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system comprising: electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage means for storing schedule data; schedule mail determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; schedule data comparing means for detecting duplication between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means by comparing both schedule data when the schedule mail determining means determines that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is the schedule mail; schedule data storage control means for controlling the schedule data storage means to store the schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the schedule data comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; electronic mail automatic transmission means for transmitting an electronic mail; first electronic mail automatic transmission control means for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission means to transmit a first electronic mail containing information on a change in schedule to avoid the duplication between both schedule data to a transmitter of the schedule mail when the schedule data comparing means detects the duplication between both schedule data; and changed schedule data storage control means for controlling the schedule data storage means to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when an electronic mail is received by the electronic mail receiving means, which mail notices the change in the schedule data of the schedule mail so that the duplication is avoided in response to the first electronic mail containing the information, after the first electronic mail containing the information is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission means. According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; changing means for changing a storage content of the schedule storage means; automatic transmission means for transmitting an electronic mail having a content corresponding to a content of the change in schedule to a specific receiver when the change in schedule is performed by the changing means . According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in the schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; and automatic transmission means for transmitting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of a received schedule mail when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data.

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; condition determining means for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data; and storage renewing means for deleting duplicate schedule data stored in the schedule storage means and controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the condition determining means determines that a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition.

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving a mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; temporary storage means for temporarily storing the received schedule mail when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data; changing means for changing schedule data stored in the schedule storage means; and data transfer means for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule storage means when a change is performed by the changing means and duplicate schedule data which is stored in the schedule storage means is cleared. According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule mail determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; schedule data comparing program code for detecting duplication between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored by the schedule data storage program code by comparing both schedule data when the schedule mail determining program code determines that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is the schedule mail; schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage program code to store the schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the schedule data comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; electronic mail automatic transmission program code means for transmitting an electronic mail; first electronic mail automatic transmission control program code for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission program code to transmit a first electronic mail containing information on a change in schedule to avoid the duplication between both schedule data to a transmitter of the schedule mail when the schedule data comparing program code detects the duplication between both schedule data; and changed schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage means to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when an electronic mail is received by the electronic mail receiving program code, which mail notices the change in the schedule data of the schedule mail so that the duplication is avoided in response to the first electronic mail containing the information, after the first electronic mail containing the information is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission program code.

According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule data changing program code for changing a storage content of a schedule in the schedule storage means for storing schedule data; and electronic mail automatic transmission program code for transmitting an electronic mail having a content corresponding to a content of the change in schedule to a specific receiver when the change in schedule is performed by the schedule data changing program code .

According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data; determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code for comparing schedule data contained in the schedule mail with schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; and automatic transmission program code for transmit- ting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of a received schedule mail when the comparing program code detects duplication between the both schedule data.

According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data; determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; condition determining program code for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when the comparing program code detects duplication between the both schedule data; and storage renewing program code for deleting duplicate schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code and controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the condition determining program code determines that a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition.

According to the present invention, there is provided a storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving a mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data to schedule storage means; determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code means for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; temporary storage program code for controlling temporary storage means to temporarily storing the received schedule mail when the comparing program code detects duplication between the both schedule data; changing program code for changing schedule data stored in the schedule storage means; and data transfer program code means for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule storage means when a change is performed by the changing program code and duplicate schedule data which is stored in the schedule storage means is cleared. Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention. The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Brief Description of Drawings The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the present invention and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the present invention in which: Other objects and features of the present invention can easily be understood by one skilled in the art from the description regarding preferred embodiments of the present invention when the accompanying drawing is simultaneously considered in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of an electronic mail system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a storage content of a DRAM of the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is detailed representations showing a received mail area shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is detailed representations showing an address list area shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 5 is detailed representations showing a schedule area shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is detailed representations showing a schedule data for one day shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a main flow chart for a CPU in the first embodiment ;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for reception display processing in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for the reception display processing, continued to FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for the reception display processing, continued to FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is a view showing a screen display at the reception display processing of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart for address list display processing in the reception display processing of FIG. 9; FIG. 13 is a flow chart for the address list display processing, continued to FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a view showing a screen display by the address list display processing of FIG. 12;

FIG. 15 is a flow chart for schedule display processing in the reception display processing of FIG. 9;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart for the schedule display processing, continued to FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart for the schedule display processing, continued to FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 is a flow chart for the schedule display processing, continued to FIG. 17; FIG. 19 is a view showing a screen display by the schedule display processing of FIG. 15;

FIG. 20 is a flow chart for mail creation processing in the reception display processing of FIG. 9;

FIG. 21 is a flow chart for the mail creation processing, continued from FIG. 20;

FIG. 22 is a view showing a screen display by the mail creation processing of FIG. 9; FIG. 23 is a flow chart for schedule mail creation processing in the reception display processing of FIG. 9;

FIG. 24 is a flow chart for the schedule mail creation processing, continued to FIG. 23; FIG. 25 is a view showing a screen display by the schedule mail creation processing of FIG. 23;

FIG. 26 is a flow chart for address designating processing in the mail creation processing of FIG. 20;

FIG. 27 is a view showing a screen display by the address designating processing of FIG. 26;

FIG. 28 is a flow chart for unsealing processing in the reception display processing of FIG. 10;

FIG. 29 is a view showing a screen display by the unsealing processing in the case of an ordinary mail of FIG. 28;

FIG. 30 is a view showing a screen display by the unsealing processing in the case of a schedule mail of FIG. 28;

FIG. 31 is a flow chart for address addition processing in the address list display processing of FIG. 13; FIG. 32 is a view showing a screen display by the address addition processing of FIG. 31;

FIG. 33 is a flow chart for address detailed display processing in the address list display processing of FIG. 13; FIG. 34 is a view showing a screen display by the address detailed display processing of FIG. 33;

FIG. 35 is a flow chart for schedule registration processing in the schedule display processing of FIG. 17; FIG. 36 is a view showing a screen display by the schedule registration processing of FIG. 35;

FIG. 37 is a flow chart for warning screen display processing of FIG. 35;

FIG. 38 is a view showing a screen display by the warning screen display processing of FIG. 37;

FIG. 39 is a flow chart for schedule detailed display processing in the schedule display processing of FIG. 17;

FIG. 40 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, continued to FIG. 39;

FIG. 41 is a view showing a screen display by the schedule detailed display processing of FIG. 39; FIG. 42 is a flow chart for the next month display processing of FIG. 18;

FIG. 43 is a flow chart for the previous month display processing of FIG. 18; FIG. 44 is a flow chart for reception processing in the first embodiment;

FIG. 45 is a flow chart for the reception processing, continued to FIG. 44;

FIG. 46 is a flow chart for the reception processing, continued to FIG. 45;

FIG. 47 is a flow chart for the reception processing, continued to FIG. 44;

FIG. 48 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "A" in the first embodiment; FIG. 49 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "B" in the first embodiment;

FIG. 50 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "C" in the first embodiment;

FIG. 51 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "D" in the first embodiment;

FIG. 52 is a flow chart for waiting mail clearing processing in FIG. 7;

FIG. 53 is a representation showing an example of a storage medium on which stored is an electronic mail program and which a computer can read out;

FIG. 54 is a flow chart for schedule registration processing in a second embodiment; FIG. 55 is a flow chart for the schedule registration processing, continued to FIG. 54;

FIG. 56 is a flow chart for the schedule registration processing, continued to FIG. 54; FIG. 57 is a view showing a screen display by the schedule registration processing of FIG. 54;

FIG. 58 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "A" in the second embodiment;

FIG. 59 is a flow chart for schedule detailed display processing in the second embodiment;

FIG. 60 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, to FIG. 59;

FIG. 61 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, to FIG. 60; FIG. 62 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, to FIG. 61;

FIG. 63 is a view showing a schedule detailed display screen image in the second embodiment;

FIG. 64 is a view showing another schedule detailed display screen image in the second embodiment;

FIG. 65 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "B" in the second embodiment;

FIG. 66 is a flow chart for reception processing in the second embodiment; FIG. 67 is a flow chart for schedule registration processing in a third embodiment;

FIG. 68 is a flow chart for reception processing in the third embodiment;

FIG. 69 is a representation showing a storage content of RAM in a fourth embodiment;

FIG. 70 is a flow chart for reception processing in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 71 is a flow chart for the reception processing, continued to FIG. 70;

FIG. 72 is a representation showing a storage content of RAM in a fifth embodiment; FIG. 73 is a main flow chart for CPU in the fifth embodiment ;

FIG. 74 is a flow chart for schedule detailed display processing in the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 75 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, continued to FIG. 74;

FIG. 76 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, continued to FIG. 75;

FIG. 77 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, continued to FIG. 75; FIG. 78 is a flow chart for the schedule detailed display processing, continued to FIG. 77;

FIG. 79 is a flow chart for deletion processing in the schedule detailed display processing of FIG. 78;

FIG. 80 is a flow chart for correction processing in the schedule detailed display processing of FIG. 78;

FIG. 81 is a view showing a schedule detailed display screen image in the fifth embodiment; FIG. 82 is a view showing another schedule detailed display screen image in the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 83 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "A" in the fifth embodiment; FIG. 84 is a view showing a content of a fixed form mail "B" in the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 85 is a flow chart for reception processing in the fifth embodiment; and

FIG. 86 is a flow chart for provisional registra- tion deletion processing in the fifth embodiment.

Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings .

In the embodiments, assembly of a conference will be described being taken as an example of an event.

When an electronic mail system of the present invention receives an electronic mail for schedule registration of a conference, the apparatus confirms with a scheduler whether or not there is a schedule which has been registered. At this point, if there is available a free time zone for scheduling a conference assembly, the schedule of the conference assembly is registered with the scheduler. If duplication between schedules arises in a time zone for the conference assembly, the apparatus notices a free time zone on the same day other than the time zone and transmits an electronic mail inquiring whether or not the conference assembly can be changed to the free time zone to the transmitter of the electronic mail for schedule registration of a conference. Thereafter, if the electronic mail system of the present invention receives again a response electronic mail to the effect that the time zone of the conference assembly is changed to the free time zone in response to the electronic mail of inquiry transmitted from the apparatus, a new time zone of the conference assembly after the change is registered with the scheduler. This is a major feature of the present invention and with application of the feature, a user of the apparatus can attain a schedule which has been adjusted in regard to duplicate registration without bothering the user of the apparatus . First embodiment

FIG. 1 is a representation showing a hardware architecture of an electronic mail system of the present invention. In the figure, electronic mail apparatuses 21A, 21B, 21C ... each have a similar internal structure and are a client computer connected to LAN (Local Area Network) 5. An electronic mail server 11A is a server computer provided to perform an electronic mail service on LAN 5. The electronic mail server 11A is connected to WAN (Wide Area Network) 15. The WAN 15 is further connected by a plurality of electronic mail servers 11B, 11C, 11D in addition to the electronic mail server 11A. The details of the electronic mail system 21A will be described. The electronic mail system 21A comprises functional blocks, that is an input device 22, an output device 23, a main control device 24, a storage device 25 and a communication control device 26.

The input device 22 inputs commands from an operator of the electronic mail system 21A and comprises an input elements, such as a mouse 31 and a key board 32, and the input control device 23. A pointing device such as a track ball can be substituted for the mouse 31 and a touch panel or the like can also be used instead of the keyboard 32.

The output device 23 outputs information to a user of the electronic mail system 21A and comprises a display device 42 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display and an output control device 41 for controlling the display device 42.

The main control device 24 is to control all the electronic mail system 21A in a comprehensive manner and comprises a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 51.

The storage device 25 stores a processing program executed in the CPU 51 and necessary data associated with the program, electronic mails and electronic mail addresses and the like. The storage device 25 comprises RAM 61 constituting a mail box which stores electronic mails and is used for temporary storage of data and ROM 62 to store a program. In the case of a processing program, RAM 61 is used as a work area for processing executed in CPU 51 as well.

The communication control device 26 works as an interface between the electronic mail system 21A and LAN 5 and enables the apparatus 21A to communicate with other apparatuses connecting to LAN 5.

FIG. 2 shows a storage content of the RAM 61. A storage area of RAM 61 is divided into a received mail area, an address list area, a schedule area, a mail creation area, a fixed form mail storage area, a schedule creation area and a mail waiting area in a broader sense and data are stored in the respective areas to which data correspond. Among them, in the fixed form mail storage area, four fixed form mails "A" to "D" are stored in advance which are read from the

ROM 62. Details of fixed form mails will be described later .

FIG. 3 is representations showing details of the received mail area shown in FIG. 2. The received mail box includes N mails from MAIL(l) to MAIL(N) .

In the embodiment, electronic mails which are received by the electronic mail system 21A are categorized into two kinds, that is an ordinary mail and a schedule mail requiring for schedule registration (conference assembly noticing mail) . FIG. 3 shows a storage content in the received mail area when electronic mails of both types are received and in this example, shown is the case where an ordinary mail is stored in MAIL(l) and a schedule mail is stored in MAIL(N) .

An ordinary mail stored in MAIL(l) comprises a flag SCF indicating a kind of mail, a mail address showing a transmitter of the mail, a mail address of a receiver of the mail, a subject of the mail (title), a mail text, a flag KAIFU indicating whether or not the mail is unsealed and reception date of the mail. Among them, in a flag SCF, generally stored is "0" which indicates an ordinary mail. The flag KAIFU indicates that the mail is sealed when "0" is stored in it and the mail is already unsealed when "1" is stored in it. A schedule mail stored in MAIL(N) includes a flag SCF in which stored is "1" indicating that the mail is a schedule mail, a mail address of a transmitter of the mail, a mail address of a receiver of the mail, a name of a conference, a start day/time and an end day/time of the conference, an assembly place of the conference, names of attendees, specific items associated with the conference (for example, an agenda to be discussed in the conference), a flag KAIFU similar to the case of an ordinary mail and a reception date of the mail. FIG. 4 shows details of the address list area shown in FIG. 2. The address list area is an area to store a mail address which has been registered. The address area will in detail be described. In the example of FIG. 4, N mail address data from ADD(l) to ADD(N) can be registered. In each mail address data, comprised are a mail address and a mail type (for example, a version of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) in an internet mail system or the like, which shows a protocol specification of an electronic mail usable at a receiver side) .

FIG. 5 shows details of the schedule area shown in FIG. 2. In the schedule area, stored are schedule data used in a scheduler function. The schedule area will in detail be described. In the example of FIG. 5, mail address data in M months from MONTH(l) to MONTH(M) can be registered. In such a manner, schedule data are stored with data in one month as one block and data of each month are composed of a collection of one day data. FIG. 6 shows details of the one day schedule data shown in FIG. 5. In the example of FIG. 6, L schedule data from SCD(l) to SCD(L) can be registered. As shown in FIG. 6, stored in each schedule data are a name of a conference, a start day/time and an end day/time of the conference, an assembly place of the conference, attendees of the conference and a specific item associated with the conference.

Described will be internal operations of the electronic mail system 21A.

In the electronic mail system 21A shown in FIG. 1, functions regarding an electronic mail including functions which pertains to the present invention, which will hence be described, such as reception of a mail, display of a reception mail list, unsealing of the mail, clearing of a stored mail and the like, and other functions regarding a scheduler including functions pertaining to the present invention, which will hence be described, such as registration of a schedule, display thereof and the like are stored in advance in ROM 62, being written all in processing programs executable by CPU 51, and the functions are realized by being executed by CPU 51, while CPU 51 reads the programs . Flow charts of the programs will be described referring to FIG. 1 at needs. 1-1. Fundamental processing FIG. 7 is a main flow chart showing the fundamental processing which is executed in CPU 51 of the electronic mail system 21A.

At step 101, a present day/time is attained from a clock, not shown, provided in the electronic mail system 21A.

At step 102, reception processing is executed. However, this reception processing is not processing in a normal routine but processing to be executed in response to timer interrupt produced at set intervals . Details of reception processing will be described in Section 15.

At step 103, it is determined whether or not a specific switch of a keyboard has been turned on. If the switch has been turned on, at step 104, "1" is substituted in a flag ONF which is stored in a register in the CPU 51 or in the RAM 61 and then program flow goes to step 105.

On the other hand, if the switch has not been turned on, program flow goes to step 105 by skipping step 104. The switch on the keyboard is a switch by which a user of the electronic mail system 21A starts reception display processing, which will be described later in Section 2.

At step 105, it is determined whether or not the flag ONF is "1," and if the flag is "1," at step 106 the reception display processing is executed and thereafter program goes to step 107. On the other hand, if the flag ONF is not "1," program flow goes to step 107 by skipping step 106. Details of the reception display processing will be described later in Section 2. At step 107, waiting mail clearing processing is executed and thereafter, program flow returns back to step 101 and the above mentioned processing is repeated. Details of the waiting mail clearing processing will later be described in Section 16.

CPU 51 executes and repeats the above mentioned fundamental processing program all the time, while the electronic mail system 21A performs a normal action. 1-2. Reception display processing

The details of the reception display processing executed at step 106 (FIG. 7) will be described.

The reception display processing is not only processing to display a list of received electronic mails but processing in which a request for execution of each processing, that is mail unsealing, received mail deletion, electronic mail creation, schedule mail creation, address list display or schedule display is instructed. The reception display processing is also executed at step 168 (FIG. 13) in the flow chart for address list display processing later described in Section 3 and at step 204 (FIG. 17) in the flow chart for schedule display processing later described in Section 4 according to selection by a user.

FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 are flow charts for reception display processing. FIG. 11 shows a screen image displayed on the display section 42 by the reception display processing. Described will be flow charts of FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 with reference to FIG. 11.

At step 111 of FIG. 8, a current display screen image is cleared and then at step 112, frame writing of a mail list, display of characters such as a transmitter, a subject and a reception date in the uppermost row of the list, and further writing of icon displays of mail creation, schedule mail creation, deletion, unsealing and end which are used for function selection by mouse click are performed as shown in FIG. 11.

Processing from step 113 to step 121 is processing to display each mail stored in the received mail area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 3 in the display frame of the mail list of FIG. 11.

At step 113, "1" is substituted in a variable "n" . At step 114, it is determined whether or not a flag SCF of MAIL(n) stored in the received mail area in the RAM 61 is "1". If SCF is "1", that is if MAIL(n) is a schedule mail, program goes to step 115 and if SCF is not "1", that is if MAIL(n) is an ordinary mail, program goes to step 117.

At step 115, MAIL(n) stored in the received mail storage area is referred to and a mail address of a transmitter of the mail, a name of a conference and a reception date are displayed in one column of the list table shown in FIG. 11. When a transmitter address of a mail is stored in the address list area of FIG. 4, a name corresponding to a mail address in stead of the mail address may be displayed reading out from the address list area and the display of FIG. 11 is a result of such processing. The name of a conference is displayed in a column of the subject. At step 116, when a mail displayed in the list table is a schedule mail, a mark "S" is displayed at the left side end of each space of the column of the subject and program goes to step 118.

At step 117, MAIL(n) stored in the received mail storage area is referred to and a mail address of a transmitter of the mail, a subject and a reception date are displayed in a column of the list table showing in FIG. 11. At this point, when the transmitter address of the mail is stored in the address area of FIG. 4, a name corresponding the mail address in stead of the mail address may be displayed in stead of the mail address reading out the name from the address list area, At step 118, a flag KAIFU of MAIL(n) is compared with "0". If the unseal flag KAIFU is "0", that is indicates a seal state, program goes to step 119, a double circle mark indicating that the received mail is in a seal state is displayed in a space in the left end column of the row of display of the received mail and program goes to step to 120. On the other hand, if the unseal flag KAIFU indicates "1", that is indicate a unseal state, program goes to step 120 without presentation of a new display.

At step 120, the variable "n" is incremented by one .

At step 121, it is determined whether or not the number "n" of displays of received mails in the mail list shown in FIG. 11 at step 113 has exceeded the number N which is the maximum number of received mails which can be displayed. If the number "n" of displays is beyond the number N, program flow goes to step 122. If the number "n" of displays has not exceeded, program flow returns back to step 114 and the display processing of MAIL(n) into the mail list table is repeated. Processing from steps 122 to 126 is processing in which the display screen image shown in FIG. 11 and a mouse cursor is displayed.

At step 122, "1" is substituted into a variable "A" and at step 123, in a display row of MAIL(A) , a character color and a background color of the list are reversed and are converted to so-called reverse display. In FIG. 11, the display row is expressed with oblique lines in stead of the reverse display.

At steps 124 and 125, icon displays for selection of an address list display function and a schedule display function by mouse click, which are shown on the left side of the mail list in FIG. 11, are written on the screen.

At step 126, a mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

Processing from step 127 to step 129 is processing for display of movement of the mouse cursor and detection of a click action of the mouse 31.

At step 127, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If movement of the mouse 31 is detected, at step 128 the mouse cursor is moved in corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse 31 and program goes to step 129

(FIG. 9). On the other hand, if no movement of the mouse 31 is detected, program goes to step 129 (FIG. 9) by skipping step 128. In FIG. 9, at step 129 it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If it is detected that the click action has given to the mouse

31, program goes to step 130. On the other hand, if it is detected that no click action has given to the mouse 31, program returns back to step 127 (FIG. 8) and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

Processing from step 130 to step 144 of FIG. 10 is processing to execute, while identifying, selection of one of the functions which the electronic mail system

21A has according to a position of the mouse cursor when the mouse cursor is detected.

Processing from step 130 to step 132 is processing in which a mail to be an object for following processing is set from in the mail list displayed on the display section 42, as shown in FIG. 11.

At step 130, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen image when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is within the mail list. If yes in step 130, program flow goes to step 131. On the other hand, if no in step 130, program flow goes to step 133. At step 131, a mail number corresponding to the display row in which the mouse cursor is positioned is attained and a value of the number is substituted in the variable "A". Subsequently, at step 132, characters and a background color in a display row of MAIL(A) corresponding to the variable "A" are changed to reverse display and the other rows in reverse display are simultaneously restored to be in the normal display condition. At step 133, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen image when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is at one of two icons that are located in the left portion of the display screen of FIG. 7. If the mouse cursor is present in the "schedule" display, at step 135 schedule display processing is executed and thereafter program flow goes to step 136. Also if the mouse cursor is present in the "address list", at the step 135 schedule display processing is executed and thereafter program flow goes to step 136. If the mouse cursor is present at a position other than the both icon displays, program flow goes to step 136 by skipping step 135. Details of the schedule display processing will be described later in Section 4 and details of the address list will be described later in Section 3.

At step 136, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in "mail creation" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 11. If yes in step 136, mail creation processing at step 137 is executed and thereafter program goes to step 138. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present in a different position, program flow goes to step 138 by skipping step 137. Details of the mail creation processing will be described later in Section 5. At step 138, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "schedule mail creation" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 11. If yes in step 138, the schedule mail creation processing is executed at step 139 and thereafter program flow goes to step 140 (FIG. 10). On the other hand, if no in step 138, program flow goes to step 140 (FIG. 10) by skipping step 139. Details of the schedule mail creation processing will be described later in Section 6.

In FIG. 10, processing from step 140 to step 142 is processing to delete received mails which have been stored.

At step 140, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "delete" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 11. If yes in step 140, program flow goes to step 141 and on the other hand, if no in step 140, program flow goes to step 143.

At step 141, a content of MAIL(A) (a storage content shown in FIG. 3) which is in a reverse display state by the processing of step 132 (FIG. 9) is erased from RAM 61. At step 142, processing in which mail numbers larger than MAIL(A) which has been deleted are respectively reduced by "1" in number is executed in connection to a storage content of received mails stored in the received mail storage area of RAM 61 shown in FIG. 3 and then program flow returns to step 111 (FIG. 8) in order to display a renewed storage content .

At step 143, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "unseal" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 11. If yes in step 143, the unseal processing is executed at step 144 and thereafter program flow goes to step 145. On the other hand, if no in step 143, program flow goes to step 145 by skipping step 144. Details of the unseal processing will be described later in Section 8. Processing from step 145 to step 147 is processing in which the reception display processing is terminated.

At step 145, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 11. If yes in step 145, program flow goes to step 146. On the other hand, if no in step 145, it is determined that the click action this time detected at step 129 (FIG. 9) is invalid. Then, program flow returns back to step 127 (FIG. 8) and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 146, the display screen image by the reception display processing is all cleared and step 147, a flag ONF for activating the reception display processing described in fundamental processing of Section 1 is set to "0" and the reception display processing this time is terminated. 1-3. Address list display processing

Described will be the address list display processing executed at step 135 of FIG. 9 in the flow chart for the reception display processing of Section 2. The address list display processing displays a mail address list which has been registered stored in the address list area shown in FIG. 4 and can also issue instructions of requests for execution of processings of mail address additional registration, mail address registration deletion, mail address registration content detailed display, received mail list display and schedule display. The address list display processing can also be executed in response to selection of a user at step 203 (FIG. 17) in the flow chart for the schedule display processing described later in Section 4.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are flow charts for the address list display processing. A screen image presented on the display section 42 by this processing is shown in FIG. 14. The flow charts of FIGS. 12 and 13 will be described with reference to FIG. 14.

At step 151 of FIG. 12, performed are writing a frame of an address list, display of characters such as name and mail address in the uppermost row of the list and besides writing of icon displays for selection by mouse click of functions including mail address addition, mail address deletion, registered mail address detailed display and end, which are shown in FIG. 14.

Processing from step 152 to step 155 is processing in which a list of mail addresses stored in the address list area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 4 is presented in a display frame of a mail address list shown in FIG. 14. AT step 152, "1" is substituted in the variable At step 153, names and mail addresses corresponding to the names are displayed in one column of the list table with reference to ADD(n) stored in the address list area. At step 154, the variable "n" is incremented by one .

At step 155, it is determined whether or not the number "n" of displays of registered mail addresses to the address list at step 153 has exceeded the number M which can be displayed in one screen and if "n" has exceeded M, program flow goes to step 156. On the other hand, if "n" has not exceeded M, program flow returns to step 153 and display processing to the address list of ADD(n) is repeated. Processing from step 156 to step 160 is processing in which the display screen image shown in FIG. 14 is completed and the mouse cursor is displayed.

At step 156 and step 157, performed is writing of icon displays for selection by mouse click of functions such as received mail list display and schedule display on the left side of the address list of FIG. 14.

At step 158, "1" is substituted in the variable "A" and at step 159, display colors of characters and a background in a display row of MAIL(A) are reversed, that is are subjected to so-called reverse display. In FIG. 14, the row in reverse display is expressed with oblique lines instead of the reverse display itsel f .

At step 160, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

Processing from step 161 to step 163 of FIG. 13 is processing in which performed are display of movement of the mouse cursor according to control of the mouse 31 and detection of a click action of the mouse 31.

At step 161, it is determined whether or not the mouse has moved. If movement of the mouse is detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 162, and program goes to step 163 (FIG. 13). On the other hand, if movement of the mouse is not detected, program flow goes to step 163 (FIG. 13) by skipping step 162.

In FIG. 13, at step 163, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If the click action has given, program flow goes to step 164. On the other hand, if no click action has given, program flow returns to step 161 (FIG. 12) and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

Processing from step 164 to step 173 is processing in which one of the functions which the electronic mail system 21A has is selected according to a position of the mouse cursor when the mouse click has been detected and the selected function is executed. Processing from step 164 to step 166 is processing in which a mail address which is an object for which processing following the processing step 164 to step 166 is executed is set from in the mail address list displayed on the display section 42 as shown in FIG. 14. At step 164, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the mail address list. If yes in step 164, program flow goes to step 165. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 167.

At step 165, a mail address number (n of ADD(n)) corresponding to a display row in which the mouse cursor is present is obtained and a value of the number is substituted in the variable "A". At step 166, colors of characters and a background in the display row of ADD (A) corresponding to the variable "A" are changed to reverse display and simultaneously the other reverse display rows are restored to a normal display. At step 167, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is one of the two icon displays in the left side of the display screen of FIG. 14. If the mouse cursor is present in the position of the "received mail" icon, the reception display processing described in Section 2 is executed at step 168 and thereafter program flow goes to step 170. If the mouse cursor is present in the position of the "schedule" icon, the schedule display processing is executed at step 169 and thereafter program flow goes to step 170. If the mouse cursor is not present at two icons, program flow goes to step 170 by skipping steps 168 and 169. Details of the schedule display processing will be described later in Section 4.

At step 170, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "addition" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 14. If yes in step 170, address addition processing at step 171 is executed at step 171 and thereafter program flow goes to step 172. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 172 by skippincj step 171. Details of the address addition processing will be described later in Section 9. At step 172, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "details" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 14. If yes in step 172, an address detailed display processing is executed at step 173 and thereafter program flow goes to step 174. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 174 by skipping step 173. Details of the address detailed display processing will be described later in Section 10. Processing from step 174 to step 177 is processing in which mail addresses which have been registered are deleted.

At step 174, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "deletion" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 14. If yes in step 174, program flow goes to step 175 and on the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 178.

At step 175, a content (a storage content shown in FIG. 4) of ADD (A) in reverse display by the processing at step 166 is erased from RAM 61.

At step 176, processing in which numbers larger than ADD (A) which has been deleted are respectively reduced by "1" is executed in connection to the storage content of received mails stored in the address list area of RAM 61 shown in FIG. 4. At step 177, the current display screen is erased and thereafter program flow returns to step 151 (FIG. 12) in order to display a renewed storage content .

Processing from step 178 to step 179 is processing in which the address list display processing is terminated.

At step 178, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 14. If yes in step 178, program flow goes to step 179. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 163 is invalid, program flow returns to step 161 (FIG. 12) and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 179, the display screen by the address list display processing is all cleared and the address list display processing this time is terminated. 1-4. Schedule display processing

Described will be the schedule display processings executed at step 134 (FIG. 9) of the flow chart for the reception display processing in Section 2 and at step 169 (FIG. 13) of the flow chart for the address list display processing in Section 3.

The schedule display processing displays a schedule which has been registered stored in the schedule area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 5 on a monthly basis and at the same time, can issue instructions of requests for execution of processings including schedule additional registration, schedule registration content detailed display, the previous month schedule display, the next month schedule display, received mail list display and address list display. FIGS. 15, 16, 17 and 18 are flow charts for the reception display processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by this processing is shown in FIG. 19. Described will be flow charts of FIGS. 15, 16, 17 and 18 with reference to FIG. 19. Processing from step 181 to step 187 of FIG. 15 is processing in which displayed are a calendar shown in FIG. 19 which indicates whether or not a schedule is set for the day in question (hereinafter referred to as schedule calendar) and icons in the peripheral area. At step 181 of FIG. 15, a current display screen image is cleared and at step 182 performed are writing of a frame of a schedule calendar, display of characters such as "year" and "month" in the upper portion of the calendar, in addition to those writing of icon displays for selection of functions by mouse click in the upper portion of the screen including schedule registration display, schedule detailed display, the previous month schedule display, the next month schedule display and end display, which are shown in FIG. 19. Furthermore, at step 183, writing of icon displays of received mail display and address list display shown on the left side of the schedule calendar of FIG. 19 is performed.

At step 184, a current month of year obtained in time measure processing at step 101 in the flow chart for the fundamental processing of Section 1 is set as a designated month of year and is stored in a register in CPU 51 or RAM 61.

At step 185, the designated month of year is displayed in the year and month display portions in the upper portion of the calendar frame of FIG. 19 and then at step 186, dates of one month included in the designated month of year are respectively displayed in the calendar in a corresponding manner to seven week days .

At step 187, a display space of a date including the present time is presented in reverse display in which display colors of characters and a background are reversed. In FIG. 19, oblique lines are displayed instead of reverse display.

Processing from step 188 to step 193 of FIG. 16 is processing in which presented in a date space of the schedule calendar of FIG. 19 is a reservation mark indicating that schedule registration has been made for the date .

At step 188, a pointer "B" is set at the head portion in an area in which schedule data of one month corresponding to the designated month of year are stored in the schedule area in RAM 61 shown FIG. 5. In FIG. 16, at step 189, "1" is substituted in the variable "n" .

At step 190, it is determined whether or not schedule data are stored in an area for a day "n" in MONTH(B) in the schedule area shown in FIG. 5. If the data are stored, program flow goes to step 191, a reservation mark ( "R" mark) which indicates that schedule which has been registered resides in the date is presented at the top left corner in the space corresponding to the date of the schedule calendar of FIG. 19 and thereafter program goes to step 192.

At step 192, the variable "n" is incremented by one .

At step 193, it is determined whether or not a value of "n" has exceeded the last day of MONTH(B) and if the value has exceeded the last day, program flow goes to step 194. On the other hand, if the value has not exceeded the last day of MONTH(B) , program flow returns to step 190 and display processing of a reservation mark is repeated.

At step 194, a space of the first day of the month of the schedule calendar shown in FIG. 19 is displayed in a different color, which has been changed from its original color, from the other spaces. In FIG. 19, that a display color of the space of the first day is different from the other spaces is expressed by shading. Processing from step 196 to step 198 is processing in which display of movement of the mouse cursor according to control of the mouse 31 and detection of a click action of the mouse 31 are performed.

At step 196, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved and if the movement of the mouse 31 has been detected, at step 197 the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse and thereafter program flow goes to step 198. On the other hand, if the movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 198 by skipping step 197. At step 198, it is determined whether or not a click action has been given to the mouse 31. If yes in step 198, program flow goes to step 199 (FIG. 17). On the other hand, if the click action has not been given, program flow returns back to step 196 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

In FIG. 17, Processing from step 199 to step 212 is processing in which one of the functions which the electronic mail system 21A has is selected according to a position of the mouse cursor when mouse click has been detected and the selected function is executed.

Processing from step 199 to step 201 is processing in which a date which is an object for processing which follows the processing from step 199 to step 201 is set in the shown schedule calendar.

At step 199, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the date position. If yes in step 199, program flow goes to step 200. If the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 202.

At step 200, a date corresponding to a position at which the mouse cursor is present is obtained and the date is substituted in a pointer "A" and at step 201, a display space for the date corresponding to the pointer "A" is changed to the same color as the color after change in the space for the first day of the month and simultaneously the other spaces for days whose color has been changed are restored to their original color. At step 202, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present one of the two icon displays in the left portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If the mouse 31 is present in the "address list" icon, the address list display processing described in Section 3 is executed at step 203 and thereafter program flow goes to step 205. If the mouse cursor is present in the "received mail" icon, the reception display processing described in Section 2 is executed at step 204 and thereafter program flow goes to step 205. If the mouse cursor is present at a different position from both icons, program flow goes to step 205 by skipping step 204. At step 205, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "registration" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If yes in step 205, schedule registration processing is executed at step 206 and thereafter program flow goes to step 207. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 207 by skipping step 206. Details of the schedule registration processing will be described later in Section 11.

At step 207, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given is present in the "details" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If yes in step 207, schedule detailed display processing is executed at step 208 and thereafter program flow goes to step 209 (FIG. 18). On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 209 (FIG. 18) by skipping step 208. Details of the schedule detailed display processing will be described later in Section 13.

In FIG. 18, at step 209, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in the "the previous month" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If yes in step 209, the previous month display processing is executed at step 210 and thereafter program flow returns to step 185 (FIG. 15). On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 211 by skipping step 210. Details of the previous month display processing will be described later in Section 14.

At step 211, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in the "the next month" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If yes in step 211, the next month display processing is executed at step 212 and thereafter program flow returns to step 185

(FIG. 15). On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 213 by skipping step 212. Details of the next month display processing will be described later in Section 14.

Processing from step 213 to step 214 is processing in which schedule display processing is terminated. At step 213, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 19. If yes in step 213, program flow goes to step 214. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 198 (FIG. 16) is invalid, program flow returns to step 196 (FIG. 16) and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 214, the display screen by the schedule display processing is all cleared and the reception display processing this time is terminated. 1-5. Mail creation processing

Described will be the mail creation processing executed at step 137 (FIG. 9) in the flow chart for the reception display processing in Section 2. The mail creation processing is processing in which an ordinary mail is created and transmitted.

FIGS. 20 and 21 are flow charts for the mail creation processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by the processing is shown in FIG. 22. Described will be flow charts of FIGS. 20 and 21 with reference to FIG. 22.

Processing from step 221 to step 222 is processing in which the screen display of FIG. 22 is created. At step 221, written or displayed are display frames of mail creation screen image spaces and characters such as a receiver address, a subject, transmission, cancellation and address designation, which are shown in FIG. 22. At step 222, a character cursor indicating a character input position is displayed in the receiver address input area (a receiver address space of FIG. 22). At step 223, data of a receiver address, a subject and a text of a mail stored in the mail creation area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 are respectively displayed in corresponding spaces of the screen image by the mail creation processing of FIG. 22. At step 224, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

Processing from step 225 to step 237 of FIG. 21 is to select one of processings of movement of the character cursor, designation from in an address list for receiver address inputting, and mail transmission or cancellation (stop) of mail creation by operation of the mouse 31 and execute the selected one of processings .

At step 225, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved. If movement of the mouse 31 is detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 226 and program flow goes to step 227. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse 31 is not detected, program flow goes to step 227 by skipping step 226.

At step 227, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If the click action has given, program flow goes to step 228. If the click action has not been given, program flow goes to step 238. At step 228, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in areas (spaces for a receiver address, a subject and a text of FIG. 22) for character inputting on the display screen image of FIG. 22. If yes in step 228, program flow goes to step 229, the character cursor is moved to an area where the mouse cursor is currently present and thereafter program flow goes to step 230 (FIG. 21). On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 230 (FIG. 21) by skipping step 229.

In FIG. 21, at step 230, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a clock action is given to the mouse 31 is present in the "transmission" display portion in the right portion of the display screen of FIG. 22, program flow goes to step 231 and on the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 233. At step 231, an electronic mail which includes a receiver address, a subject and a text displayed on the display screen shown in FIG. 22 and in addition a mail address of a user of the electronic mail system 21A as a transmitter is transmitted to the electronic mail server 11A via LAN 5 from the communication control section 26. The user mail address is input from the keyboard 32 by the user and stored in a different area of RAM 61 in advance.

At step 232, the display screen image by the mail creation processing is all cleared and the present mail creation processing is terminated and program flow returns to the reception display processing.

At step 233, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in the "cancellation" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 22. If yes in step 233, program flow goes to step 234, on the other hand if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 236.

At step 234, a storage content of the mail creation area is erased, then at step 235, the display screen image by the mail creation processing is all cleared, the present mail creation processing is thus terminated and program flow returns to the reception display processing. At step 236, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in the "address designation" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 22. If yes in step 236, program flow goes to step 237, an address designation processing is performed and thereafter program flow returns back to step 223 (FIG. 20).

On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that mouse click this time which has been detected at step 227 (FIG. 20) is invalid and program flow returns back to step 225 (FIG. 20) and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated. Details of the address designation processing will be described later in Section 7.

In FIG. 20, processing from step 238 which follows step 227 (FIG. 20) to step 240 is processing in which a mail is created by inputting from the keyboard 32.

At step 238, it is determined whether or not data is input from the keyboard 32. If yes in step 238, program flow goes to step 239 and on the other hand if the inputting has not been made, program flow returns to step 225 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 239, characters corresponding to the input of the keyboard 32 are displayed in a space in which the character cursor is displayed and at step 240, the character data is stored in an area of the mail creation area of FIG. 2 corresponding to the space in which character display has been performed and thereafter program flow returns to step 225.

1-6. Schedule mail creation processing

Described will be the schedule mail creation process executed at step 139 (FIG. 9) in the flow chart for the reception display processing in Section 2.

The schedule mail creation processing is processing in which a schedule mail is created and transmitted.

FIGS. 23 and 24 are flow charts for the schedule mail creation processing. In FIG. 25, shown is a screen image displayed on the display section 42 by the processing. Described will be flow charts of FIGS. 23 and 24 with reference to FIG. 25.

At step 241, a content of the mail creation area of RAM 6 shown in FIG. 2 is cleared before processing following to step 241.

Processing from step 242 to step 243 is processing in which a screen display shown in FIG. 25 is created.

At step 242, written or displayed are space frames of the schedule mail creation screen image and characters such as a receiver address, a name of a conference, a start day/time, an end day/time, a place to be assembled, attendees, a specific item, transmission, cancellation and address designation, which are shown in FIG. 25. At step 243, displayed are data of a receiver address, a conference name, a start time, an end time, a place to be assembled, attendees, a specific item associated with the conference of a mail stored in the mail creation area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 in corresponding spaces in the schedule mail creation screen image of FIG. 25. At step 244, displayed is a character cursor indicating a character input position in the receiver address input area (the receiver address space for screen display shown in FIG. 25).

At step 245, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

Processing from step 246 to step 258 of FIG. 24 is to execute one of processings of movement of the character cursor, designation from an address list for receiver address inputting, mail transmission or cancellation (stop) of schedule mail creation by operation of the mouse 31 based on selection by a user of the electronic mail system 21A.

At step 246, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved and if movement of the mouse 31 has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in correspondence to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 247 and then program flow goes to step 248. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 248 by skipping step 247.

At step 248, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31 and if the click action has given, program flow goes to step 249, whereas if the click action has not given, program flow goes to step 259 (FIG. 24).

At step 249, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in an area (spaces for a receiver address, a conference name, start, end, place, attendees, a specific item of FIG. 25) for character inputting on the display screen of FIG. 25. If yes in step 249, program flow goes to step 250 at which the character cursor is moved to a space in which the mouse cursor is currently present and thereafter program flow goes to step 251. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 251 by skipping step 250.

At step 251, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in the "transmission" display portion in the right portion of the display screen of FIG. 25. If yes in step 251, program flow goes to step 252 and on the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 254 (FIG. 24). At step 252, transmitted is a schedule mail which includes a receiver address, a conference name, start, end, place, attendees and a specific item which are displayed on the schedule mail creation screen image shown in FIG. 25 and in addition, a mail address of a user of the electronic mail system 21A as a transmitter, from the communication control section 26 via LAN 5 to the electronic mail server 11A.

As mentioned above, a mail address of the user is input from the keyboard 32 and stored in a different area of RAM 61 in advance.

At step 253, the display screen image by the schedule mail creation processing is all cleared, the schedule mail creation processing this time is terminated and program flow returns to the reception display processing.

In FIG. 24, at step 254, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "cancellation" display portion in the upper portion of the display screen of FIG. 25. If yes in step 254, program flow goes to step 255. On the other hand if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 257.

At step 255, a storage content of the mail creation area is erased and then at step 256, the display screen image by the schedule mail creation processing is all cleared, the present schedule mail creation processing is terminated and program flow returns to the reception display processing. At step 257, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "address designation" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 25. If yes in step 257, program flow goes to step 258, an address designation processing is executed and thereafter program flow returns to step 242 (FIG. 23). On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 248 (FIG. 23) is invalid, program flow returns to step 246 (FIG. 23) and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated. Details of the address designation processing will be described later in Section 7.

Processing from step 259 to step 261 which follows step 251 (FIG. 23) is processing in which a schedule mail is created by inputting from the keyboard 32. At step 259, it is detected whether or not inputting has been made to the keyboard 32 and if the inputting has been detected, program flow goes to step 260. On the other hand, if the inputting has not been made, program flow returns to step 246 (FIG. 23) and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated. At step 260, characters corresponding to input from the keyboard 32 is displayed in a space in which a character cursor is displayed, character data are stored in an area of the mail creation area of FIG. 2 corresponding to the space at step 261 and program flow returns to step 246 (FIG. 23).

1-7. Address designation processing Described will be the address designation processing which is executed at step 237 (FIG. 21) in the flow chart for the mail creation processing of Section 5 and at step 258 (FIG. 24) in the flow chart for the schedule mail creation processing of Section 6. The address designation processing is processing in which a list of mail addresses which have been registered and which are stored in the address list area shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, a mail address in a receiver address space of FIG. 22 or FIG. 25 is stored only by selecting a mail address of a created mail from the list, and an effect that complexity such that a user of the electronic mail system 21A inputs a mail address of a receiver from the keyboard 32 is alleviated is obtained. FIG. 26 is a flow chart for the address designation processing. A display screen image presented on the display section 42 by the processing is shown in FIG. 27. The flow chart of FIG. 26 will be described with reference to FIG. 27 below. In program flow of FIG. 26, at step 271, performed are writing such as an address list frame of FIG. 27 and displays for selection of functions of cancellation, end and the like by mouse click in the top right portion of the display screen, which are shown in FIG. 27.

Processing from step 272 to step 275 is processing in which actually displayed is the mail address list in a space for the address list shown in FIG. 27.

At step 272, "1" is substituted in the variable "n" .

At step 273, displayed are corresponding names and a mail address in one column of the list corresponding to ADD(n) stored in the address list area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 4.

At step 274, the variable "n" is incremented by one . At step 275, it is determined whether or not the number "n" of display addresses to the address list has exceeded the address number "M" which can be displayed in one screen and if "n" has exceeded "M" , program flow goes to step 276. On the other hand, if "n" has not yet exceeded "M" , program flow returns to step 273 and the address list display processing is repeated.

Processing from step 276 to step 291 is processing in which a mail receiver address is selected from mail address of a list by an operation of the mouse 31 and the selected mail address is copied to the receiver address space shown in FIG. 22 or FIG. 25.

At step 276, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

At step 277, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved. If movement of the mouse 31 has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corre- sponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 278 and then program goes to step 279.

On the other hand if movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 279 by skipping step 278.

At step 279, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If the click action has given, program flow goes to step 280. On the other hand, if the click action has not been given, program returns to step 277 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 280, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present on the mail address list on the display screen of FIG. 27. If yes in step 280, program flow goes to step 281. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 283.

At step 281, a mail address number corresponding to a display row in which the mouse cursor is positioned is obtained and the mail address number is substituted in the variable "A". Then, at step 282, a color of characters and a background of a display row of ADD (A) is reversed.

At step 283, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "cancellation" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 27. If yes in step 283, program flow goes to step 284, the display screen shown in FIG. 27 is all cleared, the present address designation processing is terminated and program flow returns to the mail creation processing or the schedule mail creation processing in the earlier stages. At this step, if the address designation processing is terminated, the mail address is not copied to the receiver address space. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 285.

At step 285, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 27. If yes in step 285, program flow goes to step 286. On the other hand, if the position of the mouse cursor is present in the other portion, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 279 is invalid and program flow returns to step 277 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated. At step 286, "1" is substituted in the variable "n" .

At step 287, it is determined whether or not a display row of ADD(n) in the mail address list on the display screen shown in FIG. 27 is in reverse display and if the display row is in reverse display, at step 288, a mail address of ADD(n) is stored in an area in which a receiver address in the mail creation area shown in FIG. 2 is stored. On the other hand, if the display row of ADD(n) is not in reverse display, program flow goes to step 289 by skipping step 288.

At step 289, the variable "n" is incremented by one . At step 290, it is determined whether or not a value of "n" has exceeded the address number "N" which is displayed in one screen of an address list shown in FIG. 27 and if "n" has exceeded "N", program flow goes to step 291. On the other hand, if "n" has not yet exceeded "N", program flow returns to step 287 and copy processing of a mail address from an address list is repeated. In the case where a plurality of receivers are set and the same mails (so called broadcast mail) are transmitted with the use of this repetition processing as well, complexity in mail address inputting can be alleviated.

At step 291, the display screen image shown in FIG. 27 is all cleared, the present address designation processing is terminated and then program flow returns to the mail creation processing or the schedule mail creation processing in the earlier stages. 1-8. Unsealing processing

Described will be the unsealing processing executed in step 144 (FIG. 10) in the flow chart for the reception display processing of Section 2. The unsealing processing is processing in which a text of a mail which has been selected in the reception display processing is displayed on the display section 42.

FIG. 28 is a flow chart for the unsealing processing. Screen images displayed on the display section 42 by the processing are shown in FIGS. 29 and 30. Herein, FIG. 29 is a display of an unseal screen image of an ordinary mail and FIG. 30 is a display of an unseal screen image of a schedule mail. Described will be the flow chart of FIG. 28 with reference to FIG. 29 and FIG. 30. Processing from step 301 to step 303 is processing in which whether a mail to be displayed is an ordinary mail or a schedule mail is identified and a screen image display is performed according to a result of the identification. At step 301, it is determined whether or not a flag SCF which MAIL (A) has, wherein MAIL (A) has been presented in reverse display in the reception display processing before the present unsealing processing is executed is "1". If the SCF indicates "1," that is the SCF indicates that MAIL (A) is a schedule mail, program goes to step 302 and performed are writings of a display frame for a schedule mail, display of characters such as a conference name, time, place, attendees, a specific item and the like, or display in the top right portion of the screen for selection of unseal processing end by mouse click, which are shown in FIG. 30 and thereafter program flow goes to step 304. On the other hand, if SCF is not "1," program goes to step 303, performed are writings of a display frame for an ordinary mail, display of characters of a transmitter, a subject and the like, or display in the top right portion of the screen for selection of unsealing processing end by mouse click, which are shown in FIG. 29 and program flow goes to step 304.

Processing from step 304 to step 305 is processing in which display of a received mail and control of a flag indicating unsealing of a mail are carried out. At step 304, each part of data which are stored in MAIL(A) in RAM 61 are respectively displayed in corresponding spaces in FIG. 29 or FIG. 30.

At step 305, "1" is substituted in a flag KAIFU of MAIL(A) and it is thus indicated that MAIL(A) has performed at least one time of unsealing processing.

Processing from step 306 to step 311 is processing in which end of mail unsealing processing is selected by control of the mouse 31 and the processing is carried out.

At step 306, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position.

At step 307, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved and if movement of the mouse 31 has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 308 and program flow goes to step 309. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 309 by skipping step 308.

At step 309, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If the click action has given, program flow goes to step 310, and if the click action has not been given, program flow returns to step 307, and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated. At step 310, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 29 or FIG. 30, program flow goes to step 311. On the other hand, the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow returns to step 307 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 311, the screen display by the unsealing processing is all cleared and the unsealing processing this time is terminated and program flow returns to the reception display processing.

1-9. Address addition processing

Described will be the address addition processing which is executed at step 171 (FIG. 13) of the flow chart for the address list display processing. The address addition processing is processing in which mail address data are additionally registered to store in the address list area shown FIG. 4.

FIG. 31 is a flow chart for the address addition processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by this processing is shown in FIG. 32. Described will be the flow chart of FIG. 31 with reference to FIG. 32.

At step 321, it is determined whether or not there is available a free area in which new mail address data can be stored in the address list area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 4. If a free area runs short, program flow goes to step 322. On the other hand, if a free area is still available, program flow goes to step 323.

At step 322, a warning display indicating that new address data cannot be stored in the address list area is presented for a predetermined time on the display section 42 and thereafter the present address addition processing is terminated and program flow returns to the address list display processing. While setting of a display time for a warning display is optional, it is set so as to be sufficient for calling an operator's attention.

At step 323, performed are writing of space frames, display of characters such as a name, an address, a type and the like and display of registration, cancellation and the like for selection of functions by mouse click in the bottom right of the screen image, which are shown in FIG. 32.

Processing from step 324 to step 337 is processing in which inputting and registration of mail address data are performed by operations of the mouse 31 and the key board 32.

At step 324, a character cursor indicating a character input position is displayed in a name input area (a name space of FIG. 32) and at step 325, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

At step 326, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved and if movement of the mouse has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse 31 at step 327 and program flow goes to step 328. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 328 by skipping step 327.

At step 328, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31 and if the click action has given, program flow goes to step 329 and on the other hand, if the click action has not been given, program flow goes to step 336.

At step 329, a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in one of the input spaces on the display screen of FIG. 32. If yes in step 329, program flow goes to step 330, a character cursor is moved to a space in which the mouse cursor is present and thereafter program flow goes to step 331. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 331 by skipping step 330.

At step 331, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "cancellation" display portion in the bottom right portion of the display screen of FIG. 32. If yes in step 331, program flow goes to step 332 and on the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 333. At step 332, the display screen image by the address addition processing is all cleared, the present address addition processing is terminated and program flow returns to the address list display processing. At step 333, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "registration" display portion in the bottom right portion of the display screen of FIG. 32. If yes in step 333, program flow goes to step 334. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 328 is invalid, program flow returns to step 326 and monitoring of a operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 334, stored are data including a name, a mail address, a mail type displayed in spaces on the display screen image of FIG. 32 in a free area of the address list area of FIG. 4, then at step 335, the display screen image by the address addition processing is all cleared, the present address addition processing is thus terminated and program flow returns to the address list display processing.

On the other hand, at step 336 following step 328, it is determined whether or not inputting to the key board 32 has been made. If the inputting has been made, program flow goes to step 337. On the other hand, if the inputting has not been made, program flow returns to step 326 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated. At step 337, characters corresponding to input of the key board 32 are displayed in a space in which the character cursor is displayed, then program flow returns to step 326 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

1-10. Address detailed display processing Described will be the address detailed display processing which is executed at step 173 (FIG. 13) in the flow chart for the address list display processing in Section 3. The address detailed display processing is processing in which details of data of mail addresses registered in the address list area shown in FIG. 4 are displayed.

FIG. 33 is a flow chart for the address detailed display processing. A display screen image displayed on the display section 42 by this processing is presented in FIG. 34. Described will be the flow chart of FIG. 33 with reference to FIG. 34.

At step 341, performed are writing of display frames, display of characters including a name, an address, a type and the like, or display for selection of end of address detailed display processing by mouse click in the bottom right portion of the screen image, which are shown in FIG. 34. At step 342, data stored in ADD (A) in the address list area of RAM 61 are respectively displayed in corresponding spaces in the screen image of FIG. 34. Processing from step 343 to step 348 is processing in which end of the address detailed display processing is selected by control of the mouse 31.

At step 343, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

At step 344, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has moved. If movement of the mouse has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse 31 at step 345 and thereafter program flow goes to step 346. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse 31 has not been detected, program flow goes to step 346 by skipping step 345.

At step 346, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31 and if the click action has given, program flow goes to step 347. On the other hand, if the click action has not been given, program flow returns to step 344 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated. At step 347, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has been given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the bottom right portion of the display screen of FIG. 34. If yes in step 347, program flow goes to step 348. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow returns to step 344 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse

31 is repeated.

At step 348, the screen display by the address detailed display processing is all cleared and the present address detailed display processing is thus terminated and program flow returns to the address list display processing.

1-11. Schedule registration processing Described will be the schedule registration processing which is executed at step 206 (FIG. 17) in the flow chart for the schedule display processing in

Section 4. The schedule registration processing is processing in which a schedule such as a schedule of a new conference is registered. FIG. 35 is a flow chart for the schedule registration processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by this processing is shown in

FIG. 36. Described will be the flow chart of FIG. 35 with reference to FIG. 36. At step 351, a content of the schedule creation area of RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 is cleared before the following processing is started.

Processing from step 352 to step 353 is processing in which the screen image of FIG. 36 is created. At step 352, performed are writing of frames of display spaces on the schedule registration screen image and display of characters including a conference name, time, place, attendees, a specific item, cancellation and registration, which are shown in FIG. 36.

At step 353, data of a conference name, a start time, an end time, a place of assembly, attendees and a specific item associated with the conference, which are stored in the mail creation area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2, are respectively displayed in corresponding spaces on the schedule registration screen image show in FIG. 36.

At step 354, the character cursor showing a character input position is displayed in a conference name input area (a conference name space of FIG. 36). At step 355, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

Processing from step 356 to step 370 is processing in which movement of the character cursor, designation from an address list for receiver inputting, mail transmission, or cancellation (stop) of schedule mail creation is executed, being selected, by control of the mouse 31.

At step 356, it is determined whether or not the mouse has moved and if movement of the mouse has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 357 and thereafter program flow goes to step 358. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse cursor has not been detected, program flow goes to step 358 by skipping step 357.

At step 358, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If it is determined whether the click action has given, program flow goes to step 359 and on the other hand if the click action has not been given, program flow goes to step 371.

At step 359, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is in an area (spaces of a conference name, time, place, attendees, a specific item on the screen image shown in FIG. 36) for character inputting on the display screen of FIG. 36. If yes in step 359, program flow goes to step 360, the character cursor is moved to an area where the mouse cursor is currently present and then program flow goes to step 361. On the other hand if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 361 by skipping step 360.

At step 361, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has been given to the mouse 31 is present in the "cancellation" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 36. If yes in step 361, program flow goes to step 362. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 364. At step 362, a storage content of the schedule creation area is erased and then at step 363, the display screen image by the schedule registration processing is all cleared. The schedule registration processing is thus terminated and program flow returns to the schedule display processing.

At step 364, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "registration" display portion in the top right portion of the display screen of FIG. 36. If yes in step 364, program flow goes to step 365. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 358 is invalid, program flow returns to step 356 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 365, a schedule data of a date, a color of whose display space has been changed in the above mentioned schedule display processing is extracted from the schedule area in RAM 61.

At step 366, a start time and an end time of the schedule data extracted at the previous step are compared with a start time and an end time in the schedule creation area and it is determined based on the comparison whether or not the time zones are in duplication to each other. If no duplication is present, program flow goes to step 368. On the other hand, if the duplication of time zones is present, program flow goes to step 367, warning screen display processing is executed and thereafter program flow returns to step 352. Details of the warning screen display processing will be described later in Section 12.

At step 368, it is determined whether or not determination processing on duplication of time zones at step 366 has been executed for all schedule data extracted at step 365. If the determination processing has been executed for all the schedule data, program flow goes to step 369. On the other hand, if some of the schedule data are remained without execution of the determination processing, program flow returns to step 366 and the determination processing is repeated.

At step 369, a storage content of the schedule creation area is stored in an area of a date, a color of whose display space has been changed in the schedule display processing, the area of the date being an area in the schedule area of RAM 61, then at step 370 the display screen image by the schedule registration processing is all cleared, the schedule registration processing this time is thus terminated and program flow returns to the schedule display processing.

At step 371 which follows step 358, inputting to the key board 32 is checked, and if the inputting has been made, program flow goes to step 372. On the other hand, if the inputting has not been made, program flow returns to step 356 and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 372, characters corresponding to input of the keyboard 32 is displayed in a space in which the character cursor is displayed and simultaneously at step 373, the character data are stored in an area of the schedule creation area of FIG. 2 corresponding to the space and program flow returns to step 356. 1-12. Warning screen display processing Described will be the warning screen display processing executed at step 367 (FIG. 35) in the flow chart for the schedule registration processing in Section 11.

The warning screen display processing is processing in which presented is a display indicating that a schedule newly input in the schedule registra- tion processing is duplicate in time zone in a relation with a schedule which has been registered, a user selects which of both schedules is maintained and a schedule which has not been selected is placed in a condition that a content of the schedule can be changed. FIG. 37 is a flow chart for the warning screen display processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by the processing is shown in FIG. 38. Below described will be the flow chart of FIG. 37 with reference to FIG. 38.

First, a current screen display on the display section 42 is erased at step 381 prior to the following processing.

At step 382, written are display frames and characters such as a sentence, in addition a conference name, time and the like in the upper portion of the screen image, or displays of input schedule change, registered schedule change and the like for function selection by mouse click in the lower portion of the screen image, which are shown in FIG. 38.

At step 383, respectively displayed in corresponding spaces of FIG. 38 are a content of schedule data which are registered in the schedule area of RAM 61, and which have been found to be in duplicate time zone of schedule by the determination processing at step 366 (FIG. 35) for the schedule registration processing. Processing from step 384 to step 393 is processing in which selection on which of a newly input schedule and an already registered schedule is maintained is performed by control of the mouse 31 and a content of schedule which has not been selected is placed in a condition that a content of the schedule can be changed. At step 384, the mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the screen image. At step 385, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If it is determined that movement of the mouse has been detected, a mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse at step 386 and program flow goes to step 387. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse has not been detected, program flow goes to step 387 by skipping step 386.

At step 387, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If it is determined that the click action has given, program goes to step 388. On the other hand, if the click action has not given, program returns to step 385 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 388, it is determined whether or not a position of a mouse cursor on the screen display when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "input schedule change" portion in the bottom left portion of the display screen of FIG. 38. If yes in step 388, program goes to step 389. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 390.

At step 389, in order to maintain an already registered schedule and change a newly input schedule, the screen display by the warning screen display processing is all cleared, the present warning screen display processing is terminated and program flow returns to the schedule registration processing.

At step 390, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "registered schedule change" portion in the bottom left portion of the display screen. If yes in step 390, program flow goes to step 391. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that mouse click this time which has been detected at step 387 is invalid, program flow returns back to step 385, and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

Processing from step 391 to step 393 is processing in which a newly input schedule is registered and an already registered schedule is placed in a condition that the schedule can be changed.

At step 391, a storage content of a schedule creation area is stored in an area of a date a color of whose display space has been changed in the schedule display processing, wherein the are of a date is an area in the schedule area of RAM 61.

At step 392, a content of a schedule data already registered in the schedule area of RAM 61 which schedule content has been determined to be in duplicate time zone of schedule by the determination processing at step 366 (FIG. 35) of the schedule registration processing is copied in the schedule creation area and thereafter the schedule data stored in the schedule area is deleted.

At step 393, the screen display by the warning screen display processing is all cleared, the warning screen display processing this time is terminated, and program flow returns to the schedule registration processing.

1-13. Schedule detailed display processing Described will be the schedule detailed display processing executed at step 208 (FIG. 17) in the flow chart for the schedule display processing in Section 4.

The schedule detailed display processing is processing in which details of a content of an already registered schedule data shown in FIG. 6 is displayed. FIGS. 39 and 40 are flow charts for the schedule detailed display processing. A screen image displayed on the display section 42 by this processing is shown in FIG. 41. Below described will be the flow charts of FIGS. 39 and 40 with reference to FIG. 41.

At step 401, written are display frames and characters such as a receiver address, a conference name, start, end, place, attendees, a specific item, or displays such as end in the top right portion of the screen image and the previous schedule, the next schedule and the like in the lower portion of the screen image for selection of functions by mouse click, which are shown in FIG. 41.

At step 402, "1" is substituted in the variable "n" .

At step 403, data of schedule data SCD(n) of day "A" stored in MONTH(B) in the schedule area of RAM 61 based on values of pointers "A", "B" obtained in the schedule display processing are respectively displayed in corresponding spaces on the screen image shown in FIG. 41. At step 404, a mouse cursor is displayed at an arbitrary position on the display screen.

At step 405, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If it is determined that movement of the mouse 31 has been detected, the mouse cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to a moved direction and a moved distance of the mouse 31 at step 406, and then program flow goes to step 407. On the other hand, if movement of the mouse has not been detected, program goes to step 407 by skipping step 406. At step 407, it is determined whether or not a click action has given to the mouse 31. If it is determined that the click action has given, program flow goes to step 408. On the other hand, if the click action has not been given, program flow returns to step 405 and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 408, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action is given to the mouse 31 is present in the "end" display portion in the bottom right portion of the display screen image of FIG. 41. If yes in step 408, program flow goes to step 409. On the other hand, if the mouse is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 410 (FIG. 40).

At step 409, the screen display by the schedule detailed display processing is all cleared, then the schedule detailed display processing this time is terminated and program flow returns to the schedule display processing.

In FIG. 40, at step 410, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action is given to the mouse 31 is present in the "the previous schedule" display portion in the lower portion. If yes in step 410, program flow goes to step 411. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, program flow goes to step 414.

At step 411, a value of "n" is checked, it is determined that "n" is not "1," program flow goes to step 412. On the other hand, if "n" is "1," the click on "the previous schedule" display detected at step 410 is neglected and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse 31 is repeated. The reason why the click is neglected is because the schedule data now being displayed in detail are SCD(l) and any of schedule data each having a younger number than SCD(l) is not registered on the same day.

At step 412, a value of the variable "n" is decremented by one .

At step 413, the display of the schedule data in the display spaces in the screen image shown in FIG. 41 is all cleared and program flow returns to step 403 (FIG. 39) in order to newly present a display of schedule data.

At step 414, it is determined whether or not a position of the mouse cursor on the display screen when a click action has given to the mouse 31 is present in the "the next schedule" display portion in the lower portion of the display screen image of

FIG. 41. If yes in step 414, program flow goes to step 415. On the other hand, if the mouse cursor is present at a different position, it is determined that the mouse click this time which has been detected at step 407 (FIG. 39) is invalid, program flow returns to step 405 (FIG. 39), and monitoring of operation of the mouse 31 is repeated.

At step 415, a value of "n" is checked to determine whether or not "n" is equal to the maximum number of schedule for one day which can be stored in the schedule area of RAM 61 and if "n" is not equal to the maximum, program flow goes to step 416. On the other hand, if "n" is equal to the maximum, the click on the "the next schedule" display which has been detected at step 414 is neglected and monitoring of an operating condition of the mouse is repeated. The reason why the click is neglected is that present are no schedule data having larger numbers than the schedule data now displayed in detail.

At step 416, a value of the variable "n" is incremented by one and program flow returns to step 413. 1-14. The next month display processing and the previous month display processing

Described will be the next month display processing executed at step 212 (FIG. 17) and the previous month display processing executed at step 210 (FIG. 17) in the flow chart for schedule display processing in Section 4. The next and previous month display processings are processings in which a schedule calendar which is displayed by the schedule display processing is changed for display to a schedule calendar for the next month or the previous month. FIG. 42 shows a flow chart for the next month processing and FIG. 43 shows a flow chart for the previous month. As can be seen by comparison between both figures, both flow charts are almost similar to each other. Here, first the next month display processing will be described.

First, at step 421, erase are the day displays in frames of the schedule calendar and then at step 422 erased is the display of the designated year/month in the upper year/month display portion of the schedule calendar on the display screen, which are shown in FIG. 19.

At step 423, a designated year/month is incremented by one month and the present next month display processing is terminated and program flow returns to the schedule display processing. The previous month processing will be described.

Processing from step 426 to step 427 for the previous month are absolutely the same as that from the step 421 to step 422 for the next month, while there is only a difference between step 428 for the previous month and step 423 for the next month.

At step 428, a designated year/month is decremented by one month and the previous month display processing this time is terminated and program flow returns to schedule display processing. 1-15. Reception processing

Described will be the reception processing executed at step 102 (FIG. 7) in the flow chart of the fundamental processing in Section 1.

In the reception processing, when a schedule mail for schedule registration in assembly of a conference is received, a schedule which has been registered is first confirmed. At this time, it is determined whether or not a free time zone for assembly of a conference is available in the schedule in which a schedule is registered, a schedule for the assembly of a conference is registered. If there is duplication in time zone in a relation to a registered schedule, a free time zone other than the duplicate time zone on the same day as the assembly of a conference is noticed to a transmitter of the received schedule mail and transmitted to the transmitter is an electronic mail in a fixed form inquiring of the transmitter about whether or not the original time zone of the conference can be changed to the free time zone. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not again received is an electronic mail to the effect that the original time zone of the conference is changed to the free time zone in response to the transmitted electronic mail, this changed time for the assembly of a conference is registered. In such a manner, it is this reception processing that realizes the major feature of the present invention.

FIGS. 44, 45, 46 and 47 are flow charts for the reception processing. The flow charts will be described below.

In FIG. 44, processing from step 431 to step 436 is processing in which an electronic mail is newly received and stored.

At step 431, the electronic mail server 11A is accessed and it is determined whether or not there is present a received mail, and if there is present a newly received mail, program flow goes to step 432 and it is determined whether or not there is present a newly received mail. If there is present no newly received mail, the reception processing this time is terminated.

At step 432, it is determined whether or not there is available a free area in which a new mail can be stored in the reception mail area in RAM 61. If a free area is available, program flow goes to step 434 by skipping step 432. On the other hand, if a free area is not sufficiently remained, program goes to step 433 and a mail with the earliest reception date of received mails stored in the received mail area is deleted to secure a free area. Thereafter, program flow returns to step 432 and investigation of a free area is repeated.

At step 434, one of newly received mails is down- loaded from the electronic mail server 11A and stored in the received mail area and at step 435, a flag KAIFU indicating whether or not a received mail is unsealed is set to "0" (unseal) and at step 436, a day/time at the present time which is attained in time measure processing at step 101 (FIG. 7) in the flow chart for the fundamental processing is stored as a reception date of the mail in the received mail area. At step 437, it is determined whether or not a flag which indicates whether or not this received mail is a schedule mail. If SCF is "0", that is if SCF indicates that a received mail is an ordinary mail, program flow goes to step 456. On the other hand, if SCF is not "0", that is SCF indicates that a received mail is a schedule mail, program flow goes to step 438 (FIG. 45).

In FIG. 45, processing from step 438 to step 442 is processing in which it is determined whether or not there is a duplication between a schedule for assembly of a conference in a received schedule mail and a registered schedule for assembly of a conference.

At step 438, retrieved is registered schedule data with the same date as the year/month/day for assembly of a conference written in a received mail from the schedule area of RAM 61.

At step 439, it is determined whether or not a schedule data with the same date as the year/month/day for the assembly of a conference is found to be stored as a result of the retrieval at the previous step, program flow goes to step 440. On the other hand, if a schedule data with the year/month/day for the assembly of a conference is not stored, program flow goes to step 443.

At step 440, one registered schedule data having the same date as the year/month/day for a conference is read out and at step 441, it is determined whether or not there is duplication between a time zone (a time interval from a start time to an end time) for assembly of a conference included in the one registered schedule data and a time zone for assembly of a conference written in the received schedule mail. If there is no duplication, program flow goes to step 442 and on the other hand if there is duplication, program flow goes to step 447 (FIG. 46) . At step 442, it is determined whether or not a duplication check for an assembly time zone at the previous step has been performed on each of all schedule data with the same date retrieved at step 438. If the duplication check has been performed on all of the schedule data, program flow goes to step 443.

On the other hand, if some of the schedule data are remained without receiving a duplication check, program flow returns to step 440 and duplication check is performed on each of all the remained schedule data. At step 443, new schedule data is created based on a content of a received schedule mail and at step 444 the created schedule data are stored in an area corresponding to the scheduled date for assembly of a conference in the schedule area of RAM 61. At step 445, created is an electronic mail using a fixed form mail "B" which is stored in the fixed form mail storage area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 with a transmitter mail address of a received schedule mail as a receiver mail address. At step 446, the electronic mail is transmitted from the communication control section 26 via LAN 5 to the electronic mail server 11A and then the present reception processing is terminated. Here, a fixed form mail is an electronic mail created with fixed information as contents thereof. In this embodiment, shown is an electronic mail in which a subject of an electronic mail is determined in advance and a mail text is formulated by a set of fixed sentences. FIG. 49 shows a content of a fixed form mail "B". A fixed form mail "B" is a mail by which it is noticed to a transmitter of a schedule mail that the schedule for assembly of a conference written in the schedule mail has been registered as the schedule states .

In FIG. 46, processing from step 447 to step 455 following step 441 (FIG. 45) is processing in the case where there is duplication between a time for assembly of a conference in an already registered schedule and a time for assembly of a conference in a schedule written in a schedule mail .

At step 447, read out are contents of schedule mail with the same date as a registered schedule data which has been found to be in time zone of duplication from the schedule area of RAM 61 and a free time zone, in which no schedule is registered, is searched through one day of the same date as the schedule mail. At step 448, it is determined whether or not a free time zone on the same date is available. If yes in step 448, program flow goes to step 449 and on the other hand, if no free time zone is available, program flow goes to step 454.

At step 449, the received schedule mail is stored in the mail waiting area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 and at step 450, a time for assembly of a conference in the schedule mail stored in the mail waiting area is changed to the free time zone searched at step 447 and stored.

At step 451, an electronic mail is created using a mail address of a transmitter of the received schedule mail is used as a mail address of a receiver and a fixed form mail "C" stored in the fixed form mail storage area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2 as a format. A content of a fixed form mail "C" is shown in FIG. 50. A fixed form mail "C" is to notice that while an already registered schedule data is present in a scheduled time zone for assembly of a conference written in a schedule mail and the schedule of a schedule mail cannot be registered as they are originally written, it is determined whether or not the time zone for the assembly of a conference can be changed to a time zone written in the fixed form mail "C", a changed schedule can be registered. At step 452, a start time "Tl-Ml" and an end time "T2-M2" of a free time zone which are stored in the mail waiting area at step 450 are written in a text of a fixed form mail "C" written in an electronic mail. At step 453, an electronic mail using a fixed form mail "C" is transmitted from the communication control section 26 to the electronic mail server 11A via LAN 5 and the reception processing this time is terminated. At this time, a password specific to the electronic server 21A is included in the text (in positions indicated by "XXXX" marks in the text space) of the fixed form mail "C" written in the electronic mail.

On the other hand, at step 454 following step 448, created is an electronic mail using a mail address of a transmitter of a received schedule mail as a mail address of a receiver and a fixed form mail "D" stored in the fixed form mail storage area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2. A content of the fixed form mail "D" is shown in FIG. 51. A fixed form mail "D" is to notice to a transmitter of a schedule mail that since an already registered schedule is present in a scheduled time for assembly of a conference written in a schedule mail and therefore the schedule in the schedule mail cannot be registered and besides, there is available no free time zone to allow attendance to the conference through the scheduled date, whereby the mail further is to prevent that without knowledge of the fact that the receiver of the schedule mail has no free time zone on the scheduled date the transmitter would start work for a change of an assembly time of a conference only to waste labor. At step 455, an electronic mail created using a fixed form mail "D" is transmitted from the communication control section 26 to the electronic mail server 11A via LAN 5.

In FIG. 44, processing at step 456 and thereafter is processing executed for a received mail which is an ordinary mail .

At step 456, the mail waiting area in RAM 61 is checked. If a mail is stored in the mail waiting area, program flow goes to step 457 and on the other hand if no mail is stored in the mail waiting area, the reception processing this time is terminated.

Processing from step 457 to step 461 (FIG. 47) is processing in which it is determined whether or not a received mail is a mail which allows a change of a scheduled time for assembly of a conference corresponding to a mail (hereinafter referred to as waiting mail) stored in the mail waiting area.

At step 457, a content of one waiting mail is read out . At step 458, mail addresses of the received mail and the waiting mail are compared with each other. If the mail addresses are same, program flow goes to step 461 (FIG. 47) and on the other hand if the mail addresses are different from each other, program flow goes to step 459.

At step 459, it is determined whether or not there is any waiting mail which has not been subjected to the comparison in mail address. If there is remained some waiting mails which has not been subjected to the comparison in mail address, program flow goes to step 460 and on the other hand if all the waiting mail have been subjected to the comparison in mail address, the reception processing this time is terminated.

At step 460, read out is a content of one of the remained waiting mails without the comparison and program flow returns to step 458 and the comparison processing is repeated.

In FIG. 47, at step 461, it is determined whether or not the specific password of the electronic mail system 21A is included in a received mail. If the password is included, program flow goes to step 462 and on the other hand if no password is included, program flow returns to step 459 (FIG. 44).

At step 462, a schedule data is newly created based on a content of a waiting mail which has been found that both mail addresses are same as a result of the comparison between a received mail and the waiting mail at step 458. At step 463, the new schedule data are stored in an area corresponding to the scheduled date for assembly of a conference in the schedule area of RAM 61.

At step 464, created is an electronic mail using a mail address of an transmitter of a received schedule mail as a mail address of a receiver and a fixed form mail "A" stored in the fixed form mail storage area in RAM 61 shown in FIG. 2. A content of a fixed form mail "A" is shown in FIG. 48. A fixed form mail "A" is to notice to a transmitter of a schedule mail that a schedule for a conference has been changed to a time zone written in a mail created using a fixed form mail "C" from a time zone written in a schedule mail and a schedule after the change has been registered and therefore, the organizer of a conference (a transmitter of a schedule mail) can recognizes that a change of the assembly time of a conference has been communicated in a secured manner and can simultaneously attain confirmation of attendance to the conference.

At step 465, an assembly time "Tl-Ml to T2-M2" stored in a waiting mail is written in a text of a fixed form mail "A" included in an electronic mail. At step 466, an electronic mail created using a fixed form mail "A" is transmitted from the communication control section 26 to the electronic mail server 11A via LAN. At step 467, a waiting mail which has been used for the basis on which schedule data creation processing is executed at step 462 is erased from the waiting mail area and the reception processing this time is terminated.

1-16. Waiting mail clearing processing

Described will be the waiting mail clearing processing executed at step 107 (FIG. 7) in the flow chart for the fundamental processing in Section 1.

The waiting mail clearing processing is processing in which if a waiting mail, which is stored in the mail waiting area in RAM 61 by the processing from step 449 to step 450 (FIG. 46) in the flow chart for the reception processing in Section 15 and whose assembly time of a conference has been changed to a free time in which schedule data are not registered, is remained stored even when the present time is a start time of the conference after the change of schedule, since a mail which accepts the change of time for assembly of a conference has not been received, it is determined that the change of assembly of a conference has not been accepted and a waiting mail as having been unnecessary is cleared by deleting.

FIG. 52 is a flow chart for the waiting mail clearing processing. The flow chart of FIG. 52 will be described below.

First, at step 471, it is determined whether or not there is a waiting mail in the mail waiting area in RAM 61. If there is a waiting mail, program flow goes to step 472 and on the other hand if there is no waiting mail, the waiting mail clearing processing this time is terminated.

At step 472, a content of one waiting mail is read out . At step 473, comparison is performed between a start time of a conference written in the waiting mail and the day/time at the present day/time attained by the time measure processing at step 101 (FIG. 7). If the present day/time is past the start day/time of a conference written in a waiting mail, program flow goes to step 474, the waiting mail is cleared, and thereafter program flow goes to step 475. On the other hand, if the present day/time is not past the start day/time written in the waiting mail, program flow goes to step 475 by skipping step 474.

At step 475, it is determined whether or not there is remained any waiting mail which has not been subjected to the determination processing at step 473 in the mail waiting area during the waiting mail clearing processing this time. If all waiting mails have been subjected to the determination processing, the waiting mail clearing processing this time is terminated. On the other hand, if there is remained a waiting mail which has not yet been finished with the determination processing, program flow returns to step 472 and the above mentioned processing is repeated. 1-17. Modification

While in the first embodiment which has been described, a schedule mail is used as a mail requesting for schedule registration for a conference and a flag SCF for identification of a schedule mail from an ordinary mail is used in reception display processing, reception processing and the like, there can be adopted a modification in which an electronic mail whose text includes a specific password is handled as a schedule mail and for identification of an ordinary mail it is determined whether or not the specific password is present in the text .

In addition, while in the reception processing, received mails are all stored in the received mail area, there can be adopted a modification in which it is determined that a schedule mail including a conference schedule which has been registered is not required to be maintained and the schedule mail may be deleted from the received mail area after transmission of a fixed form mail "A" or "B" . Moreover, there can be adopted a further modification in which a storage capacity of the received mail area is considered and the deletion processing is executed only when a free capacity of the received mail area is reduced lower than a predeter- mined value.

In the mean time, the present invention can be also realized in such a manner that a program for electronic mail processing in which procedures corresponding to the flow charts for the various kinds of processing described in the first embodiment are stored in advance in a storage medium which a computer can read, the program for electronic mail processing stored in the storage medium is loaded on a main memory of a computer and the present invention is realized by execution of the program.

That is, a general purpose computer is run as an electronic mail system on a program stored in a storage medium, which is driven by the general apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, the program comprising electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule mail determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; schedule data comparing program code for detecting duplication between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored by the schedule data storage program code by comparing both schedule data when it is determined that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is the schedule mail by the schedule mail determining program code; schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage program code to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when no duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the comparison between the both schedule data by the schedule data comparing program code; electronic mail automatic transmission program code for transmitting an electronic mail; first electronic mail automatic transmission control program code for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission program code to transmit a first electronic mail containing information on a change in schedule to avoid the duplication between schedule data to a transmitter of the schedule mail when the duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the comparison between the both schedule data by the schedule data comparing program code; and changed schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage program code to store changed schedule data from a scheduled data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when an electronic mail is received by the electronic mail receiving program code, which mail notices the change in the schedule data of the schedule mail so that the duplication is avoided according to the first electronic mail containing the information, after the first electronic mail containing the information is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission program code. In FIG. 53, shown is an example of a storage medium, which a computer can read, and on which an electronic mail program is stored. As shown in the figure, a storage medium which a computer can read may be any of the following items: a storage device 502 such as ROM or a hard disk built in or externally mounted to a computer 501, or a portable storage medium such as a floppy disk, MO, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or the like, which is read by a read section provided in the computer 501 and in addition as another alternate, a storage device 506 in a program server 505 capable of down-loading through a network 504 from the computer 501. As a further storage medium and its workings, available is such a constitution that a program for electronic mail processing is divided and stored on a plurality of storage media which the computer 501 can read in a distributed manner, and the program is loaded on a main memory of the computer 501 from the media for execution when a necessity arises. Since the program for electronic mail processing stored in the electronic mail system and a storage medium in the first embodiment not only perform automatic schedule registration when an electronic mail containing an event schedule is received but when duplication arises with an event which has been registered, automatically performs schedule adjustment, therefore a user of the apparatus can enjoy an effect that no time and labor are required in adjustment of schedule .

Other embodiments of the electronic mail apparatus according to the present invention will be described. The same portions as those of the first embodiment will be indicated in the same reference numerals and their detailed description will be omitted. Second embodiment A hardware architecture of an electronic mail system according to the second embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. 1.

A storage content of the RAM 61 in the second embodiment is almost the same as that of the first embodiment. In the main flow of the CPU 51 shown in FIG. 7, other kinds of processing except for the waiting mail clearing processing of the second embodiment is same. Reception display processing in the second embodiment has the same flows of procedures as those for the reception display processing in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 10 and the schedule display processing at step 134 in the reception display processing of FIG. 9 is the same flow as that shown in FIGS. 15 to 18. However, the schedule registration processing at step 206 and the schedule detailed display processing at step 208 in the schedule display processing of FIG. 17 are different from those corresponding processings in the first embodiment. Further, reception processing in the main flow is different from the corresponding processing in the first embodiment. Accordingly, in the second embodiment, figures used in the first embodiment are used as they are for the same processings and display screens in the second embodiment, and duplicate descriptions are omitted but descriptions are made on different processings from the first embodiment. 2-1. Schedule display processing FIGS. 54 to 56 are flow charts for the schedule registration processing in the second embodiment. FIG. 57 is a screen image of schedule additional registration. In the screen image by the schedule display processing of FIG. 19, when a mouse cursor is in the "registration" display portion and a click action has given to the mouse 31, the schedule registration processing is executed. In FIG. 54, the schedule creation area of RAM 61 is cleared (step 500), a frame screen image for schedule additional registration is displayed (step 501). Input areas are displayed based on the schedule creation area (step 502). Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the schedule additional registration screen image shown in FIG. 57 (step 503) and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 504). If the mouse

31 has been moved, a position of the cursor is moved in a corresponding manner to the movement (step 505). Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 506) and if the mouse 31 has been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is present in the cancel switch position on the screen image of FIG. 57 (step 507). If the cursor position is present in this position, the schedule creation area is cleared (step 508), the display is cleared (step 509) and the flow of this schedule additional registration processing is terminated. At step 506, if the mouse 31 has not been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is in the registration switch on the screen image of FIG. 57 (step 510). If the cursor position is present in this position, data in the schedule area of a designated year/month/day are referred (step 511). Then, it is determined whether or not a different schedule is duplicate with an additional schedule in the same time zone (step 512). If no duplication is found, it is determined whether or not a next different schedule is present (step 513). If the next different schedule is present, program flow goes to step 512 and it is determined whether or not a different schedule is duplicate with an additional schedule in the same time zone. If no next different schedule is present, data of the schedule creation area are stored in the designated year/month/day of the schedule creation area (step 514) and the display is cleared (step 515). Then, written in a text of a fixed form mail "A" are a conference name, assembly date, place, attendees, an specific item (step 516). A fixed form mail "A" is shown in FIG. 58. Then, one participant is designated (step 517), a mail address of the participant is used as a receiver address (step 518). The mail address of the participant is stored in the participant area of RAM 61 (step 519) .

At step 510, when a cursor position is neither in the registration switch position nor in an icon switch position else of FIG. 57, program flow goes to step 504 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. At step 512, when a different schedule is duplicate in the same time zone as the schedule, warning screen display processing is executed (step 520). The warning screen display processing is processing same as the flow shown in FIG. 37. Then, program flow goes to step 501 (FIG. 54) and a frame screen image for the schedule additional registration is displayed.

At step 519, after the mail address is stored in the participant area, a fixed form mail "A" is transmitted at step 521 (FIG. 56). Then, it is determined whether or not designations of all the participants have been finished and fixed form mails "A" have been transmitted (step 522). If all the designations are not finished, program flow goes to step 517 of FIG. 55, and next attendee is designated. At step 522 of FIG. 56, when designations of all the attendees have been finished and transmissions of fixed form mails "A" have been transmitted, the number of the additional schedule storage area is set in the register "B" (step 523). Then, this schedule additional registration processing is terminated.

At step 506 of FIG. 54, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has not been clicked, it is determined in the flow of FIG. 56 whether or not data input has been made (step 524). If the data input has been made, the data are displayed in an input area where a character cursor is present (step 525). The data is stored in a corresponding area in the schedule creation area (step 526). Then, the flow of this schedule additional registration processing is terminated. At step 524, if data input has not been made, program flow goes to step 504 of FIG. 54 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved.

2-2. Schedule detailed display processing FIGS. 59 to 62 are flows for the schedule detailed display processing at step 208 for the schedule display processing of FIG. 17 and FIG. 63 is a schedule detailed display screen image presenting a schedule list and FIG. 64 is another schedule detailed display screen image presenting an individual schedule. In FIG. 59, the display of FIG. 19 is cleared (step 528) and a frame screen image for a schedule detailed display on "A"-th day is presented (step 529). Then, pointer "n" designating a schedule in the schedule list is set to 1 (step 530) and data of a conference name and time data of SCD(n) are sequentially displayed from n = 1 as a start (step 531). Each time when one set of data is displayed, "n" is incremented (step 532) and it is determined whether or not "n" exceeds the maximum number K (step 533). If "n" has not exceeded K, program flow goes to step 531 and data of a conference name and time data of SCD(n) are displayed. As a result, conference names and time data in schedules are sequentially displayed on the screen image of FIG. 63.

At step 533, it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the maximum number K, data of conference names and time data for all schedules on "A"-th day are displayed on the screen image of FIG. 63. In this condition, pointer "m" designating one of displayed schedule lists is set to 1 (step 534) and only SCD(m) is displayed in reverse (step 535). Therefore, firstly, the uppermost schedule of the lists is displayed in reverse. Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the screen (step 536) and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 537). If the mouse 31 has been moved, a cursor position is moved in a corresponding manner to the movement of the mouse 31 (step 538) .

Then, in a flow of FIG. 60, it is determined whether or not the mouse has been clicked (step 539). If the mouse has not been clicked, program flow goes to step 537 of FIG. 59 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If the mouse has been clicked, it is determined at step 540 whether or not a cursor position is present in a position of one of SCD (schedule lists) on the screen image of FIG. 63. If the mouse is present in that position, the SCD number of a cursor position is set to pointer "m" (step 541). Then, only SCD(m) is displayed in reverse (step 542). Then, program flow goes to step 537 of FIG. 59 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved.

At step 540 of FIG. 60, when a cursor position is not present in a position of SCD, it is determined at step 543 whether or not the cursor position is present in the deletion switch among the three icon switches

(end, deletion and details) in the top right portion on the screen image. If the cursor position is present in this position, data of SCD(m) which is displayed in reverse is deleted (step 544), the schedule on "A"-th day is sorted (step 545). Then, the display of FIG. 63 is cleared (step 546), program flow goes to step 529 of FIG. 59 and a frame screen image of the schedule on "A"-th day is again presented. At step 543 of FIG. 60, if a cursor position is not present in the deletion switch, it is determined at step 547 whether or not the cursor position is present in the end switch on the screen image of FIG. 63. If the cursor position is present in this position, the display of FIG. 63 is cleared (step 548) and this schedule detailed display processing is terminated.

At step 547, if the cursor position is not present in the end position, it is determined at step 549 in the flow of FIG. 61 whether or not the cursor position is present in the details position. If the cursor position is not present in this position, program flow goes to step 537 of FIG. 59 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved, but if the cursor position is present in the details position, the display on the screen of FIG. 63 is cleared (step 550). Then, a schedule detailed display screen image shown in FIG. 64, that is a schedule detailed screen image of SCD(m) is displayed (step 551).

Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the screen image of FIG. 64 (step 552) and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 553). If the mouse has been moved, a cursor position is moved in correspondence to the movement of the mouse 31 (step 554). Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 555). If the mouse 31 has been clicked, if it is determined at step 556 whether or not a cursor position is present in the end switch among the two icon switches (end, deletion) on the screen image of FIG. 64. If the cursor position is present in this position, the display on the screen of FIG. 64 is cleared (step 557) and the flow of this schedule detailed display processing is terminated.

At step 556, if a cursor position is not present in the end switch position, it is determined at step 558 in the flow of FIG. 62 whether or not the cursor position is in the deletion switch position on the screen image of FIG. 64. If the cursor position is not present in this position, program flow goes to step 553 of FIG. 61 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If the cursor position is present in the deletion position, one participant of SCD(m) is designated (step 559). Then, a mail address of the participant is used as a receiver address of a fixed form mail "B" to notice an absence (step 560). A fixed form mail "B" is shown in FIG. 65.

Then, written are data of SCD(m) in a text of the fixed form mail "B" (step 561) and the fixed form mail "B" for the absence is transmitted (step 562). In this case, it is determined whether or not a transmitter is the organizer of a conference, a fixed form mail "B" to notice cancellation of the conference is transmitted. Then, it is determined whether or not designations of all participants have been finished and fixed form mails "B" have been transmitted (step 563). When designations of all the participants have not been finished, program flow goes to step 559 and a next participant is designated. At step 563, it is determined whether or not designations of all the participants have been finished and the fixed form mails "B" have been transmitted, data of SCD(m) are erased (step 564) and this schedule detailed display processing is terminated.

2-3. reception processing

FIG. 66 is a flow for the reception processing to execute in response to a timer interrupt. In this processing, it is determined whether or not there is present a received mail (step 565) and if there is present an received mail, it is determined whether or not a free area is available in the received mail area of RAM 61 (step 566). When there is no free area, a mail with the earliest date is deleted and the area of the mail is left free (step 567) and program flow goes to step 566. Then, a received mail is stored in the free area of the received mail area (step 568). Then, a unseal flag KAIFU (= 0) is attached to the stored mail (step 569) and the stored mail is further attached with flag TIME (reception time) (step 570). Then, it is determined whether or not a transmitter address of a received mail is present in a participant address area (step 571). If the transmitter address is not present in the participant address area, this flow is terminated and if the transmitter address is present in the participant transmitter address area, it is determined whether or not a specific character (absence) is present in a text of the received mail (step 572). If the specific character is present, a name of the participant which is the transmitter is deleted from data of participants of a corresponding schedule SCD(B) (step 573). After the participant name is deleted at step 573, or when no specific character is present at step 572, the address of the transmitter is erased from the participant address list (step 574). Then, data of register "B" are transferred to register "A" (step 575) and the schedule detailed display processing of FIGS. 59 to 62 is executed (step 576).

As described above, according to the second embodiment, RAM 61 comprises schedule storage means for storing schedule data and CPU 51 comprises mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; changing means for changing a content of RAM 61; and transmission means for transmitting to a specific receiver an electronic mail having a content corre- sponding to a changed content when the change of a schedule is performed. Then, schedule management is automatically performed in an interlocked manner to electronic mail processing and an electronic mail is transmitted in an interlocked manner to schedule management. Accordingly, in the case where electronic mail processing and schedule management are under an interlocked relation, both processings are reduced to be simple whereby a burden on a user can be alleviated.

In the above described second embodiment, while description has been made on a dedicated electronic mail system storing a program to execute transmission/ reception of electronic mails stored in RAM 62, may be used a constitution in which a program to execute transmission/reception of an electronic mail is stored on a medium such as a floppy disk, a compact disk or the like and an apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor for a general use is used for execution of the program.

In other words, the second embodiment can be realized by running a general purpose apparatus as an electronic mail system, with a program stored in a storage medium, which is driven by the general purpose apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, the program comprising electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule data changing program code for changing a storage content of a schedule mail; and an electronic mail automatic transmission program code for transmitting an electronic mail having a content corresponding to a content of a change in schedule to a specific receiver when the change in schedule is performed by the schedule data changing program code. Third embodiment

Described will be the third embodiment of the present invention.

In the third embodiment, as well, a storage content of RAM 61 is same as that of the first embodiment. In the main flow of CPU 51 shown in FIG. 7, the other processings except waiting mail clearing processing are same as those of the first embodiment. The flow of the reception display processing in the third embodiment is same as that of the reception display processing in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 10 and the schedule display processing at step 134 in the reception display processing of FIG. 9 is also same as the flow shown in FIGS. 15 to 18. However, the schedule registration processing at step 206 and the schedule detailed display processing at step 208 in the schedule display processing of FIG. 17 are different from corresponding processings in the first embodiment. Besides reception processing in the main flow is further different from the corresponding processing in the first embodiment. Accordingly, the figures of the same processings and display screens as those of the first embodiment are used as they are in description of the third embodiment and duplicate descriptions are omitted but descriptions are made on different processings from the first embodiment. However, description on schedule detailed display processing in the third embodiment is omitted because the processing is same as that of the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 59 to 62.

3-1. Schedule registration processing

FIG. 67 is a flow for the schedule registration processing in the third embodiment which corresponds to step 206 in FIG. 17. When a mouse cursor is present in the "registration" display portion on the screen image by the schedule display processing of FIG. 19 and if a click action has given to the mouse 31, the schedule registration processing is executed. The schedule creation area of RAM 61 is cleared (step 600) and a frame screen image for the schedule additional registration is displayed (step 601). Then, input area is displayed based on the schedule creation area (step 602) and a character cursor is set in the conference name input area (step 603). Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the schedule additional registration screen image same as FIG. 57 (step 604) and it is determined whether or not the mouse has been moved (step 605). If the mouse 31 has been moved, a cursor position is moved in correspondence to the movement (step 606) . Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 607) and if the mouse 31 has been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is present in the input area on the screen image (step 608). If the cursor position is present in this position, a character cursor is set in the input area where the cursor is present (step 609). If the cursor position is not present in the input area, it is determined whether or not the cursor position is in the cancel switch position on the screen image (step 610). If the cursor position is present in this position, the schedule creation area is cleared (step 611), the display is cleared (step 612) and the flow of this schedule registration processing is terminated. At step 610, if a cursor position is not present in the cancel switch position, it is determined at step 613 whether or not the cursor position is present in the registration switch position on the screen image. If the cursor position is present in this position, data in the schedule area for a designated year/month/day are referred to from its first part (step 614). Then, it is determined whether or not there is present a schedule data, which has been registered, and which is duplicate in the same time zone as that of a schedule data to be registered

(step 615). If no duplicate schedule data are present, it is determined whether or not there are present next schedule data to be registered (step 616). If there is present the next schedule data, program flow goes to step 615 and it is determined whether or not a schedule data which has been registered and which is duplicate in the same time zone as the schedule data to be registered.

At step 616, it is determined whether or not there is present no next schedule data, that is, if there is not present a schedule data in an absolute sense which has been registered and which is duplicate in the same time zone as a schedule data to be registered, data of the schedule creation area are stored in an area of a designated year/month/day and additionally are registered (step 617). Then, the display is cleared (step 618) and this schedule additional registration processing is terminated.

At step 615, it is determined whether or not there is present schedule data which has been registered and which is duplicate in the same time zone as schedule data to be registered, warning screen display processing is executed (step 619), program flow goes to step 601 and the schedule additional registration frame screen image is again displayed.

At step 607, if the mouse 31 has not been clicked, it is determined at step 620 whether or not data input has been made. If the data input has been made, data is displayed in an input area where a character cursor is present (step 621). Besides the data is stored in an area corresponding to the schedule creation area (step 622). After the data is stored, or when the data input has not been made at step 620, program flow goes to step 605 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved.

3-2. Reception processing

FIG. 68 is a flow for the reception processing of the third embodiment and the flow is executed in response to a timer interrupt. In the processing, it is determined whether or not there is present a received mail (step 623) and if there is present a received mail, it is determined whether or not a free area is available in the received mail area of RAM 61 (step 624). If there is no free area, a mail with the earliest reception date is deleted and the area is left free (step 625) and program flow goes to step 624. Then, a received mail is stored in the free area of the received mail area (step 626). Then, an unseal flag KAIFU ( - 0) is attached to the stored received mail (step 627) and the stored received mail is attached with a flag TIME (reception time) (step 628).

Then, it is determined whether or not a flag SCF indicating a kind of mail is 0, that is whether or not a received mail is an ordinary mail (step 629). If this flag is 0 and a received mail is an ordinary mail, the flow of this reception processing is terminated. If SCF is 1, that is, it is determined a received mail is a mail noticing assembly of a conference, designated is a schedule area for a date corresponding to a year/month/day of the conference assembly of the schedule mail (step 630) . Then, pointer "n" which designates a schedule is set to 1 (step 631) and it is determined whether or not there is duplication between time zones of an "n"-th schedule of corresponding date and a received mail (step 632) . If there is no duplication in time zone between schedules, "n" is incremented by one (step 633) and it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the number of schedules which have been registered on the day (step 634). If "n" has not exceeded the number of schedules, program flow goes to step 632 and it is determined whether or not a received mail is duplicate in time zone with an "n"-th schedule designated with "n".

Then, in processing from step 632 to step 634, it is determined on duplication between a schedule of a received mail and all schedules on the corresponding day which have been registered as "n" is incremented by one and at step 634, it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the number of schedules and none of all the schedules are duplicate in time zone with the received mail, designated is a free area of the schedule area for a year/month/day of the conference assembly (step 635), data of the received mail are stored in the free area (step 636) and this reception processing is terminated.

At step 632, it is determined whether or not there is duplication between time zones of a schedule mail (n) designated with pointer "n" and a received mail, a fixed form mail to the effect that the conference is not attended is transmitted (step 637). Then, this reception processing is terminated.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, RAM 61 comprises schedule storage means for storing schedule data and CPU 51 comprises mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; determining means for determining whether or not a received electronic mail is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in a received mail with stored schedule data when it is determined that the received electronic mail is a schedule mail; storage control means for controlling RAM 61 to store the schedule data contained in the received schedule mail when no duplication between both schedule data is detected in the comparison; and transmission means for transmitting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of the received schedule mail when the duplication between the both schedule data is detected between the both schedule data.

Then, in the case where electronic mail processing and schedule management are under a linked relation to each other, one processing is automatically executed in a linked manner to the other processing. Accordingly, complex works are eliminated and a burden on a user can be alleviated.

Fourth embodiment

The fourth embodiment is a modification of the third embodiment and what is different from the third embodiment is a storage content of FLAM 61 and a flow of reception processing and the other processings are same as those of the third embodiment.

FIG. 69 is a memory map showing a data construction of RAM 61 in the fourth embodiment and designated address area is added to that of the third embodiment. The designated address area is an area where designated address (1) to designated address (J) of important receivers such as company officers or the like are stored in advance and which are provided with a back-up so that a storage content is not erased when power is turned off.

4-1. Reception processing

FIGS. 70 and 71 are flows for reception processing in the fourth embodiment and the processing is executed in response to a timer interrupt. In FIG. 70, it is determined whether or not there is present a received mail (step 638) and if there is present a received mail, then it is determined whether or not a free area is available in the received mail area of RAM 61 (step 639). If there is no free area, a mail with the earliest reception date is deleted and the area is left free (step 640) and program flow goes to step 639. Then, a received mail is stored in the free area (step 641). Then, a unseal flag KAIFU (= 0) is attached to the stored received mail (step 642) and TIME (reception time) is further attached to it (step 643).

Then, it is determined whether or not a flag SCF indicating a kind of mail is 0, that is whether or not a received mail is an ordinary mail (step 644). If this flag is 0, that is a received mail is an ordinary mail, this reception processing is terminated. If SCF is 1, that is a received mail is a mail noticing assembly of a conference, designated is a schedule area for a date corresponding to a year/month/day of the conference assembly of the schedule mail (step 645). Then, pointer "n" which designates a schedule is set to 1 (step 646) and it is determined whether or not there is duplication between time zones of a schedule (n) of corresponding date and a received mail (step 647). If there is no duplication in time zone between schedules, "n" is incremented by one (step 648) and it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the number of schedules which have been registered on the date (step 649). If "n" has not exceeded the number of schedules, program flow goes to step 647 and it is determined whether or not a received mail is duplicate in time zone with a schedule(n) designated with "n".

Then, in processing from step 647 to step 649, it is determined on duplication between a schedule of a received mail and all schedules on the corresponding date which have been registered, as "n" is incremented and at step 649, it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the number of schedules and none of all the schedules are duplicate in time zone with a received mail, one attendee of a received mail is designated (step 650) and a mail address is retrieved (step 651). The mail address of each participant is adopted as a receiver address of a fixed form mail "A" to the effect that the conference is attended (step 652) and the fixed form mails "A" are transmitted

(step 653). Then, a mail address of a next attendee is retrieved in the received mail area (step 654). Then, it is determined whether or not there is present a next attendee (step 655). If there is present an attendee to which a fixed form mail "A" is not transmitted, program flow goes to step 651 and a mail address of the attendee is retrieved.

At step 655, it is determined whether or not there is present no next attendee and fixed form mails "A" have been transmitted to all attendees, designated is a free area of the schedule area for a year/month/day of the conference assembly (step 656), data of the received mail are stored in the free area (step 657) and the flow of this reception processing is terminated.

At step 647, if there is duplication between time zones of a schedule(n) designated by pointer "n" and a received mail, pointer "k" indicating a designated address is set to 1 in the flow of FIG. 71 (step 658) and it is determined whether or not a designated address (k) designated by pointer "k" among designated addresses stored in RAM 61 is same as an address of a received mail (step 659). If the designated address(k) designated by pointer "k" is not same as the received mail, "k" is incremented by one (step 660) and it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number of designated addresses (step 661). If "k" has not exceeded the maximum number, program flow goes to step 659 and it is determined whether or not the designated address (k) is same as an address of the received mail .

At step 661, it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number, that is an address of a received mail is different from any of all the designated addresses, a schedule which has been registered is handled with priority over a schedule of the received mail. In this case, an attendee of a received mail is designated (step 662), a mail address of the attendee is retrieved (step 663). Then, the mail address of a participant is adopted as a receiver address of a fixed form mail "B" to the effect that a conference is not attended (step 664) and the fixed form mail "B" is transmitted (step 665). Then, a mail address of next attendee is retrieved in the received mail area (step 666). Then, it is determined whether or not there is present a next attendee (step 667) and if there is remained an attendee to whom a fixed form mail "B" has not been transmitted, program flow goes to step 663 and a mail address of the attendee is retrieved. At step 667, it is determined whether or not there is no next attendee and fixed form mails "B" have been transmitted to all attendees, the flow of this reception processing is terminated.

At step 659, it is determined whether or not a designated address (k) is same as an address of a received mail, the address of a received mail is handled with priority over a schedule which has been registered. In this case, designated is a participant of a schedule (n) which is a duplicate of a received mail (step 668). Then, a mail address of the participant is retrieved (step 669), the mail address of the participant is adopted as a receiver address of a fixed form mail "B" to the effect that a conference is not attended (step 670) and the fixed form mail "B" is transmitted (step 671). Then, a mail address of a next participant is retrieved from a schedule(n) (step 672) and it is determined whether or not there is present a next participant (step 673). If there is present a next participant, program flow goes to step 669 and a mail address of the next participant is retrieved. At step 673, it is determined whether or not there is present no next participant and fixed form mails "B" have been transmitted to all participants. If yes in step 673, a schedule(n) is deleted (step 674) and data of a received mail is stored in a free area of the schedule(n) (step 675). Then, the flow of this reception processing is terminated. In the mean time, at step 671, after fixed form mails "B" have been transmitted to all attendees of a schedule(n), fixed form mails "A" to the effect that a conference is attended may be transmitted to all the attendees of the received mail as in the processing from step 650 to step 655 in FIG. 70.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, CPU 51, in addition to the constitution of the third embodiment, further comprises condition determining means for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when duplication between schedule data of a schedule received mail and schedule data which have been registered in RAM 61 is detected by a function of the comparing means ; and storage renewing means for not only deleting duplicate schedule data stored in RAM 61 but controlling RAM 61 to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when it is determined that a received schedule mail satisfies the predetermined condition by the condition determining means . Then, for instance, when it is adopted as a predetermined condition that a mail address of an important receiver such as that of a company officer or the like is same as a mail address of a received schedule, duplicate schedule data which have been registered in RAM 61 are deleted and schedule data of the important receiver is rewritten on the area. Accordingly, even when a received schedule mail is a duplicate of a registered schedule, a schedule management can be performed giving consideration to priority of schedule data without non-intelligent exclusion of a schedule mail .

In the third and fourth embodiments, while there has been described a dedicated electronic mail system which stores a program for transmission/reception of electronic mails in RAM 62, it is possible to modify such that the program for transmission/reception of electronic mails is stored on a storage medium such as a floppy disk, an magnet-optical disk or the like and an apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor for the general use, or the like is run on the program.

That is, in the third embodiment, a general purpose apparatus is run as an electronic mail system on a program stored in a storage medium, which is driven by the general use apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, the program comprising an electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; a schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; a schedule mail determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; a schedule data comparing program code for comparing between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and stored schedule data when it is determined that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is the schedule mail by the schedule mail determining program code; a schedule data storage control program code for controlling schedule data contained in a received schedule mail to be stored when no duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code; and a schedule data automatic transmission program code for transmitting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of a received schedule mail when duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code.

In the fourth embodiment, a general purpose apparatus is run as an electronic mail system on a program stored in a storage medium, which is driven by the general use apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, the program comprising an electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; a schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; a schedule mail determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; a schedule data comparing program code for comparing between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and stored schedule data when it is determined that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is the schedule mail by the schedule mail determining step; a schedule data storage control program code for controlling schedule data contained in a received schedule mail to be stored when no duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code; a mail condition determining program code for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code; and a schedule data storage control program code for controlling not only the stored duplicate schedule data to be deleted but the schedule data contained in the schedule mail to be stored when it is determined that a received schedule mail satisfies the predetermined condition by the mail condition determining program code.

In the above third embodiment, while is used a schedule mail which is different in form from an ordinary mail as a mail for schedule registration, an ordinary mail may be handled as a schedule mail when a specific password in a text of the received ordinary mail is detected. Moreover, a storage capacity of the received mail area may be saved by processing such that when schedule registration has been completed, the schedule mail is deleted from the received mail area.

In the fourth embodiment, while a mail address is used as a condition to determine an order of priority, other elements in a mail, for example a conference name and participants or the like, may be used as a predetermined condition.

According to the third and fourth embodiments, a schedule management is performed in a linked relation to electronic mail processing and electronic mail processing is also performed in a linked relation to a schedule management. Accordingly, when the electronic mail processing and the schedule management are under a linked relation to each other, these processings become simple, whereby a burden on a user can be decreased. Fifth embodiment Described will be the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 72 is a storage content of RAM 61 in the fifth embodiment. A feature of the embodiment is that a schedule provisional registration area is provided. FIG. 73 is a main flow in the fifth embodiment and in the flow, there is no waiting mail clearing processing at step 107 in the main flow of FIG. 7 (first embodiment) and when an on-flag ONF is 1 at step 105, after the reception display processing is executed (step 106), a provisional registration deletion processing is executed (step 108). The provisional registration deletion processing will be described later.

Reception display processing in the fifth embodiment is same as the flow for the reception display processing in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 10 and the schedule display processing at step 134 in the reception display processing of FIG. 9 is also same as the flow shown in FIGS. 15 to 18. However, the schedule detailed display processing at step 208 in the schedule display processing of FIG. 17 is different from corresponding processing in the first embodiment. Accordingly, the figures of the same processings and display screens as those of the first embodiment are used in description of the fifth embodiment and duplicate descriptions are omitted but descriptions are made on different processings from the first embodiment. 5-1. Schedule detailed display processing FIGS. 74 to 80 are flows for the schedule detailed display processing. FIG. 81 is a schedule detailed display screen image on a designated date, FIG. 82 is a schedule detailed display image of one designated schedule on the date, and FIGS. 83 and 84 are displays of fixed form mails.

In FIG. 74, the schedule display screen image is cleared (step 700) and displayed is a frame screen image of the schedule detailed display on "A"-th day (step 701). Then, pointer "n" designating a schedule is set to 1 (step 702) and a conference name and time data of SCD(n) are displayed (step 703). Then, "n" is incremented by one (step 704) and it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the maximum number K (step 705). If "n" has not exceeded K, program flow goes to step 703 and the conference name and time data of SCD(n) are displayed.

When "n" has exceeded K, displayed are conference names and time data of all schedule on "A"-th day.

In this condition, pointer "m" is set to 1 (step 706) and only SCD(m) is displayed in reverse (step 707). Therefore, a schedule at the uppermost position on the screen image is first presented in reverse display. Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the screen image (step S244) and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 709). If the mouse has been moved, a cursor position is moved in correspondence to the movement of the mouse 31 (step 710).

In the flow of FIG. 75, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 711). If the mouse has not been clicked, program flow goes to step 709 of FIG. 74 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If the mouse 31 has been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is present in one of SCD positions on the screen image of FIG. 81 (step 712). If the cursor position is in the one of SCD positions, pointer "m" is set to the number of SCD where the cursor position is present (step 713). Then, only SCD(m) is displayed in reverse (step 714). Then, program flow goes to step 709 of FIG. 74 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved.

At step 712 of FIG. 75, when a cursor position is not in a position of SCD, it is determined whether or not the cursor position is in the deletion switch position on the screen image of FIG. 81 (step 715). If the cursor position is present in this position, data of SCD(m) is deleted (step 716) and a schedule on "A"-th day is sorted (step 717). Then, the display of FIG. 81 is cleared (step 718) and program flow goes to step 721 of FIG. 76. At step 715 of FIG. 75, if a cursor position is not in the deletion switch position, it is determined whether or not the cursor position is present in the end switch position on the screen image of FIG. 81 (step 719). If the cursor position is present in this position, the screen image of FIG. 81 is cleared (step 720) and the flow of this schedule detailed display processing is terminated.

After the display is cleared at step 718, it is determined whether or not a mail is temporarily stored in the provisional registration area of the schedule mail of RAM 61 (step 721). If a mail is not in the area, program flow goes to step 701 of FIG. 74 and again executed is processing which displays a schedule of "A"-th day. On the other hand, if there is present a mail which is temporarily stored, pointer "k" indicating a mail number of the provisional registration area is set to 1 (step 722) and the next procedures are executed as "k" is incremented by one. That is, it is determined whether or not a mail(k) can be put in a time zone of schedule data SCD(m) which has been deleted (step 723) and if the mail(k) can be put in, schedule data of the mail(k) is transferred from the provisional registration area to SCD(m) (step 724).

Then, a fixed form mail "B" shown in FIG. 84 is transmitted with a transmitter address of the mail(k) as a receiver address (step 725). That is, a mail to the effect that a schedule of a mail(k) is registered in the schedule area is transmitted, so as to cancel a previous mail to the effect that a conference is not attended since the schedule of a mail(k) is a duplicate of another schedule which has been registered. Then, the mail(k) is erased from the provisional registration area (step 726). Then, "k" is incremented by one (step 727) and it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number (step 728). If "k" is less than the maximum number, program flow goes to step 723 and it is determined whether or not a mail(k) which is put in a time zone of SCD(m) is available. At step 723, it is determined whether or not the mail(k) designated by pointer "k" is not put in the time zone of SCD(m) , program flow goes to step 727 and "k" is incremented by one. At step 728, it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number, program flow goes to step 701 of FIG. 74 and a processing in which a schedule on "A"-th day is again displayed is executed.

At step 719 of FIG. 75, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is not in the end switch position. If not in step 719, it is determined at step 729 in the flow of FIG. 77 whether or not the cursor position is present in the details switch position. If the cursor position is not present in this position, program flow goes to step 709 of FIG. 74 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved, whereas if the cursor position is present in the detailed switch position, the display on the screen of FIG. 81 is cleared (step 730). Then, a schedule detailed display screen image as shown in FIG. 82 is displayed at step 731, which is a schedule detailed screen image of SCD(m) and is presented in reverse display on the screen of FIG. 81.

Then, a mouse cursor is displayed on the screen of FIG. 82 (step 732) and it is determined whether not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 733). If the mouse 31 has been moved, a cursor position is moved in corre- spondence to the movement of the mouse 31 (step 734). Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 735) and if the mouse 31 has been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is in the end switch position on the screen image of FIG. 82 (step 736). If the cursor position is present in this position, the display on the screen of FIG. 82 is cleared (step 737) and the flow of this schedule detailed display processing is terminated. At step 736, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is not in the end position. If no in step 736, it is determined at step 738 in the flow of FIG. 78 whether or not the cursor position is in the deletion switch position on the screen image of FIG. 82. If the cursor position is present in this position, deletion processing of SCD(m) is executed (step 739). Then, it is determined whether or not a mail is temporarily stored in the provisional registration area of RAM 61 (step 740). If a mail is not stored, program flow goes to step 733 of FIG. 77 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. If there is available a mail which is temporarily stored, pointer "k" indicating a mail number in the provisional registration area is set to 1 (step 741) and the next procedures are executed as "k" is incremented by one. That is, it is determined whether or not a schedule of a mail(k) can be put in a time zone of a deleted schedule data SCD(m) (step 742) and if the mail(k) can be put in, a schedule data of the mail(k) is transferred to SCD(m) from the provisional registration area (step 743 ) .

Then, a fixed form mail "B" shown in FIG. 84 is transmitted with a transmitter address of the mail(k) as a receiver address (step 744). Then, the mail(k) is erased from the provisional registration area (step 745). Then, "k" is incremented (step 746) and it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number (step 747). If "k" is less than the maximum number, program flow goes to step 742 and it is determined whether or not there is present a mail(k) which is put in a time zone of SCD(m) .

At step 742, it is determined whether or not the mail(k) designated by pointer "k" cannot be put in the time zone of SCD(m), program flow goes to step 746 and "k" is incremented by one. At step 747, it is determined whether or not "k" has exceeded the maximum number, program flow goes to step 730 of FIG. 77 and the display is cleared.

At step 738 of FIG. 78, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is not present in the deletion switch position. If no in step 738, it is determined at step 748 whether or not the cursor position is in the correction switch position on the screen image of FIG. 82. If the cursor position is present in this position, correction processing of SCD(m) is executed (step 749) and it is determined whether or not a time zone of SCD(m) is free (step 750). If the time zone is free, program flow goes to step 740 and it is determined whether or not there is a mail which is temporarily stored in the provisional registration area. If there is present a mail in the provisional registration area, a similar processing to the case of the deletion processing is executed.

At step 748, if a cursor position is not present in the correction switch position, program flow goes to step 733 of FIG. 77 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. At step 750 of FIG. 78, when a time zone of SCD(m) is not free, for instance when there are corrections of a place of conference assembly and participants, too, program flow goes to step 733 of FIG. 77 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. FIG. 79 is the flow of the deletion processing at step 739 of FIG. 78. In this processing, one of participants is designated (step 751). Then, a mail address of the one participant is used as a receiver address of a fixed form mail "A" containing a notice that a conference is not attended, showing in FIG. 83 (step 752). Then, data of SCD(m) is written in a text of a fixed form mail "A" (step 753) and the fixed form mail "A" is transmitted (step 754). Then, it is determined whether or not designations of all participants have been completed and fixed form mails "A" have been transmitted (step 755). If the designations of all participants have not been completed, program flow goes to step 751 and a next participant is designated. At step 755, when the designations of all participants have been completed and fixed form mails "A" have been transmitted to all the participants, data of SCD(m) are erased (step 756) and the flow of this deletion processing is terminated. FIG. 80 is a flow for correction processing at step 749 of FIG. 78. In this processing, a character cursor is displayed in the conference name area on the screen image of FIG. 82 (step 757). Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved (step 758). If the mouse 31 has been moved, a cursor is moved in correspondence to the movement of the mouse 31 (step 759). Then, it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been clicked (step 760) and if the mouse 31 has been clicked, it is determined whether or not a cursor position is present in one of the input areas on the screen image of FIG. 82 (step 761). If the cursor position is present in the one input area, a character cursor is moved to the one input area (step 762) .

After the character cursor is moved at step 762, or when the mouse has not been clicked at step 760, it is determined at step 763 whether or not data input from the key board or correction such as character deletion or the like has been executed. If the data input or the correction has been executed, schedule data in the input area where the character cursor is present is changed (step 764) and the display of the input area where the character cursor is present is changed (step 765). Thereafter, or when there is executed neither data input nor correction at step 763, program flow goes to step 758 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved.

At step 761, if a cursor position is not present in the input area, it is determined at step 766 whether or not the cursor position is present in the end switch position on the screen image of FIG. 82. If the cursor position is not present in this position, program flow goes to step 758 and it is determined whether or not the mouse 31 has been moved. At step 766, if a cursor position is in the end switch position, the flow for this correction processing is terminated. 5-2. Reception processing

FIG. 85 is a flow for the reception executed in response to an timer interrupt. In this processing, it is determined whether or not there is a received mail (step 767) and if there is a received mail, it is determined whether or not there is present a free area in the received mail area of RAM 61 (step 768). If there is no free area, a mail with the earliest reception date is deleted and the area is left free (step 769) and program flow goes to step 768. At step 768, when there is a free area, or at step 769, if the mail is deleted, a received mail is stored in the free area (step 770). Then, an unseal flag KAIFU (= 0) is attached to the stored received mail (step 771) and TIME (reception date) is attached to the stored received mail (step 772).

Then, it is determined at step 773 whether or not a flag SCF indicating a kind of mail is 0, that is whether or not a received mail is an ordinary mail . If this flag is 0 and a received mail is an ordinary mail, this reception processing is terminated. If SCF is 1, that is a received mail is a mail noticing assembly of a conference, is designated a schedule area for a date corresponding to a year/month/day of the conference assembly of the schedule mail (step 774). Then, pointer "n" is set to 1 (step 775) and it is determined whether or not there is duplication between time zones of a schedule(n) on a date corresponding to a year/month/day of the conference assembly of a received mail and the received mail, as "n" is incremented by one (step 776). If there is no duplication between both time zone, "n" is incremented by one (step 777) and it is determined whether or not "n" has exceeded the number of schedules which have been registered on the date (step 778). If "n" has not exceeded the number of schedules, program flow goes to step 776 and duplication in time zone is determined between a received mail and a schedule mail (n) designated with "n" . Then, in processing from step 776 to step 778, duplication in time zone is determined between a received mail and a schedule which has been registered on the corresponding date, as "n" is incremented and if there is a schedule(n) which is in duplication of time zone, a fixed form mail "A" shown in FIG. 83 is transmitted with a transmitter of a received mail as a receiver address (step 779). Then, the received mail is stored in the provisional registration area of RAM 61 (step 780), the flow for this reception processing is terminated and program flow returns to the main flow of FIG. 73. On the other hand, at step 778, when "n" has exceeded the number of schedules and there is no duplication in time zone between a received mail and any of all schedules, a free area is designated as the schedule area for a conference assembly year/month/day (step 781) and data of the received mail is stored in the free area (step 782). Then, the flow for this reception processing is terminated and program flow returns to the main flow of FIG. 73.

FIG. 86 is a flow for the provisional registration deletion processing at step 108 of the main flow of FIG. 73. In this processing, it is determined whether or not a mail is stored in the provisional registration area of RAM 61 (step 783) and if there is no mail, the flow is immediately terminated. If there is present a mail in the provisional registration area, a mail in the area is designated (step 784) and it is determined whether or not a start day/time in the designated mail has already been past the present day/time (step 785). If the start day/time has been past the present day/time, the mail is deleted (step 786). After the deletion of the mail, or when the start day/time of a designated mail has not yet been past the present day/time, it is determined whether or not all mails in the area have been designated (step 787). If all the mails have not designated, program flow goes to step 784 and a next mail is designated. At step 787, it is determined whether or not all the mails have been designated, the flow for the provisional registration deletion processing is terminated and program flow returns to the main flow of FIG. 73.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the schedule area of RAM 61 comprises schedule storage means for storing schedule data and schedule mail provisional registration area comprises temporary storage means for temporarily storing a received schedule mail. CPU 51 comprises mail receiving means for receiving a mail; determining means for determining whether or not a received electronic mail is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in the schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule area when it is determined that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; and storage control means for controlling the schedule data contained in the received schedule mail to be stored in the schedule area when no duplication between both schedule data is detected. Also when duplication is detected between the both schedule data in the schedule area, the received schedule mail is temporarily stored in the provisional registration area.

CPU 51 further comprises changing means for changing schedule data stored in the schedule storage area; and data transfer means for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the provisional registration area to the schedule area when schedule data is changed and duplicate schedule data which is stored in the schedule area is cleared.

When mail processing and a schedule management are in a linked relation to each other, one processing is automatically executed in a linked relation to the other processing, and besides, when a change occurs in a schedule, processing of a mail is executed according to the change. Accordingly, when mail processing and a schedule management are in a linked relation to each other, complex works are eliminated, a burden on a user is diminished and a change of a schedule can be countered in a flexible manner.

In addition, while in the fifth embodiment, there has been described a dedicated electronic mail which comprises ROM 62 in which a program for transmission/ reception of electronic mails is stored, the fifth embodiment may have constitution in which a program for transmission/reception of electronic mails is stored on a medium such as a floppy disk or a magneto-optical disk and an apparatus such as personal computer or a word processor, for the general use is run on the program.

That is, a general purpose apparatus is run as an electronic mail system on a program stored in a storage medium, which is driven by the general use apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, the program comprising an electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; a schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data in schedule storage means; a schedule data determining program code for determining whether or not a received mail is a schedule mail containing schedule data; a schedule data comparing program code for comparing between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when it is determined that a received mail is the schedule mail by the schedule data determining means; a schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when no duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code; a schedule data temporary storage control program code for controlling temporary storage means to temporarily store the received schedule mail when duplication between the both schedule data is detected by the schedule data comparing program code; a schedule data changing program code for changing schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means; and a schedule data transfer program code for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule data storage means when a change is performed by the schedule data changing program code and duplicate schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means is cleared.

In the above fifth embodiment, while a schedule mail of a different form other than an ordinary mail has been used as a mail for registration of a schedule, an ordinary mail may be handled as a schedule mail when a specific pass word in a text of the ordinary mail is detected. Besides, a storage capacity of the received mail area may be saved by erasing the schedule mail from the received mail area when schedule registration has been completed.

According the fifth embodiment, when mail processing and a schedule management are in a linked relation to each other, one processing is automatically executed in a linked relation to the other processing and besides, when a change occurs in a schedule, processing of a mail is executed in response to the change. Accordingly when mail processing and a schedule management are in a linked relation to each other, complex works are eliminated, a burden on a user is diminished and a change of a schedule can be countered in a flexible manner.

Claims

C L A I M S 1. An electronic mail system comprising: electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage means for storing schedule data; schedule mail determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; schedule data comparing means for detecting duplication between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means by comparing both schedule data when the schedule mail determining means determines that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is the schedule mail; schedule data storage control means for controlling the schedule data storage means to store the schedule data contained in the schedule mail when said schedule data comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; electronic mail automatic transmission means for transmitting an electronic mail; first electronic mail automatic transmission control means for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission means to transmit a first electronic mail containing information on a change in schedule to avoid the duplication between both schedule data to a transmitter of the schedule mail when said schedule data comparing means detects the duplication between both schedule data; and changed schedule data storage control means for controlling the schedule data storage means to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when an electronic mail is received by the electronic mail receiving means, which mail notices the change in the schedule data of the schedule mail so that the duplication is avoided in response to the first electronic mail containing the information, after the first electronic mail containing the information is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission means.

2. An electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time zone, and wherein the schedule data comparing means compares the both time zone data which the both schedule data respectively have and detects duplication between the both time zone data which the both schedule data respectively have.

3. An electronic mail system according to claim 1, in which the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time zone, which further comprises free time zone detecting means for detecting a free time zone which is not contained in a time zone designated by time zone data which are contained in any of schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means, and in which the first electronic mail automatic transmission control means controls the electronic mail automatic transmission means to transmit a fixed form electronic mail in which written is a free time zone detected by the free time zone detecting means .

4. An electronic mail system according to claim 3, wherein the first electronic mail automatic transmission control means controls the electronic mail automatic transmission means to transmit a fixed form electronic mail including a free time zone detected by the free time zone detecting means and a specific password, and the changed schedule data storage control means controls the schedule data storage means to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when the electronic mail in which the specific password is written is received by the electronic mail receiving means .

5. An electronic mail system according to claim 1, in which the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time zone, and which further comprises : free time zone detecting means for detecting a free time zone which is not contained in a time zone designated by time zone data which are contained in any of schedule data stored in the schedule data storage means ; and second electronic mail automatic transmission control means for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission means to transmit a fixed form electronic mail which notices that the duplication between both schedule data cannot be avoided to a transmitter of the schedule mail when the free time zone detecting means detects that the free time zone is not available.

6. An electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising third electronic mail automatic transmission control means for controlling the electronic mail transmission means to transmit a fixed form electronic mail which notices that the schedule data contained in the schedule mail is changed based on the information in the first electronic mail and changed schedule data are stored in the schedule data storage means to a transmitter of the schedule mail when the changed schedule data storage control means controls the schedule data storage means to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail.

7. An electronic mail system according to claim 3, wherein the changed schedule data storage control means deletes the schedule mail when the present time is past a start time of a free time zone written in the fixed form electronic mail which is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission means under control of the first electronic mail automatic transmission control means .

8. An electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; changing means for changing a storage content of the schedule storage means; automatic transmission means for transmitting an electronic mail having a content corresponding to a content of the change in schedule to a specific receiver when the change in schedule is performed by the changing means.

9. An electronic mail system according to claim 8, wherein the changing means is schedule adding means for adding a new schedule to the schedule storage means and the automatic transmission means transmits a fixed form mail to a receiver having a connection with an added schedule when the schedule is added by the schedule adding means .

10. An electronic mail system according to claim 8, wherein the changing means is schedule adding means for adding a new schedule to the schedule storage means and the automatic transmission means transmits a fixed form mail to a receiver having a connection with the added schedule when the schedule is added by the schedule adding means and the receiving means changes a schedule content stored in the schedule storage means according to a content of a response mail when the receiving means receives the response mail to the fixed form mail which has been transmitted.

11. An electronic mail system according to claim 8, wherein the changing means is schedule deleting means for deleting a schedule stored in the schedule storage means and the automatic transmission means transmits a fixed form mail to a receiver having a connection with the deleted schedule when the schedule is deleted by the schedule deleting means .

12. An electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in the schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; and automatic transmission means for transmitting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of a received schedule mail when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data.

13. An electronic mail system according to claim 12, wherein the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time zone and the comparing means determines whether or not the time zone data in both schedule data are in duplication.

14. An electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; condition determining means for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data; and storage renewing means for deleting duplicate schedule data stored in the schedule storage means and controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the condition determining means determines that a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition.

15. An electronic mail system according to claim 14, wherein the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time zone and the comparing means determines whether or not the time zone data in both schedule data are in duplication.

16. An electronic mail system according to claim 14, wherein the predetermined condition is that a transmitter address of the schedule mail is a predetermined address.

17. An electronic mail system comprising: mail receiving means for receiving a mail; schedule storage means for storing schedule data; determining means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving means is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing means for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage means when the determining means determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control means for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing means does not detect duplication between both schedule data; temporary storage means for temporarily storing the received schedule mail when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data; changing means for changing schedule data stored in the schedule storage means; and data transfer means for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule storage means when a change is performed by the changing means and duplicate schedule data which is stored in the schedule storage means is cleared.

18. An electronic mail system according to claim 17, wherein the schedule data contains time zone data which designates a specific time .zone and the comparing means determines whether or not the time zone data in both schedule data are in duplication.

19. An electronic mail system according to claim 17, further comprising mail transmission means for transmitting a first fixed form mail indicating that a request of the schedule mail is not acceptable to a transmitter of the received schedule mail when the comparing means detects duplication between the both schedule data and transmitting a second fixed form mail indicating that the first fixed form mail is corrected and the request is acceptable when the data transfer means transfers the duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule storage means .

20. A storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule mail determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; schedule data comparing program code for detecting duplication between schedule data contained in the schedule mail and schedule data stored by the schedule data storage program code by comparing both schedule data when the schedule mail determining program code determines that an electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving program code is the schedule mail; schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage program code to store the schedule data contained in the schedule mail when said schedule data comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; electronic mail automatic transmission program code for transmitting an electronic mail; first electronic mail automatic transmission control program code for controlling the electronic mail automatic transmission program code to transmit a first electronic mail containing information on a change in schedule to avoid the duplication between both schedule data to a transmitter of the schedule mail when said schedule data comparing program code detects the duplication between both schedule data; and changed schedule data storage control program code for controlling the schedule data storage program code to store changed schedule data from the schedule data contained in the schedule mail based on the information contained in the first electronic mail when an electronic mail is received by the electronic mail receiving program code, which mail notices the change in the schedule data of the schedule mail so that the duplication is avoided in response to the first electronic mail containing the information, after the first electronic mail containing the information is transmitted by the electronic mail automatic transmission program code.

21. A storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: electronic mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule data storage program code for storing schedule data; schedule data changing program code for changing a storage content of a schedule in the schedule storage program code for storing schedule data; and electronic mail automatic transmission program code for transmitting an electronic mail having a content corresponding to a content of the change in schedule to a specific receiver when the change in schedule is performed by the schedule data changing program code .

22. A storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data ; determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code for comparing schedule data contained in the schedule mail with schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; and automatic transmission program code for transmitting a fixed form mail to a transmitter of a received schedule mail when the comparing program code detects duplication between the both schedule data.

23. A storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving an electronic mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data; determining program code for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; condition determining program code for determining whether or not a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition when the comparing program code detects duplication between the both schedule data; and storage renewing program code for deleting duplicate schedule data stored by the schedule storage program code and controlling the schedule storage program code to store schedule data contained in the schedule mail when the condition determining program code determines that a received schedule mail satisfies a predetermined condition.

24. A storage medium readable by a computer storing a program for electronic mail processing, the program comprising: mail receiving program code for receiving a mail; schedule storage program code for storing schedule data to schedule storage means; determining program code means for determining whether or not an electronic mail received by the mail receiving program code is a schedule mail containing schedule data; comparing program code for comparing schedule data contained in a schedule mail with schedule data stored in the schedule storage program means when the determining program code determines that a received electronic mail is the schedule mail; storage control program code for controlling the schedule storage means to store schedule data contained in a received schedule mail when the comparing program code does not detect duplication between both schedule data; temporary storage program code means for controlling temporary storage means to temporarily store the received schedule mail when the comparing program code means detects duplication between the both schedule data; changing program code for changing schedule data stored in the schedule storage means; and data transfer program code for transferring duplicate schedule data stored in the temporary storage means to the schedule storage means when a change is performed by the changing program code and duplicate schedule data which is stored in the schedule storage means is cleared.