Making document changes by replying to electronic messages

• US 9,747,268 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2014
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Meisels, Joshua Adam, Swett, Daniel, Morrill, Jason Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Higa, Brendan
• Application Number:
  US14/188,666
• Publication Number:
  US 20140173423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,282 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

Document changes are sent within a body of an electronic message to reviewers that are collaborating on the document. The document may be any type of document to which changes/comments are made, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, slides, and the like. A reviewer receiving the electronic message may accept/reject changes and/or make comments/modifications to the document changes that are contained within the electronic message. For example, a reviewer may edit the document changes that are included within the body of the electronic message to add a comment and/or make changes to the change. A reviewer may also have the option to accept/reject changes directly from within the electronic message. After making any changes, the reviewer replies to the electronic message and the changes that are included within the electronic message are applied to the document.

Claims

1. A computing device configured to:

display an electronic message that includes a change made to a document, wherein the change is viewable within a body portion of the electronic message;

receive a reply to the electronic message that includes a received change for the document, wherein the received change for the document is made directly from within the electronic message and is made outside of the document; and

after receiving the reply to the electronic message, automatically incorporate the received change into the document.

2. The device of claim 1, further configured to contain document changes within the electronic message.

3. The device of claim 1, further configured to receive accepted changes for the document via a reply to the electronic message.

4. The device of claim 1, further configured to receive rejections to changes for the document via a reply to the electronic message.

5. The device of claim 1, further configured to use a link to accept or reject changes to a document stored in a shared location.

6. The device of claim 1, further configured to receive a comment on the change to the document via a reply to the electronic message.

7. The device of claim 1, further configured to provide an option to open the document from within the electronic message.

8. The device of claim 1, further configured to create the electronic message to include a summary of changes made to the document.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the electronic message includes changes to be reviewed, an entry point for comments, and controls configured to accept and reject changes.

10. The device of claim 1 including a web browser configured to access the electronic message through an email service to affect changes to the document.

11. The device of claim 1, further configured to display a different change section within the body portion of the electronic message for each change.

12. The device of claim 1, further configured to display each change within a separate section of the electronic message including a portion of text contained in the document before and/or after each change.

13. A method comprising:

using an electronic message to manage changes to be made to a document, wherein one or more changes to be made to the document are viewable within a body of the electronic message;

using a reply to the electronic message that includes a received change made directly from within the body of the electronic message and made outside of the document that is to be incorporated into the document; and

after receiving the reply, automatically incorporating the received change into the document.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying each change within a separate section of the electronic message including displaying a portion of document text before and/or after each change.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising parsing the electronic message before applying the changes to the document.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising using the electronic message to track one or more of a number of changes made, a number of comments made, and a number of accepted and/or rejected changes associated with the document.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising limiting a number of changes displayed relative to a receiver of the electronic message.

18. A computer-readable storage device having stored thereon computer-executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method for managing document changes by replying to an electronic message, comprising:

using an electronic message to manage changes to be made to a document, wherein one or more changes to be made to the document are viewable within a body of the electronic message;

using a reply to the electronic message that includes a received change made directly from within the electronic message and made outside of the document that is to be incorporated into the document; and

after receiving the reply, automatically incorporating the received change into the document.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, further comprising displaying a link within the electronic message to be user for navigating to a section of the document.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, further configured displaying a first selectable option to accept a change and a second selectable option to reject the change.