Thread navigation

• US 20070061738A1
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Brian, Fernandes, Bertille, Taboada, Roberto, Yap, Joe
• Granted Patent: US 9,542,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A user may easily read, browse, and jump through the messages contained within a thread. Different portions of the message may be highlighted such that they are easily identifiable. The user may easily navigate through the thread by selecting a user interface element, such as an arrow button, to move to the next or previous message within the thread. The order of the thread may also be reversed such that the user may view the thread from the first message to the last message, or view the thread from the last message to the first message. The messages within the thread may be marked, such as by using XML tags, in order to facilitate the identification of the sections of the messages within the thread.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for navigating messages within a thread, comprising:

accessing the thread;

determining a location for each message header within the thread;

modifying an appearance of each message within the thread based at least in part on the location for each message header; and

rendering the thread.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein modifying the appearance of each message within the thread comprises performing at least one of:

changing a shading of each message header;

applying a gradient shading to each message header;

changing a color of each message header;

collapsing at least a portion of the message header;

expanding at least a portion of the message headers;

including an identifier within each message header; and

including a selectable user interface element within at least one of the message headers that when selected performs a navigational function relating to the messages within the thread.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the location for each message header within the thread comprises applying heuristics to the thread to identify locations of the message headers.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein determining the location for each message header within the thread comprises locating at least one of:

a From field;

a To field;

a Subject field; and

a Message field.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising tagging the thread using a markup language;

wherein tagging the thread comprises tagging at least one element that is associated with each message.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the element is at least one of:

a message header element;

a message element;

a from element;

a sent element;

a to element;

a cc element;

a bcc element;

a subject element; and

a value element.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the tagging is temporarily associated with the thread.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the markup is an XML markup.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining when a user is hovering over one of the messages and displaying a navigational control that may be selected to navigate from one message within the thread to another message within the thread.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the navigational control is displayed such that it remains in approximately the same location of a screen as the thread is navigated.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising reversing the order of the messages within the thread.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for navigating messages within a thread, comprising:

accessing the thread;

parsing the thread to identify each message header;

tagging each message header according to a schema;

modifying the appearance of each message header; and

rendering the thread.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the schema is an XML schema.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein parsing the thread to identify each message header comprises locating at least one of:

a From field;

a To field;

a Subject field; and

a Message field.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein tagging each message header according to the schema comprises tagging:

a from field;

a sent field;

a to field;

a cc field;

a bcc field; and

a subject field.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising displaying a selectable navigational control within the thread and when the selectable navigational control is selected modifying the rendering of the thread.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the selectable navigational control performs at least one of:

moving to a next message;

moving to a previous message;

moving to a top of the thread;

moving to a bottom of the thread; and

reversing the thread.

18. A system for navigating messages within a thread, comprising:

means for accessing the thread;

means for determining a location for each message header within the thread;

means for modifying an appearance of each message header;

means for navigating within the thread using at least one navigational control that is displayed within a message header; and

means for rendering the thread.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein means for modifying the appearance of each message comprises changing the shading of each message header.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for tagging the thread according to an XML schema.