Calendar bar interface for electronic mail interaction

An apparatus for use with a computer system operatively coupled to a network and capable of executing a communication process for sending and receiving electronic mail documents, the apparatus comprising:

• (A) a preprocessor for preprocessing an electronic mail document to selectively remove electronic mail features prior to document summarization;
• (B) a document summarizer responsive to a preprocessed electronic mail document for generating a summary document;
• and
• (C) program logic for identifying any ancestor documents of the electronic mail document and causing any ancestor documents to be preprocessed by the preprocessor and summarized by the document summarizer and the results thereof added to the summary document.

In a computer system operatively connectable to a network and capable of executing a communication process for sending and receiving documents, a method comprising:

• (A) summarizing a document existing at a current level of a hierarchical organization;
• (B) storing the results of the summarization process of (A) in a summary document;
• (C) identifying a document that exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level;
• (D) designating the adjacent level of the hierarchical organization as the current level of the hierarchical organization;
• and
• (E) repeating (A) through (D) until no document exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level.

A computer program product for use with a computer system operatively coupled to a network and capable of executing a communication process for sending and receiving electronic mail documents, the computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having embodied therein program code comprising:

• (A) program code for summarizing a document existing at a current level of a hierarchical organization;
• (B) program code for storing the results of the summarization process of (A) in a summary document;
• (C) program code for identifying a document that exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level;
• (D) program code for designating the adjacent level of the hierarchical organization as the current level of the hierarchical organization;
• and
• (E) program code for repeatedly executing (A) through (D) until no document exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level.

A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave for use with a computer system operatively coupled to a network and capable of executing a communication process for sending and receiving electronic mail documents, the computer data signal comprising:

• (A) program code for summarizing a document existing at a current level of a hierarchical organization;
• (B) program code for storing the results of the summarization process of (A) in a summary document;
• (C) program code for identifying a document that exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level;
• (D) program code for designating the adjacent level of the hierarchical organization as the current level of the hierarchical organization;
• and
• (E) program code for repeatedly executing (A) through (D) until no document exists at a level of the hierarchical organization adjacent the current level.