US 6,209,005 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for generating and linking documents to contacts in an organizer

AssigneeApple Computer, Inc.

InventorsJames Riddle Harker, Dominic Philip Haine

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Abstract

Disclosed are methods and apparatuses for attaching a letter to a contact in an organizer contact list. The method includes the operations of selecting a contact from the organizer contact list that is controlled by an organizer program. The method then stores a plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into a temporary memory location. Next, a letter is selected from a plurality of standard letters provided by the organizer. The plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact is then integrated into the selected letter.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method for attaching a letter to a contact in a personal organizer contact list, comprising the operations of:

selecting a contact from the personal organizer contact list that is controlled by a personal organizer program, the personal organizer program being equipped to store and keep track of identifying information associated with a user's personal and business contacts;
storing a plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into a temporary memory location;
selecting a letter from a plurality of standard letters;
passing control to a script program configured to launch a word processor program for the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters, the script program instructing an operating system to launch the word processor program, and the script program being further configured to fetch the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters;
integrating the plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into the selected letter, wherein the integrating of the plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact is initiated when the script tells the word processor to paste the plurality of identifying information stored in the temporary memory onto the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters, wherein the script tells the word processor to save the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters under a new file name, and to assign the new file name a file reference, and wherein the script further returns the file reference to the personal organizer program;
and
providing an attachment symbol on the selected contact of the personal organizer contact list, the attachment symbol indicating a number of attachments associated with the selected contact by providing an indicator of the number of attachments associated with the selected contact, the indicator being provided on the selected contact integral with or proximate to the attachment symbol, the letter being one of the number of attachments.

4 more elements

A method for linking a letter to a contact, comprising:

generating a letter having a selected address type copied from data fields of a selected contact of a personal organizer contact list that includes a plurality of contacts, each of the plurality of contacts having a plurality of address types, the letter being generated by a separate word processor program that is called by a personal organizer program containing the personal organizer contact list, the personal organizer program being equipped to store and keep track of identifying information associated with a user's personal and business contacts;
saving the letter having the selected address type using the word processor, the word processor being configured to get a file reference for the saved letter and provide the file reference to the personal organizer program, the personal organizer program being configured to generate a file alias for the file reference;
associating the file alias with the selected contact of the personal organizer contact list;
providing an attachment symbol on the selected contact of the personal organizer contact list, the attachment symbol indicating a number of attachments associated with the selected contact by providing an indicator of the number of attachments associated with the selected contact, the indicator being provided on the selected contact integral with or proximate to the attachment symbol, the letter being one of the number of attachments;
and
providing a link to the number of attachments associated with the selected contact, the link being established through the file alias.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

patentgrep

Loading patent…

Abstract

A method for attaching a letter to a contact in a personal organizer contact list, comprising the operations of:

selecting a contact from the personal organizer contact list that is controlled by a personal organizer program, the personal organizer program being equipped to store and keep track of identifying information associated with a user's personal and business contacts;
storing a plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into a temporary memory location;
selecting a letter from a plurality of standard letters;
passing control to a script program configured to launch a word processor program for the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters, the script program instructing an operating system to launch the word processor program, and the script program being further configured to fetch the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters;
integrating the plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact into the selected letter, wherein the integrating of the plurality of identifying information associated with the selected contact is initiated when the script tells the word processor to paste the plurality of identifying information stored in the temporary memory onto the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters, wherein the script tells the word processor to save the letter selected from the plurality of standard letters under a new file name, and to assign the new file name a file reference, and wherein the script further returns the file reference to the personal organizer program;
and
providing an attachment symbol on the selected contact of the personal organizer contact list, the attachment symbol indicating a number of attachments associated with the selected contact by providing an indicator of the number of attachments associated with the selected contact, the indicator being provided on the selected contact integral with or proximate to the attachment symbol, the letter being one of the number of attachments.

4 more elements