Method and apparatus for providing a view of an electronic mail message

A method, implemented by a computer, for displaying an electronic mail message comprising:

• opening the electronic mail message sent from a first user and received by a second user and comprising a plurality of sections each comprising a component message sent from a user and associated component message identifying information which at least identifies the user responsible for sending the component message;
• displaying the opened electronic mail message;
• determining the plurality of sections in the opened electronic mail message;
• displaying a historical view having a plurality of identifiers, where each identifier in the plurality of identifiers is provided for each section in the determined plurality of sections;
• and
• activating at least one identifier in the plurality of identifiers to view one of the determined plurality of sections associated with the activated at least one identifier.

A method, implemented by a computer, for creating electronic mail messages comprising:

• opening a first map view associated with a first electronic mail message comprising a plurality of sections each comprising a component message and associated identification information identifying at least a sender, a recipient and a subject of the associated component message, wherein the first map view provides an abstracted view of the first electronic mail message with respect to the plurality of sections in which at least a portion of the associated identification information of each section is shown without the associated component message;
• selecting portions of the first map view that are to be contained in a second electronic mail message;
• and
• creating the second electronic mail message comprising a second map view containing the selected portions of the first map view.

A method, implemented by a computer, for creating an electronic mail message comprising:

• receiving a first electronic mail message comprising:
• a plurality of sections each comprising a component message and associated identification information identifying at least a sender, a recipient and a subject of the associated component message;
• a first historical section excluding the component messages and defined by at least a portion of the associated identification information for each component message;
• creating a second electronic mail message comprising the plurality of sections of the first electronic mail message and a new component message and associated identification information;
• and
• creating a second historical section for the second electronic mail message, the second historical section comprising the first historical section and the associated identification information of the new component message.

A terminal for providing a historical view of an electronic mail message having a plurality of sections comprising:

• a memory for storing an electronic mail message and a mapping routine;
• a processing unit, coupled to the memory, for retrieving the electronic mail message from the memory and opening the retrieved electronic mail message upon a command from an input device, and which, when configured with the mapping routine, determines the plurality of sections in the electronic mail message, and provides an identifier for each section in the plurality of sections;
• and
• a display device, coupled to the processing unit, for displaying the historical view comprising the identifiers for each section, the identifiers each comprising a user identification and a subject.

A computer readable medium storing a software program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method comprising:

• opening an electronic mail message sent from a first user and received by a second user and comprising a plurality of sections each comprising a component message sent from a user and associated component message identifying information which at least identifies the user responsible for sending the component message, wherein the plurality of sections comprises at least:
• (i) a first component message from the first user and associated component message identifying information and (ii) a second component message from at least one other user and associated component message identifying information;
• displaying the opened electronic mail message;
• determining the plurality of sections in the opened electronic mail message;
• and
• displaying a historical view of the electronic mail message, the historical view having a plurality of identifiers, each identifier in the plurality of identifiers is provided for each section in the plurality of sections.