Attachment collaboration within message environments
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsPhilip Yue-Leung Chan, Nathan F. Waddoups, Michael Patrick Loughry, Maxim A. Ivanov
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and software for facilitating collaboration within message environments. In an implementation, a message system receives a request to send on behalf of a sender a message having an attachment. In response to the request, the message system generates a collaborative version of the attachment within a location associated with the sender. The collaborative version of the attachment may be modified to reflect updates initiated on behalf of recipients of the message.
Claims20
One or more computer readable storage media comprising program instructions stored thereon for facilitating document collaboration within a message environment that, when executed by a computing system, directs the computing system to at least:
- receive a request to send, on behalf of a sender, a message having an attachment;
- in response to the request, determine whether or not a collaboration option in the message is selected;
- if the collaboration option is selected, then generate a collaborative version of the attachment within a location in the message environment associated with the sender and send the message to a plurality of recipients of the message with a reference to the collaborative version of the attachment;
- if the collaboration option is not selected, then send the message to the plurality of recipients of the message with the attachment;
- and
- modify the collaborative version of the attachment to reflect a plurality of updates initiated on behalf of a plurality of recipients of the message.
A method of operating a message system to facilitate document collaboration within a message environment, the method comprising:
- receiving a request to send, on behalf of a sender, a message having an attachment;
- in response to the request, determining whether or not a collaboration option in the message is selected;
- if the collaboration option is selected, then generating a collaborative version of the attachment within a location in the message environment associated with the sender and sending the message to a plurality of recipients of the message with a reference to the collaborative version of the attachment;
- if the collaboration option is not selected, then sending the message to the plurality of recipients of the message with the attachment;
- and
- modifying the collaborative version of the attachment to reflect a plurality of updates initiated on behalf of a plurality of recipients of the message.
A computing apparatus comprising:
- one or more computer readable storage media;
- and
- program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for facilitating content collaboration that, when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
- present a view of an email having an attachment;
- present a collaboration option in the view that when selected nominates the attachment for collaboration;
- and
- when communicating with a message system to send the email to a plurality of recipients on behalf of a sender:
- request that the message system host a collaborative version of the attachment within a location in the message system associated with the sender if the attachment is nominated for collaboration and request that the message system send the email to the plurality of recipients with a reference to the collaborative version of the attachment;
- and
- if the attachment is not nominated for collaboration, request that the message system send the email to the plurality of recipients with the attachment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.