Patent ID: 7725443

Claim:
A method for organizing e-mail messages comprising the steps of: providing a direct email-to-email association option in an email program; indicating at least one first e-mail message in a user mailbox; associating the at least one first e-mail message with a second e-mail message by enabling the association option, wherein said step of associating further comprises enabling an options list to appear with respect to the at least one first e-mail message, said options list including at least an associate option, a show associations option, and a hide associations option; selecting the associate option on the options list; and selecting the second e-mail message, wherein the second e-mail message is caused to be automatically associated to the at least one first e-mail message to form an associated group of e-mails; and forming an associated group of e-mails in the user mailbox comprising at least two or more associated e-mail messages; creating a reply email to at least one of the associated group of e-mails; and selecting at least one of the show associations option and the hide associations option for the reply e-mail to control whether the reply e-mail is to show the associated group of emails to a recipient.