Patent ID: 7500178

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of processing electronic forms, the method comprising: receiving information identifying a first electronic form, said received; determining a set of descriptors associated with a set of fields included in the first electronic form, the set of descriptors including a first descriptor associated with a first field, wherein the set of descriptors associated with the set of fields included in the first electronic form includes field names associated with the set of fields and the set of identifiers stored for the user comprises one or more field names associated with the set of fields; accessing user information from a computer memory, said user information comprising information identifying a set of identifiers stored for a user, the set of identifiers stored for the user including a first identifier corresponding to the first descriptor, wherein a first value is associated with the first identifier, displaying the first electronic form on a computer display such that the first value is displayed in the first field of the first electronic form; identifying at least a second descriptor associated with a field in the first electronic form that does not have a corresponding identifier in the set of identifiers stored for the user; determining a second value entered in the field associated with the second descriptor; automatically updating the set of descriptors whereby an identifier corresponding to the second descriptor is included in the set of identifiers stored for the user and the second value is associated with the identifier corresponding to the second descriptor; determining a third value entered in the first field of the first electronic form that is different from the first value; and automatically updating the user information such that the third value is associated with the first identifier.