Patent ID: 7774710

Claim:
A method of sharing data items among clients in a computer network, the method comprising: responsive to a share command input to a first client connected to a computer network, creating a shared object in a private workspace of a second client connected to the computer network by selecting a share command control from a menu associated with a source object in a private workspace of the first client to be shared, wherein the shared object includes a pointer to the source object in the private workspace of the first client; presenting the shared object on a display of the second client as a selectable personal object record, the personal object record including the pointer to the source object containing data to be shared within the first client workspace; in response to a selection of the personal object record representing the shared object, following the pointer included in the personal object record and retrieving data from the source object in the private workspace of the first client; upon retrieval of the data from the source object, using the retrieved data to generate a copy of the source object; and presenting the copy of the source object on the display of the second client, wherein the appearance of the presented copy is the same as though the shared object was a local object stored in the private workspace of the second client.