Patent ID: 7447989

Claim:
A method for editing a timed reminder linked to a document, comprising: receiving instructions from a computer user at a computer system, the instructions indicating that a timed reminder is to be created and associated with a selected application document, the instructions including one or more properties that are to be set in the reminder; determining that the application presenting the selected document is being displayed on the forefront of a computer display communicatively coupled to the computer system, such that the application has current system focus; creating a timed reminder from within the application based on the received user instructions, the timed reminder being automatically associated with the selected document in the application that has current system focus; receiving a notification from the timed reminder notifying the computer user that the designated time indicated in the notification has arrived, the notification indicating that the associated document is to be accessed at a specified time; accessing a reminder editing dialog configured to allow a computer user to edit one or more portions of the timed reminder; using the reminder editing dialog, editing one or more portions of the timed reminder, the editing including at least one of deleting, adding and rescheduling, the editing of the reminder occurring in a seamless manner without requiring a user to manually access a different application program in order to edit the reminder; and storing the edited reminder in a shared database that supports timed reminders linked to documents associated with a plurality of application programs.