Patent ID: 8745141

Claim:
A method comprising: during a user session with an electronic-mail application that displays (a) a message list that lists a plurality of electronic mails and (b) calendar event information stored in association with a calendar application, detecting that a user has highlighted a first electronic-mail in said message list by selecting a first list item shown in said message list; parsing said first electronic-mail and determining that said first electronic-mail contains calendar event information; and in response to determining that said first electronic-mail contains calendar event information, and in response to said user highlighting said first electronic-mail in said message list by selecting said first list item shown in said message list, causing an “add event” control of said electronic-mail application to be visually displayed in a first manner; wherein causing the visual appearance of said “add event” control to change is performed without automatically creating a new event in said calendar application; during the user session with the electronic-mail application, detecting that the user has highlighted a second electronic-mail in the message list by selecting a second list item shown in said message list; parsing said second electronic-mail and determining that said second electronic-mail does not contain calendar event information; and in response to determining that said second electronic-mail does not contain calendar event information, and in response to said user highlighting said second electronic-mail in said message list, causing the “add event” control of the electronic-mail application to be visually displayed in a second manner that is different from the first manner; wherein the electronic-mail application concurrently displays the message list, at least a portion of a timeline bar, and within said timeline bar, the calendar event information stored in association with said calendar application, and further comprising: detecting that said user has performed a drag-and-drop action that drags said first electronic-mail from said message list onto said portion of said timeline bar; in response to detecting that the user has performed a drag-and-drop action that drags the electronic-mail from said message list onto said portion of said timeline bar, performing the steps of: parsing said electronic-mail; and automatically creating a new calendar event based on information parsed from said electronic-mail, wherein detecting that said user has performed said drag-and-drop action, parsing said first electronic-mail, and automatically creating said new calendar event are performed by one or more computing devices.