Patent ID: 7346659

Claim:
An information providing apparatus comprising: a management unit managing settings indicating whether or not to generate abstract of mail text of an electronic mail and maximum number of displayable characters of a communication terminal by associating the settings with address of electronic mail; a reception unit receiving electronic mail data addressed to a communication terminal; a first determining unit determining, by referring to the management unit, whether the number of characters of mail text of the electronic mail data received by said reception unit exceeds the maximum number of displayable characters of the addressed communication terminal; a second determination unit determining, when said first determination unit determines that the number of characters of the mail text exceeds the maximum number of displayable characters, whether settings corresponding to the addressed communication terminal indicates that an abstract is to be generated, by referring to the management unit; a first generation unit generating, when said second determination unit determines that the setting indicates to generate an abstract, an abstract of the mail text as text to be sent; a second generation unit generating, when said second determination unit determines that the setting indicates not to generate an abstract, text to be sent by cutting characters which exceed the maximum number of displayable characters; and a sending unit sending the text to be sent generated by said first or second generation unit to the addressed communication terminal.