Patent ID: 7475120

Claim:
A method of removing attachments from sent e-mails, comprising: providing a selectable e-mail setting to delete attachments from copies of e-mails saved in a sent folder on an e-mail server, such that an e-mail user is provided with choices as to when attachments are to be deleted, including at least choices of (a) prior to saving the sent e-mails and (b) a specific amount of time after the sent e-mails are saved, and also including at least choices of (c) deleting all attachments and (d) deleting only attachments larger than a selected size; the e-mail user selecting whether attachments are to be automatically deleted from sent e-mails prior to saving the sent e-mails in the sent folder or selecting a specific amount of time before the attachments are to be automatically deleted, and the e-mail user also selecting whether all attachments or only attachments larger than a selected size are to be automatically deleted; the e-mail user composing at least one e-mail to be sent out and attaching to the at least one e-mail at least one attachment of a copy of at least one document to be attached; sending the at least one e-mail with the at least one attachment to at least one other e-mail user; saving a copy of the at least one e-mail in the sent folder on the e-mail server either: (a) without saving any of the at least one attachment if the e-mail user selected deleting prior to saving sent e-mails and with an indication including a pointer as to where the at least one document to be attached is stored, wherein the indication also includes name of the at least one document, size of the at least one document and type of the at least one document; or (b) with saving the at least one attachment, along with an indication including a pointer as to where the at least one document to be attached is stored, wherein the indication also includes name of the at least one document, size of the at least one document and type of the at least one document, and then deleting the at least one attachment after the specific amount of time providing the e-mail user an override option to override an automatic attachment deletion setting.