Patent ID: 7516186

Claim:
A method for local archiving of e-mail messages in an e-mail client application, the method comprising: generating a mail thread including at least two e-mail messages transmitted and received between a message originator and at least one recipient; appending e-mail identification data into a header of the mail thread of the at least two e-mail messages when transmitted, wherein the e-mail identification data includes at least: a message originator identification inserted into a message originator identification field; a message identification inserted into a thread identification field; a mail timestamp inserted into a thread timestamp field; a thread level representing a response level of each of the at least two e-mail messages within the mail thread and inserted into a thread level field; and a thread body interval containing a start line interval and an end line interval representing length of a mail body of one of the at least two e-mail messages within the mail thread and inserted into a thread body field such that the thread body interval is re-calculated when each newly added e-mail message is transmitted; wherein the thread body field contains at least two thread body intervals; archiving related e-mail messages within the mail thread in an e-mail client application, comprising: searching for the related e-mail messages by identifying each of the related e-mail messages having a same message originator identification inserted in the message originator field; dividing the mail thread into respective segments by analyzing the at least two thread body intervals of the thread body field in the each of the related e-mail messages; purging redundant segments from the mail thread by analyzing the thread identification field to identify the redundant segments; merging non-redundant segments of the each of the related e-mail messages into a single message document by ordering the non-redundant segments hierarchically by the response level and the mail timestamp of the each of the related e-mail messages; storing the single message document within the e-mail client application; and displaying, on a display screen, the single message document according to a conversational view based upon a perspective of the response level of a user within the mail thread.