PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-8219920-B2
Application Number: US-76077607-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Methods and systems for managing to do items or notes or electronic messages

Abstract:
Methods and systems for managing To do items and/or notes and/or emails (or other electronic messages) are described. On exemplary method includes receiving an input to create a To do item based on a portion of an email record, such as a received email, and creating, in response to the input, the To do item. Another exemplary method includes storing a note having a To do item in the note, the note being stored as an entry in a note database which is separate from a To do database and storing the To do item in the To do database and receiving an input within either a note view or a To do view to edit the To do item and causing the note to be edited and causing the To do item to be edited in response to the input.

Claims:
1. A machine readable storage medium containing executable program instructions which cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising:
 displaying a body of an email message in a first view pane of an email client application window; 
 creating, in response to a first input, a To do item based on a portion of the email message body; 
 embedding a display of the To do item within the email client application window to present the display of the To do item concurrently with the displaying of the email message body; 
 creating, in response to receiving a second input, a note containing the To do item; and 
 modifying the To do item presentation in the email client application display window by presenting the To do item in a note view embedded the email client application display window, the embedded note view further including a user editable text field to be displayed concurrently with the display of the email message body. 
 
     
     
       2. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the medium further comprises instructions which cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:
 storing the note in a note database accessible through a note view which does not concurrently display the email message. 
 
     
     
       3. A medium as in  claim 2 , wherein the note stored includes a note subject field displayed as a first line of the note within the note view. 
     
     
       4. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the second input to create the note is an input of text that is stored in the note database. 
     
     
       5. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the second input to create the note is a selection of a displayed command interface for creating a note and wherein the displayed command interface is displayed concurrently with a display of the To do item and a portion of the email message. 
     
     
       6. A medium as in  claim 5 , wherein the To do is displayed in a view embedded within an email window which includes the displayed command interface and wherein a user can select the displayed command interface, while in the email window which displays emails, without having to switch to a window showing To do items or note items. 
     
     
       7. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
 displaying the To do item in a note template having horizontal lines resembling a paper page in the note view embedded within the email client application window. 
 
     
     
       8. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein the To do item comprises at least one of (1) a due date; or (2) a specification of an action or action item or action required; or (3) a priority; or (4) a settable alarm; or (5) an identification of a particular selectable calendar within a set of a user&#39;s calendars or (6) a completed status indicator. 
     
     
       9. A machine implemented method comprising:
 displaying a body of an email message in a first view pane of an email client application window; 
 creating, in response to a first input, a To do item based on a portion of the email record body; 
 embedding a display of the To do item within the email client application window to present the display of the To do item concurrently with the displaying of the email message body; 
 creating, in response to receiving a second input, a note containing the To do item; and 
 modifying the To do item presentation embedded in the email client application display window by presenting the To do item in a note view embedded in the email client application display window, the embedded note view further including a user editable text field displayed concurrently with the display of the email message body. 
 
     
     
       10. A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises:
 storing the note in a note database accessible through a note view which does not concurrently display the email message. 
 
     
     
       11. A medium as in  claim 10 , wherein the note stored includes a note subject field displayed as a first line of the note within the note view. 
     
     
       12. A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the second input is an input of the text that is stored in the note database. 
     
     
       13. A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the second input to create the note is a selection of a displayed command interface for creating a note and wherein the displayed command interface is displayed concurrently with a display of the To do item and portion of the email record. 
     
     
       14. A method as in  claim 13 , wherein the To do is displayed in a view embedded within an email window which includes the displayed command interface and wherein a user can select the displayed command interface, while in the email window which displays emails, without having to switch to a window showing To do items or note items. 
     
     
       15. A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises:
 displaying the To do item in a note template having horizontal lines resembling a paper page in the note view embedded within the email application window. 
 
     
     
       16. A method as in  claim 9 , wherein the To do item comprises at least one of (1) a due date; or (2) a specification of an action or action item or action required; or (3) a priority; or (4) a settable alarm; or (5) an identification of a particular selectable calendar within a set of user&#39;s calendars. 
     
     
       17. A data processing system comprising:
 means for presenting a body of an email record in a first view pane of an email client application display window; 
 means for creating, in response to a first input, a To do item based on a portion the displayed email record body; and 
 means for embedding a display of the To do item within the email client application window to reflect an association between the To do item and the email record; 
 means for creating, in response to receiving a second input, a note containing the To do item; and 
 means for modifying the To do item presentation embedded in the email client application display window by presenting the To do item in a note view embedded in the email client application display window, the embedded note view further including a user editable text field displayed concurrently with the display of the email message body. 
 
     
     
       18. A medium as in  claim 1 , wherein:
 the display of the To do item presented within the email client application window includes a user modifiable badge to signify the status of the To do item. 
 
     
     
       19. A medium as in  claim 18 , wherein the badge comprises a user selectable check box. 
     
     
       20. A medium as in  claim 18 , wherein the To do item is edited dynamically by the data processing system in the To do database as the badge is modified by a user and wherein the badge is edited dynamically by the data processing system in the email database as the To do item is edited by the user. 
     
     
       21. A machine readable storage medium containing executable program instructions which cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising:
 receiving a selection of a To do item assigned to a calendar in a first user account maintained on a platform running a calendar client application; 
 receiving a selection of a command to assign the selected To do item to a second user account maintained on the platform running the calendar client application; 
 determining automatically, based on a commonality between calendar names or other descriptive property of the calendar, if there is a calendar existing in the second user account that matches the calendar in the first user account; 
 creating automatically, in response to there being no match, a new calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment of the To do item; and 
 assigning the selected To Do item to the new calendar or a particular calendar in the second user account determined to be a match with the calendar in the first user account. 
 
     
     
       22. A machine implemented method comprising:
 receiving a selection of a To do item assigned to a calendar in a first user account maintained on a platform running a calendar client application; 
 receiving a selection of a command to assign the selected To do item to a second user account maintained on the platform running the calendar client application; 
 determining automatically, based on a commonality between calendar names or other descriptive property of the calendar, if there is a calendar existing in the second user account that matches the calendar in the first user account; 
 creating automatically, in response to there being no match, a new calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment of the To do item; and 
 assigning the selected To Do item to the new calendar or a particular calendar in the second user account determined to be a match with the calendar in the first user account. 
 
     
     
       23. A data processing system comprising:
 a means to receive a selection of a To do item assigned to a calendar in a first user account maintained on a platform running a calendar client application; 
 a means to receive a selection of a command to assign the selected To do item to a second user account maintained on the platform running the calendar client application; 
 a means to determine automatically, based on a commonality between calendar names or other descriptive property of the calendar, if there is a calendar existing in the second user account that matches the calendar in the first user account; 
 a means to create automatically, if there is no match, a new calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment of the To do item; and 
 means to assign the selected To Do item to the new calendar or a particular calendar in the second user account determined to be a match with the calendar in the first user account.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation-in-part application which claims priority to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/499,009, filed Aug. 4, 2006 and entitled METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MANAGING TO DO ITEMS OR NOTES OR ELECTRONIC MESSAGES. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Modern data processing systems, such as a general purpose computer, a handheld computer, a cellular telephone, media players, etc. are typically used for a variety of purposes, including uses relating to maintaining lists of items to do or maintaining notes or information for the user and/or allowing the user to transmit electronic messages, such as email, to other users, often through a network. Certain data processing systems utilize one application program to provide email facilities and another application program to provide a calendar facility. An example of such a data processing system is the Macintosh computer from Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. An email program known as “Mail” provides email functionality while a separate application program known as iCal provides calendaring functions. There are also examples of an application program which provides a combination of such facilities, such as the program Entourage from Microsoft Corporation, which program runs on a Macintosh computer. The program Entourage includes email functionality as well as a notes functionality, a calendar functionality and a task or To do functionality. To create a To do item, a user must go to the “To do” view (referred to as a “task”) and select “New” and then enter information for the new “To do.” A user cannot create a To do from an email view or from a note view. They are separate views which the user toggles between by selecting a separate icon for each of those views. The notes functionality is also provided in a separate view in Entourage. A user can copy text in an email while in the email view and then change from the email view to the note view and paste that text into a note. However, the user must switch between the views in order to create a note from text copied from an email. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION 
     Methods and systems for managing information, including To do&#39;s, notes, and electronic messaging, such as email, are described herein. A variety of different methods are disclosed, and a variety of different devices which may be performing these methods are also disclosed. In addition, computer readable media, such as machine readable media, are also disclosed for causing a data processing system to perform one or more of these methods. 
     According to one aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary embodiment of a method includes receiving an input to create a To do item and or a note based on a portion of an email record and creating, in response to the input, the To do item. The input may be the activation or selection of a displayed command interface, through the use of a single button by the user, wherein the displayed command interface is displayed on the same view as the email record. The To do item may be stored in a database for To do items, and this To do item database may be accessible to a calendar program and/or other programs operating on the data processing system. This exemplary method may further include displaying, in response to an input to display To do items, a set of To do items, and receiving an input to convert a note to an email and receiving a command to send the email and causing the email to be sent. The note may be maintained in a note database as a separate item which is separate from the email which is also maintained in an email database; the note may include a pointer to the email. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method includes storing a note having a To do item in the note, the note being stored as an entry in a note database which is separate from a To do database, and storing the To do item in the To do database, and receiving an input within either a note view or a To do view to edit the To do item and causing the note to be edited and causing the To do item to be edited in response to the note. In this exemplary method, the note and the To do item may be dynamically synchronized such that changes to one are reflected in changes to the other. This may be done automatically to the note in a note database and to the To do in a To do database, and the To do database may also be accessible to a calendar application program which can display the To do&#39;s. The To do&#39;s may be displayed in a list on the calendar application program or at a time and date on the calendar itself. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method includes receiving a selection of text and a command to create a To do item, and determining whether the selection contains a date, and creating automatically, in response to the command, the To do item with the date as the due date. In this method, the data processing system may automatically parse a date found within the selected text, such as text within a note or an email and may, in addition to creating automatically a To do item in response to an input to do so, may also create a due date based upon the date which was parsed from the text which was selected. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method includes receiving an input to convert a note to an email and receiving a command to send the email and causing the email to be sent. According to this aspect, a note, maintained in a note database separately from emails maintained in an email database, can be used to create an email. The email may have a template based upon a note format (e.g. the template makes the note appear as a paper yellow page having horizontal lines on the page). A recipient, in certain embodiments of the email, can convert the email into a note at the recipient&#39;s side while maintaining the note template at the recipient&#39;s data processing system. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method of processing data includes receiving an input, through a displayed command interface, such as an icon displayed on a data processing&#39;s display device, to create a To do item based on a portion of a note displayed concurrently with the displayed command interface and creating, in response to the input, the To do item based on the portion of the note. 
     Certain embodiments of the present inventions may employ any one of the various disclosed methods to create “To do&#39;s” from content in other types of sources (e.g. a web page or a word processing document). Events may also be processed and/or managed in a way which is similar to the use and processing of “To do&#39;s” described herein; for example, an event may be considered to be a To do item with start and end time fields (but without a completed status field). The processing of events may automatically detect an address in selected text. 
     Certain implementations include the use of an IMAP server to synchronize To do&#39;s. To do information or metadata may be encoded and stored as an email message on an IMAP server in certain embodiments. Certain embodiments may allow synchronization between multiple machines using multiple transport protocols, and other servers, such as a CalDAV server, may be used. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method includes receiving an input to create one or more To do items based a selected one, or subset, of a plurality of emails and creating, in response to the input, the To do item(s). The selection may be made from list of emails, such as emails received. In a particular embodiment, the To do may be created from the selected email without a further selection of text from the body of the selected email. The To do item created may be stored with a title including at least a portion of the subject of the selected email. In a further embodiment, the selected email may be modified to include a user modifiable badge to signify the status of the To do item create from the selected email. 
     According to another aspect of the present inventions, an exemplary method includes receiving an input to assign a To do item from a calendar in a first user account to a calendar in a second user account. The assignment input may further be in the form of a “drag and drop” operation. In a particular embodiment, where no particular calendar in the second user account is identified to receive the assignment of the To do item from the calendar in the first user account, a new calendar in the second user account is created automatically to maintain the relationship between the To do item being assigned and the calendar of the first user account from which the item is assigned. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. 
         FIG. 1  shows an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system which may be a general purpose computer system or other types of data processing systems and which may operate in any one of the various methods described herein. 
         FIG. 2  shows an example of a software architecture having a system wide To do database and a note database which interact with an electronic messaging application program and a calendar application program; in alternative embodiments, the electronic messaging application program and the calendar application program may be integrated together in one application program. 
         FIG. 3  is an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 4A ,  4 B,  4 C, and  4 D show an exemplary user interface which may be used to create a To do from an email, such as a received email. 
         FIG. 4E  shows an exemplary user interface for displaying a list of To do items within a To do database for a user. 
         FIGS. 4F and 4G  show an exemplary user interface in an alternative embodiment for allowing a user to create To do&#39;s from an email, such as a received email. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present invention. 
         FIGS. 6A ,  6 B,  6 C,  6 D,  6 E,  6 F, and  6 G illustrate examples of user interfaces which may be used by a user to create one or more To do items from a note document or form. 
         FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIGS. 8A ,  8 B,  8 C, and  8 D show exemplary user interfaces which may be used to convert a note into an email and then to allow the recipient of the email to import To do&#39;s from the received email as well as to convert the received email into a note as shown in  FIGS. 8E and 8F . 
         FIG. 9  shows a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 10  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 11  shows an exemplary user interface for displaying notes within a note database to a user of a data processing system. 
         FIG. 12  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIGS. 13A , and  13 B show an exemplary user interface which may be used to create a To do from an email, such as a received email. 
         FIG. 14  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 15  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 16  shows an example of a software architecture having a system wide To do database and a note database on a local system which interacts with an remote IMAP electronic messaging application clients. 
         FIG. 17  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 18  shows an exemplary user interface which may be provided by a web-based IMAP client according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 19  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method according to certain aspects of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 20  shows a table depicting classifications made during a snapshot comparison in accordance with certain reconciliation methods of the present inventions. 
         FIG. 21  shows a table depicting decisions made during comparisons of differences identified in snapshots in accordance with certain reconciliation methods of the present inventions. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The subject invention will be described with reference to numerous details set forth below, and the accompanying drawings will illustrate the invention. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, in certain instances, well known or conventional details are not described in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. 
     The present description includes material protected by copyrights, such as illustrations of graphical user interface images. The owners of the copyrights, including the assignee of the present invention, hereby reserve their rights, including copyright, in these materials. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever. Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 2006. 
       FIG. 1  shows one example of a typical computer system which may be used with the present invention. Note that while  FIG. 1  illustrates various components of a computer system, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components as such details are not germane to the present invention. It will also be appreciated that personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, media players (e.g. an ipod), devices which combine aspects or functions of these devices (e.g. a media player combined with a PDA and a cellular telephone in one device), network computers, an embedded processing device within another device, and other data processing systems which have fewer components or perhaps more components may also be used to implement one or more embodiments of the present inventions. The computer system of  FIG. 1  may, for example, be a Macintosh computer from Apple Computer, Inc. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the computer system  101 , which is a form of a data processing system, includes a bus  102  which is coupled to a microprocessor(s)  103  and a ROM (Read Only Memory)  107  and volatile RAM  105  and a non-volatile memory  106 . The microprocessor  103  may be a microprocessor or set of microprocessors from Intel or a G3 or G4 microprocessor from Motorola, Inc. or one or more G5 microprocessors from IBM. The bus  102  interconnects these various components together and also interconnects these components  103 ,  107 ,  105 , and  106  to a display controller and display device  104  and to peripheral devices such as input/output (I/O) devices which may be mice, keyboards, modems, network interfaces, printers and other devices which are well known in the art. Typically, the input/output devices  109  are coupled to the system through input/output controllers  108 . The volatile RAM (Random Access Memory)  105  is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which requires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data in the memory. The mass storage  106  is typically a magnetic hard drive or a magnetic optical drive or an optical drive or a DVD RAM or other types of memory systems which maintain data (e.g. large amounts of data) even after power is removed from the system. Typically, the mass storage  106  will also be a random access memory although this is not required. While  FIG. 1  shows that the mass storage  106  is a local device coupled directly to the rest of the components in the data processing system, it will be appreciated that the present invention may utilize a non-volatile memory which is remote from the system, such as a network storage device which is coupled to the data processing system through a network interface such as a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus  102  may include one or more buses connected to each other through various bridges, controllers and/or adapters as is well known in the art. In one embodiment the I/O controller  108  includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter for controlling USB peripherals and an IEEE 1394 controller for IEEE 1394 compliant peripherals. 
     It will be apparent from this description that aspects of the present invention may be embodied, at least in part, in software. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computer system or other data processing system in response to its processor, such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in a memory, such as ROM  107 , RAM  105 , mass storage  106  or a remote storage device. In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combination with software instructions to implement the present invention. Thus, the techniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the data processing system. In addition, throughout this description, various functions and operations are described as being performed by or caused by software code to simplify description. However, those skilled in the art will recognize what is meant by such expressions is that the functions result from execution of the code by a processor, such as the microprocessor  103 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary software architecture and data structure which may be used with at least certain embodiments described herein. In alternative embodiments, one or more of the components may be combined together to form an integrated system. In the example shown in  FIG. 2 , an electronic messaging application program  201  includes a note manager  207  and a To do manager  206 , each of which assist the electronic messaging application program  201  to interface with a note database and a To do database, respectively. In particular, the To do manager  206  interfaces with the To do database  204  and the note manager  207  interfaces with the note database  203 . The electronic messaging application program may be a typical email program which allows a user to receive and send and create emails. The To do manager  206  allows a user to view a list or other form of To do items and to also create and edit To do items. The note manager  207  allows a user to view and create and edit notes. Further, it allows a user to convert a note into an email and to also convert a received email which has a note back into a note for storage as a note within the note database. As described below, the email application program may, in at least certain embodiments, allow a user to select a portion or all of the content of an email and then to convert that portion into a To do item which is stored in the To do list all within the same email view, without having to go to a separate view, such as a To do view. The To do&#39;s are stored in the To do database  204  which is also capable of being accessed by the calendar application program  202  which also includes the To do manager  208  which also interfaces with the To do database  204 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , other application programs  205  may also interface with the To do items in the To do database  204 . For example, a project management computer program may be able to access To do items within the To do database  204 , and those To do items are synchronized between both the email program and the calendar program and the project management program, such that changes to a To do item from any of those programs are reflected in the database  204  which can then reflect those changes when the To do items are viewed either the calendar or in the email application program or other programs. In certain embodiments, a user may be viewing a calendar presented by the calendar application program and then select a command to view the note for a To do (e.g. a note containing the To do), wherein the note is displayed by the email application program. The note database, while not shown being interfaced with other application programs, may similarly be interfaced with other application programs, including the calendar application program  202  and potentially other application programs  205  in at least certain embodiments. 
     The architecture of the software or data structures shown in  FIG. 2  allows the To do&#39;s within a note and To do items in the To do database to be actively synchronized or linked live such that a change to the To do item in the note will get reflected to the same To do item in the To do database, and vice versa. This is shown by the link  207 A which links the To do manager  206  with the note manager  207 . Each To do item may include an identification number which is used by both managers to reference the corresponding To do items in both the note database  203  and the To do database  204 . This, in at least certain implementations, allows the To do items to be synchronized in a live manner such that a change being entered in an editable text document, such as a note, will be reflected in the corresponding text of the To do in the corresponding To do item. Similarly, when a user edits a To do item in the To do database, the To do manager can notify the note manager through link  207 A that a particular To do item has been modified and the note manager will, in turn, modify the content of the corresponding note containing that To do item. In certain embodiments, with this architecture, a To do can point to the originally selected text of the message (e.g. the incoming email), and a note can point to the original message, and an email message can point to the note associated with the message. 
     In an alternative software architecture, the email program and the calendar application program, along with their managers, may be integrated together in a single application program. Further, in a yet another alternative embodiment, the databases may be combined together. 
       FIG. 3  shows an exemplary method for creating To do items from an email, such as a received email. This method may be employed with the exemplary user interface shown in  FIGS. 4A ,  4 B,  4 C, and  4 D. In operation  301 , an email is received by the data processing system which also receives a selection of text within the email. The selection may occur by a variety of different techniques known in the art, including a technique in which a user positions a cursor at a point in the text and then presses a button and holds the button in a position while moving the cursor to drag the cursor over the text to be selected. This will produce a selection of text, such as the selection  410  shown in  FIG. 4B . Rather than a received email providing the text which is selected, in an alternative embodiment, the sender of an email, while creating the content of the email to be sent, selects text within the email and uses that selection as the selection of text to create a To do in subsequent operations. In operation  303 , the data processing system receives a selection of a command to create “To do” item. This may be done without forwarding or replying to the received email. This may be done merely by “clicking” on a “To do” button such as the To do button  407  shown in email window  401 . In this case, the user may position a cursor, using a cursor control device such as a mouse, over the To do button and may press a button, such as the mouse&#39;s button, to select the command to create the To do. Alternative user interface techniques may be employed to create a To do as well; for example, one or a sequence or a set of keystrokes, either in sequence or concurrently, may be used to provide the command which indicates to create a To do item. In an at least certain implementations of an embodiment, the newly created To do item may be presented in a separate portion of the email window, such as the portion  412  shown in  FIG. 4C . The presentation of the To do item may include the text which was selected to create the To do item as well as a To do interface input control, such as the To do interface input control  412  as shown in  FIG. 4C . In operation  307 , the To do item which has been created is added to a To do database which is a collection of To do items created and maintained by the system. In one exemplary embodiment, a note document also gets created in operation  305 . This note document may, in fact, be the document being shown in the view of the To do item presented in operation  305 . Thus, for example, the view shown in the screen region  412  of the email window  401  may be a note view showing a To do item on a note within the email window. The note is maintained in a note database, such as the note database  203  and the content of the To do item in the note may be synchronized with the To do item in the To do database, such as To do database  204 . In a typical implementation, the note created in operation  305  is associated with a particular email from which the To do and note was created. The note can be edited to add text and other data and remain associated with the email. In this manner, the note may be used to annotate the email and can be displayed concurrently or otherwise in association with the email with which it is associated. In addition, in at least certain embodiments, a user interface feature may be selectable by a user, when displayed or otherwise presented, to cause a To do shown in a note to show the source of the To do in the associated email. For example, a button or other displayed command interface associated with a To do on a note may be activated to present the portion of the email which contains the selected text which was used to create both the note and the corresponding To do item. 
       FIGS. 4A ,  4 B,  4 C, and  4 D show examples of user interfaces which may be used to create a To do item and optionally a note item or document from an email, such as a received email. In alternative embodiments, the notes and/or To do item may be created from an email which is being created by the sender of an email. The email window  401  includes a mailbox view area  402  which displays a plurality of individually selectable items, including an inbox item, which is selected for display currently in the email window  401  shown in  FIG. 4A , as well as a notes collection button  409  and a To do collection button  408 . A view  404  of received emails is shown as a list in the view  404  within email window  401 . An email header portion  405  is also shown in the email window  401 . The body of an email  403  includes user selectable or system selectable text from a received email, even though the email has not been replied to or not yet been forwarded. The selection of text is shown in  FIG. 4B  which shows the selection  410  which is to be used to create a new To do item. As noted above, the user may employ a variety different user interface techniques, such as dragging a cursor over the desired text to select the text. After selecting the text, the user may select the To do button  407  to thereby cause the creation of at least a To do item and optionally also a note document as reflected in  FIG. 4C . As explained above, a variety of different user interface techniques may be employed to select the To do button or to otherwise select a command to cause the creation of a new To do item. In one embodiment, the user may position the cursor over the To do button  407  and then press and release a button, such as a mouse&#39;s button. It will be appreciated that in alternative embodiments, the user may first click or select the To do button  407  and then select the text and indicate the end of a selection of the text, which in turn causes the system to create a To do item and optionally also a new note document. The result of the creation of the new To do item in at least one embodiment is shown as  FIG. 4C , in which the note view  412  shows the new To do item as part of a new note. The new To do item is saved, in at least one implementation, in the To do database  204  and the new note is saved in the note database  203 . The To do item  414  shown in the note view  412  includes a To do interface input control  416  and a “done” check box interface  418 . The To do “title” shown in the To do item  414  defaults to the originally selected text from the email, but it may be edited without disrupting the relationship or association with the original email; in one implementation, this is archived by having the note, created with the To do item, be a “container” for the To do and have the association with the email. The To do interface input control may be used to open and close a To do input panel which can receive inputs indicating information about the To do, such as due date, alarm status, priority level, and calendar name input. The “done” check box interface can receive an input indicating that the To do item is done or otherwise completed. Additional To do&#39;s may be created from the same email as shown in  FIG. 4D . In one particular implementation, these additional To do items are added to the same note which was initially created with the initial To do item  414 . This note, as described above, may be associated with this email and may be retained in the system even if the email is subsequently deleted. The note may, in at least certain implementations, be synchronized through a live link described herein with the corresponding To do items on the note. Hence, editing of the To do items on the note will be reflected in the corresponding To do items in the To do database, and editing of the To do items through a To do view (e.g. the view available after selecting a To do item from the list of To do items shown in  FIG. 4E ) will be reflected in the data for the To do items maintained in a note document which in turn is maintained in a note database, such as the note database  204 . The To do item  420  shown in  FIG. 4D  also includes a To do interface input control  422  which may be used to enter information about the particular To do item. 
     A user may desire (or the system may provide) the ability to switch between the email view shown in  FIG. 4D  in which the body of an email is presented within an email window, or a list of emails, such as the list view  404 , is presented within an email window. The user may switch to a view of To do items by selecting the To do collection button  408  which causes the system to display To do items in the window  401 A shown in  FIG. 4E . This window  401 A shows a view of To do items in a list in the view  427 . In one embodiment, the user may select the To do collection button  408  by positioning a cursor  425  over the To do collection button within the mailbox view area  402 . Within this To do item view, a user may select one of the To do items and edit the To do item, and the edits made in the To do item will be reflected for that item in the To do database and those changes will also be reflected to the corresponding To do&#39;s in the notes maintained in the note database  203  in at least certain embodiments. 
       FIGS. 4F and 4G  show an alternative user interface in which an email is used to create a new To do item. In this alternative embodiment, the text or other information is selected within an email, such as a received email. Thus, selected text  431  is shown in the body of the email  403 . This selection may be performed by the user dragging a cursor over the text in manners known in the art or by use of other known user interface techniques for selecting text. The user may then select the To do button  407 , thereby causing the selected text to be turned into a new To do item. In another embodiment, the sequence of operations may be reversed such that the To do button  407  is first selected and then the text is selected with an indication of the end of the selection of the text so that the system can determine what text has been selected for the new To do item. In response to creating a new To do item, a To do item  431 A is displayed within the body of the email  403  as shown in  FIG. 4G  and a To do interface input control  432  is also displayed adjacent to the new To do item  431 A within the body of the email. In addition, a “done” check box interface  433  is also displayed adjacent to the new To do item  431 A. Notes and/or To do&#39;s may be, in this alternative embodiment or in other embodiments, intermixed with email messages. 
       FIG. 12  shows an exemplary method for creating To do items from an email, such as a received email, without also creating a note container, and subsequently adding a note container for created To do items only upon receiving a second input from the user. A similar method may be practices to create a note from an email, without creating a To do item, and subsequently adding a To do item to the note only upon receiving a second input from the user. These methods may be employed with the exemplary user interface shown in  FIGS. 13A and 13B . In operation  1201 , the data processing system receives a selection of text within the email. The selection may occur by a variety of different techniques known in the art, including a technique in which a user positions a cursor at a point in the text and then presses a button and holds the button in a position while moving the cursor to drag the cursor over the text to be selected. This will produce a selection of text, such as the selection  1310  shown in  FIG. 13A . Rather than a received email providing the text which is selected, in an alternative embodiment, the sender of an email, while creating the content of the email to be sent, selects text within the email and uses that selection as the selection of text to create a To do in subsequent operations. As shown in  FIG. 13A , the selected text  1310  may further provide the title of the To do item  1340 . Alternatively, the title to To do item  1340  may be substantially simplified by the user from the text originally selected from the email record to create the To do item. In one such implementation, control  1357  provides access to the original text selection that was made when creating the To Do, even if the title to the To do item is subsequently changed. 
     As further shown in  FIG. 13A , the To do list including To do item  1314  and  1340  may be created through successive selections of text, such as making selection  1310  an To do added to the To do  1314  made from a separate selection of text, as described elsewhere herein. In such an embodiment, selection of multiple items of text creates only a single to Do item. In certain other embodiments, however, a selection of delimited text creates a plurality of to Do items from the single selection. In one such embodiment, upon the user selecting text in a note containing delimiters, such as those commonly known in the art including, but not limited to a carriage return, comma and semicolon, the data processing system parses the selection based on the delimiter and creates a To do item for each item of the selection. Thus, To do creation may be context sensitive with respect whether the To do is created from a received email or is created from a note. Such context sensitivity enables the data processing system to receive an implicit command from the user to create a plurality of To do items merely by proper format of the text input into a note. 
     In still another embodiment, an embedded item in an email is the portion of the email from which a To do item is created. The embedded item may be any embedded item commonly provided within an email, such as, but not limited to, portable documents, spreadsheets, word processing documents, audio/visual files such as pictures, music and movie files. Upon receiving a selection of an embedded item and selection of a command to create a To do item from the embedded item, the data processing system creates the To do item. Depending on the nature of the embedded item selected, a note may further be generated concurrently with the generation of the To do item. The To do item or the note item created may contain a link to the embedded item. Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, where an email is received containing the text, “Review the attached draft by Friday,” a To do may be created upon receiving of a selection of the text, as previously described, or upon receiving a selection of the attached or embedded draft file. In one such embodiment, the data processing system uses the title of the to draft as the title of the To do item. 
     In operation  1203 , the data processing system receives a selection of a command to create “To do” item. This may be done without forwarding or replying to the received email. This may be done merely by “clicking” on a “To do” button such as the To do button  1307  shown in email window  1301 , or by alternate means previously described or common to the art. The data processing system then creates the To do item at operation  1205 . In an at least certain implementations, at operation  1207 , the newly created To do item may be presented in a separate portion of the email window, such as the portion  1312 . The presentation of the To do item may include the text which was selected to create the To do item as well as a To do interface input control, such as the To do interface input control  1318 . In operation  1209 , the To do item which has been created is added to a To do database which is a collection of To do items created and maintained by the system. 
     As shown in  FIG. 13A , To do items  1314  and  1340 , are created and displayed without also creating a note to contain either created To do item. In this exemplary method no additional note is created to contain a To do item unless the data processing system receives a further explicit selection of a command to add a note or an receives a further input implicitly requiring a note to be added. Such embodiments advantageously avoid creating a note container object every time a To do item is created in favor of creating a note container object only when information beyond that provided by the To do item is desired. Thus, a To Do item alone may, in fact, be the document shown in the view of the To do item presented in operation  1207 . 
     In one implementation, at operation  1211 , the data processing system receives an explicit selection of a command to add a note to a To do item, such a selection of “add notes” control  1350 , shown in  FIG. 13A . Upon receipt of a selection of “add notes” control  1350  at operation  1211 , the data processing system creates a new note at operation  1213 . In an alternative implementation, rather than receiving an explicit selection of a command to add a note, the data processing system receives an input of free form text entered into a separate portion of the email window. Such text implicitly requires a note container to be added. In one embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 13A , the free form text is received at operation  1215  when the portion of the email window  1312  has been selected or otherwise given focus via means common in the art. Upon receiving such input of text, the data processing system, at operation  1213 , creates a note to contain the received text input and also contain the To Do item(s) displayed concurrently in the separate portion of the email window. In one implementation, the data processing system puts the free form text and new To do items into a newly created note, stores the note in the notes database and synchronizes, through a link, the new To do item with the new note, as described elsewhere herein. 
     As shown in  FIG. 13B , upon the creation of the new note, the display of the To do item in the embedded view within the email window is modified to signify the existence of the newly created note. In one particular embodiment, To do items  1314  and  1340  may be presented in a separate portion of the email window, such as the portion  1312 , along with a text editable field containing free form text  1355 , received as input subsequent to receipt of a selection of the “add notes” control  1350  or received as an implicit command to add a note. In such an embodiment, both To do items  1314  and  1340  as well as free form text  1355  are contents of the newly created note. In other implementations, the display of the To do item may be further modified to have a note template having horizontal lines and/or colored to resemble a paper page. 
     It should be appreciated that analogous methods may be applied to create a note from an email, without first creating a To Do from the email. Specifically, a note embedded in the email view and linked to the email may be created by “clicking” on a “Note” button such as the Note button  1308  shown in email window  1301 , or by alternate means previously described or common to the art. Furthermore, just as methods herein describe creating a note container after creating a To do item contained in the note, analogous methods may be practiced to create a To do item contained in a note after the note is created. In an exemplary embodiment, after first creating from an email window, a note containing only free form text entered at the time the note was created, a To do item is added to the note in response to a second input. The second input to add a To do item to an existing embedded note may be any of those described elsewhere herein to create a To do item. 
       FIG. 14  shows an alternative method for creating To do items from an email. In this embodiment, a To do item is created from an email without a selection of text from content of the email. In this manner a To do item is created for a message rather than created in a note in a message. In operation  1401 , the data processing system receives a selection of one or more emails from a plurality of emails, such as presented in view  404  of  FIG. 4A , where received emails are shown as a list within email window  401 . The selection may occur by a variety of different techniques known in the art, or elsewhere described herein. In operation  1403 , the data processing system receives a selection of a command to make a To do item based on the selected email(s). The selection may occur by a variety of techniques common to the art, including a technique in which a user selects a command button, such as “To Do” button  401 , and, at operation  1405 , the data processing system creates the To Do item in response to the user&#39;s selection and adds the To do item to the To Do database at operation  1407 . The To do item, just created, contains a link to the email selected at the time of receipt of the command to create the To do item, as discussed elsewhere herein. The to Do item created may further have a title field including at least one of text from the subject field of the email message and text from the body of the email message. In certain embodiments, when a more than one email is selected (i.e. a mass selection) from the plurality of emails, one To Do item is created for each email selected, each new To Do item having a link to a corresponding one of the emails included in the mass selection. In other embodiments, when a more than one email is selected (i.e. a mass selection) from the plurality of emails, a single note is automatically created and a plurality of To Do items is created, one for each email selected, is contained within the single note. the Optionally, in some embodiments at operation  1409 , the presentation of the email from which the To do was created is modified to identify the selected email as being associated with the To do item just created. As a further option, the To do item just created may be presented in a “To Do” window at operation  1409  to provide the user a displayed command interface. 
     In an exemplary embodiment, the presentation of the email from which the To do was created, such as the presentation in view  404  of  FIG. 4A , is modified to include a user modifiable badge, such as a “check box” to indicate the status of the To do as completed or not. The data processing system then dynamically edits the To do database as the check box state is edited by the user and the check box is edited dynamically by the data processing system in the email database as the To do item is edited by the user. 
       FIG. 5  shows, in flowchart form, another exemplary method according to another aspect of the inventions. In this exemplary method, a note or a portion of a note is used to create a new To do item. The note may be maintained, in certain embodiments, by the note manager  207  shown in  FIG. 2  and may be maintained in the note database  203  and may be synchronized with the new To do item created as part of the method of  FIG. 5 ; this synchronization has been described elsewhere herein. The new To do item may be maintained in the To do database  204  and is similarly synchronized, in at least certain implementations, with the To do item within the note used as part of the method of  FIG. 5 . The method of  FIG. 5  may be used with the example of a user interface shown in  FIGS. 6A ,  6 B,  6 C,  6 D,  6 E,  6 F, and  6 G. In operation  501 , the content of a note, which may be a freeform text document, is received. Note window  600  shown in  FIG. 6A  contains a body  602  of the note which can contain the text in freeform. The note window  600  may appear as a result of a “new note” command which may arise from the activation of a note button or new note button on a user interface or by the use of one or more keystrokes or other input. In operation  503 , the data processing system receives a selection of text in the note and receives a selection of a command to create a To do item. The examples of the user interface shown in  FIGS. 6C and 6D  provide an example of how the data processing system can receive the selection of text in a note and then receive a selection of a command to create a To do item. In an alternative embodiment, the sequence of operations may be reversed such that the data processing system first receives the selection of a command to create the To do item and then receives the beginning and end of a selection of text and, upon receiving the end of the selection of text, creates the new To do item. Optionally, operation  503  may include receiving options to create additional data, such as due date, etc. for the To do data items. A user interface for inputting or creating this additional data is shown in  FIGS. 6F and 6G . After creating the new To do item, the data processing system may present the newly created To do item in operation  505  and add, in operation  507 , the new To do item to the To do database, such as the To do database  204  shown in  FIG. 2 . In at least certain implementations, there is no need to create an additional note or new note upon creation of the To do item because the note was used to create the To do item with the To do item in the note which may be maintained, in at least certain implementations, in the note database  203  shown in  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 6A  shows an email window  601  and a note window  600  which overlaps the email window  601 . The body  602  of the note window  600  is capable of receiving text entered by a user of the system. Further, the user can select the text or other information and create a new To do item as illustrated in the method of  FIG. 5 . The email window  601  includes a mailbox view area  607  and a To do collection button  608  and a notes collection button  609 . The body of the email  610  is shown in the lower portion of the email window  601 . The note window may have been created in response to a command from the user to create a new note as described elsewhere herein. The user may enter text, such as the entered text  615  shown in  FIG. 6B , into the note window  600 . Then the user may select the To do button  604  which may be used to create a new To do item. If no text has been previously selected when the To do button  604  is selected, then an empty To do item appears as the new To do  617  (with no text), and this new To do item includes a To do entry field  619  and a To do interface input control  620 .  FIGS. 6C and 6D  show the reverse sequence in which text is first selected and then the To do button  604  is selected. The user or system may enter text into the To do entry field  619 . The result of the entry of text into the To do entry field  619  is the To do item  617 A shown in  FIG. 6C .  FIG. 6C  also shows that the third paragraph in the note shown in note window  600  has been selected as indicated by the selected text  630 . At this point, the user or the system may select the To do button  604  to create a new To do item from the selected text  630 . The result of such a selection is shown in  FIG. 6D  in which a new To do item has been created as To do item  633  in response to the selection of the To do button  604 . The To do item  633  includes a To do interface input control  635  which may be used to set options for the To do item  633 . 
     The use of the To do interface input controls will be further described in connection with  FIGS. 6E ,  6 F, and  6 G. As shown in  FIG. 6E , a To do item  651  includes a To do interface input control  653  which is selectable by the user to open or close a To do input panel  655  shown in both  FIGS. 6F and 6G . The input panel is shown closed in  FIG. 6E  and open in  FIGS. 6F and 6G . The To do input panel  655  includes a due date input  657 , an alarm input  659 , a priority input  661 , and a calendar name input  663 . The due date input  657  allows the user or the system to select a due date. In at least one implementation, the system may automatically select the due date according to the method shown in  FIG. 9 . The alarm input  659  allows the user or the system to set on or off an alarm for the To do item. The priority input  661  allows the user or the system to set a priority level for the To do item. The calendar name input  663  allows the user to select the particular calendar for the To do to be associated with. In at least one implementation, the calendar application program includes a list of selectable calendars for a particular user for views of different calendars or combinations of calendars concurrently. An example of such a calendar application program is described in published U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0044646; for example, FIG. 3 of that published U.S. patent application shows two calendars for the same user, in this case a home calendar and a work calendar, each having events, and each of which have been selected to be shown on the same calendar view for a single user. Published U.S. Patent Application 2004/0044646 is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Hence, the calendar name input  663  allows a particular To do item to be associated with a particular one of a plurality of selectable user calendars. 
     The mail note button  603  shown in the note window  600  is a command which allows the user to cause the note to be converted into an email and sent to another user as an email. This will be further described below in connection with the method of  FIG. 7  and in connection with the exemplary user interfaces shown in  FIGS. 8A-8F . 
     In operation  701  of  FIG. 7 , the data processing system receives content of a note. This may occur as a result of a user entering the content or the user merely retrieving the previously saved note. In operation  703 , the data processing system receives a selection of a command to send the note as an email or other electronic message, such as instant messaging. In operation  705 , the system sends the note as an email; optionally, the email may be sent with a template of the note, such as a template which resembles a yellow paper page with horizontal lines on the page as shown in  FIG. 8D  in the email body  833 . In operation  707 , another data processing system or the same data processing system receives the email, optionally in the note template format. Then in operation  709 , the receiving data processing system receives a command to add the To do items, if any, in the note to the recipient&#39;s To do items, such as a To do database. Further, the recipient&#39;s data processing system may receive a command to add a new note in the recipient&#39;s note database. In certain implementations, the addition of the note occurs automatically when the To do&#39;s are imported from a note. 
       FIG. 8A  shows an example of a note window  802  which includes a note body  805  having content entered into it. In addition, the note body  805  includes four To do items, including To do item  806 . The note window  802  includes at least two user interface controls which are the mail note button  803  and the To do button  804 . The To do button  804  is used by the user to create a To do, either before entering any text or after selecting text. The mail note button  803  may be used by a user to cause the note to be converted into an email and to send the email as further described herein. The email window  801  includes a body  810  of the email and also a mailbox view area  812  and a view  811  of received emails in the currently selected inbox as shown in  FIG. 8A . If the mail note button  803  is selected or activated, this results in the creation of a new email shown in window  802 A which represents the email of the note shown in  FIG. 8A . In the interface shown in  FIG. 8B , the email  802 A has not yet been sent but can be sent by activation or selection of the send button  815 . In addition, the user may attach an attachment to this email using the attach button  816 . The email window  802 A includes a “To” field  819 , a “cc” field  820 , and a “Subject” field  821 . The email window also includes an address book button  817  to cause the appearance of an address book containing email addresses and other information, and a “save as draft” button  818  which allows the user to save the note as a draft. The note has been converted into an email but, in at least certain embodiments, it will remain as a separate note document within the note database  203  described above. The email itself will also be separately stored in an email database and the To do items within the note will be separately stored in the To do database  204  as described above. Further, as described herein, the To do items in the To do database are synchronized in a live manner with the corresponding To do items within any note containing those To do items. After the user has, or the system has, entered an email address or other address in the “To” field  819 , the email may be sent by activating the “Send” button  815 , which causes the email to be sent to the recipient or recipients.  FIG. 8C  shows an exemplary user interface of an email window  830  having received an email sent from the interface shown in  FIG. 8B . The email window  830  includes an email pane  831  and a view  835  of received emails. The email body  833  is displayed within the email pane  831 . The email body represents the content of the email  837  shown in the view  835  of the inbox  845 . The inbox  845  is shown in the mailbox view area  839  which also includes the To do collection button  841  and the notes collection button  843 . It can be seen that the template of the note which was sent was preserved within the email received by the recipient. In one exemplary embodiment, the note may appear to be a yellow piece of paper with horizontal lines having text written in registration with those horizontal lines as shown in  FIG. 8C . Other types of templates for notes may be alternatively used. The recipient&#39;s data processing system can recognize that the notes contain To do items and, as a result, display the To do pane  834  which asks the user whether or not to add the To do items in the note which was received through the email to the user&#39;s own To do list. This can be achieved by the user or the system selecting the “add To do&#39;s” button  847  shown in the To do pane  834 . The selection of the “add To do&#39;s” button  847  will cause the To do&#39;s from the email received in the note template in this embodiment to be added to the recipient&#39;s To do database, which may be a system wide To do database which is similar to the database  204  shown in  FIG. 2 . In fact, in certain embodiments, the recipient may have the similar software architecture shown in  FIG. 2  in which two separate application programs, an email application program and a calendar application program, can separately access a To do database  204  having To do items synchronized with corresponding To do items in one or more notes in the note database  203 . Further, other application programs on the recipient&#39;s data processing system may also be able to access the To do database and the corresponding To do items in those To do entries in the To do database  204 . An exemplary user interface of the email window  830  after selection of the “add To do&#39;s” button  847  is shown in  FIG. 8D , in which the four To do items from the body  833  have been displayed in the To do pane  861 . In addition, the selection of the button  847  may also cause the creation of a new note containing those four To do items so that the note remains in the note database even if the email  837  is deleted. As noted elsewhere herein, the note containing these four To do items may be synchronized with the To do items themselves and maintained in a note database which references the corresponding To do items maintained in the To do database. Each To do item, such as To do item  863 , includes a To do interface input control, such as To do interface input control  865  and a “done” check box input  871 . 
       FIGS. 8E and 8F  show an alternative embodiment in which a received email, in a note template format, can be turned into a note in response to a user selection on the recipient&#39;s data processing system. If the note contains To do items, those To do items are automatically, in at least certain embodiments, added as new To do items in the To do database, while the note, if imported, is added as a note in the note database, such as the note database shown in  FIG. 2 . In this embodiment, a note pane  875  asks the user whether the user would like to add the note from the email. If the user selects the “Create Note” button  877 , then a new note is created as shown in  FIG. 8F  as note  885 , which includes To do&#39;s from the note received as an email as shown in  FIG. 8E . For example, the To do item  891  is shown in the note window  885  which includes the To do button  889  and a mail note button  887  which is similar to the corresponding buttons shown for note window  600  herein. 
     As noted herein, the system may automatically determine a due date in the process of creating a To do. An example of this method is shown in  FIG. 9 . In operation  901 , the data processing system receives a selection of text. For example, the user may drag a cursor across the desired text. The system may then receive a selection of a command to create a To do item. Alternatively, the sequence of operations may be reversed as noted above. In operation  903 , the data processing system automatically determines whether the selected text contains a date. In certain implementations, the system may prompt the user with a dialog box containing a question asking the user to confirm that the date detected within the text is in fact the desired due date. In other embodiments, the system may select merely the first date and use that as a due date. If there is no date within the text, then the system diverts to operation  905  in which the To do item is created and stored without a due date. On the other hand, if the system determines that the selected text contains a date, then the system proceed to operation  907  in which the date is parsed from the selected text and stored as the due date. The system may select the first date found in text going in a predetermined order (e.g. from left to right) or the system may prompt the user to pick from one of multiple dates contained within the selected text or to abort the operation of attempting to determine a due date. After parsing the proper date, either with or without user input in operation  907 , the data processing system creates and stores, in operation  909 , a new To do item with the parsed date (with or without user input) as the due date for the new To do item. 
       FIG. 10  shows an exemplary method of maintaining multiple databases such as those shown in  FIG. 2 . It will be appreciated that this is one example of a sequence of events and that other sequences in a different order with different elements are also possible. The databases referred to in  FIG. 10  may be the same as the note database and the To do database shown in  FIG. 2  or may be different databases. The method shown in  FIG. 10  begins in operation  1001  in which the data processing system receives a To do item or a note item from an email client program. This item is, in operation  1003 , added to the To do database or the note database depending on the type of item it was. If it was a note containing a To do item, then both the note gets added to a note database and the To do item gets added to a To do database as described above. Further, in at least certain embodiments, the To do items within the note are synchronized with the To do items in the To do database. In operation  1005 , the data processing system receives a To do item from a calendar application program, such as the calendar application program  202  shown in  FIG. 2 . In response, in operation  1007 , the data processing system adds this To do item to the To do database. The data processing system may, in operation  1009 , display an iconic representation of a collection of notes, such as notes in the note database, within an email application window. An example of such an iconic representation is shown as the note collection button  409  shown in  FIG. 4E . In operation  1011 , the data processing system may display an iconic representation of a collection of To do items within an email application program, such as the To do collection button  408  shown in  FIG. 4E . In operation  1013 , the data processing system may display To do items from the To do database within a calendar application window. 
       FIG. 11  shows a view of notes in a note view. The note pane  1109  includes the content  1111  of a note selected from the list shown in the view pane  1117 . This view within notes window  1111  is obtained by selecting the notes collection button  1113  as indicated by the highlighting  1115 . Each of the different notes may be viewed by selecting the appropriate note within the pane  1117 . As further shown, the note content  1111  contains a note subject field displayed as a first line of the note. In an embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 4C , this first line displaying the subject field of the note is not presented in the embedded view within a portion of the email window. 
       FIG. 15  shows an embodiment of a method whereby the data processing system may assign To do items associated with one or more calendars in a first user account to one or more calendars in a second user account. In certain embodiments, this method may be applied when a user selects certain To do items from a To do view, such as that shown in  FIG. 4E . As previously described herein, each To do may be associated with a particular calendar. Where the calendar application program includes a list of selectable calendars for a particular user for views of different calendars or combinations of calendars concurrently, a user may have a plurality of calendar accounts. An example of such a calendar application program is described in published U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0044646. Of the certain To do items selected from the To Do list, various calendars may be associated for a given user account. 
     In one embodiment, in operation  1501 , a selection of a To Do item, a subset of To Do items or all To Do items, assigned to at least one calendar in a first user account is received by the data processing system. In operation  1503 , the data processing system further receives a selection of a command to assign the selected To do item(s) to a second user account. The selection and assignment commands received at operations  1501  and  1503  may further be combined in the form of a “drag and drop” operation wherein To Do items associated with a calendar in one user account are selected with one click and then dragged to the second user account. At operation  1504 , the data processing system determines if there are any calendars in the second user account to receive the To Do assignment. In an embodiment, if there are no calendars, then the data processing system automatically creates, at operation  1507 , a corresponding calendar in the second user account to which a To Do item may be assigned. The data processing system creates a new calendar in the second user account to maintain the relationship between the To do item being assigned and the calendar of the first user account from which the To do item is being assigned. Thus, one or more calendars may be created at operation  1507 , depending on whether the To do items selected at operation  1501  were associated to only one calendar in the first user account or a plurality of calendars. In a further embodiment, the data processing system may present a dialog requesting verification of the To do item assignment to the newly created calendar or calendars. The data processing system may further receive input with the dialog presented at operation  1508 . Upon creating the new calendar, the data processing system then assigns the To do item selected to the newly created calendar, to display the To do items from the new calendar while retaining the links present in the To do items. Thus, even if To do items selected span a number of calendars in the first user account, the particular relationship between each To do and it&#39;s associated calendar are retained upon assignment to the new user account. In one particular embodiment, the data processing system creates in the second user account a copy of the each calendar in first user account from which a To do item is being assigned and then assigns the selected To do item to the corresponding newly created calendar. 
     Depending on whether the user provides an input identifying a particular pre-existing calendar in the second user account which will receive the assignment of the To do, the data processing system either assigns the To do item(s) to the identified pre-existing calendar or first creates a new calendar in the second user account and then assigns the To do item(s) to the newly created calendar. In an exemplary embodiment, at operation  1504 , the data processing system determines the second user account includes calendars, then at operation  1505 , the system determines if one of those existing calendars is a match with a calendar in the first user account. In one embodiment, a match is determined on the basis of an existing calendar in the second user account having commonality with the calendar with which the To do item was associated in the first user account. The commonality may be between calendar names or another descriptive property of the calendars. In a further embodiment, where only one calendar exists in the second user account, that calendar is determined to be a match with a calendar in the first user account. With a match identified, the data processing system may automatically assign the To Do item to the calendar in the second account at operation  1511 . In an alternative embodiment, at operation  1509 , the data processing system may present a dialog requesting verification of the To do item assignment to the calendar or calendars in the second user account automatically selected as a match. The data processing system may further receive input with the dialog presented at operation  1509 . In certain such embodiments where a dialog requesting verification of the default calendar selection, the input received identifies an existing calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment in operation  1511 . This acknowledgement may be in a form common to the art, such as, but not limited to, selection of an “OK” button or key stroke entry upon presentation by the system of the default calendar selection. If no calendar is identified at operation  1510  (i.e. default selection is rejected), the system creates automatically, in the second user account a calendar to receive the To do item assignment, at operation  1507 , as previously discussed. 
     If, instead, at operation  1505 , the system is unable to find any matching calendar automatically in the second user account, the data processing system may automatically create, in the second user account, a calendar to receive the assignment of the To Do item at operation  1507 . In an alternative embodiment, the system may optionally first present a dialog at operation  1506  requesting further identification of a particular pre-existing calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment of the To do item(s) selected in operation  1501 . Upon, receiving such information at operation  1510 , the system then so assigns the To Do item to the calendar in the second user account identified at operation  1511 . If instead such identification is not received at operation  1510 , the system proceeds to create a calendar in the second user account to receive the assignment of the To Do item at operation  1507 , as previously described. In still another embodiment, the data processing system, at operation  1506 , presents the user with a list of calendars existing in the second user account to which the To do item may be assigned by which the user may identify one or more particular calendar to receive the assignment of To do items associated with a particular calendar in the first user account. In one such embodiment, the user identifies, at operation  1510 , the particular calendar by selecting or highlighting one or more calendars from the list using a selection method known in the art. Upon receiving the selection, the data processing system then assigns the To do item(s) from the first user account to the correspondingly identified calendars at operation  1511 . In this manner, a To do item from any particular calendar in the first user account may be propagated to one or more calendars previously existing in the second user account to provide for live updating and synchronization of To do items across user accounts. 
     Thus, in an exemplary implementation, where the first user account is “Thesis Paper,” with the calendars “school” and “home” and the second user account is “Job Search,” having only a “home” calendar, at operation  1501 , the data processing system receives a selection of To do items associated with both the school and home calendars in the Thesis Paper account. At operation  1503 , the data processing system receives a command to assign the selected To do items to the Job Search account. In one embodiment, at operation  1511 , the data processing system automatically assigns the To do items selected that are associated with the home calendar in the Thesis Paper account to the home calendar in the Job Search account identified as a match at operation  1505 . In a further embodiment, before the assignment operation  1511 , the data processing system first presents, at operation  1509 , a dialog to the user requesting input to acknowledge the To do items from the home calendar in the Thesis Paper account to are to be assigned to the home calendar in the Job Search account and then, upon receiving such input at operation  1510 , performs the assignment at operation  1511 . However, because some To do items originally selected in the Thesis Paper account did not belong to the home calendar, merely automatically assigning all To do items selected to the existing home calendar in the Job Search account may disadvantageously mix To do items that had been deliberately associated across the two calendars, school and home, in the Thesis Paper account. In certain embodiments therefore, to avoid such a loss of association, the data processing system automatically creates, at operation  1507 , a second calendar in the Job Search account to which the To do items associated with the school calendar in the Thesis Paper account are assigned. In one embodiment, where no input identifying a particular existing calendar has been received at operation  1510 , the data processing system automatically creates a “school” calendar in the Job Search account and assigns, at operation  1511 , the To do items associated with the school calendar in the newly created school calendar in the Thesis Paper account, thereby maintaining the original association. In a further embodiment the data processing system presents a dialog to the user request input of a new name for the automatically created calendar. 
     In particular embodiments, the architecture of the software or data structures shown in  FIG. 16  allows the To do&#39;s within a note and To do items in the To do database to be actively synchronized between local and remote data processing systems via a remote server adhering to a message transport protocol. In certain embodiments, To do information is embedded as encoded metadata in an email message and pushed to and received from an email server, such as an IMAP server. Certain further embodiments may allow synchronization between multiple machines using multiple transport protocols, and other servers, such as a CalDAV server, may be used. 
     As depicted, local machine  1601 , comprising a data processing system, such as described in  FIG. 1 , includes a local email client application  1602  having data structures, such as described in  FIG. 2 , to provide live controls to To Do items and notes. Specifically, local email client application  1602  includes To do manager  1606  linked with the note manager  1607  to allow notes stored in note database  1603  to be synchronized in a live manner with To do items stored in To do database  1604  such that a change being entered in an editable text document, such as a note, will be reflected in the corresponding text of the To do item, such as a calendar viewable from calendar client application  1605 , having To do manager  1608 , also linked to To do database  1604 , as previously discussed herein. 
     In particular embodiments, local email client application  1602  further includes email server agent  1610  to communicate, with email server  1615 , embedded metadata in a text editing document (i.e. an email message) hidden from the user. Thus, local email client application  1602  never presents the text editing document containing the metadata to a user as a viewable email message and operates on the metadata in a manner transparent to the user. Email server  1615  may be communicated to via the Internet, as commonly known in the art. In a certain embodiments, email server agent  1610  pushes a “false” message to email server  1615  upon the occurrence of particular events occurring on local machine  1601 , such as a modification of the To do database  1604  or note database  1603 . As defined herein, a “false” message is a message communicated via a messaging protocol between a local machine and a message server, the message containing metadata describing an object that is acted on by the local machine without presenting the message to the user. The message is false in that is not ordinarily presented to the user as an incoming or outgoing message but instead is operated on by the system to modify a system object. In certain exemplary embodiments, the object communicated, is a database record, such as a To Do item. In some embodiments, email server agent  1610  pushes a “false” message to email server  1615  only upon particular (not all) modifications to the To do database  1604 , such as only upon a change to a To Do having a relatively immediate calendared date. For example, false messages relating only to those To Do items scheduled to be done within the next 24 hours may be pushed to the mail server by email server agent  1610 . In other embodiments, false message containing a batch of To Do item changes, such as those occurring over a fixed time, is sent periodically. In at least one embodiment, however, a false message is pushed upon every modification of the To do database  1604  or note database  1603 . 
     In certain embodiments of the present method, upon the occurrence of a triggering event on local machine  1601 , the false message pushed by email server agent  1610  contains information of the event or resulting object in a format such as, but not limited to, ASCII text, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), and other commonly known standards. In a further embodiment, the false message may contain information structured in more than one manner, such as an ASCII version and a MIME version. Alternatively, a plurality of false messages, each of the plurality containing information having a different format may be pushed to the email server  1615  upon each event. Thus, in an exemplary implementation, upon an update to the To do database  1604  (e.g. a change in a To Do item), email server agent  1610  encodes the To do record information into metadata and pushes a false message containing the metadata of the To Do database record in a format, such as MIME, to email server  1615 . In particular embodiments, the message push is performed automatically, without involving the user. In certain further embodiments, email server agent  1610  also polls email server  1615  for new “false” messages and decodes the record information, such as To do database records. Just as with the message push, the polling process may adhere to any commonly known messaging protocol, such as IMAP. Thus, email server agent  1610  may poll email server  1615  for “false” messages indicating a record on the email server has been deleted to identify a local database record that is to be deleted from local machine  1601 , or for false messages indication a record on the email server has been added or updated. 
     In further communication with email server  1615  may be remote machine  1620  providing a third party or web-based email client  1622  to provide a non-editable view of the record or event information, such as To Do or note record metadata originating from local email client application  1602 . 
     Additionally, remote machine  1625 , including an email client application  1629 , providing live To Do and note controls may also be in communication with email server  1615  to receive the record or event information, such as To Do and/or note updates, originating from local email client application  1602 . In certain embodiments, similar to local machine  1601 , remote machine  1625  provides live To Do and note controls by employing software architecture such as described in  FIG. 2 . In one such embodiment, remote machine  1625  includes email client  1629  including a mail server agent  1630 , To do manager  1631 , To do database  1632 , note manager  1633 , as well as note database  1634 . In a further embodiment, remote machine  1625  also includes calendar client application  1635  including calendar server agent  1636  and To do manager  1637 . Therefore, both local machine  1601  and remote machine  1625  include software with an architecture capable of pushing false messages to email server  1615  and polling email server  1615  for false messages generated as a result of activity on the database of the email server  1615 . Such activity may further be the result of local machine  1601  or remote machine  1625  making changes to a database object, such as a To do item. 
     In embodiments where email server  1615  adheres to a standard messaging protocol, a transactional framework capable of preventing duplicate record information may be lacking or inadequate. In other words, email server  1615  may behave as an incoherent database server because object updates, such as adding and deleting, are not atomic operations. Without an adequate reconciliation process, cycling of events or objects can occur between the client machine and the email server providing the remote database. Therefore, in certain embodiments, local machine  1601  further includes reconciliation engine  1614 . Reconciliation engine  1614  communicates with both email server agent  1610  and calendar server agent  1611 . The reconciliation engine may run a reconciliation each time new records are received from the email server or from the local database server. In a particular embodiment, the reconciliation engine runs on a background thread on local machine  1601 . Similarly, remote machine  1625  may further include reconciliation engine  1615  to enable encoded synchronization of information local machine  1601  and remote machine  1625  by way of false messages sent to a from machines  1601 ,  1625  and message server  1615 . Because the false messages are not presented by the data processing system as messages, but instead are operated on with live database controls available to machine  1601  and  1625 , the synchronization of database objects, such as To do items, is transparent to the user of machines  1601  or  1625 . 
       FIG. 17  depicts an embodiment of a method by which messaging protocol is used to view and/or reconcile a remote and local machine. At operation  1701 , an event, such as a modification of a To do item, occurs on a local data processing system, such as local machine  1601 , as discussed previously herein. At operation  1703 , the data processing system encodes metadata as a “frozen version” of the modified record. In a particular embodiment, the metadata is generated so as to be convertible, or “thawed,” by a client supporting live record controls, such as remote machine  1620 , back into an corresponding record, such as a live To do item, which may then be acted upon by the remote machine. In an exemplary embodiment, the metadata is further generated so as to also be displayable as a non-editable view of the To Do or note information by an email client not supporting live To Do or note controls. At operation  1705  the generated metadata is pushed, as a false message, from the local data processing system to a message server, such as email server  1615 . 
     At operation  1707 , metadata is received as a message, such as by remote machine  1620 , from a message server. Depending on the capabilities of the remote machine, the metadata may be “thawed” or converted, at operation  1709 , back to a database record, such as a To do item, or the meta data file may be displayed, at operation  1711 , as a non-editable view of the record metadata. At operation  1711 , a remote machine incapable of supporting live To do or note controls, such as remote machine  1620 , displays a view of the metadata as a non-editable view of the record information as an email message, as further shown in  FIG. 18 . 
     In  FIG. 18 , an email window  1801  contains an email pane  1831  and a view  1835  of received emails. The email body  1833  is displayed within the email pane  1831 . The email body represents the content of the email  1837  shown in the view  1835  of the inbox  1845 . The email body  1833  displays the metadata generated at operation  1703  as a frozen version of To do items  1314  and  1340  as well as free form text  1355  as contents of the note created in  FIG. 13B . Thus, the frozen version provides a textual and/or graphical representations of the event information as a newly received email on the message server. In this manner even remote machines including email clients which do not have the data structures to support live record controls, such as To do or note controls, may relay timely record information available on the message server. 
     In a further embodiment, upon the conversion of the metadata to a database record, operation  1709  may include reconciling data structures on the local machine  1601  with a database on the remote message server. In one embodiment, the local machine maintains a local database. In another embodiment, local machine maintains a local cache of the database on the message server, such as a local cache representing the state of a calendar server in calendar client application  1605  and any user initiated changes made from local machine  1601 . Thus, upon the conversion of the metadata to a database record (e.g. To do item), operation  1709  may include reconciliation of the local cache on machine  1601  with the database maintained on email server  1615 . 
     In one embodiment, the reconciliation process may be described as a three-way comparison between 1) a current “snapshot” of the message server, 2) a current “snapshot” of the local cache and 3) a reference “snapshot,” which is a common ancestor of both the current message server snapshot and current local cache snapshot.  FIG. 19  depicts an exemplary embodiment of a particular reconciliation method employed for a To do database. It should be appreciated that other databases containing other database objects may be similarly reconciled, such as for notes and email drafts. As shown, the reconciliation engine begins the method at operation  1901 , at operation  1902 , a message server agent, such as email server agent  1610 , gets new “false” messages from the message server, such as email server  1615 . Each message has a universally unique Message ID number. At operation  1903 , duplicate messages on the message server are identified by messages having different Message ID numbers but common database object ID numbers. In an exemplary embodiment, the message with the higher Message ID number is kept and all others are added to a delete list to generate a good state for a snapshot of current email server state created at operation  1904 . In a further embodiment, a dialog is presented to the user to receive input to resolve a conflict of greater complexity prior to the capturing the email server state. A snapshot of the current local cache is then created. In one embodiment, at operation  1905 , the reconciliation engine gets changes to the local cache from the local cache agent, such as calendar server agent  1611 . A good local state is created by eliminating duplicates at operation  1906 , in a manner similar to that previously described for the email server agent, or by an alternate means commonly known in the art. Finally at operation  1907 , a current snapshot of a local cache of the database is created. 
     At operation  1910 , a reference message server snapshot is retrieved by the message server agent. At operations  1920  and  1921 , the reference message server state snapshot is compared to the snapshot of the current message server snapshot and the reference message server snapshot is compared to the current local cache snapshot, respectively. A “snapshot” is a list of paired database record identifiers, each pair containing a universally unique database record ID and a message ID for that record stored on the message server. In one embodiment, this first snapshot comparison identifies 1) all database object (e.g. To Do item) ID numbers that occur in both snapshots, 2) those that occur in only the current snapshot and 3) those that occur in only the reference snapshot. The snapshot comparison then classifies, based on Message ID values, changes to database objects, as shown in  FIG. 20 . As shown, dashes in both the reference snapshot and current snapshot indicate no database object ID existed in either snapshot (and therefore there is no Message ID). Thus, the difference is classified as “no difference.” A stagnant Message ID between snapshots is similarly classified as “no difference.” A database object occurring in only the current snapshot has a current Message ID but none in the reference snapshot and is classified as “add.” A “delete” difference is classified in a complementary manner if the database object occurring in only the reference snapshot has a current Message ID but none in the current snapshot. An incremented Message ID referring to the same database object ID in the reference snapshot and current snapshot generally indicates a more recent database object, so the difference is classified as “update.” Finally, a decrement in message ID may also occur after a message server update, therefore the difference is also classified as “update.” 
     The reconciliation method depicted in  FIG. 19  proceeds with a comparison of message server snapshot differences and local cache snapshot differences at operation  1925  to identify modifications to database objects and reconcile the local cache and message server database. In one exemplary embodiment, the decision table depicted in  FIG. 21  may be applied at operation  1925 . As shown, where no difference has been identified in both the message server and local cache, no further action is taken with respect to that database object. Certain conflicts may occur during the comparison of snapshots at operation  1925 , which are resolved by the data processing system at operation  1930 . For example, where an “add” difference is identified in the message server comparison while and an “add” is identified in the local cache comparison, a conflict exists. In one embodiment, such a conflict is resolved by determining if the database objects between the two are equivalent, in which case the conflict and the database object is ignored. If the two database objects are not equivalent, then the data processing system presents a dialog to receive input from a user identifying which database object is to be retained. In a further embodiment, where an “updated” difference is identified in the message server comparison and a “delete” is identified in the local cache comparison, or visa versa, the conflict is resolved by favoring the update. As shown by dashed lines in the reconciliation engine decision column of  FIG. 21 , certain conflicts are avoided because the differences are generated using the common reference snapshot. In addition to resolving conflicts, the reconciliation engine determines change operations for both the message server and the local cache server at operations  1935  and  1936 , respectively. For example, where no difference has occurred on the message server but and a difference classified as an “add” has occurred on the local cache, the reconciliation engine determines that database object must be added to the message server. Thus, in a particular embodiment, a To do item is created on local machine  1601  and the reconciliation method would determine the newly created To do item must be added to the message server and a false message must be sent to update the message server (email server  1615 ). At operation  1941 , the message server agent sends the changes to the message server, such as email server  1615 . Similarly, at operation  1940 , the local cache agent then sends the changes to the local cache server, such as To Do manager  1608 . Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 21 , where there is no message server snapshot difference, but there is a local cache snapshot difference, the message server may be refreshed upon the message server agent pushing a message, such described for operations  1701 ,  1703 , and  1705 , which contains metadata to “add,” “delete,” or “update” a database object, such as a To do item. To complete one reconciliation cycle, the message server agent stores the current mail server snapshot, at operation  1950 , as the new reference snapshot and the reconciliation process may begin again. 
     Thus, in a particular embodiment, the message server agent, such the email server agent  1610 , builds an email server snapshot, informs the email server of changes and stores the final mails server snapshot for use as a reference in a subsequent reconciliation. The local cache agent, such as calendar server agent  1611 , builds a calendar database server snapshot and informs the calendar server of changes. The reconciliation engine, performed by reconciliation engine  1614 , compares the snapshot differences and determines actions to be taken by the message server agent and local cache agent, and informs each agent of the necessary changes. 
     In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20070610
Publication Date: 20120710
Grant Date: 20120710
Priority Date: 20060804
Inventors: LANGOULANT BRENDAN
LEMAY STEPHEN
FORSTALL SCOTT
HEARST DAVID PAUL
EGUILUZ HERNAN RODRIGO
CHRISTIE GREGORY
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "G06Q10/109", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06Q10/107", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 46328854