Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Andrew Grey Carlson

Scott A Thurlow

Brian T Hill

Benjamin Edward Rampson

Christopher James Antos

Nickolas Dwayne Welton

Simon Clarke

Jonathan Bailor

Tali Roth

Mark Rolland Knight

Brian W MacDonald

Miko Arnab Sakhya Singha Bose

Andrew Sean Watson

L Tucker Hatfield

Simon Skaria

Justin B Mahood

Naresh Kannan

Mitesh Patel

Martin R Calsyn

Nicholas Paul Duane

Andrew T Lytle

Michael Davenport

Elena Petrova

Catalin I Tomai

Don Adam Hedgpeth

Jason F Morrill

Darren Alexander Apfel

Michael J Smith

Hai Liu

Sean Erik McAteer

Jie Li

Christopher John Gross

David M Buchthal

Steve Rayson

Valerie D Serdy

Mark Alan Mullins

Venkata Srinivas Irava

David Charles Wadsworth

Han Ui Jung

Darren Muller

Noah Egorin

Arunkumar Thippur Jayakeerthy

Arun Thippur Jayakeerthy

Chris Gross

Shayne Martin Holmes

Robert James Straavaldson

When a user is responding to a message in a thread and a new response message is detected for the thread, the user's response is automatically re-parented so the user's response is sent as a response to the newly detected response message in the thread.

Dynamically re-parenting email messages based on updated conversations

Methods and systems providing for collaborative commenting in a drawing tool are provided. One example method includes receiving a shape on a drawing canvas, and receiving a comment associated with the shape, the comment including a name of a commenting user. The method also includes receiving an indication of a movement of the shape from the first position to a second position, and, in response to the indication of the movement of the shape, automatically moving the comment closer to the second position of the shape. In some cases, the commenting user can be a user other than the user adding the shape to the document, and can be performed by a concurrent editor of the document.

Collaborative commenting in a drawing tool

Techniques to manage state information for a web service are described. An apparatus may comprise a processor circuit, and an application program for execution by the processor circuit to provide a set of operations to modify a state of a network resource provided by a network service. The application program may comprise a state manager component arranged to record state information for the network resource provided by the network service as state changes occur to the network resource during a first communication session, and store a resource identifier and associated state information for the network resource in a state database, the state information for use in automatically reproducing a state of the network resource during a second communication session. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Techniques to manage state information for a web service

Technologies are described herein for providing query suggestions. In order to provide a query suggestion, access may be detected at a data source. An initial query suggestion for a query of the data source may then be identified based, at least in part, on non-query data. The initial query suggestion may then be returned for display in a user-interface (UI) element. Additional query suggestions might also be provided based upon non-query data in response to a modification of the query.

Query suggestions

Concepts and technologies are described herein for touch interactions with a drawing application. In accordance with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein, user devices can obtain drawing data generated by a web-based drawing application and can display a drawing by rendering the data in one or more UIs. The user device can interpret touch gestures at a touch sensitive display used to present the UIs and can interpret the touch gestures as corresponding to one or more commands for modifying the UIs. According to various embodiments, the user device can interpret the touch gestures by determining if the touch gestures intersect an object in the drawing and other behavior associated with the touch gesture such as movement, subsequent touches, and whether or not an object intersected was selected when the touch gesture was commenced.

Touch interactions with a drawing application

Example systems and methods are directed at maintaining and retrieving presence metadata. One example method includes receiving a request from a first client to edit a document file, and sending short-term check out metadata to the first client to begin an editing session. The method also includes writing the transition ID to a transition table stored in a cache, wherein the presence of another transition ID in the cache indicates that a document has switched from a single-client mode to a multi-client mode. An example system includes a processing unit operative to receive a document, the document including short-term check out metadata indicating an editing session has begun, ping a cache to determine if another transition ID is stored in the cache, and send a transition ID to a transition table stored in a cache to switch from a single-client mode to a multi-client mode.

Caching infrastructure

Examples are related to systems and methods for controlling access to document files on a document server. One example system includes document files stored on a document server, at least one of the document files referencing a file lock, and a document access processing module. The example document access processing module includes a file sharing processing module that determines a coauthoring status of a software application of a client computer requesting access to the document file, and a file lock processing module that stores one or more file locks and that controls the setting and resetting of file locks. The example document access processing module uses the coauthoring status of the software application and the file lock status of a document file to determine whether a software application is permitted to have write access to the document file.

Controlling access to documents using file locks

In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other users. The custom form's attributes are transmitted to the recipient as an element of the e-mail message. An autoresponse feature allows a sender to create a message that includes voting buttons corresponding to the possible responses to a query. A recipient replies by selecting one of the voting buttons. The recipient's vote is automatically tallied in the sender's copy of the message, thus allowing the sender to view a vote tally, a list of recipients, and their response.

Method for automatically implementing special forms in an e-mail system

An envelope provides the integration of the functionality of an email application program and the functionality of a document editor so that a sender can send introductory text to the recipient of an email message constituting a document without corrupting the original document. Users of document editors can generate and edit documents for email transmission by first creating the document with the document editor and then invoking an envelope to send the document as the message body with introductory text. The envelope has its own user interface that is fully functional within the confines of the document editor's user interface to provide the user with the functionality of the email client application program. The envelope includes an introduction field for the entry of introductory text by the sender. The introduction field in the envelope is a rich edit control in plain text mode, similar to the subject field of the envelope. When the user sends the document, the document editor prepends the introductory text to the body of the message. The document editor then converts the introductory text and the body of the document to an HTML message, and the email client sends the email message to the recipient.

System and method for improved electronic mail processing with introductory text

In an electronic mail system environment, a system and method for automatically checking recipients' names, providing message flags, providing custom forms, and providing an autoresponse feature. Recipients' names are resolved in the background, while the user of the e-mail system is composing the message. The user easily resolves ambiguous names by using a context menu. The resolved ambiguous names are automatically used to create nicknames, which are used to resolve ambiguous names in the future. Message flags allow a sender or recipient to identify required follow-up action and a deadline. The recipient may use the message flags to quickly determine which messages require follow-up action. The e-mail system notifies a recipient when a due date is approaching or when a follow-up action is past due. A custom forms feature allows a user to create and share custom forms without requiring the form to be published or installed by other user. The custom form's attributes are transmitted to the recipient as an element of the e-mail message. An autoresponse feature allows a sender to create a message that includes voting buttons corresponding to the possible responses to a query. A recipient replies by selecting one of the voting buttons. The recipient's vote is automatically tallied in the sender's copy of the message, thus allowing the sender to view a vote tally, a list of the recipients, and their response.

System and method for composing, processing, and organizing electronic mail message items

Method for automatically tallying voting data in e-mail systems

An Envelope provides the integration of the functionality of an electronic mail (email) application program and the functionality of a document editor. Users can more easily generate and edit sophisticated documents for email transmission by invoking an Envelope that provides the user with the functions of an email client. A user that is editing a document in a document editor, such as a word processor or spreadsheet application can invoke the Envelope within the user interface of the document editor. The Envelope has its own user interface that is fully functional within the confines of the document editor's user interface to provide the user with the functionality of the email client application program. With the Envelope invoked, the user is enabled to execute many of the email client's functions while still editing the document within the document editor's user interface. Thus, the rich document editing functionality of the document editor is maintained, while the functionality of the email client is simultaneously accessible to the user. Envelope data generated during the editing process is saved with the document and available when the document is next edited or is opened as an email message.

Integrating email functionality into a word processor by incorporating an email GUI within the word processor

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Andrew Grey Carlson