The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 17, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Eric Robert Berman, Redmond, WA (US);
Coyle Brett Marl, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A message viewing program displays a preview pane that is controlled to avoid previewing messages with disruptive message content. Before the body of a message is previewed in the preview pane, an identifier relating to the message is written to a nonvolatile storage location. After the message is previewed in the preview pane without causing a system disruption, the identifier is deleted. Before a message is previewed, the nonvolatile storage location is searched for the identifier relating to the message. If the identifier is found, the message is not previewed in the preview pane. Also, an icon is displayed indicating that the message may contain disruptive message content. Alternatively, the message viewing program writes an enable identifier to a nonvolatile storage location when it shuts down without encountering a system disruption. If the enable identifier is not present upon start up, messages are not previewed in the preview pane.