A method of promoting a response to an electronic conference insert interacting in a system with a number of terminals, the electronic calendar used

摘要

An electronic calendaring method for use in a data processing system which includes a plurality of interactive terminals which are interconnected to permit an end user at each terminal to interchange information with each other and to maintain an electronic calendar. The method facilitates the reply process to an electronic invitation to attend a meeting that is issued by one of the end users by arranging for the system to advise the invitee that a meeting notice is available to review in the "In Box" of the terminal. The method causes a composite screen to be built which simultaneously displays the meeting details and the relevant section, i.e. a day of entries, of the owner's calendar in a side by side format so that calendar entries are correlated to the meeting data and time. The composite display permits an interactive selection by the calendar owner end user of at least one option which can be either to accept the invitation and calendar the meeting or to reject the invitation. In either event a reply is automatically sent to the end user that issued the invitation and the invitee is returned to the task that was being processed when the initial message was received.