Abstract

A method for automatically completing the entry of the retention and deletion criteria employed by an interactive information handling system to manage the automatic retention and deletion of a relatively large number of electronic documents that are stored in the system by a plurality of end users. The method provides a screen image on a display device in response to the end user advising the system that he wants to assign retention and deletion information to an electronic document. The screen image prompts the end user for a set of required criteria and allows the interactive entry of one or more criteria by the end user directly. The remaining criteria that are not entered directly by the end user are entered automatically based on a logical analysis by said system involving the identity of the criteria that was entered directly and pre-established information stored in said system. The criteria include a document label, an ownership label, a document expiration date and an ownership expiration data. Information involved in the automatic entry process includes allowable document and ownership labels personalized for each end user and allowable expiration dates or ranges for each label. Also stored are rules that allow a logical analysis to select a default criteria and to verify and information that was entered directly by the end user.