A method of assigning retention and deletion criteria to electronic documents stored in an electronic information handling system

A method is providing for operating an information processing system for automatically completing the entry of the retention and deletion criteria employed by an interactive information handling system to manage the retention and deletion of a relatively large number of electronic documents stored in said system by a plurality of end users each of which has an interactive terminal connected to the system that includes a keyboard and a display device. The method provides a screen image on the display device in response to the end user advising the system that he wants to assign retention and deletion information to an electronic document that he wants the system to store. 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.