20. A method of operating a processing system that includes one or more processors, a storage subsystem including at least memory, and a display device, the method comprising: (a) receiving from a sending user a free-text message; (b) accepting from a user an indication that the user desires to respond to the received message; (c) presenting to the user the free-text of the received message on a free-text user interface on the display device, the free-text user interface being for accepting a free text message; (d) accepting at least some of the free-text from the user via the user interface into the storage subsystem, the accepting including accepting modification and/or addition to the free-text; (e) converting the accepted free-text to form or modify structured message components related to the accepted free-text; (f) presenting to the user on a structured message user interface on the display device the structured data components related to the accepted free-text, such that the user can modify or accept the structured message components; (g) accepting from the user the user's modification into the storage subsystem and/or acceptance of the presented structured message components until structured message components related to the accepted—free-text are accepted; (h) repeating some or all of steps (d), (e), (f), and (g) until a composite message comprising both free-text and structured data is formed such that the structured data represents the intended meaning of the free-text in a form understandable by a computer-based management system; (i) storing the structured data in a data structure in the storage subsystem, and (j) electronically communicating the structured data of the composite message to at least one computer-based management system and, in the case that there is at least one human recipient, communicating at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient.
21. A method as recited in claim 20 , wherein the communicating of at least the free-text of the composite message to the at least one human recipient is as an electronic message containing the at least free-text, wherein the user interface includes an electronic message user interface, and wherein the structured message user interface and the electronic message user interface are presented to the user such that the user can view both the accepted free-text and the structured data related to the accepted free-text.