Adding document filters to an existing cluster hierarchy

1. A method of filtering documents considered to be relevant to a subject, comprising:

selecting a set of documents considered to be relevant to a subject, wherein each document is an electronic document that comprise two or more distinct fields including at least a first field and a second field, each of the two or more distinct fields providing data corresponding to a category of data about the respective document;

clustering documents in the set of documents into a cluster hierarchy according to data contained in the first field, the cluster hierarchy comprising a plurality of branches, each branch having a sub-tree;

merging a received number of levels of the cluster hierarchy; and

re-clustering the merged levels according to data contained in the second field.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

merging an additional level of the cluster hierarchy; and

re-clustering the merged levels according to data contained in the second field.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first field is a non-content field associated with each document in the set of documents and the second field is a content field associated with each document in the set of documents, wherein the content field comprises body text of the document and the non-content field comprises a field other than body text of the document.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exporting one or more clusters to a repository or a document review tool.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a maximum tree depth level; and clustering, by a processing device, documents in the set of documents into a hierarchy according to data contained in a first field to the received maximum tree depth level.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of clustering according to data contained in a first field is performed according to a partitional approach or agglomerative approach.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of documents is distributed across a plurality of client devices in a hosted user environment.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a maximum number of documents per cluster; and re-clustering the merged levels according to data contained in a second field, wherein each resulting cluster contains fewer than the received maximum number of documents.

9. A system of clustering a set of documents considered to be relevant to a subject, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a storage device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

select a set of documents considered to be relevant to a subject, wherein each document is an electronic document that comprises two or more distinct fields including at least a first field and a second field, each of the two or more distinct fields providing data corresponding to a category of data about the respective document;

cluster documents in the set of documents into a cluster hierarchy according to data contained in the first field, the cluster hierarchy comprising a plurality of branches, each branch having a sub-tree;

merge a received number of levels of the cluster hierarchy; and

re-cluster the merged levels according to data contained in the second field.

10. The system of claim 9 , the storage device having further instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

merge an additional level of the cluster hierarchy; and

re-cluster the merged levels according to data contained in the second field.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first field is a non-content field associated with each document in the set of documents and the second field is a content field associated with each document in the set of documents, wherein the content field comprises body text of the document and the non-content field comprises a field other than body text of the document.

12. The system of claim 9 , the storage device having further instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to export one or more clusters to a repository or a document review tool.

13. The system of claim 9 , the storage device having further instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive a maximum tree depth level; and

cluster documents in the set of documents into a hierarchy according to data contained in a first field to the received maximum tree depth level.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the step of clustering according to data contained in a first field is performed according to a partitional approach or agglomerative approach.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the set of documents is distributed across a plurality of client devices in a hosted user environment.

16. The system of claim 9 , the storage device having further instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive a maximum number of documents per cluster; and

re-cluster the merged levels according to data contained in a second field, wherein each resulting cluster contains fewer than the received maximum number of documents.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the documents is an e-mail and the first field and the second field each comprise one of: a sender, a recipient, a subject line, body text, and an attachment.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the documents is not an e-mail, and the first field or the second field includes one of: a collaborator field indicating a user who created, edited, or viewed the document, or a title of the document.