Viewing effects of proposed change in document before committing change

• US 10,140,269 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Vogel, Matthew, Sinha, Avijit, Destrebecq, Olivier
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Cong-Lac
• Application Number:
  US13/796,545
• Publication Number:
  US 20140281867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: 715212, 715220, 715255, 715213, 715229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A tweak and view mode may be used by a user to see an effect of a proposed change to a document before the change is committed to the document. The application may automatically navigate to different portions of the document and/or display different sections of the document. Instead of the user having to search for the portion of the document affected by the change, the changed portions are determined for the user. The portions may be automatically displayed to the user and/or the user may determine when to move to each different portion that changed as a result of the proposed change. The proposed change may be accepted/rejected by the user. For example, a User Interface (UI) element may be selected by the user to either accept the change or reject the change.

Claims

1. A method for visualizing proposed changes to content of a spreadsheet within a spreadsheet application, comprising:

displaying a spreadsheet having data that is in a first version state;

receiving a proposed change, via a user interface of the spreadsheet application, that changes the data to a second version state in the spreadsheet;

determining that the proposed change will affect the result of a calculation within the spreadsheet and will affect a graphical display of the spreadsheet application, the graphical display generated based on the data of the spreadsheet;

receiving an indication to view the affected calculation and/or affected graphical display as a result of the proposed change;

replacing the displayed spreadsheet with a display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display;

maintaining the first version state of the data until receiving an indication, via the user interface of the spreadsheet application, to commit the proposed change to the spreadsheet; and

when the proposed change is committed, displaying the view of the spreadsheet with the data in the second version state as committed data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to enter a tweak and view mode before receiving the proposed change, entrance into the tweak and view mode indicating that the first version state of the data is maintained while allowing proposed changes to be made to the data of the spreadsheet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display includes additionally displaying a corresponding calculation result or corresponding graphical display prior to being affected by the proposed change.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display, includes replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with a plurality of thumbnails representative of the portions of the spreadsheet that are affected by the proposed change including the plurality of affected calculation results and the plurality of affected graphical displays.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining an ordering of the plurality of affected calculation results and/or the plurality of affected graphical displays and displaying each of the plurality of affected calculation results and/or the plurality of affected graphical displays in the determined order.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising advancing one-by-one through each of the plurality of thumbnail images in response to receiving an advance command via the user interface of the spreadsheet application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the proposed change to the spreadsheet comprises receiving proposed changes to a plurality of different cells of the spreadsheet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein when the proposed change is indicated as not committed, via the user interface of the spreadsheet application, replacing the display of the at least one affected calculation result or the display of the at least one affected graphical display with a display of the spreadsheet.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying the spreadsheet comprises displaying the spreadsheet on a display device of a mobile computing device.

10. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for visualizing proposed changes to content of a spreadsheet within a spreadsheet application, comprising:

displaying a spreadsheet having data that is in a first version state;

receiving a proposed change, via a user interface of the spreadsheet application, that changes the data to a second version state in the spreadsheet;

determining that the proposed change will affect the result of a calculation within the spreadsheet and will affect a graphical display of the spreadsheet application, the graphical display generated based on the data of the spreadsheet;

receiving an indication, via a user interface of the spreadsheet application, to view the affected calculation and/or affected graphical display as a result of the proposed change;

replacing the displayed spreadsheet with a display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display;

maintaining the first version state of the data until receiving an indication, via the user interface of the spreadsheet application, to commit the proposed change to the spreadsheet; and

when the proposed change is committed, displaying the view of the spreadsheet with the data in the second version state as committed data.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display includes additionally displaying a corresponding calculation result or corresponding graphical display prior to being affected by the proposed change.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display, includes replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with a plurality of thumbnails representative of the portions of the spreadsheet that are affected by the proposed change including the plurality of affected calculation results and the plurality of affected graphical displays.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising advancing one-by-one through each of the plurality of thumbnail images in response to receiving an advance command via the user interface of the spreadsheet application.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising determining an ordering of the plurality of affected calculation results and/or the plurality of affected graphical displays and displaying each of the plurality of affected calculation results and/or the plurality of affected graphical displays in the determined order.

15. A system for visualizing proposed changes to content of a spreadsheet, comprising:

a display that is configured to receive touch input;

a processor and memory;

an operating environment and a spreadsheet application executing using the processor;

a display showing content; and

the processor executing instructions stored in memory causing the processor to operate as a change manager that is configured to perform actions comprising;

displaying a view of spreadsheet data in a first version state that is associated with a workbook including one or more sheets;

receiving a proposed change, via a user interface of the spreadsheet application, that changes the spreadsheet data to a second version state in the spreadsheet;

determining that the proposed change will affect the result of a calculation within the spreadsheet and will affect a graphical display of the spreadsheet application, the graphical display generated based on the data of the spreadsheet;

receiving an indication, via a user interface of the spreadsheet application, to view the affected calculation and/or affected graphical display as a result of the proposed change;

replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with a display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display;

maintaining the first version state of the spreadsheet data until receiving an indication, via the user interface of the spreadsheet application, to commit the proposed change to the spreadsheet data; and

when the proposed change is committed, displaying the view of the spreadsheet with the data in the second version state as committed data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display includes additionally displaying a corresponding calculation result or corresponding graphical display prior to being affected by the proposed change.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with the display of at least one affected calculation result or at least one affected graphical display, includes replacing the displayed view of the spreadsheet with a plurality of thumbnails representative of the portions of the spreadsheet that are affected by the proposed change including the plurality of affected calculation results and the plurality of affected graphical displays.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising advancing one-by-one through each of the plurality of thumbnail images in response to receiving an advance command via the user interface of the spreadsheet application.