System and method for integrated spreadsheets and word processing tables

• US 20050055626A1
• Filed: 10/08/2004
• Published: 03/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fisher, Oliver G., Kotler, Matthew J., Gounares, Alexander G., Franklin, Christopher Matthew, Wolf, Richard J., Anantharaman, Vinod, Morgan, Matthew D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,549,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/209
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

An architecture integrates spreadsheet functionality into tables commonly used in word processing programs and HTML documents. The architecture presents a table user interface (UI) that resembles a table when not being edited and adds spreadsheet elements to the table when being edited. Underlying the table UI, the architecture separates data handling functions from, presentation functions. The architecture includes a table appearance manager to manage how the table appears in a document including such characteristics as table resizing, selection, cut, copy, paste, split, merge, table formatting and so on. The architecture also has a spreadsheet functionality manager to manage the spreadsheet functions for the table, such as recalculation, formula handling, sorting, referencing, and the like. The bifurcated architecture supports cross-table referencing, reference editing, automatic universal recalculation throughout all tables in the document, and nested table structures in which one table is nested within a cell of another table.

Claims

1. An architecture comprising:

a complementary pair of spreadsheet and grid components for a table in a document;

the spreadsheet component receiving data and formulas entered into the table;

the grid component tracking the data and formulas in relation to cells in the table; and

a recalculation engine to recalculate the formulas following a change to data in the grid component.

2. The architecture of claim 1, wherein new data is entered into the table and in response:

the spreadsheet component receives the data and passes the data onto the grid component;

the grid component stores the new data; and

the recalculation engine recalculates any formula affected by the new data.

3. The architecture of claim 1, wherein a new formula is entered into the table and in response:

the spreadsheet component receives the formula and passes it onto the grid component;

the grid component stores the formula; and

the recalculation engine recalculates any formula affected by the entry of the new formula.

4. The architecture of claim 1, wherein the grid component comprises:

a cell table to maintain data and formulas in cells associated with the table; and

a format table to maintain formatting information pertaining to the cells associated with the table.

5. The architecture of claim 1, wherein the spreadsheet component provides a formula edit box user interface that permits user entry of a formula.

6. The architecture of claim 1, wherein the spreadsheet component facilitates referencing between cells in the table and between a first cell in a first table and a second cell in a second table.

7. The architecture of claim 1, wherein the spreadsheet component comprises:

a cell editing element to facilitate editing in the table; and

a cell behavior element to manage referencing between cells in the table and among cells in multiple tables.

8. The architecture of claim 1, further comprising a parser to parse the data and formulas received by the spreadsheet component.

9. The architecture of claim 1, further comprising a delay parser to parse the data and formulas received by the spreadsheet component on an as-needed basis.

10. The architecture of claim 1, further comprising multiple complementary pairs of grid and spreadsheet components corresponding to multiple tables in the document.

11. The architecture of claim 10, wherein a first grid component references a second grid component to support cross table referencing from a first table associated with the first grid component and a second table associated with the second grid component.

12. The architecture of claim 11, wherein the recalculation engine, responsive to a change in the second grid component, recalculates a formula in the first grid component.

13. An architecture comprising:

a document renderer to render a document containing at least one table;

a spreadsheet component associated with the table to accept data and formulas entered into the table; and

a spreadsheet engine to manage the data and formulas and to recalculate the formulas as the data in the table is modified.

14. The architecture of claim 13, wherein the document renderer resides on a different computer than the spreadsheet component and the spreadsheet engine.

15. The architecture of claim 13, wherein the spreadsheet component provides a formula edit box user interface that permits user entry of a formula.

16. The architecture of claim 13, wherein the document contains first and second tables, further comprising:

first and second spreadsheet components for respective first and second tables, the spreadsheet components facilitating referencing between a first cell in the first table and a second cell in the second table; and

the spreadsheet engine managing the data and formulas in the first and second tables and recalculating the first cell in the first table in response to a change of the second cell in the second table.

17. The architecture of claim 13, wherein the document renderer renders a free floating field separate from the table, the architecture further comprising:

a spreadsheet component associated with the free floating field to accept a formula; and

the spreadsheet engine being further configured to manage the formula in the free floating field and to recalculate the formula as the table is modified.

18. The architecture of claim 13, wherein a particular cell in the table contains a non-calculation formula that is not evaluated by the spreadsheet engine but which defines a dependency between two cells.

19. The architecture of claim 13, further comprising a document object to perform insertion of the tables.

20. A method comprising:

presenting a table within a document;

receiving data and at least one formula referencing the data entered into the table;

managing the data and formula from the table;

recalculating the formula in response to change of the data; and

presenting a modified table within the document, the modified table reflecting results from said recalculating.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the presenting comprises rendering a markup document.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the managing comprises storing the data and formula in one or more objects associated with the table.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the managing comprises:

maintaining the data and formula in a first structure representative of the table; and

maintaining formatting information for the table in a second structure representative of the table.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the recalculating comprises traversing a chain of formulas and calculating the formulas according to an order in the chain.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising presenting a free floating field in the document and separate from the table, the free floating field containing a formula that references the data in the table.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the recalculating further comprises recalculating the formula in the free floating field in response to change of the data.

27. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform the method as recited in claim 25.

28. A method comprising:

presenting first and second tables within a document, the first and second tables being separate from one another;

receiving data for the first table;

receiving a formula for the second table, the formula referencing the data in the first table; and

upon modification of the data in the first table, automatically recalculating the formula in the second table.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the presenting comprises nesting the first table within the second table.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the receiving formula comprises displaying a formula edit box in association with a cell of the table into which the formula is being entered, the formula edit box permitting user entry of the formula.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising enabling a user to reference the data in the first table when entering the formula in the second table.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the presenting comprises nesting the first table within the second table and further comprising enabling a user to reference the data in the first table when entering the formula in the second table.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the presenting comprises nesting the first table within a particular cell of the second table, the particular cell containing a non-alculation formula that is not recalculated as part of the recalculating.

34. The method of claim 28, further comprising presenting a free floating field in the document and separate from the first and second tables, the free floating field containing a formula that references one of the data in the first table or the formula in the second table.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the recalculating further comprises recalculating the formula in the free floating field in response to change of the data in the first table.

36. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform the method as recited in claim 28.