Sending a range

• US 20060020673A1
• Filed: 07/13/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gauthier, Matthew, Sorge, Terri, McCaughey, Robert, Liu, Carol, Hudson, Margaret
• Granted Patent: US 7,454,471 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

The invention is a software module configured for sending a pre-selected portion of an electronic spreadsheet document to a mail client or recipient via e-mail. The module includes a publish engine for receiving a sender'"'"'s pre-selected portion of a spreadsheet document from an application program. The publish engine determines content in the pre-selected portion of the document, and in response to the content of the pre-selected portion, the publish engine changes a user interface to correspond with the content. When the publish engine receives a command through the user interface to send the pre-selected portion to a mail client via electronic mail, the publish engine codes the pre-selected portion for transmission via electronic mail. The publish engine launches an electronic mail application program, and inserts the coded pre-selected portion into an e-mail message. If the publish engine detects a user command through the user interface to apply an interactive control to the pre-selected portion, the publish engine codes an interactive control for the pre-selected portion. The publish engine inserts the coded interactive control into the e-mail message with the coded pre-selected portion so that the mail client or recipient can apply the interactive control to the pre-selected portion. Then, the publish engine sends the coded pre-selected portion and the coded interactive control to the mail client or recipient via electronic mail. The mail client or recipient can view and manipulate the pre-selected portion with electronic spreadsheet functionality similar to that available to the sender.

Claims

1-49. -49. (canceled)

50. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for automatically sending a pre-selected portion of a document to a recipient, the method comprising:

receiving a pre-selected portion of a document from a first application;

receiving a command to send the pre-selected portion of the document to a recipient via electronic mail;

in response to receiving the command to send the pre-selected portion of the document,

coding the pre-selected portion of the document for transmission via electronic mail;

launching an electronic mail application program, and

inserting the coded pre-selected portion of the document into an e-mail message;

detecting a command to apply an interactive control to the pre-selected portion of the document;

in response to receiving a command to apply an interactive control to the pre-selected portion,

coding an interactive control for the pre-selected portion, and

inserting the coded interactive control into the e-mail message with the coded pre-selected portion of the document so that the recipient can apply the interactive control to the pre-selected portion without opening the first application; and

sending the coded pre-selected portion of the document and the interactive control to the recipient via electronic mail.

51. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, wherein coding the pre-selected portion of the document comprises coding the pre-selected portion into HTML.

52. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, further comprising:

determining content in the pre-selected portion of the document; and

in response to determining the content, changing a user interface to correspond with the content.

53. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 52, wherein the user interface comprises a dynamic send button that corresponds to content of the pre-selected portion of the document and changes in response to the content of the pre-selected portion.

54. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, wherein the pre-selected portion of the document comprises a graphic or other object.

55. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, wherein the document comprises a spreadsheet document.

56. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 55, wherein the interactive control comprises a spreadsheet application program function.

57. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 56, wherein the interactive control provides functionality including at least one of filtering, sorting, calculating, pivoting, and charting.

58. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, wherein the document comprises a word processing document.

59. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 50, wherein the interactive control comprises information to enable the recipient viewing the content of the pre-selected portion of the document to manipulate the content.

60. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 59, wherein the interactive control comprises an ActiveX control.

61. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for automatically sending a pre-selected portion of a spreadsheet document to a recipient, the method comprising:

receiving a pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document from a spreadsheet application;

receiving a command through a user interface to send the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document to a recipient via electronic mail;

in response to receiving the command to send the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document,

coding the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document for transmission via electronic mail,

launching an electronic mail application program, and

inserting the coded pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document into an e-mail message;

detecting a command to apply an interactive control to the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document;

in response to receiving a command to apply an interactive control to the pre-selected portion,

coding an interactive control for the pre-selected portion, and

inserting the coded interactive control into the e-mail message with the coded pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document so that the recipient can apply the interactive control to the pre-selected portion without opening the spreadsheet application; and

sending the coded pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document and the interactive control to the recipient via electronic mail.

62. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 61, wherein the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document is coded into HTML.

63. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 61, wherein the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document comprises a data range comprising a single cell or multiple cells.

64. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 61, wherein the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document comprises a table or pivot table.

65. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 61, wherein the pre-selected portion of the spreadsheet document comprises a chart or pivot chart.

66. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 61, wherein the interactive control provides functionality including at least one of filtering, sorting, calculating, pivoting, and charting.

67. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 66, wherein the interactive control comprises an ActiveX control.

68. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for sending coded portions of a spreadsheet document within a body of an email, the method comprising:

copying a portion of the spreadsheet document from a spreadsheet application into the body of an email;

coding an interactive control for the portion of the spreadsheet document; and

sending the coded interactive control with the portion of the spreadsheet document to a recipient via email;

wherein the coded interactive control allows a recipient of the email to manipulate the portion of the spreadsheet document without having to open a spreadsheet application.

69. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 68, wherein the interactive control provides functionality including at least one of filtering, sorting, calculating, pivoting, and charting.