LINKING VISUAL PROPERTIES OF CHARTS TO CELLS WITHIN TABLES

• US 20090235152A1
• Filed: 03/12/2008
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ruble, Scott, Sklar, Benjamin, Garg, Anupam, Rampson, Benjamin Edward
• Granted Patent: US 9,558,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs

Abstract

Tools and techniques are described for linking visual properties of charts to cells within tables. Methods provided by these tools enable users to select visual properties that are associated with graphical displays of chart data, and to link these visual properties to respective cells within the tables. User interfaces provided by these tools may provide representations of visual properties associated with the graphical displays of chart data, with these representations of the visual properties being responsive to user input to link the cells in the tables to the visual properties. These user interfaces may also include representations of the cells that are associated with the representations of the visual properties.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

enabling a user to select at least one dynamic visual property, associated with a graphical display of data presented within a spreadsheet, for linking to at least one cell within the spreadsheet;

activating a dialog box for linking the visual property to the cell;

presenting, within the dialog box, representations of a plurality of visual properties to the user, and for receiving a selection from the user of at least one of the visual properties for linking to the cell; and

linking the visual property to the cell in response to the user selection.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for enabling the user to create at least one formula within the cell, wherein the formula includes only predefined functions supported by a spreadsheet application, and wherein the formula calculates the visual property.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for testing for changes to the cell, and for updating the visual property in response to changes to the cell.

4. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

enabling a user to select at least one visual property, associated with a graphical display of chart data, for linking to at least one cell within a table; and

linking the visual property to the cell.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for enabling the user to create at least one formula within the cell, wherein the formula includes only predefined functions supported by a spreadsheet application, and wherein the formula calculates the visual property.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for presenting the graphical display of chart data to the user.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for activating a dialog box for linking the visual property to the cell.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for presenting representations of a plurality of visual properties to the user, and for receiving a selection of at least one of the visual properties for linking to the cell.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for activating a tool responsive to user input to select the cell, and further comprising instructions for receiving user input to select the cell.

10. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to present a user interface comprising:

at least one representation of a visual property associated with a graphical display of chart data, wherein the representation of the visual property is responsive to user input to link at least one cell in a table to the visual property; and

at least one representation of the cell, wherein the representation of the cell is associated with the representation of the visual property.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the graphical display of the chart data is presented within a spreadsheet application.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the visual property corresponds to a maximum or minimum value presented on at least one axis within a chart.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the visual property corresponds to a trendline included within a chart.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that includes a custom name for the trendline.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the visual property corresponds to a trendline represented as a polynomial curve within a chart, and wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that indicates an order of the polynomial curve.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the visual property includes a representation of a visual property that provides a projection based on data contained within the table, and wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that indicates a number of time periods over which to perform the projection.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that indicates whether to present the visual property in connection with a logarithmic scale.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that specifies a base for a logarithmic scale for presenting the visual property.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that specifies display units for axes included within the graphical display of the chart data.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the representation of the cell corresponds to a cell that specifies where to align at least one tick mark relative to axes included within the graphical display of the chart data.