TABLE EDITING SYSTEMS WITH GESTURE-BASED INSERTION AND DELETION OF COLUMNS AND ROWS

• US 20120013540A1
• Filed: 07/13/2010
• Published: 01/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hogan, Edward P.A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,773,370 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/177 of tables; using ruled lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

Computing equipment may display tables of data that contain rows and columns. Touch gestures such as hold and flick gestures may be detected using a touch screen or other touch sensor. In response to a detected hold portion of a hold and flick gesture, a row or column in a table may be selected. In response to detection of a simultaneous flick portion, columns or rows may be inserted or deleted. A column may be inserted after a selected column using a hold and right downflick gesture. A hold and left downflick gesture may be used to insert a column before a selected column. Rows may be inserted before and after selected rows using hold and upper rightflick and hold and lower rightflick gestures. One or more columns or rows may be deleted using upflick or leftflick gestures.

Claims

1. Computing equipment, comprising:

a display on which a table of data is displayed;

a touch sensor array that detects touch gestures from a user including hold and flick gestures each of which includes a hold portion and a simultaneous flick portion; and

storage and processing circuitry that is configured to manipulate rows and columns in the table of data in response to detected hold and flick gestures.

2. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the display and touch sensor array are part of a touch screen, wherein the row or column contains a header and wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a row or column in the table in response to detecting a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture on the header.

3. The computing equipment defined in claim 2 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to delete the selected row or column in response to detecting a flick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

4. The computing equipment defined in claim 2 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to insert a row or column adjacent to the selected row or column in the table in response to detecting a flick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

5. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to delete at least part of the table in response to detecting a given hold and flick gesture.

6. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a column in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to delete the selected column in response to detecting an upflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

7. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a row in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to delete the selected row in response to detecting a leftflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

8. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to delete multiple selected rows or columns in response to detecting a flick portion of a given hold and flick gesture.

9. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a column in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to insert a column in the table to the right of the selected column in response to detecting a right downflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

10. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a column in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to insert a column in the table to the left of the selected column in response to detecting a left downflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

11. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a row in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to insert a row in the table above of the selected row in response to detecting an upper rightflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

12. The computing equipment defined in claim 1 wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to select a row in response to detection of a hold portion of a given hold and flick gesture and is configured to insert a row in the table to below of the selected row in response to detecting an lower rightflick portion of the given hold and flick gesture.

13. A method, comprising:

with computing equipment, displaying a table of data containing rows and column;

with a touch sensor array in the computing equipment, detecting hold and flick gestures supplied by a user, each hold and flick gesture including a hold portion and a flick portion; and

in response to detecting the hold and flick gestures, manipulating data in the table.

14. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and right downflick, selecting a column and inserting a column in the table after the selected column.

15. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and left downflick, selecting a column and inserting a column in the table before the selected column.

16. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and lower rightflick gesture, selecting a row and inserting a row in the table after the selected row.

17. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and upper rightflick gesture, selecting a row and inserting a row in the table before the selected row.

18. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and upflick gesture, deleting at least one column of the table.

19. The method defined in claim 13 further comprising:

in response to detecting a hold and leftflick gesture, deleting at least one row of the table.

20. Computing equipment, comprising:

a touch screen display that contains a touch sensor; and

storage and processing circuitry with which a table of data is displayed on the touch screen display, wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to detect touch gestures using the touch sensor and is configured to rearrange the table of data in response to detection of a hold gesture and a simultaneous flick gesture.

21. The computing equipment defined in claim 20 wherein the flick gesture comprises a downflick and wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to insert a column in the table in response to detection of the downflick.

22. The computing equipment defined in claim 20 wherein the flick gesture comprises a rightflick and wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to insert a row in the table in response to detection of the rightflick.

23. The computing equipment defined in claim 20 wherein the flick gesture comprises an upflick and wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to delete at least one column from the table in response to detection of the upflick.

24. The computing equipment defined in claim 20 wherein the flick gesture comprises a leftflick and wherein the storage and processing circuitry is configured to delete at least one row from the table in response to detection of the leftflick.