Multiple conditional formatting

• US 7,634,717 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2006
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, Bruce Cordell, Vigesaa, Eric B, Chamberlain, Benjamin C, Street, Christopher M
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton; Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH, TIONNA M
• Application Number:
  US11/337,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,422 Days
• Field of Search: 715/504, 715/200, 715/217
• US Class Current: 715/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

Generally described, embodiments of the present invention relate to applying and evaluating an unlimited number of conditional formatting rules to a given range of cells. Additionally, multiple conditional formatting rules may be evaluated to TRUE for the same cell contained in a user interface and multiple formats applied to that cell.

Claims

1. A method for applying multiple conditional formatting rules to a plurality of data cells in a user interface, the method comprising:

identifying with a computing device a first conditional formatting rule as having a highest priority of a plurality of conditional formatting rules, the first conditional formatting rule including a first condition type, at least a first parameter, and a first formatting;

determining with the computing device a first set of data cells in the user interface that are associated with the first conditional formatting rule;

for each data cell in the first set of data cells;

determining with the computing device whether the data cell should be evaluated;

if determined that the data cell should be evaluated, evaluating the data cell with the computing device to determine if the first conditional formatting rule is TRUE;

if determined that the first conditional formatting rule is TRUE,

determining with the computing device whether the first formatting conflicts with previously applied formatting for the data cell; and

if determined that the first formatting does not conflict with previously applied formatting, applying with the computing device the first formatting to the data cell;

identifying with the computing device a second conditional formatting rule as having a next highest priority of a plurality of conditional formatting rules, the second conditional formatting rule including a second condition type, at least a second parameter, and a second formatting;

determining with the computing device a second set of data cells in the user interface that are associated with the second conditional formatting rule, wherein at least a first data cell in the second set of data cells is also in the first set of data cells and wherein at least a second data cell in the second set of data cells is not in the first set of data cells;

for each data cell in the second set of data cells;

determining with the computing device whether the data cell should be evaluated;

if determined that the data cell should be evaluated, evaluating with the computing device the data cell to determine if the second conditional formatting rule is TRUE;

if determined that the second conditional formatting rule is TRUE, determining with the computing device whether the second formatting conflicts with previously applied formatting for the data cell; and

if determined that the second formatting does not conflict with previously applied formatting, applying with the computing device the second formatting to the data cell;

wherein when the first and second conditional formatting rules are determined to be TRUE for the first data cell and when the first and second formatting does not conflict with previously applied formatting for the first data cell, the first formatting and the second formatting are both applied to the first data cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein after a first conditional formatting rule is evaluated to be TRUE, additional conditional formatting rules are also evaluated.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

for each data cell in the first set of data cells, determining whether wherein it may be specified to stop evaluation of conditional formatting rules after the first conditional formatting rule is evaluated as TRUE.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the priority of the first conditional formatting rule is specified by a user with respect to other conditional formatting rules, including at least the second conditional formatting rule.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first formatting includes multiple formats.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein when the first formatting is applied to one of the data cells, the user interface displays an icon in that data cell.

7. A method for evaluating a plurality of conditional formatting rules applied to a user interface, the method comprising:

identifying with a computing device a conditional formatting rule for evaluation;

identifying with the computing device a cell contained in the user interface associated with the conditional formatting rule;

determining with the computing device if the conditional formatting rule evaluates to TRUE for the cell;

if it is determined that the conditional formatting rule evaluates to TRUE, determining with the computing device if a format type associated with the conditional formatting rule conflicts with a format type previously applied to the cell by determining if the conditional formatting rule is in a same group as a prior conditional formatting rule that was previously applied to the cell; and

if it is determined that the format type does not conflict with a previously applied format type, applying with the computing device the format to the cell.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining if the prior previous conditional formatting rule includes an indication that no additional evaluations should be completed for the cell.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of conditional formatting rules are applied on a sheet basis.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a first conditional formatting rule is evaluated for a first set of cells within the sheet and a second conditional formatting rule is evaluated for a second set of cells within the sheet.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein a first conditional formatting rule is evaluated for a first set of cells within the sheet and a second conditional formatting rule is also evaluated for the first set of cells within the sheet.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein when the first conditional formatting rule is evaluated as TRUE for a first cell within the first set of cells, a first formatting type is applied to the first cell;

and wherein when the second conditional formatting rule may-be is evaluated as TRUE for the first cell within the first set of cells, a second formatting type is also applied to the first cell.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first formatting type is different than the second formatting type.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein multiple formatting types are applied to the first cell by different conditional formatting rules.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein each conditional formatting rule is associated with a priority, and wherein the user interface is configured to receive inputs from a user to modify the priorities of the plurality of conditional formatting rules.

16. A computer tangibly embodying computer executable components for applying and evaluating multiple conditional formatting rules, comprising:

a conditional formatting rules control component operable by a computing device to control a priority rank of a plurality of conditional formatting rules associated with a user interface;

a conditional formatting rules evaluation component operable by the computing device to evaluate for evaluating a first conditional formatting rule for a cell that is part of the user interface, wherein the first conditional formatting rule includes a condition type, at least one parameter, a priority, and an indication of whether additional of the plurality of conditional formatting rules should be evaluated for the cell if the first conditional formatting rule evaluates to TRUE; and

a formatting resolution component operable by the computing device to determine if a formatting type of the first conditional formatting rule conflicts with a format type previously applied to the cell.

17. The computer of claim 16, wherein the format type previously applied to the cell is applied as a result of the conditional formatting rules evaluation component evaluating a higher priority conditional formatting rule.

18. The computer of claim 16, wherein the conditional formatting rules evaluation component identifies a first cell within a range of cells associated with the first conditional formatting rule and determines if the conditional formatting rule should be evaluated for the cell.

19. The computer of claim 16, wherein the additional of the plurality of conditional formatting rules are evaluated for the cell only if the indication indicates that additional of the plurality of conditional formatting rules should be evaluated.

20. The computer of claim 16, wherein the conditional formatting rules evaluation component is configured to evaluate a number of the plurality of conditional formatting rules, wherein the number is limited only by the processing power of the computing device.