Spreadsheet system and method for managing photos

• US 8,166,385 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2009
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University)
• Inventors: Garcia-Molina, Hector, Paepcke, Andreas, Theobald, Martin, Kandel, Sean, Abelson, Eric S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ries, Laurie
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mills, Frank D
• Application Number:
  US12/583,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20100058163A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 715/220
• US Class Current: 715/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/149 Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

A spreadsheet system stores objects and formulas in the cells of the spreadsheet, along with metadata tags. Each cell may contain multiple objects (such as a group of photos). Drag-and-drop user actions automatically change tags associated with the moved objects based on a formula stored in the target cell if a forcing semantics mode is active, or automatically change a formula stored in the target cell if a non-forcing semantics mode is active. A formula in a cell selects a set of objects and may include set operators such as union, intersection, and minus. The formula may also filter sets to select a subset based on specified tag attributes of objects. The display of the spreadsheet adaptively selects a subset of objects to render in a cell and appropriately scales photos for optimal viewing.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program instructions executable by a computer to implement a computerized spreadsheet by performing the following steps:

a) storing a spreadsheet comprising an ordered set of cells, wherein each of the cells has a data structure for storing i) a formula selecting a set of selected objects to be displayed in the cell and ii) a container comprising a set of objects;

b) storing objects and formulas in the cells of the spreadsheet, wherein the stored objects are photos;

c) storing tags associated with at least one of the stored objects, wherein each of the tags comprises an attribute-value pair;

d) processing a drag-and-drop action by a user to move objects from a first cell to a second cell, wherein the processing comprises,

i) if a forcing semantics mode is active, automatically changing tags associated with the moved objects based on a formula stored in the second cell, and

ii) if a non-forcing semantics mode is active, automatically changing the formula stored in the second cell; and

e) displaying the spreadsheet on a display to the user.