Enhanced find and replace for electronic documents

• US 9,740,674 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Chan, Marise, Huynh, Tuan, Maguire, III, Justin M., Rader, Marcella C. S., Yu, Christopher C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US13/524,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20120284601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,894 Days
• Field of Search: 715200, 715212, 715215, 715217, 715220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

An enhanced find and replace feature for a spreadsheet program module is disclosed. The enhanced find and replace feature allows users to search for terms and attributes across multiple sheets of a workbook. The find and replace feature also allows searches to be performed based on the formatting attributes of a cell as well as the textual or numerical contents of a cell. The enhanced find and replace feature also allows users to perform bulk formatting of cells (even cells without text) in a spreadsheet. In another aspect, the enhanced find and replace feature lists all the results of the find operation in a results list so that the user may choose which result(s) to view and edit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for populating at least one field in a dialog of a spreadsheet program module, the method comprising:

determining that there is no text in the at least one field in the dialog of a spreadsheet;

determining at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic in a cell in the spreadsheet;

editing the at least one field in the dialog to correspond to the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the cell; and

executing a find operation for identifying other cells with the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the cell comprises receiving a selection of the cell containing the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein editing the at least one field the dialog to correspond to at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the cell comprises applying the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic to the at least one field in the dialog.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein receiving the selection of the cell comprises receiving an indication of a selection made by a user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein receiving the indication of the selection made by the user comprises the user moving a cursor over the cell.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the user moving the cursor over the cell, modifying a visual representation of the cursor.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the cell in the spreadsheet comprises determining at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the cell without text.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein executing the find operation for identifying other cells with the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic comprises identifying other cells with the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic and no text.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein executing the find operation for identifying other cells with the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic comprises identifying other cells with the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic and text.

10. A computer-implemented method for performing a replace operation on a file of a spreadsheet program module, the method comprising the following steps:

determining that there is no text in a replace field of a find and replace dialog of a spreadsheet;

receiving at least one editable non-textual formatting attribute in the replace field of the find and replace dialog corresponding with the cell;

finding cells in the spreadsheet with the editable non-textual formatting attribute in the replace field; and

replacing non-textual formatting attributes of the found cells with the received editable non-textual formatting attribute for the replace operation.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein receiving the least one editable non-textual formatting attribute comprises determining at least one editable non-textual formatting attribute of the cell.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein determining the at least one editable non-textual formatting attribute of the cell comprises receiving a selection of the cell without text that contains the at least one editable non-textual formatting attribute.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising changing a shape of a cursor used to select the cell from a first shape to a second shape distinct from the first shape upon receiving the selection of the cell containing the at least one editable non-textual formatting attribute.

14. A computer-implemented method for populating at least one field in a dialog of a spreadsheet program module, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of a formatted cell in a spreadsheet;

determining that there is no text in the at least one field of the dialog of the spreadsheet;

determining, in response to selecting the formatted cell, at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the selected formatted cell;

populating the determined at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic to the at least one field in the dialog; and

applying the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic populated to the dialog without text to at least one other cell.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein receiving the selection of the formatted cell comprises a user moving a cursor over the cell and clicking a mouse button to select the cell.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising, in response to the user moving the cursor over the cell, modifying a visual representation of the cursor.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising, executing a find operation for identifying cells with the populated at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic wherein despite the at least one field of the dialog not including text the identified cells include text.

18. A system for populating at least one field in a dialog of a spreadsheet program module, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receive a selection of a formatted cell in the spreadsheet, wherein the processing unit being operative to receive the selection of the formatted cell comprises the processing unit being operative to detect a cursor moving over the formatted cell and the selection of a mouse button to select the formatted cell and, in response to detecting the cursor moving over the formatted cell, modify a visual representation of the cursor;

determine, in response to selecting the cell, at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic of the selected cell;

populate the determined at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic to the at least one field in the dialog; and

determining that the at least one field in the dialog is without text.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing unit is further operative to apply the at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic populated to the dialog to at least one other cell.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising the processing unit being operative to execute a find operation for identifying cells with the populated at least one editable non-textual formatting characteristic.