Cutting and copying discontiguous selections of cells

• US 20090044093A1
• Filed: 08/06/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Weeldreyer, Christopher Douglas, Capela, Jay Christopher, Su, Peter, Rosner, Roger Rock, Gur, Yaniv, Berger, Peter Glen
• Granted Patent: US 7,954,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

Cutting and copying discontiguous selections of cells is disclosed. In some embodiments, in response to receiving an indication of a selection of a set of cells that does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells and receiving an indication of a selection of a paste destination in which the set of cells is desired to be pasted, the set of cells is pasted in the paste destination in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set. In some embodiments, if a paste destination is not large enough to accommodate a paste operation, the paste destination is automatically expanding so that it is large enough to accommodate the paste operation.

Claims

1. A method for pasting a selection of cells, comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection of a set of cells, wherein the set of cells does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells;

receiving an indication of a selection of a paste destination in which the set of cells is desired to be pasted; and

pasting the set of cells in the paste destination in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of a selection of an option to cut or copy the set of cells.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising saving the set of cells to a clipboard.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of a selection of an option to paste a current content of a clipboard relative to the paste destination.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving an indication of a selection of a paste destination comprises receiving a selection of an anchor cell location.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein pasting comprises pasting the set of cells each in a corresponding position relative to the anchor cell location.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein pasting the set of cells comprises pasting a grid that includes the set of cells in the paste destination.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein a top left cell of the grid is pasted to an anchor cell location of the paste destination during pasting.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising saving to a clipboard a grid of continuous cells that circumscribes the set of cells wherein values of the cells in the set are used to populate corresponding cells of the grid and wherein null values are used to populate other cells of the grid.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the grid is just large enough to circumscribe all cells in the set.

11. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the dimensions of the grid are based on the dimensions encompassed by the set of cells.

12. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein a top left cell of the grid is determined by a top-most row and a left-most column associated with cells in the set and a bottom right cell of the grid is determined by a bottom-most row and a right-most column associated with cells in the set.

13. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein pasting comprises pasting the grid in the paste destination.

14. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein a top left cell of the grid is pasted to an anchor cell location of the paste destination during pasting.

15. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein pasting comprises writing grid cell values that are not null to corresponding cells in the paste destination.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein writing comprises overwriting the existing values of the corresponding cells in the paste destination.

17. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein grid cells with null values are ignored during pasting so that corresponding cells in the paste destination are not overwritten.

18. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising automatically expanding the paste destination to accommodate pasting.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the paste destination comprises a table and automatically expanding the table comprises adding one or more rows, columns, or both to the table.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the paste destination comprises a table.

21. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of cells comprises cells of one or more tables.

22. A method for pasting, comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination;

determining that the paste destination is not large enough to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option; and

automatically expanding the paste destination so that it is large enough to accommodate the paste operation.

23. A system for pasting a selection of cells, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive an indication of a selection of a set of cells, wherein the set of cells does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells;

receive an indication of a selection of a paste destination in which the set of cells is desired to be pasted; and

paste the set of cells in the paste destination in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide instructions to the processor.

24. A system as recited in claim 23, wherein to paste comprises to paste the set of cells each in a corresponding position relative to an anchor cell location of the paste destination.

25. A system as recited in claim 23, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically expand the paste destination to accommodate pasting.

26. A computer program product for pasting a selection of cells, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an indication of a selection of a set of cells, wherein the set of cells does not include only a continuous grid of selected cells;

receiving an indication of a selection of a paste destination in which the set of cells is desired to be pasted; and

pasting the set of cells in the paste destination in a manner that preserves a respective relative position of each cell in the set.

27. A computer program product as recited in claim 26, wherein pasting comprises pasting the set of cells each in a corresponding position relative to an anchor cell location of the paste destination.

28. A computer program product as recited in claim 26, further comprising computer instructions for automatically expanding the paste destination to accommodate pasting.

29. A computer program product for pasting, the computer program product being embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an indication of a selection of an option to paste a set of cells in a paste destination;

determining that the paste destination is not large enough to accommodate a paste operation associated with the selected option; and

automatically expanding the paste destination so that it is large enough to accommodate the paste operation.