Visual navigation of documents by object

• US 8,990,686 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2011
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Lin, Amy, Berry, Gabhan
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, CONG LAC T
• Application Number:
  US13/287,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20130111319A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/273, 715/212
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/18 of spreadsheets form-filling G06F40/174

Abstract

A navigable view of objects (e.g. charts, tables, graphs, data sources, individual sheets of a workbook, . . .) that are obtained from one or more electronic object sources are displayed as graphical objects. The objects may be automatically/manually organized within the navigable display (e.g. by type, by sheet, by relationship, by data source, . . .). A user may navigate through the displayed objects. For example, a user may zoom in on an object to see a full screen version of the object. When zoomed in on an object, the navigable display may be panned (e.g. left, right, up or down) to see adjacent objects. From one object, the user may explore related elements using the same shared data (e.g. exploring a table object also shows a data source element). A user may also perform supported operations on the objects (e.g. sort/filter/drill down/drill up) that affect a display of the related objects.

Claims

1. A method for visually navigating objects, comprising:

determining types of objects within a file wherein the file comprises other content;

organizing each of the types of objects such that each of the types of objects comprises one or more of either a table, a chart or a spreadsheet, and wherein related objects are linked;

displaying each of the objects as graphical objects on a navigable display according to a determined organization of the types of objects to navigate between the types of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects;

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects, updating a view of the one type of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into an object of one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the one type of objects with the updated view; and

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into the object of the one type of object with the updated view, replacing the updated view with one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the selected object on the navigable display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the types objects within the file comprises determining the type of objects that are contained within a spreadsheet file.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising relating a data source object with at least a portion of the determined objects such that the related data source object is displayed in response to drilling down into the at least the portion of the determined objects.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing each of the types objects comprises determining at least one of:

an automatic organization of the types of objects and a manual organization of the types of objects.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises determining when the interaction is at least one of:

a sort operation, a filter operation, a drill down operation, or-a drill up operation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises automatically zooming in to display the object.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises updating any other objects that are affected in response to the received interaction.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein either of the steps of receiving an interaction comprises determining when the indication is an update to the navigable display that includes at least one of:

panning the navigable display to show another object and changing a zoom of the navigable display.

9. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for visually navigating objects, comprising:

determining objects from an electronic object source that comprise two or more of the following types of defined objects;

a table object, a chart object, a spreadsheet object, a graph object, or a data source object that includes data, wherein the electronic object source comprises other content;

automatically organizing the objects by type;

displaying the objects organized by type on a navigable display according to the organization to navigate between the types of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects;

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects, updating a view of the one type of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into an object of one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the one type of objects with the updated view; and

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into the object of the one type of object with the updated view, replacing the updated view with one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the selected object on the navigable display.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein determining the types of objects within the electronic object source comprises determining the types of objects that are contained within a spreadsheet file.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising for each object determining when the object uses data from a data source object and displaying the data source object within the navigable display.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein automatically organizing the objects comprises automatically organizing the objects according to a type of each of the objects.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising receiving a manual organization of the objects.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises determining when the interaction is at least one of:

a sort operation, a filter operation, a drill down operation, or a drill up operation.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises determining when the indication is an update to the navigable display that includes at least one of:

panning the navigable display to show another object and changing a zoom of the navigable display.

16. A system for visually navigating objects, comprising:

a display;

a network connection that is coupled to tenants of the multi-tenant service;

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor;

a process operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to perform actions, comprising;

determining objects from an electronic object source that comprise two or more of the following types of defined objects;

a table object, a chart object, a spreadsheet object, a graph object, or a data source object that includes data, wherein the electronic object source comprises other content;

automatically organizing the objects by type;

displaying the objects organized by type on a navigable display according to the organization to navigate between the types of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects;

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into one of the types of objects, updating a view of the one type of objects;

receiving an interaction to drill down into an object of one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the one type of objects with the updated view; and

in response to receiving an interaction to drill down into the object of the one type of object with the updated view, replacing the updated view with one of either the table, chart or spreadsheet of the selected object on the navigable display.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising for each object determining when the object uses data from a data source object and displaying the data source object within the navigable display.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises determining when the interaction is at least one of:

a sort operation, a filter operation, a drill down operation, or a drill up operation.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein either of the steps of receiving the interaction comprises determining when the indication is an update to the navigable display that includes at least one of:

panning the navigable display to show another object and changing a zoom of the navigable display.