Patent Application
20140164896
Spreadsheet software applications are frequently used by a vast number of users for processing, manipulating or displaying data or creating a so-called report. A typical spreadsheet usually comprises a limited number of cells which are arranged in rows and columns. Each of the cells may contain specific data, such as values, functions, formulas, strings or other data.
Many well-known spreadsheet applications, such as Microsoft®Excel®, allow making user defined reports or so-called Pivot-Tables from the actual spreadsheet data. For creating a report or Pivot-Table, respectively, any desired data of the spreadsheet may be selected and displayed in a separate table. Thereby, the data may be arranged in groups or processed as desired. The data included in the report or Pivot-Table is usually also displayed in individual cells which are arranged in rows and columns. Therefore, such a report or Pivot-Table is also referred to as a “spreadsheet” within this application.
Data, which is included in a single row or column of a spread sheet usually refers to a single type of information which may be summarized under a common header, such as “task”, “cost”, “time” or “amount”. If another category of information is to be added to a given spreadsheet, an additional row or column has to be created and inserted between existing rows and columns, respectively. As the number of rows and columns of a spreadsheet grows with the complexity of a project, the corresponding spreadsheet quickly becomes very large and confusing. For instance, if the costs of a task within a project are to be displayed in different currencies, such as USD, EUR or JPY, a separate row or column has to be provided in the spreadsheet for each currency. Thereby, the dimensions of a spreadsheet may grow excessively, which makes it difficult to read and to extract any desired information. Therefore, in order to improve clarity and readability of a large spreadsheet, the data belonging to the same category, like for instance “amount”, “time” or “kind” may be arranged in a group which is labelled with a common label. For example, a group labelled “U.S.A.” may be associated with up to 50 group members, namely one cell for each State of the Union. Thereby, a hierarchic structure is created which comprises cells of different hierarchy levels. In the precedent example, the group labelled “U.S.A.” would be of a higher hierarchy level, e.g. level “1”, and the group members of a lower hierarchy level, e.g. level “2”. The group members of level 2 may themselves comprise further members of a sub-group of a lower level, e.g. level “3”, etc.
The cells of a first level may also be referred to as “parent cells”, and the cells of the next lower level as “child cells” of the associated parent cell. The child cells of the second level may also be regarded as parent cells if they comprise further child cells of a lower level. Cells of the same hierarchy level may also be referred to as sibling cells.
As appropriate, a user may expand anyone of the parent cells to display the associated child cells of the next lower level or any other sub-level. A user may also collapse the parent cell such that the child cells are hidden and not displayed any more.
Well-known spreadsheet applications like Microsoft®Excel® provide small icons, like a framed “+” symbol or “−” symbol within the boundaries of a cell in order to expand or collapse that cell. However, if the hierarchy tree is very deep and comprises a large number of hierarchy levels, clicking on the small icons may become rather time consuming and annoying.
The summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in a detailed description. The summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject-matter.
According to the invention, a method for expanding data cells in a spreadsheet or a report which is associated with the spreadsheet having a number of cells that are displayed in rows and columns, wherein at least some of the cells contain data entries which are member of a hierarchic structure comprising different hierarchic levels, comprises:
The input means may be a regular mouse, touchpad or touch screen, among others.
In order to select a cell to be expanded or collapsed, the user may click or double click on a desired cell, thereby pressing one or more buttons or keys, or he may enter any other command which is designed in the spreadsheet software application for that purpose. In order to perform a dragging movement, the user has to move the mouse or any other input means, thereby pressing a button or one or more keys, or he may enter any other preset command while moving the cursor on the screen.
In the specification, the term “expanding a cell” means that one or more cells are displayed, depending on the length of the dragging movement, which contain data of a different, in particular lower hierarchy level than the data contained in the expanded cell (parent cell).
According to an embodiment of the invention, when a user request to expand a certain cell and a subsequent dragging movement are detected, one or more entire lines or columns are added, each of which contains a child cell of the expanded parent cell. The other cells of the newly displayed rows or columns, respectively, may be automatically filled with data depending on the row and column to which the respective cell belongs to.
Displaying of new lines or columns preferably follows the position of the cursor. In a special embodiment of the invention, the new rows or columns are displayed exactly up to the position of the cursor. In that case, also partial rows and columns are displayed. In another embodiment of the invention, only entire rows and columns (in terms of width and height), respectively, are displayed during a dragging movement. A new row or column may be displayed for instance, when the cursor crosses a borderline of a cell or any other predetermined position.
When performing a straight dragging movement of a given length, like for instance a straight downward movement, a corresponding number of child cells are displayed, wherein the newly displayed child cells preferably contain data of the same hierarchy level, i.e. they are siblings.
If one or more of the child cells are themselves expandable, these cells may again be expanded. In order to expand a child cell, which is also a parent cell, there are different options which will be explained hereafter: According to a first embodiment of the invention, the user may change the direction of his dragging movement, thereby indicating that the latest displayed child cell shall also be expanded. According to a second embodiment of the invention, a dragging movement may also be briefly stopped or paused so as to indicate that a child cell shall be expanded. According to a third embodiment of the invention, the user may just perform a straight dragging movement in a given direction, e.g. a slanted or diagonal movement, thereby indicating that each child cell, which is also a parent cell, shall also be expanded. Alternatively, one or more keys may be pressed or any other command may be entered in order to expand the current cell at the location of the cursor.
In case of the first or third embodiment of the invention, the direction of a dragging movement is detected and, depending on the direction of the dragging movement, either one or more child cells containing data of the same hierarchy level (sibling cells) are displayed or one of the newly displayed cells is expanded. As an example, the user may for instance perform a downward dragging movement, thereby revealing one or more child cells of the same hierarchy level and, at the position of one of the child cells, change the direction of his dragging movement, like for instance in an inclined angle, thereby expanding this cell and revealing another child cell of the next lower level. The user may then continue the inclined dragging movement, thereby requesting the latest displayed cell to be further expanded. Or he may change the direction of his dragging movement back to the “standard direction” (for instance downward or sideward) and reveal one or more new cells of the same hierarchy level as the latest cell. The same method may be used for expanding columns equivalently.
In case of the second embodiment of the invention, the user may, during the process of expanding a parent cell and revealing one or more child cells of the next lower hierarchy level, briefly stop his dragging movement for at least a predetermined time, thereby indicating that he desires to expand one of the child cells. On detecting such a user request, the child cell is expanded instantly or will be expanded on continuation of the dragging movement. The minimum pause time is preferably less than one second and may be about half a second for instance. After the stop, the user may continue his dragging movement in the same direction, thereby revealing one or more new cells of the same hierarchy level (but of a lower level than the first expanded cell).
As mentioned before, upon detection of the dragging movement, the selected cell is expanded, whereby one or more child cells are preferably displayed adjacent to the parent cell.
When expanding a cell, the formerly adjacent rows and columns, respectively, are preferably automatically moved aside to give room to the one or more new rows or columns including the child cells.
The present invention also relates to a computer readable storage medium comprising a software application for expanding data cells in a spreadsheet or a report, which is associated with a spreadsheet, having a number of cells that are displayed in rows and columns, wherein at least some of the cells contain data which is a member of a hierarchic structure comprising different hierarchic levels, the software application comprising a code which executes the steps of:
The software application is further adapted to execute, by means of a processor, one or more of the above-mentioned functions.
Finally, the present application relates to a system for expanding data cells in a spreadsheet or a report which is associated with a spreadsheet, comprising a processor and a computer readable storage medium as well as a software application configured to perform one or more of the above-mentioned actions using the processor.
a,b,c illustrate different paths of a dragging movement for expanding data cells in accordance with the present invention;
In a spreadsheet application, data is displayed in a large number of individual cells which are arranged in rows and columns. The data cells or the data contained therein, respectively, may be part of a hierarchic structure, comprising different hierarchic levels. In particular, the data may be arranged in groups comprising so-called parent cells and child cells. Each of the parent cells and also the child cells—the latter may be “parents” as well—may be expanded so as to show one or more data cells of the next lower level, or collapsed so as to hide additional information. The user can, for example, by clicking on a certain control field like a “+” symbol for instance, manually toggle the display state of one or more cells from a collapsed to an expanded state, and by clicking on the same symbol again (which may have changed to a “−” symbol) back to a collapsed state.
In a detailed description referring now to the drawings, various aspects of the invention will be described by way of example. In particular,
For the purpose of the present invention, any suitable type of computer system may be used including hand-held devices, desktop computers, laptops and the like. Distributed computing environments may also be used where tasks are preformed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communication network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage devices.
In
The hard disc 7 is connected to the CPU 2 via the bus 6. Although the description of the mass storage device 7 refers to a hard disc, the storage device may be any other available storage medium that can be accessed by the computer 1.
In the illustrated embodiment, the computer 1 is connected to a network 13, such as the internet or a LAN, via a network interface 11. The computer 1 may also include an input/output controller 12 for receiving and processing input from a number of well-known devices, such as: keyboard, mouse, electronic pen and the like. Similarly, the input/output controller 12 may provide output to a display screen, a printer or some other type of device.
The storage device or a hard disc 7, respectively, and the RAM 4 may store a spread sheet application program 8 such as Microsoft Excel®. An exemplary spread sheet document is referenced by reference number 10.
Collapsed report 17 includes a number of parent cells, namely cells A1-A4, which are further expandable to show more detailed information. The characters X1-X4 each represent labels or headers of a group which may contain one or more child cells. In order to indicate the status of an expandable parent cell, a framed “+” symbol is shown in front of the data entry of each of the cells A1-A4. The cells A5-A7, including the data entries X5-X7, do not show such a “+” symbol, for they are not expandable. The other columns B and C contain data of any kind, like for instance numbers, characters or functions, among others.
If a user wishes to expand parent member X2, he may click on the framed “+” symbol of cell A2, as shown in
When such a user request to expand a data cell has been recognized by the system, a tab or slider is displayed right below the data cell to be expanded, thereby indicating that this data cell (A2) may be expanded by a dragging movement. The user may then perform a dragging movement in a downward direction, starting from the current position of the cursor, or he may point on the tab 18 and start the dragging movement from that position. When performing the dragging downward movement, the user may keep the key(s) pressed or release a key, like for instance the shift-key. In a special embodiment, the user may point with the cursor or input device on the tab 18 and, in case of a mouse, press a mouse button and pull down the tab 18.
The dragging movement may be directed in any downward direction, like for instance a straight downward movement which is indicated by an arrow 19 in
The angle of the sloped movement with a horizontal line may be between 20° and 60° or about 45° for instance. By performing a downward movement, the user may reveal one or more additional rows as desired, like using a roller blind. In order to collapse one or more of the rows, the user just needs to change direction of the movement and to conduct an upward dragging movement, thereby keeping all other states (like a mouse button or a key pressed).
If one or more rows or columns of a spreadsheet or a report, which is in an expanded state, shall be collapsed, a corresponding user request to collapse one or more cells has to be carried out. The user request for collapsing one or more of the cells 14 may be the same as for expanding a data cell, like for instance clicking on a data cell and pressing one or more additional keys, followed by an upward dragging movement. By performing the upward dragging movement, one or more of the rows disappear consecutively, depending on the current position of the cursor or input device. Thereby, the subsequent rows are moved upward automatically. Alternatively or additionally, collapsing of rows or columns may be carried out by another command, like for instance clicking or double-clicking on a cell which is to be collapsed, or on an icon, like a “−” symbol. Thereby all of the child cells of the selected cell are collapsed immediately.
The same method may equally be implemented for the expansion and collapse of columns. As an example, the right borderline of a cell may be clicked on, thereby pressing an additional key, in order to instruct the system that a data cell shall be expanded and new columns shall be revealed. This will be explained later in relation to
a-9c show different paths which may be followed by the user in order to expand the cell A2 to the state as shown in
In a first embodiment of the invention, as shown in
b shows another path which may be followed by a user in order to expand data cell A2 to the state as illustrated in
In general, the spreadsheet application software may be configured to display only entire rows or columns, having their final height or width, respectively, or to display portions of rows or columns. In a special embodiment of the invention, the new cells, rows or columns are displayed only partially up to the position of the cursor or input device, respectively.
After new row 4 has been partially or fully displayed, the user again changes direction of his dragging movement to a straight downward movement, as indicated by arrow 19c. The straight downward movement is interpreted by the system as a command to further expand parent cell A3 and to further reveal new child cells A5 and A6 of the same level as data cell A4, i.e. to stay on the same level.
c shows another path which may be followed by a user in order to expand data cell A2 to the state as illustrated in
In order to collapse the spreadsheet back to the original display state, the user may perform just a straight upward dragging movement, or he may follow the path of the downward movement in the opposite direction, for instance.
In order to display additional information associated with the data X1-X4, a corresponding user request has to be entered. Such a user request may comprise pressing a mouse button and one or more additional keys, double clicking the mouse and pressing one or more keys at the same time, clicking on a special icon which has been implemented for this purpose or entering any other kind of appropriate command. Recognition of such a user request may be indicated, e.g. by displaying a number of tabs 18 at the position of those cells which are expandable. Alternatively, any other kind of audible or visual indicator may be used. By performing a predetermined downward dragging movement, all of the data cells A1-A4 are expanded simultaneously and one or more additional rows are displayed below each of the cells A1-A4.
As the slanted dragging movement is continued, also data cell A3 is expanded and a new child cell A4, which contains data of the next lower level, is displayed. The slanted movement is indicated by path section 19a.
The user may then desire to move up one hierarchy level and to display more information of the second hierarchy level (the same level as data cell A3) below cell A4. For this purpose, the user changes direction of his dragging movement to a direction left/downward. This is indicated by a path section 19b. Instead of changing the direction of the dragging movement, the user may alternatively enter any other command, like pressing a key while performing the dragging movement for instance.
The user then decides to expand data cell A5 and therefore performs a slanted dragging movement in the direction right/downward, thereby revealing new cell A6 (see path 19c). After that, the user returns to a movement in the direction left/downward and thereby displays a new data cell A7 containing data of the second level. This is indicated by a path section 19d. The subsequent straight downward movement, as indicated by path section 19e, finally reveals another child cell of the same level as the preceding cell A7.
The same principles also apply to the expansion or collapse of columns, wherein a left/right movement may correspond to up/down and the down movement to a sideward movement.
To a person skilled in the art, it is clear that the commands for expanding or collapsing of data cells are not limited to the given examples. Various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.
