Existing pie chart technologies allow wedges of a pie chart to be independently “exploded”, moving them away from the center of the pie chart.
Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process; an apparatus; a system; a composition of matter; a computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and/or a processor, such as a processor configured to execute instructions stored on and/or provided by a memory coupled to the processor. In this specification, these implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred to as techniques. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention. Unless stated otherwise, a component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task may be implemented as a general component that is temporarily configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task. As used herein, the term ‘processor’ refers to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores configured to process data, such as computer program instructions.
A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention. The invention is described in connection with such embodiments, but the invention is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. These details are provided for the purpose of example and the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured.
Selective grouping and manipulation of chart components is disclosed. In various embodiments, a chart may be associated with any appropriate type of application, such as a word processing application, presentation application, spreadsheet application, desktop publishing application, web site design application, etc. In some embodiments, a chart is associated with at least standard spreadsheet functionality. The term “at least standard spreadsheet functionality” in the context of a chart includes the ability to define a chart based at least in part on the content of one or more cells and to update the chart automatically and without further human action if the content of one or more of the one or more cells is changed. Although some of the provided examples are with respect to pie charts, the techniques described herein may be similarly employed with respect to any other appropriate chart, graph, or other pictorial and/or graphical representation of a set of values that provides a pictorial and/or graphical indication of a relative magnitude of each value relative to the other values in the set.
Preserving the relative spacing and positioning between chart components when they are moved in a group as a single unit is disclosed.
Process 400 starts at 402 at which an indication of a selection of an option to explode a subset of chart components as a single unit is received. In some embodiments, the indication comprises a user interface gesture associated with exploding a subset of chart components as a single unit, such as holding down a prescribed keyboard key such as the Shift key. At 404, the subset of chart components is exploded as a single unit. In some embodiments, 404 includes receiving an indication of a user interface gesture associated with moving the subset of chart components such as drag and/or drop operations. Process 400 subsequently ends.
Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, the invention is not limited to the details provided. There are many alternative ways of implementing the invention. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive.