Images associated with cells in spreadsheets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10713428-B2
Application number	US-201615199820-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2016
Priority date	Nov 2, 2015
Publication date	Jul 14, 2020
Grant date	Jul 14, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for associated one or more images with one or more cells of a spreadsheet are described. As described, a plurality of images may be associated with a single cell or a single image may be associated with a range of cells. Additionally, an image and additional data may be associated with the same cell. Upon associating an image with a cell, various parameters of the image may be displayed for viewing and/or customization by a user. Additionally, sort and/or filter operations may be performed on the spreadsheet based on the various parameters of associated images and/or operations (e.g., fit and/or resize operations) may be performed on various parameters of associated images. An associated image may move with a cell when the cell is reordered within the cell table, or an associated image may be allowed to float over the grid but may be referenced by a cell.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for associating a plurality of images with at least one cell of a spreadsheet, the method comprising:
associating a plurality of images with a single cell of a spreadsheet;
causing display of a first image of the plurality of images within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a first time;
transitioning to display of a second image of the plurality of images within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a second time, wherein the transitioning is based on a timer;
causing display of a user interface that provides a plurality of controls for manipulating the plurality of images; and
in response to receiving a user selection, spilling each of the plurality of images into a different cell of a range of cells of the spreadsheet, wherein the range of cells does not include the single cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
surfacing one or more parameters for the first image of the plurality of images in the user interface in response to at least one of:
hovering over the first image;
right-clicking the first image; and
launching a user interface.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein associating the plurality of images with the single cell comprises embedding the plurality of images into the single cell.

4. The method of claim 3 , the method further comprising:
drawing at least the first image in the same pixelated space within the spreadsheet as the single cell.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving one or more parameters for the first image of the plurality of images; and
performing an operation on the single cell based at least in part on the one or more parameters.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying each of the plurality of images in the single cell based on the timer.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying at least the first image as background for a range of cells of the spreadsheet at a third time.

8. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processing unit, cause a computing device to:
associate a plurality of images with a single cell of a spreadsheet;
cause display of a first image of the plurality of images in the single cell of the spreadsheet at a first time;
transition display to a second image of the plurality of images in the single cell of the spreadsheet at a second time;
cause display of a user interface (UI) element that provides one or more controls for manipulating the plurality of images; and
in response to receiving a user selection, spill each of the plurality of images into a different cell of a range of cells of the spreadsheet, wherein the range of cells does not include the single cell.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the UI element further comprises at least one of:
a control for adding an image to the plurality of images;
a control for deleting an image from the plurality of images; and
a control for editing one or more of the plurality of images.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , the computer executable instructions further causing the computing device to:
display each of the plurality of images in the single cell based on a timer.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the UI element further comprises:
a spill control for spilling the plurality of images into the range of cells of the spreadsheet.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the UI element further comprises:
a control for playing the plurality of images as a slideshow.

13. A method for associating a plurality of images with at least one cell of a spreadsheet, the method comprising:
associating a plurality of images with a single cell of a spreadsheet;
causing display of a first image of the plurality of images as background fill within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a first time;
automatically transitioning to display of a second image of the plurality of images as background fill within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a second time in response to a timer;
causing display of a user interface (UI) element that provides one or more controls for manipulating the plurality of images; and
in response to receiving a user selection, spilling each of the plurality of images into a different cell of a range of cells of the spreadsheet, wherein the range of cells does not include the single cell.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein a reference to the first image is one of:
a globally unique name; and
a uniform resource locator.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
performing an operation on the single cell; and
performing one of:
moving the first image with the single cell; and
not moving the first image when the single cell is moved.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the operation is a sort operation.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the operation is a filter operation.

18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising receiving the first image by one of:
pasting the first image into the single cell;
dropping the first image into the single cell;
retrieving the first image from storage based on a file locator; and
inserting the first image into the single cell.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the UI element further comprises at least one of:
a control for adding an image to the plurality of images;
a control for deleting an image from the plurality of images; and
a control for editing one or more of the plurality of images.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the UI element further comprises:
a control for playing the plurality of images as a slideshow.

21. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory coupled to at least one of the one or more processors, the memory comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, performs a method comprising:
associating a plurality of images with a single cell of a spreadsheet; causing display of a first image of the plurality of images within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a first time; ’transitioning to display of a second image of the plurality of images within the single cell of the spreadsheet at a second time, wherein the transitioning is based on a timer;
causing display of a user interface that provides a plurality of controls for manipulating the plurality of images; and
in response to receiving a user selection, spilling each of the plurality of images into a different cell of a range of cells of the spreadsheet, wherein the range of cells does not include the single cell.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Campbell John
• Otero Carlos Augusto
• Canton Christian
• Sully John David
• Radakovitz Samuel C
• Fichtner Matthew Hart
• Rampson Benjamin Edward

Classifications

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• G06V30/412

  Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables · CPC title

• G06V30/414

  Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text · CPC title

• G06F40/18 Primary

  of spreadsheets (form-filling G06F40/174) · CPC title

• G06V30/40

  Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition · CPC title