Temporary formatting and charting of selected data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11270066-B2
Application number	US-77099210-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2010
Priority date	Apr 30, 2010
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

Selected data is temporarily formatted and charted to assist a user in visualizing the selected data without the user having to manually create the display of the charted data. Once the temporary formatting and charting is automatically applied to the selected data, a user may interact with the visual formatting and charts to gain additional information. For example, the chart may be formatted differently, reference lines may be added, the chart may be sorted, the type of chart(s) displayed may be changed, the user may graphically navigate over the chart to obtain more detailed information, and the like. Once the user has completed interacting with the temporarily formatted and created chart(s) the visualizations are removed from the display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for temporarily formatting and charting data, comprising:
receiving a user selection by a user of a portion of data from rows and columns of data that is currently displayed within a window of a productivity application on a display;
in response to the user selection of the portion of data, automatically formatting and creating a chart without receiving a selection of a charting option, comprising:
determining values within the selected data;
automatically determining a single chart type based on the selected data; and
automatically creating a chart of the single chart type;

displaying the chart representing the values from the selected data in the window from which the portion of data is selected;
receiving user interactions with the chart; and
in response to determining that the user has completed interacting with the chart, removing the chart from the window,
wherein displaying the chart comprises displaying a plurality of charts to provide a separate chart for each row or each column within the selected data,
the method further comprising:
displaying a value of a point in the chart when the point in the chart is navigated; and
comparing the value of the point that is navigated to each of other displayed charts, of the plurality of displayed charts, and providing an indication of a difference of the values between the plurality of charts.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying each separate chart using a common axis.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining labels for the plurality of charts by traversing the data until the labels are reached within the data from which the data is selected.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a reference line across the plurality of charts and formatting values in relation to a value of the reference line.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein selecting a point on one of the displayed plurality of charts displays information relating to a comparison of the reference line to a value of the selected point.

6. A computer storage medium, excluding a signal, having computer-executable instructions for temporarily formatting and charting data, the instructions executing on a processor of a computer, comprising:
receiving a user selection by a user of data that is selected from a portion of data that is included within a table that is displayed within a window of a productivity application;
determining all of a plurality of values within the selected data;
automatically determining a single chart type to display the selection of data based on the selection of data;
in response to receiving the selection of data, automatically formatting and creating a chart of the single chart type representing the plurality of values from the selected data without receiving a selection of a charting option;
displaying the chart in the window; receiving user interactions with the chart; and in response to determining that the user has completed interacting with the chart, removing the chart from display in the window,
wherein displaying the chart comprises displaying a plurality of charts to provide a separate chart for each row or column within the selected data; and
wherein each of the separate charts includes a common axis,
the instructions further executing on the processor for removing a display of unselected data in the window upon a temporary display of the chart.

7. A computer storage medium, excluding a signal, having computer-executable instructions for temporarily formatting and charting data, the instructions executing on a processor of a computer, comprising:
receiving a user selection by a user of data that is selected from a portion of data that is included within a table that is displayed within a window of a productivity application;
determining all of a plurality of values within the selected data;
automatically determining a single chart type to display the selection of data based on the selection of data;
in response to receiving the selection of data, automatically formatting and creating a chart of the single chart type representing the plurality at values from the selected data without receiving a selection of a charting option;
displaying the chart in the window;
receiving user interactions with the chart; and
in response to determining that the user has completed interacting with the chart, removing the chart from display in the window,
wherein displaying the chart comprises displaying a plurality of charts to provide a separate chart for each row or column within the selected data; and
wherein each of the separate charts includes a common axis,
the instructions further executing on the processor for sorting the displayed charts and updating the display in response to the sorting.

8. A computer storage medium, excluding a signal, having computer-executable instructions for temporarily formatting and charting data, the instructions executing on a processor of a computer, comprising:
receiving a user selection by a user of data that is selected from a portion of data that is included within a table that is displayed within a window of a productivity application;
determining all of a plurality of values within the selected data;
automatically determining a single chart type to display the selection of data based on the selection of data,
in response to receiving the selection of data, automatically formatting and creating a chart of the single chart type representing the plurality of values from the selected data without receiving a selection of a charting option;
displaying the chart in the window;
receiving user interactions with the chart; and
in response to determining that the user has completed interacting with the chart, removing the chart from display in the window,
wherein displaying the chart comprises displaying a plurality of charts to provide a separate chart for each row or column within the selected data; and
wherein each of the separate charts includes a common axis,
the instructions further executing on the processor for comparing a value of a point that is navigated via the user interactions to each of the other displayed charts and providing an indication of a difference of the plurality of values between the charts.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 6 , further comprising determining labels for the plurality of charts by traversing the table of data until the labels are reached within the table from which the data is selected.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 6 , further comprising displaying a reference line across the plurality of charts and formatting values in relation to a value of the reference line.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 10 , wherein selecting a point on one of the displayed plurality of charts displays information relating to a comparison of the reference line to a value of the selected point.

Assignees

• Radakovitz Samuel Chow
• Ruble Brian Scott
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Radakovitz Samuel Chow
• Ruble Brian Scott

Classifications

• G06F3/0481 Primary

  based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance · CPC title

• G06F40/18 Primary

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

• G06F17/00 Primary

  Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions (information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/14

  Digital output to display device {; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units} · CPC title

• G06F3/0484

  for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range · CPC title