Discovery and suggestions for unstructured tables in spreadsheets
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsEhab Sobhy Deraz, Brenton Aihe Milne
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an implementation, a computing device under the control of a spreadsheet application displays a spreadsheet in a user interface. The application detects a user action in the spreadsheet associated with an unstructured table and responsively drives the computer to display a suggestion component in the user interface. A selection of the component causes the computer to display a preview of a suggested table feature in the user interface.
Claims20
A computing apparatus comprising:
- one or more computer readable storage media;
- one or more processors operatively coupled with the one or more computer readable storage media;
- and
- program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that, when executed by the one or more processors, direct the computing apparatus to at least:
- cause a spreadsheet to be displayed in a user interface;
- pre-obtain metadata from a remote service that pre-identifies an unstructured table in the spreadsheet, wherein the metadata includes a range of cells belonging to the unstructured table in the spreadsheet, and wherein the unstructured table is not formatted as a table;
- detect a user action in the spreadsheet after having pre-obtained the metadata;
- identify an active cell associated with the user action;
- determine, based on the range of cells identified in the pre-obtained metadata, that the active cell belongs to the unstructured table;
- in response to determining that the active cell belongs to the unstructured table, cause a suggestion component to be displayed in the user interface;
- and
- in response to a selection of the suggestion component, display at least a preview of a suggested table feature in the user interface.
A method comprising:
- on a computing device, displaying a spreadsheet in a user interface;
- on a computing device, pre-obtaining metadata, from a remote service, that pre-identifies an unstructured table in the spreadsheet, wherein the metadata includes a range of cells belonging to the unstructured table in the spreadsheet, and wherein the unstructured table is not formatted as a table;
- on the computing device, detecting a user action in the spreadsheet after having pre-obtained the metadata;
- on the computing device, identifying an active cell associated with the user action;
- on the computing device, determining, based on the range of cells identified in the pre-obtained metadata, whether the active cell belongs to the unstructured table;
- on the computing device, and in response to determining that the active cell belongs to the unstructured table, displaying a suggestion component in the user interface;
- and
- on the computing device, and in response to a selection of the suggestion component, displaying at least a preview of a suggested table feature in the user interface.
One or more computer readable storage media having program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors in a computing device, direct the computing device to at least:
- display a spreadsheet in a user interface;
- pre-obtain metadata from a remote service that pre-identifies an unstructured table in the spreadsheet, wherein the metadata includes a range of cells belonging to the unstructured table in the spreadsheet, and wherein the unstructured table is not formatted as a table;
- detect a user action in the spreadsheet after having pre-obtained the metadata;
- identify an active cell associated with the user action;
- determine, based on the range of cells identified in the pre-obtained metadata, that the active cell belongs to the unstructured table;
- in response to determining that the active cell belongs to the unstructured table, display a suggestion component in the user interface;
- receive a selection of the suggestion component;
- and
- in response to the selection of the suggestion component, display a preview in the user interface of a pivot table for the unstructured table in the user interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.