Showing Presence of Multiple Authors in a Spreadsheet
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsChad Rothschiller, Tarek Hefny, Paul Louis Berruti, JR., Micah Myerscough
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Dynamic collaborative presence information is provided. A plurality of users may access a document concurrently. Presence information associated with each of the users may be communicated to a server, collected, and communicated to a client application running on each user's client device. The client application may dynamically show where other users are editing a cell or a range of cells to help avoid collisions of edits in the document. Various interface elements may be provided for indicating presence and for indicating whether a single user or multiple users have selected or are editing the cell or range of cells.
Claims20
A method for providing dynamic collaborative presence information, the method comprising:
- opening a document in a first client application;
- detecting a selection or edit of a cell or a range of cells by a first user;
- sending information associated with the detected selection or edit to a server;
- receiving collective presence information, the collective presence information comprising user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document opened in the one or more additional client applications;
- displaying an indication of user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document;
- receiving an indication of a trigger associated with the indication of user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document;
- and
- displaying a UI element representative of a number of users concurrently viewing or editing the cell or range of cells.
A method for providing dynamic collaborative presence information, the method comprising:
- receiving a request to provide a document to two or more client applications;
- providing the document to the two or more client applications;
- receiving presence information associated with a selection of or editing of a cell or a range of cells in the document;
- summarizing the received presence information into collective presence information for the document;
- and
- sending the collective presence information to the client applications.
A system for providing dynamic collaborative presence information, the system comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- a memory coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more processors operable to:
- open a document in a first client application;
- detect a selection or edit of a cell or a range of cells by a first user;
- send information associated with the detected selection or edit to a server;
- receive collective presence information, the collective presence information comprising user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document concurrently opened in one or more additional client applications;
- display an indication of user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document, wherein user presence in a cell or a range of cells comprises one or more of:
- a selection of a cell or a range of cells;
- or
- editing of a cell or a range of cells;
- receive an indication of a trigger associated with the indication of user presence in a cell or a range of cells in the document;
- and
- display a UI element representative of a number of users concurrently viewing or editing the cell or range of cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.