Patent ID: 7275207

Claim:
In an electronic multidimensional spreadsheet comprising a plurality of cells identified by a cell address along each dimension of the spreadsheet, a method for displaying and/or hiding on a user interface, elements of a range of cells, the range of cells comprising one or a plurality of contiguous elements aligned along a given spreadsheet dimension, an element comprising one or a plurality of cells, the method comprising: (A) detecting a command for hiding at least one element in a selected range of cells, the command identifying the selected range of cells and identifying a display focus level selected among a plurality of ordered display focus levels defined for the selected range of cells; (B) identifying the selected range of cells comprising the element; (C) identifying the selected display focus level; (D) identifying a focus manager table, a horizontal level range table, a vertical level range table, a horizontal range table, and a vertical range table, the identified tables associated with the selected range of cells and associating a defined display focus level with at least one cell attribute; and (E) selectively displaying the element on the user interface based on a relationship of the selected display focus level with the display focus level associated with the element.