Patent ID: 8473837

Claim:
A method for expanding data cells in one or more reports that are associated with a spreadsheet having a limited number of cells, comprising: receiving a request to expand a parent member of a first report associated with a spreadsheet; determining when the received request is to expand the parent member of the first report; and in response to receiving the request to expand the parent member: determining when a second report is linked to the first report that includes the parent member; scanning the spreadsheet for information related to the parent member and checking to ensure that there are empty data cells between a border of the first report and a border of the spreadsheet such that expanding the parent member in the first report and the second report will not result in occupied data cells pushed off the spreadsheet; and expanding the parent member in the first report and expanding the parent member in the second report without disrupting the layout of data in areas of the spreadsheet external to the first report.