Patent ID: 8810580

Claim:
A method executed by a processing device for creating an irregular-shaped table object comprising a group of cells, said method comprising: receiving touch input entered on an interactive display representing a hand-drawn table; detecting one or more hand-drawn cells of the hand-drawn table presented on the interactive display that are to be removed; modifying said hand-drawn table by removing each detected hand-drawn cell from said hand-drawn table to create a resultant irregular-shaped hand-drawn table object; and creating an irregular-shaped table object based on the resultant irregular-shaped hand-drawn table in response to an issued table recognition command, wherein removal of each detected hand-drawn cell from said hand-drawn table does not affect any of the remaining cells of the hand-drawn table regardless of the location of the detected hand-drawn cell in said hand-drawn table that is removed, wherein the hand-drawn cells to be removed are user designated cells, wherein said detecting comprises: generating a list of all cells that have not been designated by the user; selecting one of the cells in said list, removing the selected cell from said list and adding the selected cell to a first group of cells; identifying cells neighboring the selected cell added to the first group of cells, removing the identified neighboring cells from said list and adding the identified neighboring cells to said first group of cells; for each identified neighboring cell added to the first group of cells, identifying neighboring cells in said list, removing the identified neighboring cells from said list, and adding the identified neighboring cells to said first group of cells; repeating the identifying, removing and adding steps for each identified neighboring cell added to said first group of cells; upon completion of said repeating, determining whether said list still comprises one or more cells that have not been designated by the user; and only when said list does not comprise any cells that have not been designated by the user, performing said removing.